Khaled AlShehhi is an innovative marketing leader who has made significant contributions to the field of advertising and marketing in the MENA region. He has transformed the way the UAE government communicates by introducing original, creative, and humanizing content that has positively impacted millions of people globally.

Under his leadership, the UAE Government Media Office has received over 200 awards from some of the most prestigious creative and marketing shows around the world, including Cannes Lions, LIA, CLIO, ONE Show and Dubai Lynx. Khaled's unique approach to creativity has made him a sought-after speaker, sharing his story about how government creativity can be turned on.

He has earned leadership roles in various organizations, including the Global CMO Growth Council, New York Festival AME Advisory Council, World Media Group’s Brand Advisory Board, The Public Relations and Communications Association Executive Board and Middle East Public Relations Association Strategy Board. Khaled has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to the field, including winning the World Media Group Award for Content Leadership & Innovation in 2022, the Honorary Award of the 2022 Effie MENA, and being named Advertising Person of the Year at the Dubai Lynx 2023, Digital Professional of the Year 2021 by The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) and Marketing Game Changer by Campaign Middle East in 2020. He has also been featured in the Arabian Business’ 2021 Power List of individuals who are shaping the future of the Middle East.

Saul is the former Chief Marketing Officer of the UN World Food Programme, Chief Strategy Officer of VMLY&R EMEA/ WPP Global, Cognitive Psychologist and TedX speaker.

He is a Preceptor (tutor) in Strategy & Innovation; Expert Adviser and Mentor for the MBA Programme and Alumni at Said Business School, University of Oxford. He is an Advisory Board Member to various organisations including MyMynd, a revolutionary Mental Health Platform, New York Festivals and the CMO Council.

He is also a Senior Advisor and Fellowship Faculty member of the Centre for Democracy and Peace Building in Northern Ireland, running their Growth Programme.

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

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

Dominican-born, New York raised; throughout his career, Anibal's influence and leadership have shaped the strategic and business vision behind some of the most influential global brands across Latin America, the United States, and the US Multicultural market. 

Over the past 20-plus-years, Anibal has served in a  range of strategic leadership positions at agencies including Ogilvy, Wieden + Kennedy, Droga5, 72andSunny, JOAN, FIG, and Arts & Letters Creative Co where he has been fortunate enough to lead award-winning work for top-tier brands like Old Spice, P&G, Coca-Cola, Google, Diageo, Spotify, ESPN, Heineken, Audi, Ketel One and many more. His journey has allowed him to cultivate a diverse perspective having worked in roles across multiple disciplines from media and Comms planning to business and creative strategy in a wide range of categories.

This background has given Anibal the opportunity to lead multi-disciplined teams and steer innovative go-to-market approaches by integrating cultural strategy with UX and design thinking at the service of crafting creatively effective work that solves problems for brands. 

Today, as Ogilvy’s NA Chief Strategy Officer, he is in charge of leading the vision of the agency’s North American multidisciplinary team of strategists navigating the intersection between Advertising, Experience, PR, Social, and Creative strategy. 

Pully Chau received an ”Outstanding contribution award” honored by China Ad Association during its recent 40 years celebration. 

Spanning over last decades, Pully has been a great client partner to build brands; to transform and cultivate INTEGRATED creative organisations; and to help solve issues and crisis in this ever-changing world. She maintains a clear vision of the big picture. 

As a relentless game changer, Pully led the peak performance of Saatchi & Saatchi Great Wall China for 10 years (2000-2010); built Olay as a lovemark portfolio brand for Chinese women; and groomed many top talents. She turned around the visibility and unprofitable situations for DraftFcb Greater China (2011- 2014). As Cheil WW’s Greater China Group CEO (2015-2021) she led to lift the standard of its multi-disciplines, media & digital marketing teams to become China’s hottest agency top 5 by Campaign Brief (2013/214) and got its first 6 Cannes Lions. She also led the win of Volkswagen global brand assignments, Nissan Infiniti, and Coke’s Winter Olympics torch relay, enriching Cheil’s client portfolio beyond Korean brands. 

Her motto is: Manifest the future with our admirable motivations and unwavering determination. 

Pully’s judging experiences: 

Jury President, PR Spikes Awards 2022

Final Jury, Glass Lions, Cannes 2021

Final Jury, Industry Craft Lions, Cannes 2019

Final Jury, Marketing Effectiveness Lions, Cannes 2013 

President, Effie Awards Greater China (2014/2015/2016)

As an award-winning creative leader, she has spent over 20 years moving brands forward with creative solutions that deepen consumer engagement and emotional connectivity.

