Currently Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Wolverine Worldwide, previously a Group Strategy Director at Mediacom, I’ve built strategic range by purposely building a career that saw me move from PR to Social to Creative to Media – with the ambition to be a truly unique leader of integrated strategy. Additionally, I’ve leaned into my entrepreneurial spirit to help lead the development of award winning start-ups, content projects and philanthropic endeavors. Over the past 20 years I’ve lead strategy for clients ranging from Dell to Hotels.com to Zumba Fitness and have worked at agencies both in the US and abroad. To further develop the future of the integrated strategy discipline – I founded The Strategy Room, a mentorship program for BIPOC + LGBTQ strategists. I hold undergraduate degrees from Lehigh University and an MBA from Rutgers University and I reside in NJ with my amazing wife Prim Siripipat, 2 y/o son Duke and 3-legged pitbull Bella. You can find me on all social media as @The30ish

Originally from El Salvador, Gabriela joined Droga5 to work as the lead Strategy Director on the Chase and Reform accounts. Prior to her time at Droga5, she worked at Publicis as part of the Citi One Team leading their credit cards, consumer bank and fintech efforts. She also worked across numerous new business pitches including Sheraton and Neiman Marcus as well as CSR efforts for clients like the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Before deciding to move to New York, Gabriela spent some time in Miami at Zubi, a multicultural agency where she worked primarily on the Ford, Chase and Smucker’s accounts. Prior to that she worked at Ogilvy in El Salvador on brands like Coca-Cola and Toyota. The diversity in her experiences is what led her to be featured as one of the Top 50 defiant women from Central America of 2020. 

Gabriela now lives in Clinton Hill with her dog Godzilla, and is in the never ending pursuit of finding the best burger in town.  

Rafik leads the strategy teams at Dentus Canada. He has held strategic roles at TAXI Toronto and Montrea including brand, customer engagement, digital and social change across APAC and North America. This cross-discipline path has shaped his holistic, media-neutral approach to communications and its impact on brands and organizations.

In the last few years, he has applied his approach to local and international brands such as Intel, Rogers, Fido, VW, Audi, Intuit, McDonald’s, SingTel, Unilever, Prudential, Amnesty International and WWF. He has an uncanny ability to get to the heart of a client’s issue in an instant, to present it with clarity, and to inspire refreshing ideas around him.

His work has been recognized at effectiveness and creative award shows both locally and internationally including Cannes Lions, Effies, D&AD and Clio Awards. These days though, he’s prouder of his department’s turnover-rate, which stands at zero in the last three years. Despite the great resignation.

He also created two awards shows, the Tomorrow Awards (which was acquired, then cancelled, by the New York Art Directors Club) and Young Glory, a global awards program for young creatives, which has a cult following in places like Australia, Russia or Hungary.

Nina Bressau is VP, Strategy at Biolumina (Omnicom Health Group). She has over 9 years of global retail, CPG, and healthcare experience. She has founded several professional development initiatives and was recognized by Ad2Dallas in 2018 as a 32 Under 32 honoree for her extraordinary accomplishments in the Dallas advertising community.

Prior to Biolumina, Nina worked at natrel Health, Integer, GSW, and Landor. She has hands-on experience supporting several Fortune 500 companies such as Eli Lilly, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, FedEx and Kraft, as well as startups and non-profit organizations. Nina is also active in industry organizations including Together Digital.

Liam Brown, Strategy Director at McCann Worldgroup Canada, is an experienced strategic planner who has helped strategically guide some of Canada's best-known brands.

A multi-disciplinary planner with expertise in brand planning, creative strategy and communications planning, Liam has a wealth of experience across sectors, from retail to automotive to government and institutions.

A graduate of the London School of Economics, Liam also enjoys teaching scuba diving in his spare time.

