2015 Jury

Mark Childs
Chief Marketing Officer
Samsung Canada

An inspiring marketer whose strategic led breakthrough innovation and business growth internationally, Mark understands how to build vital brands that resonate with Canadian consumers.
As Samsung Electronic Canada Inc.’s first Chief Marketing Officer, Mark leads the organization’s strategic brand and marketing initiatives, overseeing the Brand Marketing, Retail Experience, Public Relations, Marketing Communications and Online/Social Media teams.
Prior to joining Samsung, Mark was Vice-President of Marketing at Campbell Company of Canada. His strategic leadership and insight led to Campbell category vitality, a CSR refreshed unique brand identity, and a highly engaged team. Known for his marketing foresight and passion, Mark contributed to the company’s Canadian Senior Leadership and Global Marketing Excellence team.
Recognized as an inspirational team leader, Mark actively cultivates marketing talent and ‘best practice’ within the industry. He champions the Canada Young Marketers initiative, mentoring the community and Cannes Lions teams to two consecutive bronze wins. He has consistently 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. He is currently Board Advisor to Out on Bay Street, an organization which provides resources and opportunities for students and young professionals.
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, kayaking, movies and food.

Gaye McDonald
Director of Content Marketing
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

As Director of Content Marketing for CBC’s Revenue Group, Gaye McDonald leads the creative business team responsible for creating opportunities to link advertiser brands with CBC’s programming brands – from Entertainment to News.  The award winning team acts as liaison between CBC Programming and Sales, and utilizes CBC’s unique Canadian content to drive revenue and business results for CBC and its customers through brand integration into content, custom content production and branded entertainment.

Between this current and an earlier tour of duty at CBC, Gaye helmed her own company Branded Entertainment Management and spent four years as Vice President of Shaw’s Marketing Ventures multi-asset integrated business unit.

Known as an early advocate and adopter of the business of Branded Content/Entertainment, Gaye is passionate about the industry and inspired by smart people working collaboratively to create highly effective ground breaking ideas.

Lauren Richards
Principal
Pollin8

Lauren is now fulfilling her entrepreneurial aspirations with the launch of her media consultancy Pollin8. At Pollin8 she specializes in connecting clients & agencies and buyers & sellers and any and all to innovative media thinking.

Her credentials in inspiring teams and creating fresh media approaches are considerable:

Led the Global Product Group for The Starcom MediaVest Group (the team responsible for determining and directing best global product for sharing, promoting and entering in international awards). Is the only Canadian media professional to judge The Cannes Lions twice and is a multiple Lion winner herself. Has started the two renown media innovation awards in Canada, with their respective publications - The Media Innovation Awards (2000) and The Atomic Awards (2011).

Has been named as an Internationalist Innovator of the Year (2009) and Media Director of the Year by Strategy Magazine.
Has judged and chaired The Internationalist’s global awards.

A proponent of a great challenge, Lauren enjoyed leading the Starcom MediaVest Group through a turnaround from 2006-2010. During this period revenue tripled, profitability quadrupled and SMG became Agency of the Year twice and narrowly missed a third time.
Prior to this period, Lauren spent eighteen years of her career at Cossette Media where she thrived in the entrepreneurial environment and helped lead the company through tremendous growth and great media awards success becoming the only top ranked media independent in the GUNN Report of Creativity.

Stephane Berube
Chief Marketing Officer
L'Oreal Canada Inc.

Stéphane Bérubé has close to 20 years of experience in the beauty industry.

After graduating from the Université Laval in Quebec in 1996 with a Business degree, he started his career in Toronto as an Assistant Brand Manager for an international cosmetics and consumer goods company.

In 2002, he joined L’Oréal Canada as a Marketing Director for the Maybelline New York brand, where he contributed to the success of the brand’s partnership with Star Académie, which garnered the team the “Marketer of the Year” award in 2003. He then moved on to become Brand
Director of the L’Oréal Paris brand in 2005 and became General Manager two years later. Amongst various successes, he initiated the brand’s successful partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In 2013, Stéphane Bérubé was named General Manager of Media and Innovation for L’Oréal Canada. In this role, he oversaw L'Oréal Canada's media investments and negotiations, as well as large?scale corporate sponsorships. In April 2014, he was appointed Chief Marketing Officer and is now in charge of creating a pool of knowledge, activities, and development and expertise around five major axes: Consumer Care Centre, Consumer Insights, Business Intelligence, Digital, and Customer Relationship Management.

