Jury

Presenting the 2023 Young Lions jury.
Learn more about each judge by clicking on their photo.

Creative

Mary Maddever

Jury Chair
Print, Digital and Film
EVP, Editorial Director
Brunico Communications

Mary Maddever is EVP, editorial director of Brunico Communications, overseeing journalistic policy and procedures for the company’s editorial brands, and publisher of Canadian marketing business publications strategy & Media In Canada.

Maddever has led content strategy and new product development on many Brunico brands, recruited and trained teams for launches and refreshes, and oversaw transitioning for the Marketing brand acquisition.

As executive editor of strategy since helming its relaunch in 2004, Maddever launched Brunico’s first offshoot daily e-news/site Media In Canada, and also developed stimulant, a creative-focused offshoot. She also spearheaded new awards programs and conference franchises.

On the international entertainment market front, Maddever developed the editorial launch plan for RealScreen, a global documentary and non-fiction publication, and later oversaw a content focus redirect as the business evolved.

Maddever was also editor of international kids entertainment biz magazine KidScreen, where she was mandated to raise brand authority in top tier global production and broadcast circles, and across ancillary areas of the industry.

Prior to that, Maddever was editor of Playback, Canada’s bi-weekly TV & film industry journal and its subsidiary magazine offshoots, such as Playback International.

Print/Film

Dean Lee

Executive Creative Director
Zulu Alpha Kilo

Israel Diaz

Founder
Sunday+Night Inc.

Kelli Pollack

Creative Director
Daughter Creative

In April of 2022, Dean Lee joined Zulu Alpha Kilo as an Executive Creative Director to help lead the Vancouver office. An art director by trade, he was most recently ECD at DDB, where he had a stellar 25-year creative track record going back to the days when it was Palmer Jarvis. During his time at the agency, he worked with brands including McDonald’s, Pepsi Co, SunRype, Labatt, Destination Canada, Rocky Mountaineer, BC Lottery Corporation, BCAA, BC Hydro, TELUS, Pacific Blue Cross, BC Dairy, and helped launch Netflix in Canada. Historically, Dean has been ranked as one of Canada’s leading creatives according to Strategy Magazine, including top honours for art direction. His work has been recognized at national and international advertising shows including Cannes, The One Show, Communication Arts, The Clios, D&AD, London International Awards and Marketing Awards. Dean also co-chairs The James Lee Foundation to help aspiring creative talent break into the advertising world.

Israel is a 25+ year creative professional and business leader. He started his career as Designer/Art Director and steadily moved up the ranks to Chief Creative Officer to lead some of the most renowned and awarded Agencies: Y&R, David&Goliath, Leo Burnett, Lowe Roche, Cossette, GJP and Bozell. Prior to founding Sunday+Night, Israel was Chief Creative and Design Officer at Jackman Reinvents, a hybrid Management Consulting and Design Firm. Sunday+Night is a boutique Strategic and Creative firm, practicing the Alchemy of Being, Business and Brand – with a mission to help purpose-driven Visionaries create their biggest, boldest, most beautiful dent in the universe.

If you spend more than a few minutes in a room with Keli, you will notice her passion and dedication to her craft. Add to that a formidable work ethic and her remarkable ability to rally a team, and you have a true creative powerhouse. She is the kind of creative who not only excels in her craft but elevates everyone around her. Her resume features a who’s who of clients—including WestJet, TELUS, TransAlta and Shaw. Over her 30-year career, her work has been recognized internationally by The One Show, D&AD, Communication Arts, The Art Director’s Club of New York, alongside Canadian accolades, including The Advertising Design Club of Canada, Strategy Awards, and Applied Arts. These days her focus is on helping up-and-coming creatives earn their brass and building Calgary’s creative ecosystem. In her off hours, she’s either bringing together creatives — during the pandemic, she organized a much-loved outdoor public art show featuring Alberta artists and illustrators or in her ceramic studio creating.

Marie-Ève Best

Executive Creative Director
LG2 (Montreal)

Marta Hooper

Chief Creative Officer
RAIN

Mooren (Mo) Bofill

Partner, Creative Director, Design
123w

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 Bomberry

VP, Operations
Pilot

Pam Danowski

Creative Director
GUT

Stephen Flynn

Creative Director
Wunder

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 Kwong

Group Creative Director
TAXI

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.

Digital

Alexandre Gadoua

VP, Creative Lead
Cossette

Darian Kovacs

Founder
Jelly Digital Marketing & PR

Fernando Muto Brevilieri

Creative Director
Critical Mass

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.