Hernan Cerdeiro is the founder & CCO @ AnyGivenDay, a digital full-service collaboration and ideation company he created in 2016. With its headquarters in Miami and offices in Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. Ex VP Executive Creative Director at the advertising agency Conill Saatchi & Saatchi, he worked for brands like Tide, Crest, Toyota, Alaska Airlines, Beldent, Abbott, and many more. He obtained significant results for some of the most important brand's clients. Among his achievements: 3 Cannes Lions, 2 One Show, a Wood Pencil at D&AD, 1 Clio, and also an Effie for Toyota's campaign "More Than Cars."

Hernán also worked as VP Group Creative Director for LatinWorks. In this Multicultural agency, his role was to oversee the creative development for brands such as Chevrolet, Anheurser-Busch's Budweiser, and Bud Light; Mars' Snickers, M&M's, Twix, and Pedigree; also Wrigley's Starburst and Skittles. Being one of the most prominent agencies in its field, LatinWorks is a multi-awarded advertising agency been part of AdAge's 2014 A-List. He also held the VP Group Creative Director position at Alma DDB, overseeing McDonald's, State Farm, Goodyear, Clorox, Tobacco Free Florida, Quaker, PNC Bank, Rosetta Stone, and Cricket Wireless, among others. In those two years, Hernán achieved outstanding results for this agency. For the first time in Alma DDB's history, the agency won two Silver Lions at Cannes Lions Festival, making it the most awarded agency in the Hispanic market in 2013. He also helped the agency attain recognition at the Effie Awards. As a result of all these achievements, Alma DDB was named 2014 Multicultural Agency of the Year by Ad Age. During his tenure, Alma DDB also managed to obtain new accounts. Among them, Goodyear and BBVA.

Hernán spent the first years of his advertising career at Bridger Conway and the moved to Craverolanis (a primary advertising agency in Argentina). After Craverolanis, he joined Ogilvy Argentina to create the memorable campaigns "Las cosas como son"for Sprite and "Toma lo bueno" for Coca-Cola. Later, he joined Young & Rubicam Buenos Aires, taking the role of Creative Director forbrands such as Quilmes beer, MTV, Visa, YPF, Banco Comafi, Los Altos, Arcor, and Disco supermarkets. At Y&R, he also developed campaigns like "Don't Kill The Music" and "The Opposite Of Everything" for MTV, "Partido de la Costa" and "Encuentros" for the emblematic local Quilmes beer, followed by the "Headaches" print campaign for Bayer's Actron Pediátrico. He then joined McCann Erickson Buenos Aires as Creative Director, working on significant accounts that included Chevrolet, Mastercard, Reebok,and Nestlé.

He furthered his career at Ponce Buenos Aires, one of the most renowned creative agencies in Argentina, where he contributed to creative development for global and national brands, including Axe, Rexona, Impulse, Kibon, Stella Artois, and Knorr.

Federico brings more than 20 years of brand experience from both the client and agency sides. He cut his teeth working on global brands such as IBM and Coca-Cola in Argentina, his native country.

As a brand consultant for Interbrand and Brand Architecture International, Federico worked in diverse categories, projects ranged from activating “Chivas Life” to branding the city of Toronto. He joined BBDO in 2006 where he led some of their most iconic brands, such as Gillette, Johnson’s Baby and Bank of America.  In 2013, he became the lead planner for BBDO HealthWork, a healthcare-focused joint venture of BBDO and CDM. He worked across many categories, including obesity (Novo), diabetes (Bayer), mental health (Allergan), flu (Genentech), and gastro (Takeda), to name a few.

He is currently Chief Strategy Officer at Havas Village X. Previously he served as EVP, Strategy Director at McCann Health where he leds the brand strategy team across all patient communication initiatives..

Federico is passionate about understanding people and their behaviors and believes that regardless of the category, brands can and should serve as catalysts for behavioral changes for good.