Mr. Bérubé, who was ranked among the “Top 30 Under 30” by Marketing Magazine, completed the International General Management Program of L'Oréal at INSEAD. He sits on several industry boards, such as the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), the Bureau of Broadcasting Measurement (BBM) and the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB).
He also sits on the board of La Fondation en Coeur, a non?profit organization that provides help and assistance to children suffering from heart diseases as well as to their families, a cause that he strongly supports.

Denise Darroch
Brand Manager, U by Kotex®
Kimberly Clark Canada Inc

With more than 9 years of brand and shopper marketing experience, Denise Darroch is currently Brand Manager for U by Kotex® at Kimberly-Clark Inc. Canada. She is responsible for the development and oversight of marketing approaches and strategies to drive innovative and integrated messaging for the U by Kotex® brand. Prior to joining KCC, she brought seven years' experience from Nestlé Canada in both brand and shopper marketing roles across categories including the infant nutrition, confectionery and frozen businesses.

Daniel Dutesco
Vice President, Digital
Publicis

An unusual blend of thinker, technologist and creative, Daniel has over 20 years experience helping national and global brands put consumers and digital at the core of their business.

A recognized turnaround expert, with a proven track record of transforming brands into market leaders, Daniel has worked in Canada, the US and Europe with leading national and global brands, some of which include: Molson, Kraft, L’Oréal Paris, Nivea, Cirque du Soleil, ALDO, Rona, Fido, Air Canada, Purolator, BelairDirect, SunLife Financial and Weight Watchers.

In his current role Daniel is responsible for the overall digital product of the agency and driving digital innovation for clients that include Coca Cola, Garnier, Vichy, Metro, Rogers and Chrysler. Prior to joining Publicis, Daniel was VP Strategy at FCB and led Digital Marketing and eCommerce for IKEA Canada

Shannon Hosford
Vice President Marketing & Communications
Maple Leaf Sports + Entertainment

Shannon Hosford leads Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s Marketing and Communications departments, one of the largest and most diverse sports marketing portfolios in North America. With over fifteen years of leadership experience, Shannon oversees all communications and brand functions for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors, Toronto Marlies, Toronto FC, MLSE Live Entertainment and MLSE Foundation.

Shannon is a dynamic leader with a distinct creative vision. Prior to her appointment as Vice President, Marketing & Communications, she held senior leadership roles in the areas of Marketing and Global Partnerships. Shannon is a true marketing veteran; she got her start in the industry at LANG & Associates. Shannon is an ambassador and volunteer with many philanthropic initiatives, including Habitat for Humanity and Free The Children. She is also a board member of the MLSE Foundation and a mentor with the American Marketing Association.

Under her leadership, the sports world was captured by both the Toronto Raptors’ We The North and Toronto FC’s Bloody Big Deal marketing campaigns. These two highly successful campaigns led Strategy Magazine to spotlight Hosford as one of its five Marketers of the Year in 2014. Other accomplishments include Gold in Customer Analytics (2013 Gartner & 1 to 1 Media CRM Excellence Awards), Silver for MLSE Live content (2013 Digital Signage Expo), Best Print Award (2012 PROMAX BDA Sports Media Marketing Awards).

Christine Kalvenes
CMO
Pepsico Foods Canada

Christine is the CMO of PepsiCo Foods Canada. She has 18 years of marketing, innovation, research, design and corporate strategy experience.

She has been lauded for her passion for the consumer and her ability to leverage consumer insights to build brands. In her 12 years at PepsiCo she has used these skills to fortify the positioning for both established and high growth brands in Frito-Lay North America, a division of PepsiCo. She built an Experience Design Center integrating consumer, culinary and design principles which later set the stage for a broader PepsiCo investment in design. Most recently Christine was VP of Innovation where she led Innovation strategy and new product development producing a more than $1B 3-year pipeline. She assumed her current role as CMO in Canada in February 2014 and leads a team of 50 marketers focused on building a PepsiCo portfolio of highly loved food brands including, Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Tostitos, Ruffles, Quaker, and Stacy's among other well-known brands.

Christine received her MBA and Bachelors of Journalism from The University of Texas. She currently lives with her husband, Joakim and two children, Anders and Isabella in Toronto, Ontario.

Chad Maker
President
A71 Entertainment Inc.

The founder of Agency 71 Inc. (2003), a graphic designer by trade and a director at heart, Chad has had the good fortune to combine two of his life’s passions into his body of work. Beginning with TV Commercial direction and production, he then transitioned to music videos and onto short film Direction and Production with films ABOUT FACE (Tribeca 2009) and ISSUES (TIFF 2012), with Hugh Dillon and Enrico Colantoni. Chad added feature films to his CV by launching, with partners David Miller and Kirk Comrie, A71 Productions Inc. He recently Executive Produced the multi-award winning feature BLACKBIRD (TIFF 2012), as well as being Associate Producer on SIDDHARTH (TIFF 2013) and IT WAS YOU CHARLIE (Busan International Film Fest 2014). Upcoming projects include production and marketing for BASEBALLISSIMO and horror-thriller THE CHILD REMAINS.

