JACOPO APO BORDIN
HEAD OF STRATEGY 28 Studios

Jacopo “Apo” Bordin is the Head of Strategy at 28 Studios, prior to his new role he was Head of Strategy and Growth at Grey Italy. He joined Grey in 2019 after spending most of his career abroad.

Born in Italy but raised in Switzerland, Jacopo started his professional journey in San Francisco. A long-time admirer of the “Famously Effective” philosophy, he believes that creativity has never been as important as it is today for brands to grow.
This belief and his international experience acquired in the US and Amsterdam fuel his ambition to build a team that drives business results for clients through strategic rigor and messy creative thinking. As testament to this, he’s also been part of the Effie Awards Italy Jury.
His roster of clients spans across categories and includes, among others, Netflix, Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics LG, Amazon Game Studios, Adidas, McDonald’s, and Mars Petcare.
All of these experiences have shaped his cultural and business understanding, but definitely not his accent. 
 

Leroy is the brand strategy director of the car rental and car sharing company Sixt, helping the brand on its quest to become the world’s leading premium mobility provider. Before that, he was a Strategist and Member of the Young Advisory Board at the renowned full-service Agency and creative powerhouse Jung von Matt in Hamburg. He has worked for many large international clients such as Zalando, BMW and Bosch, though his heart actually beats for working with up and coming brands. Leroy believes in building business around brand and the imperative connection of brand strategy with product and service innovation, business modelling and organisational development. He’s an active proponent of diversity in the creative industries, has proudly majored and graduated in rhetoric from the prestigious Eberhard-Karls University of Tübingen, and now holds several lectureships at his alma mater and other academic institutions.

After graduating in economics he started his carreer in market research as a qualitative researcher, than experienced an exiting journey at client side as the marketing manager of Toyota Motor Hungary.

By joining JWT Budapest he found his passion: advertising. As Client Service Director he was responsible for the operation of the agency for more than 10 years.

Ha gained international recognition with the locally developed and executed launch campaign for Reckitt Benckiser’s Cillit Bang, that went world wide.

Cillit Bang - The dirt is gone! campaign became the most remembered TVC in the UK (AdWatch/TNS International).

For melting the international knowledge with the local touch he established White Rabbit Budapest with his creative partners and has been running the agency as CEO for more than 15 years.

Under his leadership White Rabbit Budapest won all the major industry awards like D&AD, Cannes Lions, One Show, ANDY Awards, Clio, LIA, ADC, New York Festivals and almost 10 Effies - including a Grad Prix.

White Rabbit Budapest is the 75th most-awarded ad agency in the EMEA region, and it also hit the lists of the 200 most-awarded ad campaigns of 2021, the 200 most-awarded advertisers of 2021, the most creative countries in advertising of 2021 according to The Drum World Creative Rankings.

The world beyond ads for him contains his family with two little daughters, and his passion towards cooking.

Felipe is a Brazilian Creative with more than 15 years in the industry. He started his career in his native country and 6 years ago he came to Europe. In the first three years he worked at Ogilvy Spain for brands such as Iberia and Level Airlines, Ford, Santander and OpenBank, Mondelez Group, Cruz Campo Beer and El País.

After this period he was invited to move to Brussels to join the Global Headquarter Team of Ogilvy Social.Lab, where he worked for brands such as Ikea, Nespresso, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Bombay Sapphire, Martini, St. German, Carrefour, Deutsche Bank, Philips, Sennheiser and Vans.

Currently at Edelman Spain, Felipe is responsible for the creativity of the offices in Madrid and Barcelona, working for clients such as Iberostar Group, HP, Pay Pal, Astrazeneca, 2K and TikTok, in addition to being part of the EDELMAN Creative Board for the EMEA region.

Yann Chervet

Head of Strategy

BETC Paris

“Originally from Switzerland, Yann started his advertising career in France in 2010 as a strategic planner, before joining the Publicis group in 2014 for an international position where he took the strategic lead on several global brands such as JDE Coffee, PMI or L'Oréal.

In 2018, he joined Saatchi & Saatchi France as Head of Strategies, where he was in charge of connecting strategic planning, data research, social media and creative technology to bring more efficiency and relevance to clients such as HSBC, SFR, Playstation, Burger King, Visa Europe or the International Red Cross.

