2017 Jury

Jason Chaney
Chief Strategy Officer
Cossette Communication Inc.

As a strategist, Jay prides himself on guiding brands and people to look at the world through a completely different lens. He pushes those around him to challenge assumptions and break existing models in an effort to deliver new, consumer-centric experiences always with the goal of over-delivering on business results. This focus is evident in his work on SickKids VS, HoneyNut Cheerios Bring Back the Bees, and McDonald's Our Food Your Questions, to name a few.

With over 20 years in the industry, Jay has developed and currently runs one of the most diverse and recognized strategy teams in the country. He prides himself on identifying and developing unique talent and giving them the run way to develop great work in new and interesting ways for clients and Cossette alike.

Mark Childs
Chief Marketing Officer
Samsung Canada

An inspiring Marketer with a passion for breakthrough innovation and business growth, Mark has a proven track record of building vital brands that resonate with consumers most recently contributing to the Samsung brand being ranked in the top 10 most reputable brand in Canada, based on a study by Leger.

As Samsung Electronic Canada Inc.’s Chief Marketing Officer, Mark leads the organization’s strategic brand and marketing initiatives, overseeing Brand Marketing Communications, Online/Social Media teams, Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Prior to joining Samsung, Mark was Vice-President of Marketing at Campbell Company of Canada. His strategic leadership and insight led to Campbell business vitality, a CSR refreshed unique brand identity, and a highly engaged team.

Recognized as an inspirational team leader, Mark actively cultivates marketing talent and ‘best practice’ within the industry. In addition to his passionate support of AToMiC, he champions the Canada Young Lions Marketers initiative and has mentored 3 teams to return with Cannes Lions Bronze Awards in the past 5 years. He has contributed professionally to the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), the Advertising Standards Canada (ASC) Children’s Advertising Commitment committee, Enactus Canada and was Creative Chair at Concerned Children's Advertisers.

A role model in the LGBTA community, Mark pioneered the launch of PFLAG Canada’s 2012 awareness campaign while volunteering for the organization, winning a Cannes Lion award.

Originally from the U.K., Mark attended Groupe ESC Business School in Reims, France, following his studies at Queen Mary’s College in England. He is passionate about yoga, movies, technology and food.

Ann Stewart
CEO
Wavemaker

Ann is CEO of Maxus Canada, Canada’s fastest growing media agency, for 3yrs running, which she launched in 2012 for GroupM. Maxus represents some of Canada’s strongest brands and Ann has built it to an agency of 80 people with offices in Toronto and Montreal.

Ann is known as an innovative and engaged leader with 25 years of diverse media experience ranging from operations, strategic planning, buying and even selling of media.

She has been in the GroupM family for over 10 years previously running Excelerator Media, as GM Managing Director. Before GroupM Ann was a partner in the Brainstorm Group, a full service communication agency, and previously spent 4 years selling OOH advertising.

Ann is a graduate of Humber College in Marketing, a graduate of the 4 year CAPP program and she serves on the board of the Canadian Media Directors Council and in 2016 was selected as a Cannes media judge.

Tahir Ahmad
Vice President, Group Planning Director
Leo Burnett Company Ltd

Tahir manages the largest and most awarded planning department in the country. Having personally won strategy effectiveness awards at some of the industry’s biggest shows (Effie’s, Ogilvy’s) and ranked in Strategy’s Top 20 Planners in Canada, Tahir brings strategic and brand building leadership to clients across many categories.

Tahir first started out at Digital boutique agencies and spent the first half of his career building digital brands and integrated consumer experiences for some of the biggest brands in Canada including Nike, Molson and Toyota. Twice Tahir was a key member of two agencies awarded Digital Agency of the Year. The transition into strategic planning afforded Tahir the opportunity to lead brand strategy on brands such as Coors Light and Purolator Canada.

During Tahir’s 5 years at Leo he has continued to add to his depth of experience by leading consumer experience on P&G North America (Gain & Bounce) and for the past 1.5 years brand planning on IKEA and GM Canada.

Emily Bain
Partner & Strategic Planning Director
john st.

Emily has spent her career in advertising – both as an account person and strategic planner. At john st., she leads a renowned team of brand, digital and experiential planners who bring creativity and rigor to clients’ brands and communications. Clients value Emily’s passion for bringing a sharper understanding of their consumers’ attitudes and behaviours – and innovation to their business. She also loves (in no particular order) the colour orange, everything Scottish and her dog Charlie, who is not nearly as feisty as Emily.