Francesco Grandi

Chief Creative Officer
Ogilvy

Jess Wills

Group Creative Director
Performance Art

Karen Howe

Founder
The Township Group

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 Eckersley

Executive Creative Director
DDB Canada

Zachary Bautista

Partner and Creative Director
Rethink Canada

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. 

Media

Cathleen Collier

Jury Chair
Media
Chief Executive Officer
OMD Canada

The break-neck pace of change in technology and media consumption has outpaced how marketers plan their communications. As CEO of OMD Canada, Cathy Collier, is at the helm of Canada’s largest and most successful media organization. OMD combines innovation, creativity, empathy and evidence to make “Better decisions, faster” on behalf of their incredible roster of clients. Under Cathy’s leadership, OMD is transforming into a new type of communication agency. OMD has developed the most sophisticated media data and technology platform in the Canadian market which is complimented by their people 1st planning process. By putting a deep focus reaching people and not just screens, OMD is putting out the most effective and powerful campaigns in its successful history.

Cathy is active in advancing the Canadian media industry. She is Board Chair of Numeris, Chairs the Canadian Young Media Lions competition and has judged many award shows including twice Co-chairing the Media Innovation Awards and twice judged the Cannes Media Lions festival. Cathy also sits on the Canada Cannes board helping to inspire the Canadian media community to be recognized on a global stage.

Alastair Taylor

CEO
Publicis Media

Brooke Leland

Managing Partner
Jungle Media

Caroline Moul

President
PHD Toronto

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.

Helen Galanis

CEO
Initiative Canada

Isabelle Baillargeon

Vice-President, Strategy
OMD + Hearts & Science Montreal

Kris Davis

SVP Head of Strategy & Client Business Partner
Media Experts

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.

Noah Vardon

President of the Havas Media Group Canada
Havas Media Canada

Sarah Thompson

President
Dentsu Media

Shannon Lewis

President
Canadian Media Directors’ Council

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.

Shelley Smit

CEO
UM Canada

Sheri Rogers

EVP, Business Solutions
Horizon Media

Sophie Labarre

Chief Client Officer
dentsu X Canada

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.

Alicia Petralia

Head of Media
Zulumatic

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.

Marketers

Susan Irving

Jury Chair
Marketers
Chief Marketing Officer
Kruger Products L.P.

Susan Irving is an industry leader with a passion for brands and a reputation for delivering business results through strategic integrated marketing campaigns. Now, as Chief Marketing Officer for Kruger Products L.P., Susan is responsible for leading the marketing team to set the vision, strategic direction, and drive business performance for all Kruger Products brands and marketing activities in Canada and the United States. She is also a key member of the Company’s Executive Team.

Susan is an accomplished, award-winning senior marketing executive with over two decades of experience leading many successful and well-known brands at Warner Lambert, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. She has a strong passion for brands and building high performance teams. She is a strategic business leader with experience that spans across all aspects of business management and consumer marketing including brand strategy; advertising and communications; P&L management; media planning; digital; social media; innovation; consumer insights; as well as sports and event marketing. Most recently at PepsiCo Foods Canada, Susan was the Senior Marketing Director for the Quaker Nutrition portfolio. During her 15 years at PepsiCo, she held several progressive roles including leadership of a Global Snacks team in New York where she was responsible for Doritos, Cheetos and Sunbites – three of the company’s billion dollar brands. Prior to that, Susan spent more than a decade at PepsiCo Canada leading teams of passionate marketers in creating successful campaigns that drove profitable growth for brands including Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles and Tostitos. Susan is known for her collaborative approach of working with teams to deliver breakthrough, insight-driven consumer campaigns and programs that deliver growth.

As an accomplished marketer, Susan has been recognized with several industry accolades including CMAs, Cassies, Cannes Lions, Effies, The Bessies, Clios, Media Innovation Awards and Canadian New Media Awards. She was also among Marketing Magazine’s prestigious Top 30 under 30, Canada’s Strategy Magazine 2020 Marketer of the Year and the Canadian Marketing Association 2021 Marketer of the Year.

An avid sailor, Susan was a member of the Canadian Sailing Team, having campaigned for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. She was the President of the Leaside Hockey Association Board of Directors where she severed for seven years; the Jury Chair for the Globe and Mail’s Cannes Young Marketers Competition; a judge for several industry award shows; a key note speaker for North American Conferences and a committee member of WISE Canada (Women in Sport and Entertainment). She is also a member of the Canadian Women and Sport Board of Directors and The Ontario Hockey Federation Board of Directors.

