2022 Jury

Andrea Danovitch
AVP, Marketing and Brand
Interac

Andrea Danovitch is Associate Vice President, Marketing and Brand with Interac Corp., one of the most trusted financial brands in Canada.

Andrea is a seasoned marketing professional with a combined experience in financial services and payments.  She also has extensive knowledge and experience in brand strategy and identity.

Andrea has been a driving force behind the evolution of the Interac brand.  While Interac services have been an integral part of Canadian consumers’ and business’ daily lives, there was an imperative to improve brand awareness, relevance and motivation in a time of significant change in the payments landscape.  During her time at this organization Andrea relaunched the Interac brand, notably with the award-winning Be In The Black platform, recognized for its sustained success and brand building efforts. 

She has continued to evolve the platform to guide the company’s stakeholders towards new technology-based payments and related solutions, most recently with the launch of the InLife brand platform and marketing campaigns.

Andrea is a Strategy Marketer of the Year alumni.

Helen Galanis
CEO
Initiative

As CEO of Initiative, Helen leads a growing Canadian team in a relentless pursuit of excellence.

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 and WARC’s Top 50 Most Effective Media Agencies in the World. She was also awarded Strategy’s 2019 Media Leader of the Year.

Urania Agas
CEO
MediaCom

As CEO of MediaCom Canada, Urania Agas’ focus includes leading the agency’s strategic growth; developing its product and innovation offerings; and, most importantly, fostering a culture of inclusivity across its teams. With 20+ years of industry experience, and over a decade in progressively senior roles with MediaCom, she has led a host of notable local and global businesses, across numerous sectors – including, travel, finance, CPG, and retail, amongst others. As an industry thought leader, Urania is passionate about emphasising the importance of compassionate management and has a particular interest in initiatives focused on furthering the next generation of women in leadership.

Isabelle Baillargeon
VP Strategy
OMD and Hearts & Science Montreal

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 OMD + Hearts & Science Montreal offices 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 Media Innovation Awards, Festival of Media and the Young Media Lions. She has also taken courses from La Factry, the School of Creativity Sciences, where she enhanced her creative leadership skills.

Derek Bhopalsingh
EVP, Platform Media
Publicis Media

Derek Bhopalsingh is a leader in the Canadian digital marketing landscape. He calls Publicis Media Canada home, overseeing programmatic, search, social and eCommerce as EVP of Platform Media for the holding company.  With almost two decades of experience, Derek knows how to build high performing teams and how to drive excellent business outcomes for his clients. 

He is also known for his work through the IAB, representing the Canadian agency community as a member of the board of directors.   He participates regularly in mentorship initiatives and is a regular speaker at industry events.

Previously, Derek has held senior roles in both agencies and holding companies - focusing on elevating digital, data and analytics.  He is a product of both York University and Georgian College.

Sarah Crabbe
President
Agnostic

Known for her natural leadership style, award winning brand building approach and ability to develop work that works, for clients across Canada, Sarah Crabbe has over 18 years’ experience in providing senior strategic counsel to a large number of global brands.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Sarah has provided counsel for some of North America’s leading brands and has led agency teams to Strategy Agency of the Year top 3 placements in consecutive years.

Prior to leading the team at Agnostic, Sarah has held partnership roles in global and local agencies in Toronto, London, and Ireland.

Sarah is passionate about delivering creativity in each engagement and believes agencies only do brave work when they have truly brave clients.

An Irish native, Sarah has lived all over the world, including New York and Jamaica and currently lives in Toronto with husband Rob and their two children.

Douglas Fry
Head of Canada
Subway

Doug Fry is the husband of his amazing wife Julie and Dad of two fantastic young kids, Harrison and Avery.

Doug’s also a strategic Corporate Executive Leader with a solid record of achievements in building & elevating brands in the Consumer-Packaged Goods & Restaurant industries for over 20 years. He has a background in Strategy and Planning, Customer Experience & Hospitality, Sales, Marketing, Restaurant and Corporate Operations, Supply Chain and Change Management. 

Fry’s career began in Vancouver with Kraft Foods, where he blended his fine-dining culinary training with his restaurant operations experience at The Keg Steakhouse + Bar to engage with restaurant operators for Kraft. Quickly ascending Kraft's sales organization, he was promoted to their head office to design a training department and curriculum. He also spent almost a year in Kraft’s Business Finance team before joining Kraft’s Marketing team, in category management, including product design, production, distribution and marketing. 

