2021 Jury

Jordan Doucette
Partner & President
No Fixed Address

You’re looking at a creative maverick. A master yarn-spinner. A powerhouse brand builder with communication wizardry as her not-so-secret weapon. And, yes, of course Jordan Doucette is award-winning: Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clio Awards, etc, etc—if it's shiny and sets off a metal detector, she’s probably won it.

Jordan’s journey has seen triumphant chief creative officer stints at renowned agencies including Taxi and Publicis’ Leo Burnett Chicago, where she racked up an array of accounts from cars to QSR and CPG to telcos.

This champion of progress continues to push for the positive transformation of advertising in her current home of president and partner at No Fixed Address—a Canadian and US-based shop reinventing the agency model.

Eva Salem
VP, Strategic Marketing, CTR
Canadian Tire Corporation Limited

An innovative and entrepreneurial marketing executive with a proven track record for delivering award-winning creative and strong results, Eva Salem is the vice president of marketing for Canadian Tire Retail. Eva oversees the Canadian Tire marketing team, where she is responsible for brand building, creative ideation, and marketing initiatives for Canada’s most beloved retailer.

She spent the early years of her career in the heart of the cosmetics industry in New York City with some of the world’s most important brands, including Estee Lauder, Clinique, and L’Oreal.

Prior to joining Canadian Tire, Eva founded Canada’s first high-end, brand-driven maternity store, Belly, growing a $20,000 investment into more than $1-million in sales in its first year.

Eva holds a business degree from Western University’s Ivey School of Business.  Eva lives in Toronto with her husband and three children.

Dhaval Bhatt
Partner and Creative Director
Rethink

Born and raised in Mumbai, India, Dhaval has spent the last 15 years working in Toronto as an award-winning Copywriter and Creative Director.

During this time, he’s helped some of Canada's top agencies land prized accounts, turned around brands with double-digit growth and created campaign platforms built from the ground up. Most recently, he tackled the challenge of heading the creative at Canada's fastest growing agency startup, No Fixed Address.

A firm believer in the power of creativity to solve business problems, Dhaval has always been a slave to the idea, not the medium. This belief has led to award-winning and result driven work that’s been featured in The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Ted Conference, Mashable, Fast Company and The Huffington Post, just to name a few.

Mo Bofill
Partner, Creative Director, Design
One Twenty Three West

Mo is the newest Partner and Creative Director, Design at 123w – one of Canada’s leading agencies. An independent idea and design collective based out of Vancouver and Toronto. In her new role, she will help expand their offering across Canada and continue to help build agency thought-leadership through the lens of Design. She believes that Design isn’t a department, it’s a way of thinking. It’s how we approach solving our client’s problems and helping them grow. Design is the tangible expression of what a brand is, and it plays a significant role in transforming brands into something people want to be a part of. 

Mo is formerly the Executive Director of Design at johnst., where she spent the last five years building the Design offering from the ground up. At john st., Mo built a growing design business with an award-winning portfolio, and led a diverse team of multidisciplinary design thinkers. Born and raised in the Philippines, and growing up in Toronto, she brings a diverse point of view that mixes her passion for design, creativity and business strategy to Canadian design.

With over a decade of experience, Mo has helped transform some of Canada’s most iconic brands from the ground up: Bell, President’s Choice, Loblaws, Home Hardware, Sleep Country, Winners, Shoppers, and Koodo to name a few. She has also helped transformed global brands like KFC, Coca-Cola, Corona, Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi and helped them become relevant brands to Canadians. 

She is a relentless optimist; be kind, do good work, have fun, travel often, and eat more fries. 

Outside of driving business growth for her clients, her work has  also been awarded and recognized internationally by D&AD, How Design Awards, Cannes Lions, Luerzer’s Archive, Communication Arts, The Advertising & Design Club of Canada, Applied Arts, Marketing Magazine, among others.

Mo also brings leadership in community engagement. She speaks and mentors regularly through RGD (Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario) is an instructor and mentor at Miami Ad School, helping create the newly founded Design Program and is a leader on the issue of diversity in our industry. Most recently she also joined the Board of Directors of the ADCCs (Advertising & Design Club of Canada).

Sharyn Byrne-Nearing
Vice President, Brand and Digital Marketing
Metrolinx

A savvy marketer with over 18 years of experience, Sharyn Byrne-Nearing has a passion for breakthrough creative, innovative technology and highly collaborative client/agency partnerships. 