When Susan takes a break from Marketing, you can find her on a sail boat or a ski hill. As a busy mother of two young boys, you’ll also find her in hockey rinks, at road races and on the soccer field supporting their family’s passion of competitive sport.

Aaron Nemoy

Founder & CEO
Crowdiate

Andrew Oosterhuis

Vice President of Marketing
Labatt

Anne-Marie Laberge

Chief Marketing Officer
BRP

Aaron Nemoy is the founder and strategy lead at Crowdiate, helping brands develop exceptional ideas enabled by global creative competitions. The company has been a featured start-up at Cannes Lions and also manages the Canada Young Lions platform.

Aaron started his career in brand management at Kraft and Campbell’s. He was part of the winning team in the inaugural Young Lions Marketers competition and in 2015 was recognized with the ‘Marketer on the Rise’ award by the AMA Marketing Hall of Legends.

Andrew Oosterhuis is Vice President Marketing, Labatt Breweries of Canada – responsible for the Labatt portfolio of brands from Budweiser, Bud Light, Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra and Corona to Palm Bay, Mike’s Hard and Nutrl.

Andrew returned to Canada in December 2020 to assume the Vice President of Marketing role following three years based in New York as part of the global marketing team. In his most recent role as Global Head of Advertising for Budweiser, Andrew launched the global partnerships with La Liga and English Premiere League while also partnering with Barcelona legend Leo Messi in a Cannes Lion award winning ‘644’ campaign.

Andrew began his career with Labatt in 2007, as a Global Management Trainee and over the course of his time at Labatt has held various sales and marketing roles, leading to appointment as Budweiser Canada’s director in 2015.  In this role, he led his team to developing bold, creative and disruptive campaigns from launching the first ever alcohol partnership with Metallica in 2015 to partnering with Wayne Gretzky as part of launching Light up the Nation (Red Light) which received the AB InBev Creative X Grand Prix award and Cannes Lion shortlist for promo activation.  Finally, he launched the national partnership with Live Nation including the conversion and inaugural season of the iconic Budweiser Stage in downtown Toronto.

Andrew graduated with Honours from University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing. His personal passion includes spending time with his family and supporting Hopewell Children’s Home, a non-profit founded by his father in 1981.

Deyra Jaye Fontaine

Inclusive Marketing Strategist
Export Development Canada

Diana Frost

Chief Growth Officer
Kraft Heinz North America

Navin Singh

VP of Marketing
Scene+

Deyra Jaye Fontaine (she/her) is an inclusive marketing strategist who helps organizations and individuals use authentic brand values to amplify marginalized voices and close the gap in serving diverse and underrepresented communities. She has spent more than a decade taking marketing and communications projects from idea to implementation and uses a multidisciplinary approach when integrating DEI principles and practices into campaigns and content.

Deyra Jaye is a talented connector of the creative and technical, leveraging her training in agile methodology, digital marketing, social media strategy, organizational development and DEI to bring unique insights and experience to every project.

Diana Frost is Chief Growth Officer at Kraft Heinz North America. A senior executive with more than 15 years’ experience, Diana responsible for growing Kraft Heinz’s innovation engine as well as driving best-in-class, award-winning marketing for the company’s iconic brand portfolio. In this role, she oversees The Kitchen, Kraft Heinz’s in-house agency delivering creative ideas at the speed of culture, and manage the company’s digital, personalization and paid media teams. 

With equal strengths in both strategy and marketing, Diana has a proven track record of transforming brand portfolios. Before Kraft Heinz Canada, Diana was head of portfolio transformation at Mars Wrigley U.S., where she led a portfolio redesign to drive top- and bottom-line growth. Before that, she was head of marketing for Mars Wrigley Canada, where she led the integration of the two marketing organizations. She began her career at PepsiCo.

A graduate of the Ivey School of Business, Diana is passionate about mentorship and is executive sponsor of diversity and inclusion at Kraft Heinz Canada. She was named Top Customer Experience Advocate in the Food & Beverage sector at the 2020 CSPN Women in Leadership Summit.

Navin Singh is a data-driven loyalty marketer, spending his 20-year career with top brands like AIR MILES, Capital One and Scotiabank.

His roles have spanned multiple aspects of marketing, including business analysis, consumer insights, CRM, digital and mass media campaigns.

Now as VP Marketing for Scene+, Navin leads a great team who are launching the new Scene+ loyalty program across Canada.