Matt Ball
Strategic Planning Director
JWT

Matt is a Strategic Planning Director at J. Walter Thompson. Currently he leads strategy on the Mazda Canada and Shell businesses. Prior to JWT, Matt has worked in planning roles at BBDO and Union. His experience spans across multiple categories including CPG, alcohol, automotive, banking and retail. Matt prides himself on crafting strategies based on the potency of the solution, regardless of the channel.

Zeb Barrett
VP, Planning
Huge Inc.

Zeb has recently joined Huge as VP of Planning. Prior to Huge Zeb worked alongside some of Canada’s best and brightest at Havas, Rethink, Anomaly, Leo Burnett and john st. During his time at these creative shops, Zeb helped reinvent businesses in nearly every category, including packaged goods, professional sports, alcohol, financial services, pharmaceutical, retail and automotive. Some of his most notable clients have included Kraft, Kellogg’s, Proctor and Gamble, Toronto Football Club, Molson Coors, Anheuser-Busch InBev, AstraZeneca, Invesco Trimark and Mini.

Zeb holds bachelor degrees in history and philosophy from Queen’s University, and a Masters in War Studies from The Royal Military College of Canada.

Kristin Burnham
Head of Planning
Doug & Partners

Kristin is the Head of Planning at doug&partners, an award-winning, independent agency dedicated to creativity for commerce. Over the course of her career, Kristin has had the opportunity to experience the industry from a variety of perspectives: as an account leader in New York, a client at Bell Mobility and as a strategist at some of the best creative agencies in Canada. She’s learned the importance of truly, deeply understanding not only consumers, but also her clients’ businesses and how to foster collaboration and inspire creativity to help solve their business issues. Her clients have included both global and domestic brands such as Virgin Mobile, Capital One Financial, Audi, Miele, BMO Financial, GoodLife Fitness, Johnson & Johnson and General Mills. 

Andrew Carty
Co-Founder/Partner, Strategy
send+receive

Andrew Carty is the co-founder and Partner, Strategy at send+receive; a new full-service agency built to reflect today’s client operational realities and marketing challenges. As the agency’s strategy lead, he works with his team to create the most compelling messages for his clients’ products and services, while integrating them in culture. He also currently sits on the board of the Account Planning Group of Canada.

Prior to send+receive, Andrew was an account lead and planner at agencies like TM in the US, and Lowe Roche, CP+B, Union, and Grey in Canada. He loves the strategic challenges of the Canadian market; whether that’s applying global brand thinking in a local context, or unlocking a Canadian brand’s potential in the most culturally and regionally diverse country in the world.

Andrew graduated with an advertising degree from SMU in Dallas, Texas, where he developed his passion for both influencing consumers and smoking meat.

Catherine Darius
VP Strategy
LG2

Catherine loves new adventures and is fueled by curiosity, which is why she left France for Quebec in 1997. It’s also why she has led a number of careers both here and in France for agencies and clients in such fields as strategic planning, general management, account management, consulting, management of in-house and external communications—even art direction in the beginning.

Her strategic agility comes from her diverse experience. It helps her take up a range of challenges in corporate, social, cultural, economic, tourism, charitable, and retail communications. Catherine handles brand, design or advertising issues with great creative sensitivity—regardless of their scale and in sometimes complicated settings where decision-makers and partners have to be persuaded.

Since 2013, her role as the vice president of strategy at lg2 has showcased her ability to clear the way for outstanding creative and media solutions.

Lori Davison
VP Brand Strategy & Communications
Sick Kids Foundation

Lori Davison joined SickKids Foundation in 2014. As Vice President, Brand Strategy & Communications, Lori leads the strategic vision for SickKids brand communications. Under Lori’s leadership, the Foundation’s in-house team of marketers, content specialists and public relations practitioners develop and execute integrated marketing and communications programs to build brand equity, raise awareness of SickKids’ global leadership and reinforce the need for donor dollars.

Prior to joining SickKids, Lori had roles on the senior management teams of leading advertising agencies such as Leo Burnett and BBDO, where she led brand strategy on several Government of Ontario assignments as well as for some of Canada’s biggest blue chip brands including RBC and TD Bank.

Lori holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Sociology from the University of Western Ontario.

Lori is an avid runner, reader, gardener and supporter of child and youth participation in sport. Lori is an active Volunteer Official for Swim Canada.

Brian Kerr
CMO
Kraft Heinz Company

Brian Kerr has worked at Kraft Heinz Canada for 18 years and is currently the Chief Marketing Officer. His past positions at Kraft Heinz Canada include Marketing, Sales, Strategy and Finance. Before working at Kraft Heinz Canada, Brian started his career as a Chartered Accountant.

When Brian is not working, he is an avid triathloner, loves watching his girls do gymnastics, and sings in a rock cover band.

