Marie-Ève Best has been working as a professional creative for over 15 years. Her background in bilingual copywriting, digital content creation and styling has helped to develop her holistic approach to brand storytelling. She has collaborated with national brands like Sico Paints, Bio-K+, Royal Canadian Mint and Desjardins as well as with international brands like Sephora, Nespresso and L’Oréal Paris. Marie-Eve has worked for some of Quebec’s most celebrated independent agencies including Bleublancrouge, CloudRaker and LG2, where she is now Executive Creative Director, Brand Storytelling.

Marta Hooper joined Rain with an enviable portfolio of brands under her belt and has spent the last 20 years mastering a multi-disciplinary approach at various Toronto agencies such as trevor//peter, Sid Lee and Taxi, to name a few.

As a creative leader, Marta has dedicated her craft to creating culturally on point, creatively distinct, and results-driven work for a host of global and lifestyle brands such as Nike, Spotify, Foot Locker, Nissan, Absolut, Dell, Telus, Red Bull, Diageo, Labatt and HBO.

In her past life Marta was an amateur tennis player, and when she’s not on the court or a zoom call, she spends her time influencing the minds of industry hopefuls as a Professor at the George Brown College School of Design.

Mo is a Partner/Co-Owner and Creative Director at One Twenty Three West (123w) – one of Canada’s leading agencies based out of Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. Born and raised in the Philippines, and growing up in Ontario, she brings a diverse point of view that mixes her passion for design, creativity and business strategy to Canadian design and advertising.

She believes in building brands through a human experience: How can we bring humanity into how we work together, how we approach work, and how we communicate as people and as brands? How can we design something that has a direct impact on our everyday experience?

She believes that we should use creativity to not only build business, but to use creativity to appeal to the best in us all.

Outside of driving business growth for her clients, her work has also been awarded and recognized internationally by D&AD, How Design Awards, Cannes Lions, Luerzer’s Archive, Communication Arts, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Applied Arts, Marketing Magazine, among others. With over a decade of experience, Mo has helped transform some of Canada’s most iconic brands from the ground up: Bell, President’s Choice, Loblaws, Home Hardware, Winners, Shoppers, and Koodo to name a few. She has also helped transformed global brands like KFC,
Coca-Cola, Corona, Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi and helped them become relevant brands to Canadians.

A strong believer in mentorship, she mentors at the Miami Ad School Toronto, The Remix Project and the RGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario). Most recently she also joined the Board of Directors of the ADCCs (Advertising & Design Club of Canada).

She is a relentless optimist. She cares deeply about her work and the people she surrounds herself with. Mo also brings leadership in community engagement.

Natalie has over 15 years of professional communications and agency management experience working with public companies and institutions to independent businesses and seed-stage ventures. She is a Mohawk-Bajan woman from Six Nations of the Grand River, now working in Toronto.

Natalie is a member of the Indigenous Professional Association of Canada, as well as a steering committee member of People of Colour in Advertising and Marketing (POCAM). She is currently the VP, Operations at Pilot PMR and most values working with incredibly intelligent, creative, connected humans – colleagues and clients – in the field of brand strategy and design.

Pam Danowski is a Creative Director at GUT Toronto. Throughout her career, she has worked on campaigns for Dove, American Express, Huggies, Kotex, Pizza Hut, and Tim Hortons.

Her work has been recognized by Cannes, D&AD, One Show, Clios, Communication Arts, The Marketing Awards, and more. In 2021, the One Club named her one of the Next Creative Leaders.

When she isn’t coming up with ideas, Pam loves to indulge in terrible reality TV and hang out with her dog, who may (or may not) be named after a reality TV star.

After working at multiple advertising agencies in Atlantic Canada Stephen realized he was not getting the opportunity to do work he was truly passionate about. So in 2017 he co-founded Wunder. He believes that every brief is an opportunity to do something great, regardless of the client or budget size. In the past 5 years he helped take a 2-person agency with no clients, to the one of the top 20 agencies in Canada. Along the way, his work has won numerous awards, been covered by some of the biggest publications around the world, and garnered over 300 million earned media impressions for Wunder’s clients.

Allen is a Group Creative Director at TAXI Toronto. Over the past 20 years, he’s had the privilege of working at some of Canada’s top agencies for a wide variety of clients – from iconic global brands like Volkswagen, Frito-Lay, Microsoft, and Ikea – to beloved Canadian brands like John Fluevog, Maple Leaf Foods, and The Weather Network. His work has been recognized at the One Show, D&AD, Clios, Communication Arts, ADC, Webby Awards, and many others.

Alexandre has created national and international campaigns working with clients like the National Bank, Danone, Ford, Reitmans, Viagra, TELUS, IA insurance Bombardier and McDonald’s. Clients find he’s an attentive listener and colleagues respect him for his talent as well as his capacity to recognize great ideas and defend them to the end. His sharp wit, leadership skills and direct manner when facing challenges have all helped him carve out a solid reputation in the industry. After more than twenty years of creativity in advertising, the thing Alex is most proud of is his ability to stay passionate and down to earth at the same time.