One of Canada’s most prolific Film & TV Poster Designers, Maker has created art & campaigns for films and television properties such as SAVING HOPE, THE HUSBAND, AN AWKWARD SEXUAL ADVENTURE, GINGER SNAPS, THE BANG BANG CLUB, HARD CORE LOGO and many more.

Maker is a creator, illustrator, designer, director and musician, whose real drive is to assemble great people into productive teams and guide the process of creativity to a rewarding conclusion for all. His most recent venture with his partners Miller and Comrie, is the launch of A71 Entertainment Inc.. - a boutique distribution company focussing on exhibiting quality Canadian Feature Films to a national audience. A71 Entertainment has released 4 feature films in it's first year - BLACKBIRD, THE HUSBAND, ALGONQUIN and IT WAS YOU CHARLIE. Most recently the company received 10 Canadian Screen Award nominations for 2015 (IN HER PLACE -7, THE VALLEY BELOW - 2, IT WS YOIU CHARLIE -1). With over 20 years of industry experience, Chad now shares his experience with the talented team at A71, as well as advising on a variety of the programs at Canadian Film Centre.

Michael Milardo
Executive Creative Director
Cossette Communications

Michael is the Executive Creative Director of Cossette Vancouver, overseeing work for clients such as McDonald’s, TELUS, Arc’teryx and The Gap. Prior to joining Cossette he was Creative Director at Noise Digital, where he developed strategy and creative for brands such as Sony PlayStation, Tic Tac, Johnson & Johnson and Nokia. His work has been recognized both nationally and internationally by such shows as the Clio Awards, Cannes, Communication Arts, One Show Interactive and London International Awards.

Charles-Etienne Morier
Vice President Digital Media
Touche!PHD

Always on the lookout for the latest trends, Charles Etienne Morier is a catalyst for results. Leading a motivated digital team, he develops projects that reach even the most challenging targets. His motto: Drive results in the digital world.

At Touché! since 2007, he is credited for creating the search engine marketing unit (SEM) in 2008 for the Montreal and Toronto offices. Today he oversees the digital team but keeps an eye on all the strategies of the agency’s accounts. He inspires his team in developing creative campaigns and ensures a smooth campaign deployment to generate optimal results. He is also responsible for the digital training of planners to better prepare the next generation.

His versatility led him to work on renowned clients such as Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, Mark’s, VIA Rail, Desjardins, Quebec Dairy Farmers and Tourism Montreal.
Always ahead of the game, he has been rewarded by his peers on numerous occasions at the Infopresse Media Awards as well as the Media Innovation Awards.

Helen Pak
President and Chief Creative Officer
Havas Worldwide Canada

Prior to joining Havas as President and Chief Creative Officer, Helen was a Global Creative Strategist at Facebook working with the world’s biggest brands across all verticals. Her passion for integrated branding has helped shape her multi-disciplinary career for almost 20 years. Helen has worked at agencies including Saatchi, Taxi, JWT, Ogilvy, and as Creative Director at Strawberryfrog in Amsterdam. Her work has been awarded and recognized as business success stories in N. America and Europe. Blue chip clients have included Kraft, Unilever, P&G, Novartis, American Express,Telus and Toyota.

Her work has been featured in Communication Arts, Shots, Creative Review and recognized at award shows including the One Show, Cannes, Marketing, ADCC, CMAs, The Cassies and the Effies. Helen is active within the Canadian Advertising community and has sat on juries for the Marketing Awards, the Bessies, the Globe & Mail’s Cannes Young Lions, Applied Arts, the National Advertising Awards, the Rotman Business Design Challenge, and int'l shows including Communication Arts, the New York Festivals, FITC and the Effies.

Kari Skogland
Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Skogland Films Ltd

Hollywood Reporter's “Ten Directors to Watch” for her debut as writer-director of Liberty Stands Still , Kari’s most recent film Fifty Dead Men Walking (Sir Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess), premiered at a Gala at TIFF. Named one of the TIFF Top Ten it won the VFF Festival and DGC Best Director, and nommed for 7 Genie awards (won 2 including Best Adapted Screenplay) and for a Spirit Award.