In 2022, Yann joined BETC Paris as Head of Strategy, where he leverages his experience in creative strategy for global clients such as Mondelez International, Lacoste or Sephora.”

Frans Cuypers (07.06.1993) – Strategic Director at Happiness Anywhere
With an education in economics and international politics, I started my career as strategic
consultant in corporate and public affairs. Having always been fascinated by the creative
industry, I was soon drawn to it and decided to join Happiness Anywhere as strategic
planner. At Happiness, I have since been working on many big local and international brands
such as Belfius, Toyota, DVV, BRU, Marktplaats-2dehands, CUPRA, HUSK and many others.
As strategist, I don’t believe in strategy for the sake of strategy or creativity for the sake of
creativity. I believe in the magic of big strategic thinking meeting big creative, to create big
impact. That’s what drives me.

Bea is a senior strategist at AMV.  She’s constantly curious, and always challenges herself to push strategic thinking above and beyond the received wisdom. 

Over the last 3 years, she’s worked on campaigns for Bodyform/Libresse and TENA, helping to dismantle the shame, silence and stigma that still permeate the issues of women’s bodies and intimate experiences. 

Last year, she was involved in both #wombstories and #painstories for Libresse, campaigns which went on to win numerous awards at Cannes, D&AD, AME, Marketing Society, APG, the One Show, to name a few. The brand is now the second most awarded in the world, and the fastest growing within the femcare category. 

Before her time on Libresse and TENA, Bea spent several years on Ford, launching multiple nameplates, from commercial vans to performance vehicles.

Margaret Gilsenan is Chief Strategy Office and founder of Boys+Girls.  At just 12 years, Boys+Girls has established itself as Ireland’s most creatively effective agency with multiple local and international awards to its name.

With over 20 years of experience in the business, Margaret has developed strategies for award winning campaigns for local and international brands including Kellogg’s, Danone, Three, Unilever, Pernod Ricard, Dulux, Ulster Bank (RBS) and Škoda.

She has participated on both sides of the judging fence, on a number of occasions as a judge (Research Awards, Effies Europe & Global) and as a participant with a number of winning AdFX case-studies and more recently Gold & Bronze awards at Ireland’s first Effies.

She is a regular contributor to Marketing Magazine, guest lecturer in UCD Smurfit Business School and speaker at various industry events.

She is currently on the Board of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners of Ireland.

Andrea Giordana, 35, is a Brand and Communication Strategist. After his graduation in creative writing and performing arts, he began his career as copywriter to then move into the strategic field for Publicis Sapient where he worked on “how to globally launches new cars in multiple markets (Stellantis)” or “how to lead parents towards the right choice in terms of baby diapers (Huggies)”.

Joining AKQA in 2017, he's now an Associate Strategy Director and helps clients at the intersection of technology, innovation and entertainment, to reinforce their positioning and provide real value for people.

Bastian is Chief Strategy Officer of Grabarz & Partner, Hamburg. He believes that a healthy mix of empathy, simplicity and human understanding is the most powerful basis for creating impactful ideas.

In his career he has worked for a range of international clients such as Apple, Airbnb, Burger King, IKEA, Porsche and Volkswagen, helping all of them to move people and their businesses at the same time.

Nina is Chief Strategy Officer at GGH MullenLowe Hamburg, after working ad Lowe Lintas, Jung von Matt and freelancing for all major agencies in Germany. She started her career more than 20 years ago, after studying communications sciences and advertising psychology in Munich University.

Due to being one of the oldest most experienced strategists in Germany, Nina has worked for global clients and brands like Nivea, BMW, o2, Unilever, Bayer, IKEA, etc. but also for a large number of local pearls. Nina believes in work that moves people and put brands in motion – in the heads, hearts and actions of people.

Silvio is responsible for marketing and communication of Germany's market leader in the healthcare market. He was previously a board member in the e-learning sector and also worked in various media sectors as well as telecommunications and digital companies.

Silvio created particularly effective media advertising campaigns such as the open letter in The New York Times to the President of the United States, the campaign "Make your pharmacy climate neutral" with the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and the "Initiative against Corona" with BILD, WallDecaux and Facebook.