Darian Kovacs is the Indigenous founder of Vancouver based SEO company Jelly Digital Marketing & PR and digital marketing school, Jelly Academy. He is the host of the podcast Marketing News Canada, he is a contributing writer for the Globe & Mail, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Canadian Business Quarterly, Future Economy and is on the board of NPower Canada. He was recently nominated by SME Magazine as Indigenous Entrepreneur of the Year. Darian lives in Fort Langley, BC with his wife and four children and likes to mountain bike, watercolour and read in his free time

Fernando is a Creative Director at Critical Mass. He has over 15 years of industry experience and has worked and studied at shops and schools around the globe. From craft-focused Brazil to digitally-minded Sweden and numerous stops in between, he’s picked up a truly global set of skills. He was lured to Canada from his last posting in Europe by an impromptu job interview on the Cannes Croisette.

Having worked in traditional and digital creative, Fernando has a profound understanding of both mediums and brings tremendous professional acumen to his work on brands like AT&T, VISA, P&G, Nissan, Amazon, 3M, Kelloggs and TD Bank. His work has received global recognition at Cannes Lions, Clio, One Show, D&AD, ADCC, ADCE, The Webby Awards, and many more.
Fernando’s multi-cultural background and extensive international experience gives him a unique perspective when it comes to solving complex problems and creating breakthrough work.

Geneviève is a creative director at lg2, the largest independent creative agency in Canada. Over the course of her career, she has worked with many brands such as BRP (Ski-Doo, Can-Am, Sea-Doo), Loblaw, Kruger, Bell, MTY Group, Wonderbra, Nestlé, Honda, Gouvernement du Québec, Life Saving Society, Olympic Park and Hydro-Québec, helping them to touch the hearts of consumers. Maxi, Loblaw’s discount banner, went from flying under the radar to being the second most-influential brand in its market. Mondou, a famous pet supply retailer, was best-in-show during the 2022 national New Year’s Eve TV special. And Valentine, a local fast food chain, surpassed the international giants in just one year with only a tiny fraction of the budget. In each case, creative efficiency made all the difference. This approach to creativity has garnered Geneviève recognition both nationally and internationally, with awards at Idéa, Marketing Awards, ADCC, ADC, Applied Arts, One Show and Cannes.

And when she is not wearing her creative director hat, you’ll find her on the slopes snowboarding with her two young daughters.

Jess Willis is a WIP. Constantly curious, her twenty-year career has spanned digital, design, integrated, experiential, and now as the GCD of Performance Art, working at the confluence of tech, data and creativity.

A believer in building brands for the modern world, she has a track record of reinvention. From Budweiser to No Frills, Mondelez to BMO, Canopy to Lyft, her work has been seen on global award stages, as much as the evening news. And yes, even the Tonight Show.

Jess is proud to have worked with some of the industry’s best at TAXI, Ogilvy and john st. But perhaps she’s most thrilled to have led Mosaic North America’s 78-spot jump on Strategy’s Creative Report Card in 2019.

Karen Howe leads The Township Group. A globally recognized Creative Director and Cannes Lions Advisory Board member, Karen is an industry opinion leader who offers unique insights into the power of creativity to audiences around the world.

She is an authority on international trends in culture, tech and creativity. Her fast-paced annual Decoding Cannes provides an understanding of the key trends, an analysis of award-winning work, and speaker highlights. She arms business leaders with an insider’s take and inspires the, to make the most of the year ahead.

Rica’s passions include reading, comedy, and working the room after 2 drinks. Unsurprisingly, this led her to a career in advertising.

Rica has spent 20 years helping brands find their voice and shaping their narratives. Her keen sense of insight and love of storytelling have helped her create memorable campaigns for everything from packaged goods to big box retail to luxury cars.

Her work has been recognized by Cannes, the One Show, Communication Arts, and more.

She is also one of the founders of Fierce Mama, greeting cards that celebrate the working power mom.

Zachary Bautista is a Partner, Creative Director at Rethink, ranked #3 Global Independent Agency of The Year at Cannes 2022. From art school dropout to one of the most consistently recognized creatives in Canada, his work has been awarded at every major international award show including Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, Clios, and The Art Director’s Club, to name a few. 

He was also ranked the #1 Art Director in Canada in Strategy Magazine’s Creative Report Card 2022 and his work has been featured on CNN, FastCo, Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He was among AdAge’s 40 Under 40 last year and the only Canadian on the list.