The next stop was Supply Chain with the Canadian restaurant giant, Cara (now Recipe), transforming the silos of individual brands' purchasing into one streamlined strategic sourcing function with stronger vendor partnerships and innovative menu solutions.  These strategic efforts resulted in significant financial and quality metrics growth for those restaurant brands. Doug completed his journey with Cara as Vice President of Milestone’s, Kelsey’s & Montana’s brands.

In 2012 he was recruited by McDonald’s as a Strategy & Operations Executive. He was the architect of the guest-centric corporate culture & business strategy for McDonald’s Canada that became the global standard for the brand, launching a myriad of initiatives that yielded record results. He was later elevated to the head of Canadian Operations, leading eight departments from Operations Design to Guest Experience Strategy to Field Deployment and Restaurant Technology and Equipment.

Finally, in the fall of 2021, Fry left McDonald’s to take on the leadership of Subway Canada.  As the head of the Canadian organization, he leads the company from vision and strategy to execution.  He is strategically guiding this brand in its’ most extensive turnaround plan in the company’s history, including new menu changes, refreshed marketing strategies, physical plant remodels, digital innovation, and guest experience enhancements.

Stephen Kiely
CEO
Dentsu Canada

A leader with over 18 years of experience developing global marketing strategies and creating innovative brand and content marketing communications. Combines creativity and knowledge to craft campaigns that align to business objectives that drive measurable impact. Known for an ability to connect people & ideas – engaging leadership and encouraging local/international collaboration. Proven track record with some of the world’s top B2C and B2B brands, including Toyota, Lexus, Canon, Tata Consultancy Services, Uniqlo, Subway, American Express, National Post and The Bochner Eye Institute to name just a few.

Catherine Laporte
VP, Marketing
Lowe's

Catherine Laporte is a marketing and e-commerce expert who is known for her leadership, creativity, and business acumen. She joined Lowe’s Canada in 2018. As Divisional Vice-President, E-Commerce. Promoted Vice-President, Marketing in November 2019, she is responsible for promoting and raising awareness about the Lowe’s, RONA and Reno-Depot banners on both the digital and traditional marketing scenes.

Catherine first made her mark at the ALDO Group where she was responsible for launching the Little Burgundy and Locale brands and was involved in developing the Call It Spring brand in North America and internationally. Before joining Lowe’s Canada, she was Vice-President, Marketing & E-Commerce at DAVIDsTEA and worked to create a customer-focused centre of excellence. While doing so, she transformed the customer experience by redesigning the website and loyalty program.

Catherine is a graduate of the John Molson School of Business and is actively involved in the Montreal community as a board member of the Fondation les Petits Trésors and as a Guide for Zu Montreal.

Brooke Leland
Partner
Jungle Media

Brooke started her media career with Cossette Media over 20 years ago working her way up from Assistant Media Planner to GM Toronto, Vancouver, a position she has held since 2016.  

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 for 20+ years, 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 was named to 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.

Sub Nijjar
CMO
Shiftsmart

As an experienced marketing leader and North American agency executive, Subtej brings his innovative, forward-looking vision to help unleash the power of creativity and turn it into business success.

He is currently the CMO of Coinberry, an innovative digital currency trading platform that is building a more inclusive blockchain-based economy and digital financial institution of the future.

Prior to joining Coinberry, Subtej was the North American President of Mosaic, one of the largest North American integrated marketing agencies. In that role he played a key role in agency leadership, operations, and new business development. His hiring ushered in a new era for the agency, in which it was able to further integrate its business, providing end-to-end B2B and B2C marketing solutions for clients. Previously, Sub was the founder and president of UNION a modern integrated creative focused agency designed to help brands create lasting unions with their consumers.

Subtej has been celebrated as an industry visionary from the beginning of his career. He was recognized as one of Marketing Magazine’s “Ones to Watch,” celebrating Canada’s brightest minds under the age of 30.  Since then, he has been known for his unparalleled track record as one of Canada’s leading strategic minds, leading teams across the US and Canada for the past 20+ years helping to drive innovation and creative strategies on some of the world’s most recognizable brands. His career has spanned both agency and brand side, having worked at global agencies like CP+B and Ogilvy, as well as Microsoft.

Throughout his career, Sub has helped his agencies win over 175 creative awards and honours, including multiple Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils and a Grand Effie. He has also served as a judge for Effie Canada, the Marketing Awards, and Media Innovation Awards.