Currently, Casey is a digital marketing lead at Horizon Therapeutics as the driving force for digital initiatives for healthcare professionals. Prior to Horizon, Casey worked at Scout Marketing, the longest running rare-disease and specialty pharmaceutical agency. He has been in the marketing and advertising industry with 12+ years of experience focused in the health and wellness industry. Leveraging his experience on both client and agency sides, he has been the driving force for numerous innovative campaigns to drive awareness, conversion, and retention for target audiences in incredibly niche markets. His contributions have led brands past the billion dollar revenue mark.

In his free time, Casey also sits on the executive board for one of Chicago's oldest marketing associations, Chicago Association of Direct Marketing. 

A passionate champion of creativity and the talented people and marketers who fuel it,
Brandon Cooke joined FCB in early 2017 as Global Chief Communications Officer, with
a mission to propel the reputation of one of advertising’s most storied agency brands.
With a unique and diverse background that spans copywriting to account management
and ultimately global business development, Cooke has spent the last three years
collaborating closely with his fellow leaders in 109 operations in 80-plus countries to
push FCB to the forefront of creativity, diversity, culture and innovation. In 2020, Cooke
became FCB’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, focusing on forging new business
relationships with current and prospective clients on a domestic and global basis.

Throughout Cooke’s tenure, FCB picked up 2018, 2019 and 2020 Ad Age A-List honors,
enjoyed its best Cannes Lions showing ever, with a top-three Global Network ranking in
2019, and – most important to Cooke – made headlines for taking bold actions to lead
the industry in improving inclusivity, equality and generosity. He was an Ad Age 40
Under 40 honoree and, last year, was inducted into the American Advertising
Federation’s Hall of Achievement.

Cooke brings a highly creative mindset to everything he does and is an entrepreneur at
heart who’s consistently challenging himself and his team to raise the bar, think big, do
the right thing and always remember to laugh. His curiosity to learn about and
understand new people and cultures has fueled his path to global leadership roles and
given birth to what some might consider a weird obsession with the Olympic Games
(he’s been to five games so far, with plans for Tokyo on the horizon).

A small-town boy from the foothills of North Carolina and a proud graduate of The
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Brandon carries a strong commitment to
service and is an active member of several University and philanthropic boards.

Charlotte has spent her 14-year strategy consulting career gradually moving from numbers to humans. Starting out in management consulting, where she spent a productive four years developing her analytical skills, she got the sense that there was more to strategy than the numbers. She made the transition to brand strategy, where she evolved brands based on consumer insights uncovered through primary research. Since joining the digital agency world, she applies this background to help companies transform and grow in the face of technology evolution. Her experience spans a number of notable global clients, including Nike, Apple, Walmart, Marriott, and MetLife.

Charlotte holds a B.A. in Economics from McGill University, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, with concentrations in Marketing and Finance.

Meet Sam Dolin, the creative powerhouse who joined Klick over three years ago, following her tenure at Ogilvy Health as Chief Creative Officer of North America. Sam is renowned for her unwavering commitment to innovative, purpose-driven work.

With a stellar background crafting meaningful experiences for brands like Nike, Intel, and Adidas, she discovered her true passion in health and wellness, creating transformative creative that impacts lives. Sam's vast health marketing expertise spans patient, professional, and DTC realms, covering diverse categories from CNS, to oncology, to vaccines, to rare disease and more.

Her impressive portfolio includes campaigns for first-in-class and blockbuster brands, earning accolades at prestigious events such as Cannes Lions, Clios, LIAs, New York Festivals, Webbies and more. As an industry thought leader, Sam has served on the top juries, and recently served as a Coach and Mentor in LIAs’ LIAisons program.

Bediz Eker is currently Chief Strategy Officer at VMLY&R’s New York office. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of strategy across brand, consumer experience and social in his business unit. Before getting relocated to New York two years ago, he worked as the Chief Strategy Officer in Y&R’s Istanbul office, where he had several noteworthy accomplishments. He was the strategy lead of the team that won Turkey's first ever Grand Prix in Cannes. He was responsible for leading his team to become Europe’s Most Effective Agency and the World’s 8th Most Effective Agency.

