Advisory Council

South Africa
Mick Blore
CEO Wolves
ABOUT

Mick Blore

Mick Blore is the CEO of Wolves, an independent Marketing, Advertising and Strategic agency in South Africa.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and has creatively led many of the world’s best agencies and network across Africa; including McCann Worldgroup, Y&R, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Jupiter Drawing Room JHB and more. Mick is one of South Africa's most awarded creative's with multiple accolades from around the world. His work has been featured in university texbooks in the USA, he regularly lectures at South Africa's leading advertising schools and universities, and he sits on various industry forums. The work Mick did on Nugget Shoe Polish became the most awarded campaign in the history of South African Advertising in any medium in its time.

Mick has also represented Africa as a member of the Executive Juries of the prestigious Clios and New York Festival Awards, and has also judged the London International Advertising Awards, the APEX Effectiveness Awards, as well as the South African Loeries Awards, amongst others.

He is the only South African to be invited to sit on The Global Advisory Boards of the New York Festivals and AME Awards.

Mick has been featured by The One Show, the Who’s Who of Lürzers Archive, and is a member of the Who's Who of Southern Africa initiative.

UNITED KINGDOM
Nicky Bullard
Group Chief Creative Officer MullenLowe Group UK
ABOUT

Nicky Bullard

Nicky Bullard is the Group Chief Creative Officer for MullenLowe Group UK. She was the first creative woman to become chair of a UK marketing agency, that being multi award-winning MRM//McCann in London. Creatively recognized across nearly all the major shows, Nicky thinks she’s probably worked across every media and sector - but direct and digital are where her heart lies. She’s been writing professionally for 30 years and despite running a huge operation, she also keeps her hand in writing and ideating as often as she can. She is a fierce champion of the customer and believes insight is all. She is also hugely passionate about effectiveness - it’s only great work if it works.

Nicky says that the campaign of her career is the one we’re all living right now, the campaign for equality. Nicky has been featured in the Financial Times HERoes list for the last two years.

USA
Fede Garcia
Global Chief Creative Officer BCW
ABOUT

Fede Garcia

As BCW’s Chief Creative Officer, Fede Garcia is responsible for driving powerful and provocative creative and expanding the agency’s bench of creative talent worldwide. A copywriter by training, Fede is renowned for big ideas that challenge convention, inspire delight and provoke action. With strategic rigor, a global perspective, and a track record of game-changing ideas, Fede helps BCW move people in unexpected and fascinating ways.

A native of Argentina, Fede’s 25-year career in advertising has spanned roles in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, and New York. Fede spent four years with Huge, most recently as Global Executive Creative Director, with creative oversight of the agency’s Brooklyn headquarters and key global accounts. Before that, he was Group Creative Director at Translation in New York, where he worked on the NFL, History Channel and HBO, among others. Prior to this, he spent four years with Ogilvy Tokyo, where he oversaw the creative development of celebrated campaigns for many of the agency’s premier accounts, including Coca-Cola, American Express, IBM, Citizen and more.

Fede’s work has been recognized by the Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clios, Effies and London International Awards among many others, and it has been featured in news outlets around the world such as USA Today, The Washington Post, The Mirror, The Independent, Fox, People Magazine, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Business of Fashion, Business Insider and many more. He’s also a member of the Advisory Board of the New York Festivals and the AME Festivals, and has sat on the jury of numerous award shows.

Philippines
Merlee Jayme
Chairmom/Founder/Creative Mentor The Misfits Camp
ABOUT

Merlee Jayme

She is the Chairmom® and founder of The Misfits Camp, the first-ever safe space for the creative neurodiverse. As Dentsu Asia Pacific’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion lead in 2021 and 2022, her work on diversity and inclusion in advertising has positively impacted the industry.
Today, she finished her studies at the Resources for Educational and Allied Consultancy Habitat, Inc. for courses on Autism, she has helped to create a more inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome and valued and has given a platform for diverse voices to be heard and represented.

The 2019 Drum Global Ranking announced the top 100 Chief Creative Officers globally; only eight women were on the list. One of them is Merlee Jayme.

She was recognized with the Hall of Fame Award by the 4As Creative Guild, The New York Festivals Creative Achievement Award, and the CEO of the Year by the International Association of Business Communicators.
She was the first to be awarded the SEA Creative of the Year by Campaign Asia in 2013, The Asian Marketing Federation Woman Marketer of the Year in 2019, and the Campaign Asia’s Women Leading Change Women’s Advancement Champion for her creative work for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in 2022.
This 2023, she is the 4As of the Philippines Lifetime Achievement Awardee.

Her work pushes Insights and innovation and inspires creative collaboration.
As Dentsu Jayme Syfu and Dentsu One Manila’s Chairmom®, she won major awards, including a Cannes Lion, Grand Prix for Mobile, Gold and Silver Lions for outdoor, and Grand CLIO, LIAA, The One Show, and yellow D&AD pencils.