Andre Louis
Head of Strategy
The & Partnership

From Lego moon bases to model Spitfires, André’s early love of building things has happily translated to a career in advertising building teams, brands and businesses around the world.

As a relentless problem solver André thrives on the diversity of challenges faced by modern marketers and at The&Partnership he has the privilege of leading a diverse team of strategic minds who think very differently about how to tackle them.

People in advertising love to talk about the awards they have won, and André is no different – to this day he is still fiercely proud of the Bert Sutcliffe Cup for Most Improved Junior Cricketer that he won at some point in the late 1980’s.

Karen Nayler
CEO
MindShare Canada

In 2000, Karen launched Mindshare into the Canadian market. Over the past 17 years she has successfully lead the strong and vibrant company to become one of Canada’s largest and most well respected media agencies.

In her position as CEO, Karen is responsible for all of the Canadian divisions and is a member of the North American Mindshare Management Team, the global Executive, as well as the GroupM Exco.

An active participant in industry initiatives, Karen has held executive committee positions on BBM, COMB, Nadbank, NABS, PMB, as President of the CMDC and selected to be Canada’s Media Judge for the Cannes Lions in June 2013 and the Global Festival of Media in 2014.

Never one to sit still, Karen and her family are active travelers and love spending time at the cottage just north of Toronto.

Penny Norman
Planning Director
Pound & Grain Digital Inc.

Penny is Planning Director at Pound & Grain, a digital creative agency with offices in Vancouver and Toronto. She specializes in creating digital spaces and campaigns that engage people emotionally whilst driving business results. She has fun working with the agency's clients including TELUS, SAP, BCLC, Arc'Teryx, The CFL, Weight Watchers and the YWCA on projects as diverse as digital brand strategy through to VR storytelling.

Penny started her career at the Publicis London on their graduate scheme, before moving to AMV BBDO to work on clients such as The Royal Mail, Aviva, P&G and EDF Energy. A career highlight was to pitch and win the UK’s NHS Organ Donation mandate where, working with the head of planning, the subsequent campaign went on to win both an APG and IPA effectiveness award. Penny then moved to Canada where she worked at Dare Digital on their telco, financial and charity clients. It was there that she met the founders of Pound & Grain who convinced her to join them and build out their strategy offering.

This year Penny became an Executive Board Member of APG Canada and is passionate about promoting great brand strategy across Canada and digital communications. In her spare time, she can be found outside exploring BC with her family and avoiding bears.

Alison Simpson
Senior VP, Marketing and Branding
TMX Group

TMX Group is a leading Canadian-based technology driven solutions provider for the global financial markets. In her role of SVP Marketing & Branding, Alison is responsible for all aspects of the branding, marketing and communications across the twelve businesses that are part of this group (including the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Ventures Exchange and Montreal Exchange).

Alison is renowned for delivering significant business results through her strong leadership, marketing acumen, and strategic and innovative approach to building brands. She is an experienced business and marketing strategist who has held leadership positions at tier one Canadian companies (Holt Renfrew, Rogers Communications and TMX Group), and multinational and entrepreneurial agencies (BBDO, JWT, Bond Brand Loyalty). Alison is one of the few marketers in Canada with expertise in marketing communications, digital, brand, loyalty and customer experience, which positions her very well to deliver on the quickly evolving market realities.

In her “life beyond work”, Alison is an avid traveler, marathoner and adventurer. She’s completed 51 marathons and ultras, including winning her age group in a 250km Race Across the Sahara Desert and helping to raise $100,000 for the National Advertising Benevolence Society (NABS). Alison also climbed Mt Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Alzheimer Society. Alison is on the Board for the CNIB Foundation and the Advisory Board for the Masters of Management Analytics program at Smith School of Business (Queens University). She is also active in her professional community through her work with the CMA, and having held Board roles with the Institute of Communications Agencies and NABS.

Ian Westworth
VP Planning & Innovation
Grey

Ian Westworth is the VP, Planning and Innovation at GREY Canada, leading strategic planning across all of GREY’s agency’s clients, its research practice, data team and core planning group. Regardless of the strategic challenge at hand, Ian’s approach is to ensure the solution is simple, focused and meaningful to all those the brand aims to connect with.

Over the course of his 19-year career, he has honed his craft working at world-class advertising agencies that include Leo Burnett, BBH New York and JWT, bringing his expertise to many leading global brands, including Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Honda, Nintendo, Diageo, Labatt’s, Walmart, Johnson & Johnson and Nestlé. In addition to his time in advertising, he spent three years in the research industry as a strategist, moderator and workshop facilitator.