 

Out of the office, Navin is a frequent traveller, cocktail aficionado and aspires to be somewhat competent at beach volleyball one day.

Sarah Jordan

Chief Executive Officer
Mastermind Toys

Sarah Ketty

Director of Marketing
Maple Lodge Farms

Steve Levy

Ipsos Canada

Sarah Jordan is CEO of Mastermind Toys, the nation’s largest specialty toy and kids book store and Canada’s Authority on Play. She leads 68 stores coast-to-coast and online, with thousands of employees from teams across their stores, Play HQ (head office) and warehouse, and creates a world-class employee and customer experience.  In 2021, Mastermind Toys won the Omni Channel Award at Retail Council of Canada’s Excellence in Retailing Awards for their digital transformation and Sarah received the Innovation Award at the Women of Inspiration Awards by the Universal Womens Network. Recently, Mastermind Toys was named a 2022 winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies, won the 2022 Retail Marketing award at the Excellence in Retailing Awards, and was named Brand of the Year by Strategy Online.

Sarah is a passionate, authentic, purpose-driven CEO with deep expertise in customer & employee experience, digital innovation and brand-centric reinvention. Previously she was the Senior Vice President, Customer Experience and Omni Channel Strategy at Scotiabank where she led the bank from #5 to #1 in customer experience ratings. She spent a decade with Boston Consulting Group, where she advised Fortune 500 companies on large scale retail customer centric transformations and cultural change. Sarah holds both an MBA and an Engineering degree from Queen’s University.

She is a board member at Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company, the largest Canadian Property and Casualty Mutual Insurer with $4.2 billion in annual revenue, and assets of $11.3 billion, and 125 year heritage. She is also a board member at the Canadian Toy Association, the first-ever retail member in the organization’s history whose members include manufacturers, importers, distributors, and retailers in the $2.5 billion toy industry in Canada. She is also a board member at the Retail Council of Canada, the voice of retail in Canada, representing 45,000 store fronts, $485 billion in sales and 2.2 million employees.

An accountant by education and a marketer by trade, Sarah Khetty understands the power of consumer-led business strategy and has dedicated her career to harnessing this passion into growing Canadian, family-owned, food brands.

Sarah is the Director of Marketing at Maple Lodge Farms, Canada’s largest independently owned poultry processor. In her role, she oversees the marketing for both Maple Lodge Farms and Zabiha Halal, Canada’s #1 halal food brand. Under her direction, both brands have developed long-term strategies, significantly improved profitability, and launched successful innovation into market. As a Canadian Muslim marketer, one of Sarah’s biggest accomplishments has been Zabiha Halal being recognized as one of 2022’s Brands of the Year by Strategy Magazine.

Prior to joining Maple Lodge Farms, Sarah worked for McCain Foods, leveraging her financial background within their Global Corporate Development department before joining the marketing team where she led the revamp of the iconic Deep ‘n Delicious desserts brand.

Early Life – Born, educated and worked in the UK for the first half of his existence.

Career – Sales (Xerox UK), Brand Management (Mars UK), Research (ACNielsen-Asia, NPD-Canada)… before selling to Ipsos in 2002.

Giving Back – Canadian Marketing Association board member and judge for the Young Lions. Earth Rangers Foundation board member.

Today – Ipsos (many senior leadership roles). Author of (among other things) the Most Influential Brand study – Globally. The Digital Marketing Pulse (14 years), The Long Middle story. Frequent public speaker.

Personal – Hair – it is an ALL, or none issue. Eyewear is a big deal. Avid golfer/tennis player. BIG on hot weather. Loves a great hamburger and fries. Father of two daughters + best lifetime partner.

Honour – Canadian Marketing Association Lifetime Achievement Award 2020 https://youtu.be/Mvjt0yRCqXM

Yvonne Ziomecki- Fisher

EVP, Marketing and Sales
HomeEquity Bank

As Executive Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Ms. Ziomecki-Fisher heads up Marketing / Customer Experience, Sales & Strategy functions at HomeEquity Bank.  Reporting directly to the CEO, Ms. Ziomecki-Fisher is responsible for driving mortgage originations growth and increasing revenues as well as all marketing functions. Prior to joining HomeEquity Bank Ziomecki-Fisher worked at American Express for 12 years in roles of increasing responsibility across Credit Card, Insurance & Lending portfolios.

Ms. Ziomecki-Fisher graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts and she also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Schulich School of Business. She currently sits on the Board of RATESDOTCA.