She is the author of three books: “Everyone can be creative” a handbook about nurturing your inner creativity, “Chairmom®” a book on balancing Mommyhood and career ambition; and “Create Different” the first-ever mind book to assess an Autistic Adult’s creative talent.

She is one of CNN’s Leading Women, a mom to 4 creative girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men’s world.

CANADA
Zak Mroueh
CCO & Founder Zulu Alpha Kilo
ABOUT

Zak Mroueh

Zak started his career at Chiat/Day and BBDO. In 1999, he joined TAXI and helped build the agency into one of the top shops on the Gunn report. Over the past decade, Zak has been busy building Zulu Alpha Kilo into a globally awarded 110-person independent. In 2016, his shop was named Ad Age’s Small Agency of the Year, the first time a non-U.S. agency had ever won overall top honours. Zulu was also awarded as Ad Age’s International Small Agency of the Year in 2017. Most recently, Zak was featured in the May and April issues of Forbes magazine after Zulu was recognized as one of North America’s best small companies and praised for challenging the business conventions of the industry.  Zak has both judged and been awarded at the One Show, D&AD, Cannes and Communication Arts.

USA
Catherine Patterson
Executive Director, Branded Entertainment and Experiences VMLY&R
ABOUT

Catherine Patterson

Catherine Patterson serves as Director, Branded Entertainment and Culture for VMLY&R North America, where she works with teams identifying, architecting and developing branded content platforms and experiences for clients at the crossroads of culture and technology.  Her work has received highest honors worldwide with multi-channel multi-year wins at the Cannes Festival of Creativity, One Show, D&AD, the Webby Awards, Fast Company Innovation and others. During her tenure at Y&R, Catherine trained creative and production units in strategic, integrated production, delivering multi-million-dollar programs for clients in CPG, DELL, Navy, not-for-profit and social good clients. She’s forged strategic partnerships with the New York International Children's Film Festival, the 92 Street Y, and is working on an initiative designed to reboot historical exploration with the Explorers Club and others.  Catherine is recognized as an industry leader in cultural experiences and was voted one of Adweek's top branded-content creators.

UAE
Tahaab Rais
Regional Head of Strategy Office & MENA Director -Truth Central, FP7/MCCANN MENA & President McCann Worldgroup MENA Strategic Community
ABOUT

Tahaab Rais

Born in August 1984, Tahaab's first word was "Astronaut". In February 1986, he skipped walking and started running. In November 1994, he watched a movie that changed his life: Forrest Gump. It taught him how to make an ordinary life, legendary. Just like Baby's Day Out. In August 1997, he met Mr. Adolescence through a myriad of regrettable haircuts (Spock, Elvis, Wolverine). In September 2002, he wrote poetry and hasn't stopped writing since. In June 2005, he learned to add a little Bollywood to his creative job; some drama in presentations, sharing a romance with ideas and using self-deprecating comedy to keep his spirits up.

Since 2012, he leads the strategy office for FP7 (A part of McCann Worldgroup) across MENA, focusing on creative marketing, brand and connections strategy. He's the MENA Director for Truth Central – an intelligence platform and also manages creative excellence across MENA.

Tahaab has been ranked the #1 Strategy Head in the world by the Big Won Rankings in 2016, and is the most awarded strategist in MENA having won over 300 awards across Effies, Warc, Dubai Lynx, Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, D&AD, One Show, Clios, The International ANDYs and Crestas, among others. He has also helped the agency drive efforts that led to FP7 being ranked the Most Effective Agency in the World at the Global Effie Index, as well winning Agency and Network of the Year four years running, from 2013 to 2016. He has judged at the Effies and at Midas Awards, previously too.

GERMANY
Alexander Schill
Global CCO & Partner Serviceplan Group
ABOUT

Alexander Schill

Alex Schill was born with a Canadian passport and studied at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. In 1994 he started his career at Germanys former hot shop agency No.1 Springer & Jacoby as junior copywriter and was asked in 2003 to lead the agency as Chief Creative Officer. In 2006, Alex left Springer & Jacoby to become Associate Partner and Member of the Board at Serviceplan Group. 
Since 2008 he is Chief Creative Officer of the entire agency group worldwide. He is presently in charge of more than 24 agency locations and 4.200 employees globally.
In just five years Alex Schill brought Serviceplan to the front row in national and international creative rankings. In 2016 the agency ended up No.1 in the German Creative Ranking (Horizont), No.1 in the Digital Ranking (BVDW), No.1 in the Media Ranking (Recma), No. 1 in the Design Ranking (Red Dot) and No. 1 in the Efficiency Ranking (w&v). 
In recent years Alex has won more than 75 Cannes Lions, including two Grands Prix in 2012 and 2013 and is a regular speaker on the international creative awards circuit. He has given keynote speeches at Cannes, Eurobest, Dubai Lynx and the Loerie Awards and also been Jury president at Cannes Lions, CLIO, Eurobest, LIA and at the D&AD.