Prior to joining Y&R, he worked in BBDO Turkey and Alametifarika. But his career in advertising started in Paris, where he took his first agency job at Euro RSCG Worldwide’s European Business Development department in HAVAS Global Headquarters. Before finding an internship in the same department, he had no intention to work in advertising while planning to become a political communications consultant. It was his political communications project that helped him achieve French Government’s Scholarship – “Bourse d’Excellence” after his BA in Political Science and Public Administration in Galatasaray University and brought him to France where he had an MA in Management and Business Administration of Communications.

Today he gives back to academia as a guest lecturer in Baruch College and Fordham University. He’s also on the Advisory Board of Rutgers Business School’s Marketing Department. Since he moved to New York, Bediz has been writing a monthly column in Mediacat (Turkey’s best-selling marketing industry publication) to share his experiences abroad.

Grant is a planner with over 13 years’ experience from the land down under - Australia

He is an Iridium Effie winner and has won multiple awards for his work both in Australia and in NYC (Cannes, One Show, Effies, Webby's, Clio's etc).

In his role as Vice President, Brand Planning at Huge he leads strategy for Sportsbet, Ticketmaster and more.

Grant has a passion in helping brands find and live their purpose whilst developing the most effective strategies and creative work possible. Outside of work, Grant has been very active in advertising community coaching MAIP students, being an advisory board member for Miami Ad-School in Sydney and guest lecturing at multiple universities both in NYC and abroad.

Grant is a father to Henry, Husband to Julie and Dog Dad to Arty and Abe (two sausage dogs).

Sabena Gupta is a Global Brand Marketing Lead at Amazon. She is responsible for developing cross-channel campaigns that drive key perceptions about and grow the business, with an eye to creative solutions that are native to the platforms in which they live. Prior to joining Amazon, Sabena was the Director of Brand Strategy & Marketing at The New York Times where she led the cross-functional team responsible for the brand’s ongoing “Truth” campaign, overseeing creative development and media strategy. In her tenure at The Times, she also helped develop the organization’s first Brand Book distilling the company’s mission and brand strategy, as well as a series of style guides that helped implement the Brand Book across different products and teams.

Prior to The Times, she worked at AKQA in brand strategy and account management across a range of clients including Wheat Thins and Verizon. Sabena has been named on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list and Ad Age’s 40 Under 40 list, and graduated from NYU with a degree in English Literature. She currently lives in Seattle where she recently moved for her role at Amazon. 

Dani Jackson is a Vice President in the Brand practice at Edelman Chicago, providing clients with culture driven counsel on consumer as well as corporate comms strategies. As the Chicago DEI steward, Dani also develops and implements cross-cultural programming that promotes an inclusive work environment. Prior to taking on these roles, Dani had a long career as an agency producer with over 10 years of experience on brands that include Kellogg's, Nintendo, Sears, Allstate and Samsung.

Born and raised in Chicago, Dani is also multi-faceted cultural enthusiast and storyteller – obsessed with curating spaces that build community. She attributes Chicago Park District programming to much of her current success and currently sits on the boards for Off The Street Club and Free Spirit Media to give back to Chicago youth.  Dani started her career in the advertising industry through the 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Intern Program (MAIP) and has been dedicated to diversifying the industry ever since – contributing to organizations that include ADCOLOR, Coalesce and AAF.

In 2017, Dani became a Kartemquin Diverse Voices in Docs fellow where she began production on her mixed media exhibit Backside Stories. Leading with a documentary, the Backside Stories touring exhibit will include photography, live performance and an interactive installation. Backside Stories investigates the relationship women have with one of the largest muscle in their bodies, the gluteus maximus. Pushing beyond politically correctness, Backside Stories encourages women to own and define womanhood starting with the narratives about their bodies.