Caroline Breton
SVP, Chief Client Officer
Carat Canada

Caroline is an industry veteran with over 20 years’ experience. She started her career in Montreal before permanently settling in Toronto where she has held senior roles at IPG & Publicis. In 2014, Caroline joined Mindshare to lead the Unilever team, winning multiple industry awards. In early 2020, she was appointed SVP, Managing Director across Mindshare and GTB with the mandate of facilitating the integration of the Ford teams across Mindshare, GroupM and GTB. She then joined Carat in June 2021 as SVP, Chief Client Officer.

Erica Cheah
EVP, Media
Saatchi & Saatchi

Erica may be rooted in media with over 19 years of experience, but she prides herself in being a creative storyteller that believes in solid data to back up her honed intuition. She believes in pushing forward the idea of what a media professional is capable of and strives to develop the best media teams in Canada. She is not only passionate about the integrated process to great campaigns, but also the technology changes that have moved the advertising industry forward through her career. 

Erica is a true automotive fan, through and through, with 15+ years of experience on multiple national and dealer brands. Additional experience on technology and telecommunications clients has allowed her to extend her knowledge base with consumers experiences in a variety of industries. 

Over her career, Erica has developed and executed insight-driven communication plans that work hand in hand with solid strategy and award winning creative. She is excited to part of the amazing legacy of Saatchi & Saatchi to continue this high level work on behalf of our clients.

Tara Chetkowski
Director of Marketing & Fan Development
NFL Canada

Marilyn Cresswell
Program Coordinator & Professor
Humber College

Over her extensive professional career in marketing and education Marilyn has championed many experiential projects combining students with real industry challenges. Marilyn is a recognized expert in strategic branding, marketing, & advertising in the ever-changing digital landscape.  

Prof. Cresswell has also worked on harm reduction messaging/programs through the Ontario Chiefs of Police initiative on a fentanyl campaign as well as many NFP campaigns through the Humber AdCentre.

Prior to joining Humber, Marilyn was a Director of Product Management in the software industry driving Corporate Marketing and Communications.  In her own consulting company, she worked to strategize and launch new products and ideas.  Key customers in her career included financial services, software, and consumer products companies such as Microsoft, DuPont, Great West Life, Manulife, and MetLife. 

In addition to a degree in Economics, Marilyn holds a postgraduate diploma in management studies, as well as an MBA from McMaster, and a certificate for the NFP Governance Program Governance, Rotman School of Management.

Marilyn is a mentor (AMA recognized), and award winner of the prestigious Innovation Award at Humber, is a Distinguished Professor and most recently is a recipient of the 2022 President’s Awards for the Research Excellence Award (team award). She continues to give back to the community by volunteering and has served as is the Chair and Past Chair of AVWS, an Ontario wildlife sanctuary for 6 years, as well she is a strong supporter of Radius Child.  

Marilyn has been a judge for the industry for the Effie’s, the Cassies, the CFA awards, the MIA’s and always enjoys the networking and debate with her peers.

Anne De Aragon
VP & Country Manager
GoDaddy

Anne De Aragon is the Vice President and Country Manager for GoDaddy Canada, the company that empowers everyday entrepreneurs. In this role, she is responsible for all GoDaddy operations in Canada, leading the charge on business strategy and growth.

Throughout her tenure at GoDaddy, she has worked closely with Canadian small businesses to understand their needs to help them reap the benefits of having an online presence. Anne has also been a driving force behind GoDaddy’s partnership with the Toronto Raptors resulting in some of the most successful branding campaigns in the company’s history. This past year, she spearheaded the “Don’t Stop Being Unstoppable” campaign, highlighting real Canadian small business owners and Olympian Andre De Grasse.

Prior to joining GoDaddy, Anne held a range of senior marketing and sales roles at Microsoft, where she worked directly with small and mid-sized businesses to drive revenue. Anne is now dedicated to helping other young professionals and women entrepreneurs discover their passions through regular speaking engagements and mentorship opportunities.

Mo Dezyanian
President
Empathy Inc.

Mo Dezyanian is the president of Empathy Inc., a media agency working with brands that need to be culturally relevant. During his career, he’s helped various ad agencies establish profitable media and digital operations while building an impressive brand portfolio that includes Canadian Tire, Popeyes, Bosch, Mattel, Liberal Party of Canada and many more. 

As the kid who skipped cartoons to watch the commercials, his passion for the industry runs deep. That is why he is building the next iteration of a media agency. He is also currently inspiring the next generation of media planners and buyers as the lead developer for the CMA’s Chartered Marketer Media Elective. He is frequently called upon as an expert for commentary on consumer trends by the Washington Post, the National, the Globe and Mail and many more.