The German-Portuguese, for example, was awarded the international creative prize Epica Awards in Amsterdam and voted one of the “Top100 for 2021” of the marketing and communication industry in Germany by W&V.

During his +20 years career Matias has been involved in success stories for various global and domestic brands. As the CEO of Drama Queen Communications Matias leads a Nordic full service agency with nearly 90 professionals in Finland and Sweden.

 

Co-founder and CEO of Unbranded, a platform that creates and produces youth-generated fictional content for brands and institutions, Bechara had a long career at Leo Burnett and at Publicis Groupe. He was CCO of Publicis Communications MEA (2015-2020) and CCO of Leo Burnett MEA since 2011, contributing to the growth, the innovation and the reputation of the Groupe. He also helped more than 200 multinational and regional brands successfully engage with the people. Born in Beirut, he is a multilingual and multi-awarded cosmopolitan strategist and creative executive (more than 1,000 awards at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Effie, Dubai Lynx,…), holder of two MBAs and of a Master in Economics.

Bechara also worked in his early career as a planner, then as a copywriter, then a film director, shooting over 100 spots and short documentaries for brands. He also directed and co-wrote a short called 'Apelo', shot in Rio de Janeiro in 2015.

In the last decade, Bechara led the launch of activist integrated campaigns - on behalf of brands or for NGOs - defending causes that could help change the way people feel, think and live, like several campaigns for women's empowerment and protection in Lebanon and in the Middle East, which spread globally, and led to the adoption of new laws by the Lebanese Parliament.

In 2015, the Big Won Rankings, published by the Drum, named Bechara the 1st CCO in the world. The same year, Leo Burnett Beirut was number 4 most creative agency worldwide (Big Won) and one of the 10 Pioneering Agencies in the world (Contagious). At the Dubai Lynx Festival of Creativity 2020-21, Bechara was named Advertising Person of the Year.

 

With a background of 15 years of experiences in global and German shops  likeJung von Matt, Heimat, R/GA, TBWA and as CMO for the DTC start-up Sitzfeldt, Nadine is spearheading the Anomaly strategy as as part of the core management and leadership team in Berlin.

Throughout her career Nadine had the chance to work for many prestigious clients including Google, Hinge, Netflix, Nikon, Opel, Spotify and E.ON matching her deep German and European footprint with a lot of global experience, applied across brand, cultural and communication strategy.

Besides her passion for brands and creativity Nadine is an agent of cultural and societal change. So beyond her 'day job', Nadine is sitting on the board of Klim (regenerative agriculture), is an advisor to the Berlin Founders' Fund (with particular focus on initiatives to support female founders), and engages in various diversity related projects.

Above all, her true passion for strategy stems from the ambition to help brands resonate with people through genuine and relevant cultural impact.

Niamh has worked in the Irish advertising industry for the last 8 years. She began her career at the Dublin based creative agency, In the Company of Huskies. From here, she went on to work in other Irish agencies Thinkhouse and Rothco Accenture Interactive. In December of 2019, she re-joined the Huskies pack as head of planning and behavioural science. 

Her career has been defined by two distinct paths: the first working in brand and communications strategy, helping Irish and international brands to develop campaigns that engage consumers at scale. Her second area of expertise is behavioural strategy which marries behavioural science with end to end creative and digital solutions. Here, she has a track record in helping brands with a deeper knowledge of heuristics and biases, to craft solutions that are creatively impactful and scientifically led.

Born in the north of Germany, Henrik started a typical hanseatic career as a wholesale and export merchant in Hamburg, until his studies in business administration grew his interest into marketing, advertising and agencies. There he started as an Account Manager. A few years, some agency stages, a move to Berlin and a master in business communication later, Henrik finally made his way into Strategy. Throughout the next 10 years in the job, Henrik has worked in various agencies like Heimat, VCCP, DDB and Publicis Pixelpark. This allowed him to gain experience on both national and international brands from multiple sectors, including Netto, Apollo, smart, Kaufland, Peugeot, Techniker Krankenkasse, OTTO, Ferrero, BMW Motorrad, mobile.de, Spotify, ZEISS and Unitymedia. Today, Henrik is Head of Strategy at Jung von Matt SAGA. Besides that he is also board member of APG Germany and runs his own strategy community "Young Planners Germany" with over 400 members.