Sharyn has lead advertising, design and PR agencies in the development of disruptive campaigns which engaged audiences and delivered strong business results. They also delivered awards. Her work has been recognized nationally and globally at an array of industry shows.

Sharyn currently serves as the Director of Brand and Digital Marketing at Metrolinx where her team is leading a complete brand and digital transformation. It’s aim is to build strong, resonant brands that connect with consumers and deliver on Metrolinx’s vision of becoming a world class transit system for the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

Jason Hill
Creative Director
Target Marketing & Communications Inc.

Jason Hill recently joined Newfoundland agency Target in September 2018 as Creative Director, to oversee creative work on all accounts, including the much loved and awarded Newfoundland & Labrador Tourism.

Jason began his career in a few small but award winning boutique agencies in the UK, before eventually moving to TBWA.

In 2002 he relocated to Canada where he worked as an art director and ACD at some of the best agencies in Toronto including Taxi, Zig and CPB Toronto. 

During his career, Jason has produced many award winning campaigns for brands such as IKEA, Viagra, Virgin, AXE and Nissan, and has been awarded globally in many shows including Cannes and One Show.

Alyssa Huggins
VP, Brand & Integrated Marketing
The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation

Savior Joseph
President
Breathing Green Solutions

Savior Joseph is a corporate and community leader who has served organizations across multiple industry sectors. He is currently President and a Member of the Board of Directors for Breathing Green Solutions (BGS) Inc., one of Canada’s top craft cannabis licensed producers. BGS has successfully launched the SKOSHA brand of craft cannabis in numerous provinces across Canada. Previous to that, he was Senior Vice-President of Global Marketing for Aurora Cannabis Inc., one of the world’s largest publicly-traded licensed cannabis producers, operating in multiple countries and across many industry verticals. Savior also has extensive experience in marketing and communications. He has lead large and complex consulting assignments across a variety of industry sectors that include: Pharmaceuticals, Recreational and Medical Cannabis, Consumer Packaged Goods, Finance, Professional Services, Telecommunications, Energy, Non-Profit as well as many others. 

Savior’s consumer centric and collaborative team approach has had him speak and keynote at a variety of conferences, corporate events and at numerous post secondary institutions. He is a sought after resource for his expertise in developing and managing marketing strategies with a deep understanding of how first to understand and then best engage customers, consumers and other stakeholders; all with a focus on supporting the development of the skills and leadership capabilities of all those around him. Savior is a proponent of modern leadership concepts where all stakeholders can win, with a particular belief in supporting those facing systematic barriers as well as protecting those that are vulnerable and our natural environment. He holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from Acadia University.

Brent Nelsen
Chief Strategy Officer
Publicis Communications and Leo Burnett

Brent in his own words is powered by “culture, caffeine and creativity in all its forms.” Under his strategic leadership, love for instigation and inspiration, his efforts have been recognized globally and nationally, winning at virtually every strategy and creative awards show.

His contributions have received numerous recognitions: IPA’s, Effie’s, Ogilvy’s, Chiats; D&ADs, London International Advertising Awards and Cannes to name a few.

Jeremy Oxley
VP, Marketing, Strategy & Insights
Danone Canada

Jeremy currently serves as Vice President Marketing, Strategy and Insights at Danone and has over 13 years of experience in the CPG industry in various Marketing and  Sales positions. Prior to joining Danone, Jeremy was the Head of Retail at Tim Hortons where he was responsible for leading the CPG business across North America. Prior to that, Jeremy held various positions at Mondelez such as Customer Vice President Loblaw and Shoppers Drug Mart business across Canada, General Manager for the Canadian Confectionery business and Director of the Chocolate business for North America.

Alexandra Panousis
CEO
Carat Canada

Alex Panousis is an executive at the forefront of digital media, technology and creativity. A culture leader and media/creative industry veteran, with over 20 years of experience leading high-growth, innovative and profitable agencies.   Alex is the President of Havas Media,  and is also the Community Director with TechTO  and host of MarketingTO, one of the largest marketing and tech forums in Toronto.  An executive advisor and board director to several organizations, Alex has held senior positions at the National Post, the CBC, Leo Burnett and Starcom Mediavest group.

Jonathan Rouxel
Founder, CD
Prologue AI

Jonathan Rouxel is a creative entrepreneur with over 19 years of experience in the Canadian, UK and US markets. He played a key role in fulfilling the dreams of many companies by providing them with technological and business solutions. After 10 years in the network Cossette, he joined BleuBlancRouge as Executive Creative Director and then Partner. During this period BBR was selected among the top 10 Canadian agencies in 2016 and 2017 and among the top 3 agencies in 2018. Jonathan was honored to launch more than 10 games of Ubisoft in North America. 