Kari’s previous film (also as director, writer, producer), The Stone Angel, (Ellen Burstyn, Ellen Page) also premiered at TIFF and Kari was nommed for DGC Best Director/Best Film and several Genies including Best Actress and WGC for Best Adapted Screenplay.
In Premium Entertainment Kari just wrapped a 6 part event mini series: Sons of Liberty for A&E/History. She is nommed for a CSA Award for Best Director for Vikings, won DGC’s Best Drama Series for Borgia’s and won Best Director for the mini series Terminal City. Kari's TV pilot Shattered (Global) was nominated for 3 Gemini’s including best Director and Kari was nommed for a CSA for best director on The Listener.

Other credits: Borgia’s, Boardwalk Empire, The Killing, Under the Dome, Vikings, Power – with 50Cent.

Barbara Smith
President
Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada

Barbara has more than 30 years of wide-ranging advertising agency and client-side experience. She has led accounts across all industry sectors and involved with multi-media relationships in Canada. Prior to joining Aprais Worldwide in January 2014, Barbara spent 4 years as Director, Brand Engagement at The Globe and Mail, on the Advertising sales side.

Barbara is a Mentor with the American Marketing Association and member of their Mentor Advisory Board, is on the Cannes Festival of Creativity, and is currently the Interim President of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada.

Tessa Sproule
Co-Founder, CEO
VUBBLE

Tessa Sproule (Co-Founder and CEO, VUBBLE) is a digital innovator, visionary leader and change agent with an intense clarity of vision for the future and proven intuition for identifying opportunities in the unrelenting advance of disruptive technologies in the media space.

For nearly two decades, she worked with the CBC at the front lines as the media landscape changed, leading legacy media's response through the dramatically shifting storytelling space. Now she takes a place at the front of the shift as the co-founder VUBBLE, a content discovery service that merges human curation with artificial intelligence in the on-demand short-form video space.

Randy Stein
Partner, Creative
Grip Limited

At the age of 29, Randy was named Creative Director of Canada’s top creative agency -Palmer Jarvis DDB, Vancouver.  There he led the agency to a then unprecedented three-peat as Strategy Magazine's “Agency of the Year”.  In 2002, Randy joined Grip Limited as a Partner where he helped Grip win Marketing Magazine’s “Agency of the Year” after less than three years in existence – another unprecedented feat.  Most recently, Randy was behind the first ever feature film created by a brand - Kokanee’s “The Movie Out Here”, which has been recognized internationally as a groundbreaking piece of branded content and described by Marketing magazine as “one of the most audacious marketing campaigns in Canadian history”.  In 2014, he had the honour of judging the “Branded Content and Entertainment” category for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.  His work has been recognized by every major awards show including Cannes, One Show, D&AD and Communication Arts.  Randy has had the privilege of working on iconic brands such as Honda, Kokanee, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Bell Canada, and KFC.

James Stewart
Director & Founder
Geneva Film Co

James Stewart is a commercial director and founder of Geneva Film Co. in Toronto, Canada. Stewart’s work is notably in live action, VFX, stop-motion and CG animation on platforms ranging from mobile to giant screen including gesture control and VR. He is the co-author of Hacker, Maker, Teacher, Thief: Advertising’s Next Generation launching at SXSW2015.

Stewart’s award-winning stop-motion 3D film FOXED! has screened at over 90 film festivals, winning seven awards and opened at #1 on iTunes in October 2014. FOXED! is currently in development as a feature film for 2017 release. His other recent projects include 3D cinema commercials for Samsung, Toyota, Lexus, Sprint, and the 3D concert film Experience Montreux.

His work on Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams was awarded the Lumière Award for Best 3D Documentary and was called "the reinvention of the cinema medium” by The Guardian. In 2012, he produced the world’s first gesture-controlled 3D cinema game for Samsung Galaxy. Stewart was recently featured in the Directors issue of SHOOT magazine, the Innovation issue of SHOTS and he is a six-time speaker at Cannes Lions. At TED2011 he presented the talk Storytelling in the Next Dimension. Jack Dorsey follows him on Twitter @jamesstewart3D

Jon Taylor
VP, Digital
Bell Media Inc.

As Vice-President, Digital Products & Strategy, Jon Taylor is responsible for the advancement of Bell Media's TV, Radio and Digital properties across multiple platforms.

With strategic oversight of Bell Media's corporate digital initiatives, Taylor provides governance, executive leadership, and accountability in an ever-evolving digital environment.

Previously, Taylor was Senior Director of Digital Media for Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and Executive Producer, CTV Network Programming and CTV.ca. Prior to joining Bell Media, Taylor co-founded Science Deco, a Toronto-based start-up that revolutionized digital production in Canada supporting clients such as Microsoft, CIBC, CBC, and the Law Society of Upper Canada.