Currently she is the VP, Creative, New York Times Advertising. As the creative lead of the department, she oversees the T Brand creative team and operations responsible for building bespoke creative content, bringing brands closer to the prolific storytelling of the New York Times.

Previously, she held the posts of Chief Creative Officer at Fake Love and HelloSociety– the Brand Experience and Influencer agencies of New York Times Advertising. Both agencies enabled T Brand to expand its “off platform” capabilities and further enable brands to have impact in the world.

In addition to her time with The New York Times, her creative leadership roles at global brand, The Walt Disney Company and advertising giant, DDB Chicago, have fueled her career with a trifecta of publisher, brand and agency side creative experiences.

Throughout her career she has serviced blue-chip brands spanning a wide range of consumer categories. She has created award-winning work garnering accolades and recognition from Cannes Lions, The Effies, Communication Arts, The Art Directors Club, Chicago Creative Club, London International Awards and others. She has contributed op-eds to industry publications and provided thought leadership as an award show juror, featured panelist, sought-after mentor, and speaker at national industry events.

Originally from Ireland, Rory has worked at agencies around the globe in Dublin, Sydney, London and he currently leads the strategy department at Special Group Auckland.

He’s created highly successful campaigns for brands such as Air New Zealand, Guinness and Tourism New Zealand that has seen him win Cannes Lions, D&AD and One Show Pencils.

At AMV BBDO, where he was a Board member, he won over 100 creative awards including 10 Cannes Lions and two Gold IPA effectiveness awards for his work on the Guinness ‘Made of More’ campaign.

His recent work for Tourism New Zealand, saw Special Group win New Zealand’s first ever Global Effie award for the campaign Good Morning World along with a number of ‘Campaign of the Year’ titles.

Under his charge, Special Group has catapulted to New Zealand’s leading agency, recently being awarded Agency of the Year by Campaign Magazine, B&T Magazine and Campaign Brief.

Rory was also crowned Campaign Magazine’s Australia/New Zealand’s Strategic Planner of the Year in 2020.

Introducing Fredrik Gumpel, who has been guiding Lion & Lion with steady leadership since 2019 through its recent successful transformation. Having started as Chief Commercial Officer, his journey to the Group CEO position reflects a genuine understanding of diverse market dynamics.

Fredrik gained valuable experience at global biotech leader Novozymes, where he served as the Head of Business Development and Innovation in the Food & Beverage division. His strategic roles at Carlsberg Breweries across various European and Asian markets further underscore his adaptability to different industries and geographies.

Fredrik brings a blend of industry insight and strategic foresight to his role at Lion & Lion, making him a dependable leader and trusted business advisor to Lion & Lion's clients. His transition from Chief Commercial Officer to CEO is a testament to his commitment to continuous growth and excellence in the marketing landscape.

Dominque Hickey is Chief Strategy Officer for Howatson+Company.  Previoulsly Dom was Head of Planning at DDB and has been leading the strategic thinking across the Westpac business for the past three years. In 2017 she was DDB Group’s employee of the year.

Starting out client-side Dom has worked in a diverse range of roles from designer and senior marketer to suit and strategic planner Dom has worked strategically on a broad range of industries including Financial services, Publishing, Retail, Loyalty, and FMCG.

Prior to DDB Dom has worked in CX and digital agencies as Head of Planning for Wunderman and Planning Director at Lavender.

A planner that doesn’t believe in silos, she is passionate about creating great work in any channel and working with collaborative integrated teams.

She is a part of the Smith Family iTrack mentoring program, the She Says mentoring program in Sydney and regularly supports young people within the industry teaching at Miami Ad School, ADMA and Comms Council.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Having spent a decade working in multiple markets in Europe and North America AJ has developed industry recognised work, helped international brands play a meaningful role in people’s lives and held teaching positions at two UK Universities.

Schooled at McCann UK, before a stint as CSO for McCann Bucharest AJ was responsible for the regional strategic development of mega-brands such as KFC and Coca-Cola and finding a place in culture for local players.