Over the years, he helped his teams win more than 250 national and international awards in the form of animals, pencils and various misshapen letters of the alphabet. The latest ones were a lion at Cannes for the Ubisoft Assassin's Creed Origin game and two Clios for the My liver chatbot and Assassin's Creed project. He also had the chance to participate in several juries and to chair the Crea in Montreal in 2018.

Born in a hippie community that was the cradle of Cirque du Soleil, he discovered very young that creativity can change the world. This creativity has grown steadily to this day, with partners such as Tourisme Montréal, Toyota, Ubisoft, the Canadian Red Cross, Molson Breweries, Yellow Pages, Sico, Loto Quebec, Napa and Cadillac Fairview.

Despite all the rewards, he continues to create with the belief that the creativity, combined with the right technology, can change the world.

Yasmin Sahni
VP, ECD

Yasmin has spent the last 15 years working in the advertising industry in Canada, the US and London. After graduating from Miami Ad School with a degree in Art Direction, she completed a Masters in Mass Communications from the School of Journalism at Florida International University.

Previously, she was Head of Creative at VICE Canada, running the VICE Media creative services and VICE’s in-house ad agency. There she focused on strong digital storytelling and telling millennials what's cool without ever using the word 'cool'. 

Currently, Yasmin is the VP ECD at GTB (abbreviations are a real thing in this biz), where she runs the creative and production departments responsible for Ford of Canada. 

Yasmin's work has received recognition on local and international levels (ADCC, Marketing, Cannes, One Show, Clios), but she is most passionate about championing diversity and inclusivity in this industry –from the people she hires, to the talent she casts, to the stories she tells.

Barry Alexander
Vice President, Marketing
Knix

Barry has provided brand and marketing leadership for a variety consumer and entertainment products. Most recently, at Iovate Health Sciences he’s lead North America’s #1 portfolio in sports nutrition, rebranding their cornerstone MuscleTech brand and successfully entering the growing energy category with the launch of XP. Barry combines data influenced strategy with an understanding of consumer passion points to create deep relationships with brands. Prior brand experiences include the Hamilton Tiger-Cats/CFL where he led the “Hamilton Proud” brand refresh, Schneiders, and Coors Light in additional to consulting work supporting brands in the developing cannabis and esports spaces.

Amanda Alvaro
Co-Founder, President
Pomp & Circumstance

Amanda Alvaro is President of award-winning consumer and lifestyle PR agency Pomp & Circumstance. In 2020, under her leadership, P&C was the only Canadian agency to make Adweek’s Fastest Growing Agency in the World List. The creative agency was also listed as one of Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies and took home the coveted Strategy PR Agency of the Year Bronze 2020 Award. Leading with creativity, P&C outperforms by using a powerful combination of earned, digital and paid media to help their global, tier A clients stand above the competition. When she's not at P&C, you can find her bantering politics as a regular political commentator on CBC TV's Power and Politics. She is the founder of Artbound Charity, Chair of Rethink Breast Cancer and patron of the arts. Amanda can also be found on the speakers circuit, with topics ranging from PR, politics, entrepreneurship, women in business.

David Brodie
Senior Vice President & GM
Citizen Relations

Dustin Brown
Partner, Head of Strategy
Elemental

Dustin Brown has been leading the strategy for Elemental’s clients for the last 6 years. From loyalty to retail, CPG to wine and spirits, QSR and Not for Profit, Elemental believes in an approach that focuses on creating human connections. To do so, Dustin leads a team strategists, data driven digital marketers and creatives to make these connections. Most recently Dustin has led the agency to numerous wins, including Top 8 Small Agencies in Canada and has been recognized by the CMA’s, Loyalty Awards, Shopper Innovation and the Epica awards. Above all, he believes in helping brands find their purpose. Elemental works with Herschel, Starbucks, SCENE, Dyson, Baffin, Gruppo Montenegro and AWS.

Jefferson Darrell
Founder
Breakfast Culture

Jefferson Darrell is an accomplished marketing communications and change management professional with more than 15 years of brand strategy expertise, generating earned and owned media using both traditional and digital channels. He is highly effective in stakeholder relations, negotiating, conceiving and cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships. Having worked on numerous integrated marketing campaigns on both the agency and client side, Jefferson brings a broad understanding of the entire marketing mix to every project.