Alex is a proud Father of 3 beautiful children and collector of historic motorcycles that he races on events all around the world.

Sri Lanka
Ruchi Sharma
Founder & Chief Creative Officer HumanSense
ABOUT

Ruchi Sharma

Ruchi Sharma is the Founder & Chief Creative Officer for HumanSense, Sri Lanka. Previously she served as CCO, Chief Creative & Culture officer, of Brands For Humans, which is a digital, integrated independent shop in Bangkok, Thailand. It’s a unique role that has a dual focus on Creativity and Culture.

Ruchi’s career spans more than two decades, working in New York, the Americas, Bangkok, South East Asia, Mumbai and Sri Lanka.

She has won several international, regional and local awards in creativity and effectiveness, proving that her work resonates equally on both scales.

Ruchi has served on many international juries. She is a frequent speaker at industry events, mentoring and encouraging the young talent of the industry, especially the women, to tap into their tremendous potential.

She is a staunch supporter of inclusion, diversity and equality. She co-created the first digital global campaign on Human Rights for the UNHRC and volunteers as a Personal Growth Officer with Women Empowered Global.

When she isn’t juggling her many hats, Ruchi is playing devoted mom to her five-year-old son. This is the job she enjoys the most. 

 

 

Germany
Doerte Spengler-Ahrens
Non-Executive Creative Chairwoman Jung von Matt/SAGA
ABOUT

Doerte Spengler-Ahrens

Dörte Spengler-Ahrens, previoulsy CCO is now Non-Executive Creative Chairwoman at Jung von Matt/SAGA. In her new position, Dörte will focus on group-wide tasks and consult her long-standing clients. She will use her newfound freedom to contribute to the continuous development of the JvM Group's creative product. Together with JvM CCO's she will promote creative innovation throughout the JvM Group, champion gender equality, seek out creative talent within and outside JvM and take on mentorship roles for the next generation

Dörte studied Visual Communications and started her career as an Art Director before switching to copywriting.

After working in several agencies, she went to work at Jung von Matt where she became a Creative Director after only three years. 

In 2000, she founded her own company MARIA.

Dörte returned 2002 to Jung von Matt to set the agency JvM/Spree in Berlin with two partners and became a partner and share holder.  

After that, she launched the first international branch called Jung von Matt/9 and several other Jung von Matt companies (JvM/Pulse, JvM/Fleet, JvM/Elbe) working for all big JvM clients including BMW, BVG, Mercedes-Benz, NETTO, NIVEA, Sixt, Zalando, etc.

In November 2016, she founded Jung von Matt/SAGA -which stands for Spengler-Ahrens-Giest-Agency- with Managing Partner Stephan Giest. 

Dörte is one of the most awarded German creatives, long term Committee Chairwoman and now Vicepresident of the Art Director’s Club (ADC), curator of the ADC Festival and Congress Hamburg, Advisory Board Member of the D&AD and New York Festival, as well as a juror in all the communication industry’s most important international award juries every year (LIA, Clio, One Show, Cannes, ADC*E).               

She was awarded Germany’s Agency Head of the Year 2018, served 2019 besides other juries as Chairwoman and Jury President of the ADC*E Festival.

Doerte has won over 600 awards in her carrier including several Grand Prixs.

She loves her work, only more she loves her husband Tobias Ahrens, her son Bela and the family dog Tyson. She also loves to travel and to meet people – preferably, all at the same time.

USA
Pratik Thakar
Head of Generative AI / Marketing Transformation Office Coca Cola
ABOUT

Pratik Thakar

Pratik Thakar is Head of Generative AI / Marketing Transformation Office at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta Georgia. 

He held leadership roles in many global ad agencies before joining Coke. His 18 years of industry experience covers stints in India, Southeast Asia and Greater China for Grey Group, McCann Worldgroup, Saatchi & Saatchi, DDB and Lowe.

A strong advocate of creative technology and collaborative innovation, he founded Grey Innovation lab as chief strategy and innovation officer for Grey Group Greater China. Before joining Grey, he was the chief strategy and innovation catalyst at McCann Worldgroup, where he was highly regarded for his integrated creative strategies and disruptive ideas in design, branded content and digital technology-led innovation on brands such as Puma, L’Oréal Group, MasterCard, Nestlé, Intel and Coca-Cola.

He has also served in advisory roles for start-up accelerators throughout Asia Pacific, getting the front row seat to the most cutting-edge technology and innovations of tomorrow. This combination of veteran brand strategy, multi-regional experience, and ahead-of-the-curve innovation places him as a leading voice for creative technology and 10X approach of building high-tech start-ups.