While completing her Masters in Fine Arts at the University at Buffalo, Dani directed a student film titled “Little Miss Hip Hop.” which explored the maturation from girlhood to womanhood from a hip hop lens. She is most passionate about telling stories that showcase how we are all more alike than different. Through her production company, The Dani J Way, Dani is independently producing Backside Stories, a mixed media project that highlights the joy and the pain of womanhood from the perspective of the hiney. Dani is also the founder of The Cre8tors, connecting artists connecting artists with brands, agencies, cultural institutions and government entities that seek to utilize art to elevate their experience

AWARDS/PRESS

- Chicago Addy, Best in Category for #BlackAtWork Installation

- Gold Clio, Allstate's "Save 11" Campaign

- Coalesce Chicago, Diversity Advocate, Emerging Leader

- Recognized by ADWeek, ADAGE, and Creativity for Purina “Good to Great” Westminster Dog Show launch.

- Silver Chicago Addy’s for Allstate radio spots Beach Volleyball, Courteous Driver and Neighbor

Justin Lefkovitch is the CEO/Founder of Mirrored Media, the award-winning experiential agency that sits at the intersection of music, entrainment, influencers, fashion, art, automotive, film, technology, and the fan experience.

Alongside company partners Steve Kofsky and world-renowned film composer Hans Zimmer, Lefkovitch continues to curate some of the most successful activations in the experiential space, gaining industry-wide recognition for their transformational results. Mirrored's innovative ideas have changed the way some of the largest brands engage with their consumers.

Lefkovitch's introduction to experiential marketing differed from most. As a teenager in Los Angeles, Justin was an acclaimed touring magician and a regular featured performer at the world-famous Magic Castle alongside some of the industry’s biggest names. Soon after, while attending Pepperdine University, he began managing high-profile musical acts, giving him more exposure and expertise in the world of music and entertainment.

Today, Justin highlights the similarities between magic and creating the perfect experience. The difference between a successful effect and a transparent one is often so minute, that the tiniest extra detail transforms an ordinary experience into something extraordinary.

Justin thrives on the ability to craft a narrative, tell a story, and create lasting experiences. His company portfolio includes BMW, NBCUniversal, Mattel, AT&T, Warner Bros., Acura, Ford, Reddit, mophie, Caruso, Marriott, AirBnB, Bacardi, and more. Mirrored Media has helped a multitude of brands reach their target markets through authentic, buzzworthy and memorable experiences that are a win-win for the brand, talent, and ultimately, the fans. 

Liza Eliano, Associate at Brunswick Arts, has deep experience developing strategic communications campaigns for global clients in sectors including the arts, culture, tourism, and philanthropy. Her expertise ranges from creating compelling narratives to tell a client’s story to securing media placements in top tier outlets to advising on critical issues that have the potential to impact a brand’s reputation. She also has experience in the Gulf having spent a year in Brunswick’s Dubai and Abu Dhabi offices where she advised on communications for the UAE’s top organizations in culture and tourism including Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, and Dubai Culture.

Prior to joining Brunswick Arts, Liza held positions at the arts and culture communications agency FITZ & CO, where she led on media campaigns for a range of international clients including Art Basel, and Random House Inc., where she promoted upcoming authors and established new events for the publishing house. Liza holds a Bachelor's degree in Art History from Barnard College and was born and raised in New York.

My advertising career began while in college; I was drawn to the advertising industry for
its constant, creative energy and many dynamic, talented people. I worked my way up
from a temp receptionist to VP/EP at a large Chicago agency. Throughout my
production career I have worked on clients Kraft, SC Johnson, Kimber-Clark,
McDonald’s, Comcast, Toyota and General Mills, to name a few.

Looking for work life balance, I took a step back; currently a senior advertising
production manager by day, a mentor, advisor and connector 24/7. Loving and living my
best life as a lakefront runner with a strong family of co-workers, good friends and my
four-legged daughter, Tippi and a found interest in nature and architectural
photography.