In the DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) space, Jefferson was instrumental in the creation of the Diversity Inclusion Anti-Racism Action Team at the Ontario Science Centre and he represented the Centre on the DEI Committee with the Canadian Association of Science Centres (CASC). Jefferson has been an active participant in diversity & inclusion conferences including Progress Together for the Ontario Public Service and Canada’s first ever White Privilege Global Conference at Ryerson University. He was also instrumental in organizing the Science Centre’s involvement in the world’s first Pride in STEM Day on July 5, 2018. 

Jefferson’s change management project with the Black Coalition for AIDS Prevention (Black CAP) resulted in increased revenue opportunities for the non-profit charity by diversifying the organization’s fundraising and development committee. 

Jefferson has delivered numerous presentations and keynote addresses about the importance of DEI including: a presentation at the inaugural IDEA (Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity in Advertising) Summit for the Institute of Communications Agencies (ICA), a national webinar for CASC titled “Diversity in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math): What can we learn from Wonder Woman,” and delivering the keynote address about Diversity in Public Relations for Humber College in 2018. He has participated in myriad panel discussions about diversity and inclusion including: “How to cultivate inclusive workplace cultures” at the IDEA Summit and “Diversity in Public Relations” at the 2018 Global PR Summit.

Jefferson earned a Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, a Public Relations Honours Certificate from Humber College, and is a change management, leadership and inclusion graduate from Centennial College and the Canadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion (CCDI) and working towards the Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional (CCIPTM) designation.

Glen D'Souza
Executive Creative Director
Forsman & Bodenfors

Good at his job

Leaves nothing to chance

Everybody thinks I’m ok

Never lets you down!

Matt Fraracci
Creative Director
Sid Lee

In 1908 beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter met with her editor to discuss a draft of THE ADVENTURES OF PETER RABBIT featuring a character named Squeaky Keith – a grave-robbing hedgehog addicted to laudanum. Potter’s editor thought Squeaky would scare young readers and wanted him cut from the story. Taking a Boer War-era bayonet from her purse, Potter said, ‘If anyone’s getting cut today, it’s you.’ She was escorted from the building in a headlock by the Pinkertons. And that’s the difference between beloved children’s author Beatrix Potter and Creative Director Matt Fraracci: Matt Fraracci doesn’t get upset when people want revisions.

Neetu Godara
Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer
SoCIAL LITE Vodka

Neetu Godara is the Co-Founder of SoCIAL LITE Vodka, the first unsweetened pre-mixed drink in North America. The brand pioneered a new category of unsweetened drinks in the RTD segment that is now exploding across Canada. After 10 years of marketing various food & beverage products at Pepsico Canada, Neetu saw an opportunity for disruption in the RTD market with a zero sugar, zero carb beverage. As the Chief Growth Officer for SoCIAL LITE, Neetu is responsible for the brand's marketing and sales strategy.  Now at the helm of one of Canada's fastest growing RTD brands, Neetu is enjoying the challenges of scaling SoCIAL LITE Vodka and aspiring to grow it into a household name.

Samantha Kelley
Vice President, Strategy
Touche!

With nearly 20 years of experience in the media industry, Samantha has devoted the majority of her career to retail accounts. Her unique expertise has serviced some of the most prestigious national clients: Sport Chek/Sports Experts, Metro Inc., Loblaws Corp Ltd., Marks/l’Équipeur and many more. While navigating through a media landscape in constant evolution, Samantha is always looking for new ways to create new, unconventional opportunities for her clients. She injects innovation into the core of all her ideas and recommendations. 

Samantha’s rapid rise to the top was no small feat: within seven years, she was promoted four times, joining senior management at age 32.  Samantha possesses a unique combination of agility, drive, focus, and people skills to coordinate campaigns across national and international offices.  Her ground-breaking work has been recognized many times over by her peers, including in 30 international competitions and 2 Cannes Lions.

Lina Kim
Group Account Director
Havas Canada

Lina has over 15 years experience in the communications space, working both on the agency and sales side across her career.  Lina is currently the VP, Client Services of the Havas Media Canada office and brings a strategic POV in media planning, buying and digital to bring our client’s visions to life. She has extensive experience across a variety of category, bringing her strategic flair and critical lens to deliver business results for both her clients and the agency.