In addition to his impassioned dedication as a mentor, Zach is a recurring instructor at Miami Ad School in Toronto. In his role as teacher he has elevated the talents of up-and-coming art directors and copywriters being consistently voted as one of the student’s favourite instructors. Zach’s approach to his students is that he’s teaching his peers to become future co-workers. 

Alastair Taylor is a transformational leader, building corporate cultures for the modern business reality. With a proven track record in business development and culture creation, his diverse category experience across the UK and North America has seen him drive top and bottom-line growth through talent and diversification.

Currently the CEO of Publicis Media in Canada, Alastair has overall responsibility for the business, including the strategic direction and vision across the Publicis Media Canada brands Zenith, Starcom and Spark Foundry. Alastair has extensive entertainment experience including Disney, eOne and Netflix.

Brooke was integral to the launch of Jungle Media in 2010 with inaugural client IKEA who she guided quickly to a Best-In-Show at the Media Innovation Awards. IKEA was followed by Capital One and numerous other clients leading to great success and Jungle’s winning a Strategy Media agency of the year in their inaugural year.

Brooke is now leading Jungle as Managing Partner where she is responsible for the overall Jungle experience: culture, talent growth, client success and marketing efforts as well as managing the Media Planning team.

Brooke has been pushing her clients to innovate in the world of media, earning a reputation for her award-winning media work, partnering with such clients as General Mills, Coca-Cola, Nike, IKEA, Toyota and Sun Life.

Brooke has been nationally recognized with Media Innovation Awards and Atomic awards for her clients. She has also seen success internationally, with Cannes Lions for IKEA and Nike as well as an Effie award alongside partner Leo Burnett for work done on IKEA.  She has been named as a nominee from Canada to sit on the Cannes Media Jury in 2022.

Brooke is on the CMDC Board leading the Young Ambassador Program.  She is also on the Vividata board and passionate about the future of media research and insight development.

Brooke is a bold and creative thinker who inspires great work that drives results.

As President of PHD Canada, Caroline Moul is responsible for the agency’s continued growth and evolution, including the development and establishment of best practices and overall market adoption of Omnicom Media Group’s capabilities.
Throughout her 20 years with PHD, Caroline has been a driving force in advancing the agency’s Digital capabilities, from launching our programmatic offering in Canada, to establishing Search & Social practices, to placing continual focus on technology’s impact on consumer behaviour to help guide our clients in a complex and ever-changing media landscape.

When she’s not at the office, Caroline can be found cooking up a feast or travelling with her husband and two children.

As CEO of Initiative, Helen leads a growing Canadian team to deliver on the promise of helping brands take the initiative in culture.

Applying her skills as a former client, Helen values diverse skill sets, spurring her to
build a team of passionate experts with varied backgrounds in marketing, media,
tech, experiential, and sales. A dedicated leader, Helen is personally involved and
invested in helping clients navigate the new media landscape through cultural
connections that drive meaningful business outcomes.

Under Helen’s leadership, Initiative was named Strategy’s 2019 and 2021 Media
Agency of the Year. She was also awarded Strategy’s 2019 Media Leader of the
Year.

For over 16 years at Touché! Montreal, part of the Omnicom Media Group, Isabelle Baillargeon has carved out an enviable niche. Inspired by a high-performing management team, overseeing seasoned media strategists while contributing to business development.

It’s with the same spirit that she started 2020 with a new professional challenge within the Omnicom Media Group: leading the OMD Montreal office as its new Vice-President.

Guided by the conviction that creativity is an integral part of every winning media strategy, Isabelle keeps her creative edge honed by judging competitions like the Young Media Lions, the Media Innovation Awards and Festival of Media. She has also taken courses from La Factry, the School of Creativity Sciences, where she enhanced her creative leadership skills.

For more than two decades, Kris has applied his passion for consumer insights and competitive strategy to help his clients build leadership positions in the marketplace. In his role as SVP, Head of Strategy at Media Experts, he brings strategic focus, extensive research abilities, and keen consumer insight to clients. ​

Kris has driven success on a variety of accounts, from iconic and innovative global brands to disciplined packaged goods companies, FS, automotive, travel and leisure and national retailers. He has also spearheaded numerous research projects to better understand the consumer mindset, lifestyle, and media consumption habits across all channels to establish the most meaningful connection between brands and their customers. He was instrumental in developing breakthrough media research initiatives that have won several Media Innovation Awards.

As President, Havas Media Canada, Noah Vardon is responsible for strategically leading HMG’s business in Canada. A seasoned agency leader, Noah has spearheaded award-winning media strategy and digital transformation for many of the top brands in Canada and has extensive experience managing international agency teams across North America, Asia, and EMEA.

Prior to joining Havas Media Group as President, Noah led one of the largest media teams in Canada for TELUS and has been part of the senior leadership teams at top agencies in the market such as Initiative and Cossette Media.