As a Black woman, I advocate for more color in advertising and visible success for
WOC, in an industry where we are not allowed a seat at the table or entry. D&I should
be true action with real results, not lip service and empty promises. POC and WOC
people are qualified and capable, and we are determined to have more seats.

Janis Middleton, Chief Inclusion Officer at Guided by Good, USA, Atlanta, GA

Janis has years of experience in the content and media space and has led various clients, such as The Home Depot, Buffalo Wild Wings, SunTrust (now Truist), Hanes, and many others to success. Her background has made her extremely knowledgeable in developing and implementing people-focused strategies, which ultimately led to her current role.

As an Atlanta native and a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, Janis has always had a passion for building and cultivating environments that provide equal opportunities for all people to thrive. She understood marginalized audiences were consistently underrepresented with less access to tools for success. It was with this experience that she built the portfolio’s Inclusion practice.

Melissa Miller hails from the sunshine of Arizona, and has spent her entire career helping businesses connect with consumers through communications.  She has extensive experience crafting brand and integrated marketing strategies that are grounded in consumer insight and behavior and help drive businesses forward.

In her nearly 15 years at BBDO – across both New York and San Francisco offices – Melissa has worked on brands as varied as New Balance, Havaianas, HP, The Golden State Warriors, the NFL and the Olympics. But the majority of her time has been focused on helping big businesses like Wells Fargo, Visa, Bank of America and ServiceNow tackle the complex challenges that live at the heart of both financial services and technology.

Melissa has a B.S. from Arizona State, where she played 4 years of varsity softball for the Sun Devils; and an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Outside the office, Melissa helps active duty military transition into civilian jobs and industries, and is the best pal to her boston terrier: Otis.

With over 19 years of experience building both local and global brands at a regional, global and local level, Sonal has led strategy in the largest and most creative advertising agencies across Asia such as Ogilvy & Mather, Singapore & Wieden + Kennedy India and won over 40 awards for creativity and effectiveness.

Her passion for culture, technology and media, and her interest in shaping behavior has helped her build expertise in areas such as behavior and perception change on social issues for ministries and governments, She has worked with government bodies such as Health Promotion Board & The National Environment Agency (both in Singapore), on projects such as cleanliness, testing, condom usage, ownership, civic responsibility & ownership amongst citizens. Her other passion- nation and city branding- led her to work with bodies like the Economic Development Board of Singapore to attract creative industries into the country, attracting foreign direct investment to India through the prestigious Make in India campaign and developing a brand identity for the city of Delhi aimed at attracting tourism into the city of Delhi.

Along with Rory Sutherland, she launched Ogilvy Change, the first behavioral economics practice of its kind in Asia, which worked with both government and commercial clients, while at Cheil India, she built a strategy department and shaped the agency’s point of view on branding tech start ups. Her experience at Wieden India helped her shape her thinking around marketing as design/ experience further through work on building local relevance for brands like Nike, and putting India on a global stage.

At BBDO Chicago, as the Global Strategy Lead for SC Johnson, she is responsible for shaping a culture of ideas through data driven insight through developing best practices to champion the usage and application for data to strategy.

In her spare time she consults with governments on tourism, city branding, culture & identity for cities through policy, urban planning and communication. She also helped set up the world's first Partition Museum.

Karin  is VP of Creative at Lyft. Previously she served as Chief Creative Officer at FCB West where in 2015 as part of a team that has completely rebuilt and doubled that office in three years, culminating with wins at D&AD, Cannes, The One Show, and the Clio’s and the top engagement score in the FCB network. Karin leads two of the FCB Networks most notable global accounts from the SF office, Levi’s and Clorox. Levi’s credits the “Circles” film which made YouTube’s top 10 most viewed ads in 2017 with raising their sales by over 18 % in 6 months, globally. Both the Clorox and Levi’s global work has won numerous creative awards and has given her clients record ROI on their advertising. While at FCB Karin has helped bring in Clorox and Dockers, which are both global accounts, Hotwire/Expedia (+16% in sales since campaign launch) Ameriprise Financial and most recently Udemy Online Education. In January 2020 she was made Co-President of the FCBWest office.