Alix has an extensive experience, covering everything from Luxury advertising campaigns to complicated digital systems design and retail experiences . He has worked with some of the world's leading brands, such as Burberry, Moncler, Gucci, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Belstaff, Bally, Nike, BMW, Bentley, Mercedes, McLaren, Land Rover Range Rover, Dom Perignon, Pernod Ricard, GREAT, Bang & Olufsen, Sony, BBC, UBS, Premier League and many more. He oversaw the vision and execution for multiple business’s, creating true omni-channel experiences through web3, e-commerce platforms, experiential retail spaces both virtual

 and physical.

Alix has always rooted his creativity in real business and human insights, aiming to drive client business forward by creating valuable connections between brands and their customers. He has throughout the years been on the forefront of innovation, helping clients not only adapt to our ever-changing world, but leading within their categories and set examples for others to follow.

Recognition;

Cannes Lions
1 Titanium, 1 Gold, 6 Silver
Direct Digital & Social: Use of Digital Platforms Bronze Lion
Direct Digital & Social: Use of New Technology Bronze Lion
D&AD Awards, Crafts for Advertising Digitally Enhanced Photography for Advertising Wood Pencil
Circle Awards Press Craft Best Art Direction (Campaign) Gold
Circle Awards Press Craft Best Image Manipulation (Campaign) Gold
Gold at the Government Sabre Awards
GOLD DBA winner in the Public Sector category and the prestigious Grand Prix award
31 Additional Awards inc 12 Gold, 6 Silver

Monica is at heart a culture and creative planner and loves working for brands that want to create conversations and acts rather than simply ads.

She has been planning for 15 years and was lucky enough to work for some of the biggest global brands out there - like Diesel, Coke and Heineken in some of the best agencies in the world. She has lived in 4 countries in the last 5 years, so she feels like she belongs nowhere and everywhere by now.

Armed with a sharp intuition and a keen sense for brand building, she takes pride in quickly identifying the direction that a brand should take, no matter the sector - be it fashion, FMCG or pharma. 

There isn’t a single day that passes by that Frederico isn’t touched by the creative spirit of artists, photographers, writers, painters, musicians, etc. And he tries his very best to add up to this "global soul of inspiration" as he calls it, by bringing his own ideas to life. A quest that began almost 20 years ago, working for commercial and social causes advertising for the different global markets likes EMEA, LATAM and APAC.  Samsung, HP, Fox International Channels, Nestlé, Bentley Motors, Xbox, Colgate, Virgin Active, Bentley Motors, DIAGEO and BP are some of the clients he has worked for, as well as Amnesty International, RSPCC and the Spitalfields Crypt Trust

I began my advertising career at Mullen Lowe in Cape Town. This is where my passion for creativity and strategic imagination was born. I was privileged enough to write a case study paper for the Organ Donor Foundation of South African, that won an effectiveness grand prix, got promoted to head of strategy, and helped to earn the agency the title of most effective creative agency in South Africa.

I moved over to New York in 2017 to work for mcgarrybowen as a strategy director working on JCPenny, Burt’s Bees, and Verizon. I then joined another smaller IPG agency in New York called EP+Co in 2018 as a VP strategy director on TUMI, The Men’s Wearhouse, PUMA, and Morgan Stanley – on which I worked closely with the CMO to elevate the bank’s sustainability agenda through marketing. 

And most recently, Before joining Wunderman Thompson London as Head of Planning, and lead planner on HSBC, I spent 2 years at BBH London, as the strategic lead working to drive up the ROI of Weetabix comms, helping to prepare Audi for a new era of electric mobility, and launching a new global platform for Mentos.  

Diane Schulz is General Manager at Serviceplan Group. She started her career in advertising in 1999. As Account Manager, she worked at different agencies in Hamburg and Munich on clients such as Miller Beer, Danone and Payback/Plenti. 

After finishing her Diploma in Marketing at the BAW, the leading German academy for marketing and communication at the time, she started as Head of Direct Marketing at Hubert Burda Media, one of Germany’s largest media companies.

In 2012, she joined the SERVICEPLAN GROUP to develop the group’s Innovation Team. In this position, she acted directly under the Global Chief Creative Officer Alexander Schill. 
As International Account Director for METRO C&C and member of the Innovation Team, Diane was responsible for navigating the SERVICEPLAN brand while it expanded internationally.
This was achieved by managing creative excellence, innovation and pushing integration across 20+ countries, as well as handling all relevant participation in creative and efficiency awards. 