Gloria Loree
CMO
Destination Canada

As Chief Marketing Officer, Gloria is responsible for the development, management and evolution of Destination Canada's marketing and communications strategy. Gloria works with teams to use research to design and develop global marketing strategies that will result in more travellers choosing Canada for their next trip. A proud storyteller for Canada, Gloria’s 20+ years of experience in marketing and communications includes working in tourism, the arts and journalism.

Richard McLeod
VP, GM
Foot Locker Canada

Richard McLeod is a senior-level executive with 16 years of international sales and luxury marketing experience. He joined Foot Locker, Inc. in 2019 as the Vice President of U.S. Marketing for Footaction. After 10 short months, McLeod was promoted to lead marketing for the company’s namesake as the Vice President of North America Marketing for Foot Locker. In November 2020, McLeod stepped into his current role, to lead the Canadian business as the Vice President and General Manager of Foot Locker Canada. McLeod also serves as part of Foot Locker, Inc.’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council.

McLeod’s extensive knowledge within Wine & Spirits, a highly complex and lifestyle driven industry, has afforded him the opportunity to lead a multitude of strategic initiatives encompassing project management, strategic planning, talent relations, national and global sponsorship, revenue negotiation, global experiential development, execution and evaluation of award-winning marketing campaigns.

Prior to joining Foot Locker, Inc., McLeod held senior-level marketing positions at several companies in the Wine & Spirits industry. Most notably, his 11-year tenure at Bacardi USA where he successfully led the growth of multiple brands including Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire and D’usse Cognac, a joint venture with Jay-Z.

McLeod’s demonstrated ability to analyze brand needs, create unique solutions designed to drive consumer engagement and develop high-performing teams have proven to be his greatest assets. In both 2017 and 2018, he was awarded the LVMH President’s award for outstanding achievement in marketing.

McLeod holds an honors degree in sports Science & Business Management from Brunel University in London, England. He lives in N.J. with his wife and two children and enjoys playing basketball or watching movies in his spare time.

Neil Mohan
Creative Agency Partner
Facebook Canada

Neil’s career north star of building engaging moments for millions of people currently comes to life as Creative Agency Partner at Facebook, working with some of Canada’s best agencies to enable innovative mobile work on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.

Meghan Nameth
SVP, Marketing
Loblaw Companies Ltd

As a seasoned marketing, digital and product executive, Meghan has extensive global and local experience leading billion $ brands to market share leadership and P&L growth.  She has over 23 years of experience in digital transformation, marketing, analytics, product innovation and strategic planning.  In 2020, she was the CMO for Hudson’s Bay Company, leading the marketing team through a brand revival, loyalty program relaunch and digital marketing transformation, despite the tumultuous pandemic environment.  Prior to this role, she held several executive positions in brand management, digital marketing, data & analytics and product innovation for PwC, TD Bank, TD Insurance, Mars Canada, and Procter & Gamble. She is known as a leader with a passion for building high performing teams, creating business value through marketing, and for building brands into sustainable long-term company assets.

Joshua Richards
Director, Creative Technology
john st.

Joshua Richards is the Director of Creative Technology at john st. He’s a creative problem solver who has always been passionate about emerging technologies and how people experience brands. He co-found the diversity and inclusion effort at john st., and he’s one of the founding steering committee members of POCAM (People of Colour in Advertising and Marketing), a LinkedIn group and initiative that exists to ensure that the voice, vision and talent of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) professionals are fully and fairly present in Canadian advertising and marketing.

Angela Sarino
Senior Director, Marketing Communications
CIBC

Angela Sarino, Senior Director Marketing Communications at CIBC, is a seasoned marketing professional with over 20 years’ experience, launching new products, driving product acquisition and client retention. 

Loves the creative process and has an innate curiosity about what drives consumer behavior.  Has a great appreciation for really inspired advertising.  In fact, Ryan Reynolds is her hero. 

Angela has been a judge for the Canadian Marketing Awards since 2017 and the 2020 Effie Canada Awards.  Over the years, Angela has been a recipient of several awards herself, the most recent in 2019 at the inaugural Effie’s for the CIBC Aventura “Travellers Travel Card” campaign. 

In a past life, was CIBC’s sponsorship and cause marketing guru, developing national events, marketing campaigns and strategic partnerships for properties such as the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation CIBC Run for the Cure and Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation’s One Walk to Conquer Cancer, among others.  Led a team of passionate, community-minded individuals to raise almost $50 million for breast cancer/cancer research. 

Appreciates good food and design, travelling off the beaten path and tracing her family’s ancestry.