Previously Karin oversaw the fully integrated European Ford account for Blue Hive/ Ogilvy as ECD (2012-2015), where she steered the agency and client through a period of rapid growth and innovation including leading the two most successful car launches for Ford of Europe in over a decade, and creating the most socially shared Ford campaign – the Mustang launch on the Champions League in 2015, winning the global Effie for Media Innovation. While responsible for the US$.5 billion account Karin got to be a part of building 4 regional offices across Europe, recruiting and building those creative teams.

Before moving to London in 2012 Karin spent over a decade at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners, where she started her career and was mentored by the legends; Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein. There she created award-winning work for many iconic brands, including Haagen-Dazs, Beaulieu Vineyards, Chevrolet, Nike Women, eBay, Nintendo Wii, Kayak.com and Hyundai. At Goodby Karin developed a love for the sport of pursuing new business and a passion for storytelling, ideas and craft that moves people or makes them see something in a new light. She believes passionately that the best work happens when Creative and Strategy work together as closely as art director and copywriter.

Karin is a frequent judge on the creative award show circuit (Cannes, D&AD, The One Show, Clio’s and the Facebook Creative Studio Awards) and has been a speaker at Berkeley Haas School of Business Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Creative Equals in London, the Cultural Marketing Council in the US and more. Fluent in five languages, Karin identifies as a Norwegian/Mexican and loves all things multicultural. She considers herself extremely lucky having been in love with the same man for over 25 years and proud to have created 2 fabulous young humans who will no doubt contribute to making this a better world. 

Alejandro is a Strategy Group Director at Conill / Saatchi & Saatchi. He is responsible for leading the development and execution of Hispanic market-targeted creative strategy for Toyota North America and Denny’s Diner. With experience in several disciplines, he started his advertising career in Buenos Aires as an Art Director. After many years working at creative agencies in Argentina, he moved to Brazil to join a consultancy company to develop positioning and product innovation for brands like Coca-Cola and Unilever. Alejandro returned to the advertising agency world during his time in Brazil, playing a pivotal role in developing award-winning work for Global brands like McDonald's and top Brazilian brands, including BR Foods and Natura &Co. Today, Alejandro calls Los Angeles home, where he continues to use both the strategic and creative sides of his brain to discover fresh insights and help develop innovative campaigns.

Reema is a brand strategist with a deep love for the Oxford comma. She's worked at a number of agencies, servicing brands across a number of industries - from home cleaning to home insurance, from beer & wine to meats & cheeses, from tech start-ups to tech giants - and everything in between. Reema is also passionate about building inclusive work communities and has been professionally raised in organizations like ADCOLOR, AAF, and MAIP. She strongly believes that the most empathetic humans & marketers make for the strongest brands & businesses. Outside of adland, Reema is an amateur short-form-writer, speaking her South Asian truth. 

Gianmaria Schonlieb is a Creative Director with extensive experience in advertising and art direction. A community advocate, he is determined to bring a spotlight on LGBTQ+ and other issues through his work.

He has created campaigns for many iconic brands including Google, Star Wars, Dodge, Forever21, and Coca-Cola Super Bowl to name a few. He has worked at some of the most awarded advertising agencies such as Wieden+Kennedy Portland and Shanghai, and Swedish creative agency, B-Reel. He then transitioned to the brand side and he is currently the Brand Creative Director for the rideshare company Lyft.

In 2015 he was named one of the “30 most creative people in advertising under 30”, and since then his work has continued to be widely recognized in the industry. Over the years Gianmaria’s work has received multiple advertising and design awards including Clio, One Show Interactive, Webby, Communication Arts, and FWA just to name a few. Ganmaria's work has also been honored and published for the past three years in the prestigious American Photography Annual as part of the world’s best photography between 2019 and 2021.

