After a long architecture career that lasted almost 7 months and a half, Sandra decided that doing ads is more fun than doing houses.

Things about Sandra you can Google:
She started her ad carrier in Bucharest (Romania) where she quickly grew from junior to senior positions.
During her career, she kept on winning awards to make her parents less pissed off about her dropping architecture. Among the awards you will find:
Cannes Lions, NYF,  Eurobest, One show, Webby, and titles like Copywriter of the year (2016), Top 6 creatives to watch (2017 and Pitch 100 Superwomen (2018).
She’s currently working in Publicis Milan as a Global Creative Director.

Things about Sandra you cannot Google:
She moved from Bucharest to London and from London to Milan where she currently lives for pasta, pizza and Prosecco.
She cannot wink
She finds writing bios in third person rather weird

Alexis is co-Chief Creative Officer at TAXI Canada, but started her career in advertising at 9 years old, when she did voiceover work for a radio commercial. She then took a brief hiatus to become an adult, and over the last 16 years, has been working as a creative director and copywriter across all disciplines, from experiential to broadcast, to digital, social, out of home and the often underrated world of print advertising.

Throughout her career, Alexis’ strategic and collaborative approach has helped build and grow brands from the small and local to the big and international. Her work has won numerous international awards, and even landed on the cover of Archive Magazine.

Last year, Alexis also co-founded a line of Mother’s Day Cards called Fierce Mama, celebrating moms’ ambitions, success, and tenacity.

Website: alexisbronstorph.com
Instagram: @alexisbronstorph
Twitter: @a_bronstorph

He began his career more than 15 years ago in his native Costa Rica and in 2008 he managed to win the firsts Cannes Lions in the Central American region (gold, silver and bronze), placing JWT Costa Rica as one of the most creative agencies in Latin America for several years. In 2011 he was named, by the prestigious Ibero-American advertising magazine ADLATINA, as one of the 20 best Ibero-American creatives of the decade (2000-2010).

In 2015 he moved to Lima, Peru, to assume the position of CCO of McCann Lima and in his first year he managed to establish the agency as one of the most awarded in the region, highlighting gold and silver at the Cannes Lions Festival.

Both, as a copywriter and creative director, Caldwell has won more than 900 recognitions at the most important advertising festivals in Asia, Europe and America, such as Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, Andy Awards, Clio, London International Awards, D&AD, One Show, The Webby Awards, among others.

Lexi has spent the last 16 years putting her inquisitive nature, creative spirit and knack for telling a good story to work for a diverse client pool. Her passion lies in crafting relevance and purpose for brands in the lives of the people they touch.

As Iris Atlanta’s Creative Director, she parlays her expertise and voracious desire to create meaningful work into an inspirational push for creative that answers one all-important question: why should the world care about what this brand has to say? You’ll find evidence of her influence most notably in Iris Atlanta’s work with Reebok, Adidas, Samsung, Airo and Ram.

Beyond her client work, Lexi invests her time into mentoring young creatives and developing cultural initiatives for Iris Atlanta. She co-led the reinvention of the North American chapter of Iris Potential, a program that cultivates creative talent, and established Take Your Mother to Work Day, an internal Iris initiative meant to inspire progress toward gender equality in the workplace.

PJ Eales is the Executive Creative Director of Machine_ Cape Town, a creative solutions agency with three offices across South Africa. A copywriter by trade his career has spanned over twenty years with the last five of those in creative leadership positions. As Executive Creative Director at Machine_ he oversees high profile brands such as Red Bull, Heineken, Emirates and The Glenlivet and Chivas Regal whiskeys. As part of the Publicis Groupe, PJ is the South African representative on the Publicis Global Creative Board and has been recognized at both local and international award shows.

Ioana started her career in 2006 but she fast tracked from junior copywriter to Group Creative Director in just over 6 years. During her career she achieved a lot of firsts: the first female Romanian juror at Clio Awards, first Romanian speaker in Eurobest, a “30 under 30” by Forbes and Young Professional of the Year, by IAA.