Axel Dumont
President
Cossette

Peter Furnish
VP, Product & Marketing
Starbucks

Peter Furnish is part of the Canadian Leadership Team leading Starbucks Coffee Canada, serving as the vice-president, Product and Marketing His team supports over 1,500 stores and 23,000 partner across Canada. Prior to joining Starbucks in in 2016, Peter serviced as the Vice-President of Marketing & Loyalty at Cineplex Entertainment.  He favorite beverage is currently the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew, paired with Egg White & Roasted Pepper Sous Vide Egg Bites.

 He has over 25 years of experience in Marketing, Loyalty, and Communications, working on iconic brands such as Budweiser, Alexander Keiths,  Walt Disney Entertainment, and Virgin Mobile – where is was one of the founding members of the launch team. He has also served on the board of the Canadian Marketing Association, and is a graduate of The Richard Ivey School of Business.

Armin Huska
Head of Media & Agency Management
RBC

As Head of Media, Armin oversees the strategy & channel-investment of Royal Bank of Canada’s media-efforts since 2019, whilst also leading the relationships with key media- & agency-partners of the bank.

He has been engaged in media & marketing across the globe for most of his career and worked with or for some of the world’s greatest brands, agencies and media-publishers; transforming their approach to marketing-/channel-strategies, digital transformation, media-analytics, ad- tech and more. He is a trusted advisor to marketing-executives, international media & publishing companies, legislators/regulators, investors and the wider advertising-community.

A former helicopter-paramedic in Germany who has spent most of his marketing-years in London/UK, Armin now calls Canada home and enjoys life with his partner & their dog at Toronto’s Harbourfront.

Fatima Israel
Chief Marketing Officer
EY Canada

Fatima is EY Canada’s Chief Marketing Officer and a member of the Canadian Leadership Team. Grounded in a business-to-human approach, Fatima is an advocate for putting people at the heart of transformation to drive innovation, catalyze progress and deliver on purpose. Marketing is more than just a passion of hers — it’s a true calling.

Leading all brand, marketing and communications functions, Fatima is transforming the end-to-end customer journey through digital acceleration, thought-provoking omnichannel programs and creative brand narratives. She boldly blends ambitious ideas with insights to show how we’re building a better working world for our people, our clients and our communities.

Bringing 20 years of experience, Fatima combines her deep industry expertise in telecommunications, technology, health services and fintech, with a strategic and data-driven lens to deliver business outcomes.

Passionate about leadership and advancing the marketing community, Fatima has been recognized in The Globe and Mail Report on Business Magazine’s Best Executives list in 2022, is an executive mentor and advisory council member for the American Marketing Association, and a regular judge for marketing industry award programs. In 2021, Fatima also led her team to a Gold Canadian Marketing Association Award for the firm’s Women. Fast forward campaign.

She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University.

David Jowett
Partner
Epitaph Group

David has more than 25 years of global media experience and a reputation for bringing business value to his clients and their brands.

Most recently, he has been a partner at some of the fastest growing independent agencies in North America, including Epitaph Group, No Fixed Address and Plus Company (Cossette). Prior to that, in the UK, he was President of Global Clients for Dentsuand Managing Director at MediaCom UK. 

He has worked on a vast portfolio of leading global brands including such names as Adidas, Volkswagen Audi, Nokia, Philips, GE, Royal Bank of Scotland, GlaxoSmithKline and Walmart, and passionately believes that in an increasingly complex world, simplicity, combined with custom-built business solutions, represents a powerful proposition for clients and their brands.

Sabrina LaRosa
Director of Media
Loblaw

Sabrina is the Director of media and leads the internal media for Loblaw Companies Ltd.   She has been there for 10 years taking and building and bringing the in house media model to life and supporting the #1 brands in Canada. She is supporting a cross measurement model internally and seeing how she can help influence change in Canada to prove out the spends in media. 

Sabrina has over 20 years of media strategy and planning experience.  She previously was at FCB Media and Mediaedge before coming to Loblaws.  

Elizabeth Lem
VP & Managing Director
Havas Media

Elizabeth, most often called Liz, brings nearly 20 years of industry experience, working across some of Canada's top agencies, including Mediacom, OMD, m/SIX and Havas Media. Her foundation started in direct response and digital, as an early adopter of measurable media. Her performance foundation soon carried into a wider range of brands looking to ground their approach in data and numbers. Liz’s category experience ranges from Non-profit, B2B, Energy, Retail and CPG with brands such as Purolator, CIBC, SickKids Foundation, Petro Canada, Holt Renfrew and Keurig Dr Pepper.