Kari’s cultural curiosity is driven by her life as a military brat, avid traveler, foodie, and blogger. She began as a designer, taught advertising at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, got an M.A. in interactive gesign and game development and created award-winning work as a creative director before being drawn to strategic planning. As Chief Strategy Officer for Campbell Ewald, Kari oversees integrated strategy as well as new business development and agency communications. She leads CE/CX, the agency’s CX Marketing Consultancy, leveraging design thinking to develop business, consumer and marketing experience insights. Kari has worked on brands including Disney, Snuggle, Cadillac, Travelocity, Mutual of Omaha, ASICS and Harley-Davidson, but her proudest achievement – and greatest challenge – has been as a Mom in the ad world, passing on her curiosity to her daughters.

Aki (he/him/his) lives and works at the nexus of consumer culture and connected technologies. He applies data-centric, and radically-collaborative sensibilities to build creative solutions that provide value for people.

As the new Chief Strategy Officer at Cashmere/LA, Aki marks a return back to culture-driven strategies and ideas for brands (having started his career in music marketing). At Cashmere, Aki is charged with honing the agency’s strategic processes for scale & growth – and ultimately linking into the broader Media.Monks and S4 Capital “API” of services.

Previously, Aki was Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett/Chicago, where he helped update the strategic approach for brand, digital, and data integration at one of the most storied agencies in the world. There he introduced innovative forays in AI, Web3, and Multicultural Intelligence for brands like Kelloggs, Jim Beam, Bank of America, Samsung, Messenger, US Cellular, and more.  Aki co-led a strategic resource and accelerator for all the creative agencies across Publicis – to operationalize 'general market' teams who are increasingly-challenged with how to become more culturally-fluent in an era of an increasingly-diverse mass market. 

Aki leaves Leo Burnett having helped the agency achieve 2022 Agency of the Year at One Show, ADC and Clios, Best in Show at One Show, Addy, Communication Arts and AICP, Titanium and Grand Prix at Cannes – and more proudly – a wealth of gold, silver and bronze strategy and effectiveness awards across 2022 Effies (incl 2nd Most Effective Agency Network – Leo Burnett Worldwide), WARC Awards for Effectiveness, ARF Ogilvy Awards for Research, and Jay Chiat Strategy Awards.

Maxine has spent her career in Canada’s leading independent agencies, specializing in launches, challenger brands, and significant transformations. She has worked with many of the country’s best-known companies, on national icons such as Molson Canadian and Canadian Tire, disruptor brands such as WestJet, and one-of-a kind brands like Viagra. Her combination of insight, business perspective and an inspiring way with words has significantly contributed to some of the best known and most effective brand campaigns of the past two decades.

Marialejandra is Chief Strategy Officer for Dieste, US. She oversees Dieste planning group in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles.

Marialejandra leads all data, insights, cultural intelligence, and research efforts at Dieste. Her experience working around Latin America and with the U.S. Hispanic consumer gives her a broad vision of the diversity of Latin cultures and their specific nuances. Her passion for understanding humans and their relationships has led her to pursue a Master’s in Social Anthropology.

With more than 25 years of experience in strategic planning, Marialejandra has been involved in the development of marketing communication for companies in various industries including 3M, Chiclets Adams, Ford Motor Company, Mattel, Nestle, SAB Miller/AB InBev, The Coca-Cola Company and Warner Lambert.

Marialejandra was included in the Advertising Age Women to Watch list for Colombia, and her insights and contribution to the Demobilization Humanitarian Program of the Colombia Ministry of Defense campaign led to recognition not only for its creativity, but also as the first and only Grand Prix in the region from IPA (2011). This campaign has also been awarded for its strategy and effectiveness, winning a Grand Prix APG, the Jay Chiat Grand Prix 2011 and Grand Prix El Dorado Effectiveness 2014 as well as more than 10 Gold Effie Awards.