Media Creativity & Science is where Noah has pioneered many firsts for Canada and the expansion of media disciplines has distinguished his career. He’s added many first-to-market digital, data, analytics, content, & operations capabilities to his prolific experience.

An LGBTQIA+ leader in the advertising community, Noah is strongly and proactively committed to advancing DEI across the industry.

Sarah is the president of Dentsu Media, overseeing the media arm of Dentsu in Canada. She is a customer-centric marketing strategist at heart. Devoted to data, you can usually find her working through a strategy with her teams. And, if you ask Sarah will tell you that the best campaigns start with a solid foundation – from the insights derived from clean and smart data sources (Social, Digital, Market Research). Having worked in the marketing industry for decades, Sarah has had the pleasure of collaborating with brands in media and entertainment, CPG, retail, liquor/wine, professional services, financial services (banking and insurance), pharma, B2B, the medical and recreational cannabis industry, and association marketing. She is a mentor for the ACA and IPG. She is part of the Thought Leaders Council for the CMA. She is the former chair of the Media Council for the CMA. She serves as a board member for the CMDC and as a member of the team on the Media Manifesto, which is dedicated to investing in Canadian media initiatives. She was named Media Leader of the Year in 2020 by the YA of the CMDC.

An executive communications leader, with 22+ years of international experience in the Advertising, Media and Communications industries. Passionate and driven. Shannon champions the Canadian Media Directors’ Council business objectives with sound strategy, inspired creativity, and humanity. The CMDC operates to ensure a fair and progressive media marketplace with members accounting for 96% of the total media investment, over $10 billion invested in the Canadian economy, jobs and communications infrastructure. Consistently recognized as a highly motivated and transformational leader with accolades including Canadian Business RBC SME Top 25 Women to Watch. Over two decades, she has contributed to the success of global brands including BBC, Microsoft, Unilever, Diageo – plus media brands MindShare UK, MediaCom and AMVBBDO. Shannon is a proud mother, avid skier, arts advocate and has been known to hike a few mountains, Patagonia to Kilimanjaro.

With a proven track record of working with high profile brands to develop award-winning campaigns that drive business outcomes, Shelley is an unstoppable force within the media space. Her experience on both client and agency-side and well-rounded background gives her the knowledge and skillset to inject innovation in media at every level.

Shelley joined UM in December of 2008 to lead J3, the dedicated Johnson & Johnson agency team. A year later she was instrumental in the launch of the UM Canada office. Since that time, her vast experience in marketing and media, coupled with strong leadership skills, have led the agency to historical highs through extensive new business wins, innovative business partnerships and a mountain of industry awards, both locally and on the international stage.

Shelley knows that it takes dedicated and high performing talent to deliver on the agency’s promise: to Futureproof our clients’ businesses. Promoting positive company culture and focusing on customized employee development initiatives has resulted in industry-leading low turnover rates of 10% for the Canadian agency. She is a regular contributor on industry thought leadership topics, has been hand-picked to serve as a judge on numerous international awards panels and was awarded Strategy’s Media Leader of the Year in 2021.

Sheri is the EVP of Business Solutions at Horizon Media.  She is a marketer, strategist, media expert, speaker, and teacher. Sheri has extensive experience in communications planning across the entire marketing ecosystem and loves understanding the consumer’s role in the purchase journey.  Sheri has had the pleasure of working with numerous brands across various categories.  With over twenty years of experience, Sheri has held numerous senior-level positions at various agencies in both Montreal and Toronto. Before joining the Horizon team, Sheri founded a consultancy that teaches small business owners how to develop marketing strategies.

Evolved with Canada’s leading media agencies over the past 15+ years, Sophie has worked across all facets within the advertising industry. She has been responsible for the development and the elevation of the product for many expertise such as: comms planning, content and engagement, digital solutions, data and insights, and media at Cossette and Touché!.

Being an essential strategic partner for her clients, she has been working with clients on business challenges, planning and managing client relationships. She has defied convention and provided integrated solutions for brands such as Telus, SAQ, Intact, VIA Rail, Canadian Tire and Walmart.

She is currently leading and support the leadership team at DentsuX from Montreal. She is also sitting on the senior leadership team for the media service line in Canada.

An inquisitive and tech-savvy media activator, Alicia has dedicated her career to bringing data-driven strategies to life for some of Canada’s biggest brands including Tim Hortons and RBC.

In 2022 she joined Zulu Alpha Kilo as Head of Media to spearhead the launch of Zulumatic, a media offering which fuses the connection between media and creativity to deliver distinctive work. Zulumatic has a number of clients in their growing roster, including Ninepoint Partners, Responsible Gambling Council, and University Health Network Foundation.

Prior to joining Zulumatic, she was Director of Digital Media at Bensimon Byrne where she led media planning and activation for clients across North America. While there she worked closely with IAB Canada, helping to educate members on the benefits and advancements in Measurement and Digital Out of Home in Canada.