In her current role as Business Director, she oversees the global key accounts of the group, is responsible to establish new structures and processes to steer and monitor clients globally plus developing strategic growth.

Ann-Kristin is the Chief Strategy Officer at Heimat Berlin, previously she was Strategy Director at BBDO Group Germany. She believes in ideas with impact that are seriously different: Built on disruptive strategy, making a meaningful difference in the category.Her studies at the Berlin University of the Arts couldn’t prevent that her path went straight into advertising.

With 10 years of experience, Ann-Kristin had the chance to successfully work for clients such as O2, Henkel, Dr. Oetker, Mercedes-AMG, Ferrero, Coca-Cola, Kaufland and the Boston Consulting Group. For her, strategy means finding solutions that make people care, not consumers. Because after all, it is real humans we are talking to. Passionate about everything fast she loves brands at the speed of culture and her road bike at the speed of Berlin’s traffic.

Katrine has worked with brand strategy on both the client and agency side for the past 12 years, in both Ho Chi Minh City, New York and Copenhagen. For the past five years, she’s been part of the agency &Co./NoA as a Senior Strategic Planner working with both Danish and global clients. This is her third time being a part of the AME Awards’ grand jury.

She has a MSc. in Business Communication and recently finished an executive education at the University of Cambridge in Circular Economy and Sustainable Strategies. Climate mitigation and how we - through the power of communication and storytelling - get more corporations to remobilize and accelerate their transition into a sustainable busines model, is a both a professional and personal driver.

Kyra is Co-Founder of Partners Creative Consultancy. Previously she was Chief Strategy Officer at Heimat, Berlin and part of TBWA\s global strategy core. She believes in disruptive strategy fueling bold creativity.

Kyra has helped companies such as smart, Coca-Cola, and FDP define, design and develop their brand platforms in disruptive ways to gain competitive advantages and commercial growth.  

She has a passion for ideas that seem to be too brave to work – and for making them a reality. Having co-founded and worked in Start-Ups before her advertising career, Kyra understands the importance of thinking and working 'seriously different' to move ideas, companies, and brands forward

Maximilian Weigl

Senior Director of Brand Strategy & Planning

Maximilian is the Senior Director of Brand Strategy and Planning at ScienceMagic.Inc where he works with businesses and talent to connect them to their communities to create enduring value. Before joining SMI, he co-lead the strategy team at 72andSunny Amsterdam as Deputy Executive Strategy Director.

For more than 14 years, he’s worked with probably the best brands in the world to stand out from the bland and create real connection with people. He encouraged tech brands to embrace humanity, beer brands hyperbole, and car brands humility, and helped craft campaigns that won numerous creative and effectiveness awards.

After living in Montreal, Turku, Hamburg, and Amsterdam and working for world renown agencies like kempertrautmann, thjnk, and 72andSunny, Maximilian now calls London home where he helps build a new kind of strategic and creative company, keeps growing a global mentoring network for strategic minds, and constantly looks to the wrong side of the street.

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Béla Benjamin Ziemann, Global CSO Publicis/LePub

Isolated by the Cold War and divided by the wall, Béla was born and bred in the streets of Berlin.

Growing up amongst artists and creatives in a city that is known to be tolerant of alternative attitudes, lifestyles, and ideologies, Béla is the result of urban culture from the then capital of European Cool. After two years of debauchery in the post wall era, Béla moved to Hamburg to start a life in advertising. Working for some of the most awarded agencies in Germany, he quickly realised how his knack for culture benefitted him in the creative industry. But soon he also realised that his forward thinking ideologies weren’t always fitting with Hamburg’s venerable merchant culture and so he set sail to conquer Europe’s advertising scene instead. 

In his current gig, Béla has helped Publicis Italy to climb from creative No-man’s land to the world’s most awarded agency, leading strategy for Diesel, Heineken, Barilla, Mercedes, Bottega Veneta, Netflix et al. Next up, Béla will be shaping LePub, a new breed of agency to fight creative mediocrity with innovative work.

LePub has just been named Contagious Pioneer 2022 and Adweek creative agency to watch.