AJ loves finding the intersections of brands and culture and has a track record of delivering both creatively awarded and commercially successful campaigns. As CSO for McCann Canada AJ is focused on delivering powerful ideas that have a real impact across Canada and beyond. AJ’s input has helped McCann Canada pick up awards in non-traditional and social creative categories, as well as being globally recognised for Effectiveness.

Awards:

IPA – Aldi Swap & Save, Aldi Like Brands

Effie inc Grand Prix + Golds -  UK [Aldi, Smyths Toys, Co-Op] , Romania [Vodafone, KFC, ROM, The Coca-Cola Company, Europe [Aldi Ireland], Canada [Wendy’s, Nestle]

Cannes Lions – ROM, Vodafone, Mastercard

WARC Effectiveness Awards – Wendy’s Canada, EDC, Nesquik

Jay Chiat – Wendy’s Canada

Janis Middleton, Chief Inclusion Officer at Guided by Good, USA, Atlanta, GA

Janis has years of experience in the content and media space and has led various clients, such as The Home Depot, Buffalo Wild Wings, SunTrust (now Truist), Hanes, and many others to success. Her background has made her extremely knowledgeable in developing and implementing people-focused strategies, which ultimately led to her current role.

As an Atlanta native and a graduate of Clark Atlanta University, Janis has always had a passion for building and cultivating environments that provide equal opportunities for all people to thrive. She understood marginalized audiences were consistently underrepresented with less access to tools for success. It was with this experience that she built the portfolio’s Inclusion practice.

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

In his time at The Monkeys and previously BMF, Hugh has led some of Australia's most effective strategy teams in building the country's most iconic brands. Along the way they've netted seven Effective Agency of the Year titles, across Australia and APAC-wide at the Effies and Spikes. Today, The Monkeys stand alone as the only agency worldwide that's won 3 Global Grand Effies at the Best of the Best Awards. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull hailed Stop It At The Start as “one of the most effective government advertising campaigns I’ve ever seen”.

Tahaab Rais is the first Chief Strategy Officer for Publicis Groupe in the region.

I enjoy strategy, data, ideas, effectiveness and innovation - and develop winning teams and future leaders. The company that I lead the Strategy Office for, across MENAT, is consistently ranked among the top agencies in the world for its effectiveness and strategic thinking. And my teams are stars. I also drive the company's creative excellence ambitions through initiatives and trainings.

The challenge of finding THE right solution for businesses makes me tick. Inquisitive about people - their differences, attitudes and beliefs - and the joy of helping people and brands be happier, excites me.

I possess strategic, creative consultancy, integrated marketing, data analysis and leadership experience spanning MEAT and Asia, covering Business and Data Strategy; Brand, Content and Digital Strategy; Cross-channel Integrated Solutions; Relationship Marketing and Customer Experience Management.

Enjoying being creative, I'm practical with technology and the constantly evolving world of the web. I'm anti-theory. Making things happen excites me. And the results achieved are a testament to my drive.

I've worked on Finance, Insurance, Telecommunications, FMCG, Luxury, Travel & Tourism, Retail, Automotive, Petroleum, Entertainment, Real Estate brands across MEA and Asia-PAC., such as HSBC, HSBC Amanah, Coca-Cola, Emirates NBD, Emirates Islamic, Mastercard, Sony, Nokia, J&J, Kraft, Nestle, Kit Kat, Reckitt, Dettol, Unilever, OMO, Knorr, AXE, Jif, Lipton, Ford, Arla Foods, Babyshop, Home Centre, L'Oreal, Nike, Harvey Nichols, UAE Government, Majid Al Futtaim, ALDAR, Microsoft, AstraZeneca, al hilal bank, Babyshop, Home Centre, Ferrari World, Qatar Petroleum, Shell, Egypt Tourism Authority, Al Rajhi Bank, Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Jawwy, SABB, SABB Amanah, Ooredoo, Aspire, Orange, Boubyan Bank, Bank Muscat, Meethaq, Castrol, Hindustan Petroleum, Exide, Marico, Atlantis and Taj Hotels, among others.

The work has enhanced the agencies' reputation across Cannes, Effies, D&AD, Andy's, Clios, Jay Chiats, WARC, Dubai Lynx, One Show, Loeries, London International Awards, Webby's, New York Festivals, Gerety, Caples, AdFest, AdStars, AME, among others. My strategy team members are some of the most awarded ones in the world for strategy, and I'm the most awarded CSO from MENAT.