As VP, Managing Director at Havas, Liz is a member of the Executive Leadership Team.  She leads the Client Experience practice, along with oversight of Mx Development, Havas Media's proprietary planning system and toolkit that drives meaningful brand experiences.  Liz prides herself on strong client relationships, team development, and bringing an ethical voice to the table, including a focus on equity and sustainability.

Sylvain Marcoux
Head of Marketing
Desjardins

Earlier this year, Sylvain joined Desjardins as the Director of Marketing communication, Donations, Sponsorships and Branding. In this role, he leads the advertising initiatives, creative & media transformation, as well as the brand evolution of Desjardins – the leading cooperative financial group in Canada.
Prior to this, he spent 15 years in the insurance industry managing the marketing communication teams of both Intact Insurance in Quebec, as well as belairdirect nationally. While at the helm, he was instrumental in executing the strategies that led the advertising transformations for these two organizations.
Last but not least, as an experienced marketing executive and passionate leader with 25+ years experience, he empowers others and promotes the advancement of the marketing and communication field.

Caroline Moul
President
PHD

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.

Ben Seaton
EVP Client Business
UM Canada

Delivering exceptional, strategic plans that achieve positive business outcomes, Ben Seaton brings big energy and passion to each and every client campaign. With 18 years of experience across all sides of the media landscape, Ben strives to create innovative, well-rounded solutions for clients’ biggest business challenges. He has a strong understanding of what it takes to engage in meaningful connections with consumers; connections which ultimately drive business growth and objectives. A dedicated leader, Ben guides his team through high pressure situations with ease, working hard to develop his team and taking pride in seeing them succeed.

Thomas Shadoff
Director of Media
Bensimon Byrne

Thomas is a media activist who believes in bringing positive change, transparency, and trust back to media services. He builds teams that are well known for mixing creativity with strong analytical skills to find clients unique solutions and opportunities. Over the past 16 years, he's built and evolved the media division at Bensimon Byrne into a full funnel, digital forward, award winning, and creatively integrated operation that delivers results that matter.

Ryan Webber
CEO
Wavemaker

Wes Wolch
SVP, Marketing
Holt Renfrew

A versatile marketing executive with 15+ years of brand and agency experience with some of the top companies in Canada and the US. Wes currently oversees the Marketing team at Holt Renfrew, delivering impactful campaigns featuring some of the top fashion brands and culture creators in the world.  He has previously worked in senior roles at Cossette Media, VICE and MEC.

Gah-Yee Won
Head of Media Innovation and Growth Marketing
Intuit Canada

Gah-Yee is currently serving as Head of Media Innovation and Growth Marketing, CG Canada at Intuit, working primarily on TurboTax. In her role, she leads brand advertising and advocacy. As part of this role, she oversees the creation of mass media marketing campaigns including creative development, full funnel paid media strategy, as well as campaign analytics and attribution. She also leads the team charged with managing the brand advocacy platform and oversees product ratings and reviews. 

Previous to Intuit, Gah-Yee was Director, Account Management, Agency Operations and Marketing Channel Strategy at Scotiabank where she oversaw their in-house creative agency account management team, agency relationship management, in-branch marketing strategy, Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), media partnerships and paid media strategy as well as completing an exhaustive creative AOR RFP. As part of her mandate, she also led Inclusion by Design, which sets out a framework for accurate representation in Scotiabank’s marketing. In her role, she led projects across Scotiabank’s global footprint, throughout Central America, South American, Canada and the English Caribbean.

Prior to Scotiabank, she was on the agency side at MediaCom Canada, as the Director of Digital Strategy, in charge of thought leadership and eplanner education. Previous to that, she served as Digital Account Director on P&G where she led digital execution for the agency’s largest client. Before joining MediaCom, she held the title of Director, Digital Activation at ZenithOptimedia Canada, where she established the digital buying group; handled agency-supplier negotiations, ad ops and lead major innovation projects. 

Gah-Yee sits on the IAB Canada Board of Directors and serves on the Executive Board as Secretary. Gah-Yee was named Ad Club Digital Planner/Buyer of the year in 2014 and nominated for Media Rising Star in 2011. She is a regular guest lecturer in marketing courses at Sheridan College and sits on the school’s Advertising Professional Advisory Committee (PAC).

Gah-Yee attended the University of Western Ontario and holds a BA Honours in Media, Information and Technoculture.