Besides being a CSO, I'm also a globally awarded film director and songwriter, and you can view my work on: https://vimeo.com/tahaab

Aside from work, I create ideas to help solve societal problems as an individual through my own personal non-profit venture. And I speak worldwide on creativity.

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

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

As CEO of TBWA\WorldHealth Robin prides herself on bringing disruptive thinking to some of the world’s most ambitious healthcare brands. In her 25+ years she has launched over 50 global brands for companies ranging from start-ups such as Moderna and Bluebird to pharma giants like Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, and Merck.

A creative leader at heart, Robin has a passion for helping clients crystalize their vision and bring their company’s story to the world. She considers herself chief culture officer and has created a strong values-based culture where sustainable inclusion thrives from the inside out. In the past five years, TBWA\WorldHealth has been recognized twice as Med Ad News DEI Champion and twice as Agency of the Year.  

Robin served as Cannes Lions Pharma Jury President in 2021 after serving on the Pharma Jury in 2019. Prior to Cannes Lions, Robin Chaired the Global Awards where she created innovative programs like Young Globals with the goal of attracting the next generation of creative leaders to consider a career in healthcare advertising.  

Robin’s side hustle is giving back to her community by volunteering as a mentor with Waukegan to College, an organization dedicated to helping school students realize their dream of attending a 4-year college or university. One of her mentees was awarded the Gates Millennium Scholarship.

Robin’s 3 children— Aaron (31), Bennett (27), and Maddie (22)— and her husband, Harlan (bigger number), make her laugh every day and remind her of what’s really important.

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

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

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

In 2000, she founded her own company MARIA.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aki (he/him/his) lives and works at the nexus of consumer culture and connected technologies. He applies data-centric, and radically-collaborative sensibilities to build creative solutions that provide value for people.

As the new Chief Strategy Officer at Cashmere/LA, Aki marks a return back to culture-driven strategies and ideas for brands (having started his career in music marketing). At Cashmere, Aki is charged with honing the agency’s strategic processes for scale & growth – and ultimately linking into the broader Media.Monks and S4 Capital “API” of services.

Previously, Aki was Chief Strategy Officer at Leo Burnett/Chicago, where he helped update the strategic approach for brand, digital, and data integration at one of the most storied agencies in the world. There he introduced innovative forays in AI, Web3, and Multicultural Intelligence for brands like Kelloggs, Jim Beam, Bank of America, Samsung, Messenger, US Cellular, and more.  Aki co-led a strategic resource and accelerator for all the creative agencies across Publicis – to operationalize 'general market' teams who are increasingly-challenged with how to become more culturally-fluent in an era of an increasingly-diverse mass market. 

Aki leaves Leo Burnett having helped the agency achieve 2022 Agency of the Year at One Show, ADC and Clios, Best in Show at One Show, Addy, Communication Arts and AICP, Titanium and Grand Prix at Cannes – and more proudly – a wealth of gold, silver and bronze strategy and effectiveness awards across 2022 Effies (incl 2nd Most Effective Agency Network – Leo Burnett Worldwide), WARC Awards for Effectiveness, ARF Ogilvy Awards for Research, and Jay Chiat Strategy Awards.

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

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

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

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

Marialejandra is Chief Strategy Officer for Dieste, US. She oversees Dieste planning group in Dallas, New York and Los Angeles.

Marialejandra leads all data, insights, cultural intelligence, and research efforts at Dieste. Her experience working around Latin America and with the U.S. Hispanic consumer gives her a broad vision of the diversity of Latin cultures and their specific nuances. Her passion for understanding humans and their relationships has led her to pursue a Master’s in Social Anthropology.

With more than 25 years of experience in strategic planning, Marialejandra has been involved in the development of marketing communication for companies in various industries including 3M, Chiclets Adams, Ford Motor Company, Mattel, Nestle, SAB Miller/AB InBev, The Coca-Cola Company and Warner Lambert.

Marialejandra was included in the Advertising Age Women to Watch list for Colombia, and her insights and contribution to the Demobilization Humanitarian Program of the Colombia Ministry of Defense campaign led to recognition not only for its creativity, but also as the first and only Grand Prix in the region from IPA (2011). This campaign has also been awarded for its strategy and effectiveness, winning a Grand Prix APG, the Jay Chiat Grand Prix 2011 and Grand Prix El Dorado Effectiveness 2014 as well as more than 10 Gold Effie Awards.