At 26 she was named Group Creative Director of McCann Bucharest overseeing all Coca-Cola Company brands. With a mixed experience of digital and integrated, she's later named Executive Creative Director in MRM//McCann. After being named ECD in 2015, the agency won for two consecutive years Digital Agency of the Year. 

Now SVP Executive Creative Director at Energy BBDO in Chicago, she's overseeing digital and integrated work across multiple global brands in the agency's portfolio. 

Ioana has worked in her career for top Fortune 500 companies and managed teams across different global markets including USA, Brazil, Asia and Europe. 

Her work has been consistently awarded at Cannes Lions, One Show, Eurobest, Webby, Golden Drum, Euro Effie, Epica and other local awards. She has also been a juror of One Show (Interactive&Online, Mobile & Digital Craft 2020), Cannes Lions (Direct 2017), Clio
Awards (Direct 2014, Branded Content & Entertainment 2018), The New York Festivals (Direct 2015, Print 2014), ADC Global (Advertising 2016), Golden Drum (2016, 2017) Ad Stars (2015), Lisbon International Advertising Festival (2018).

She was a speaker at many local and international advertising festivals, including SXSW in 2019, 1871 in 2019, Eurobest 2016, 2014 and Golden Drum in 2016 and 2017 when she held the opening speech.

Outside of advertising, Ioana studied artificial intelligence at MIT and is a start up advisor and speaker at different incubators, including the world’s leading Chicago based 1871. She also recently created Adoptive Citizen, a podcast that aims to change the perception on immigrants across the world. 

Chris Gokiert is the CEO of Critical Mass, an award-winning digital marketing and experience design agency. Chris is the driving force behind the development of the agency’s capabilities and integrated client offerings, and leads the team to consistently innovate and advance Critical Mass’ strategic vision.

Since joining Critical Mass in 1998, he has been instrumental in the growth and success of the agency, expanding the team from just 35 people in one Calgary office to over 1,000 employees across 11 global offices. Chris leads key client relationships across continents, including the launch of major multidimensional initiatives for Nissan, INFINITI, adidas and AT&T. 

Chris’ authenticity is what sets him apart, both with clients and in the industry. He wins new business and leads client accounts with honesty and realness – not salesmanship and fake swagger. Whether he’s in a pitch meeting, the boardroom, or spending a late night in the trenches, he is constantly encouraging his team to push the boundaries of innovation and achieve their full potential. 

Prior to his role as CEO, Chris served as President of Critical Mass for over a decade. Under his strategic leadership and dedication to excellent client service, Critical Mass has been recognized as an A-List Agency, Best Engagement Agency, Top UX Design Agency, Best Agency to Work For, Employer of the Year, and Best Place to Work. Chrishimself was voted Influencer of the Year at the prestigious Creativepool Annual. Industry comments and POVs from Chris have been published in The Washington Post, Adweek, Campaign, creativebrief and more.

When not traveling from office to office, Chris resides in Calgary with his three girls, wife and two dogs – enjoying all the Canadian Rockies have to offer. Fun fact about Chris, he holds a master’s degree in Classical Archaeology.

Kia brings a unique perspective to advertising, coming to New York by way of Amsterdam by way of New Zealand by way of Australia. 

Throughout her career, Kia’s work has been awarded in some of the industry’s highest honors, such as the Cannes Film Festival, D&AD, One Show and more. Most recently her work for Nordstrom's "An Open Mind is the Best Look" gained notable industry recognition, but it also resonated culturally in a country that is more divided than ever. The soul of the campaign focused on being open to people and the connections that that brings. It is a celebration of humanity and inclusivity, a closer look at how all of us live in the world - intersecting, interacting, connecting.

Kia has been with Droga5 since 2016. In that time, she notably led work for Under Armour's Women campaign, "Unlike Any." It was a campaign that honors the incredible feats of female athleticism in the purest sense, by showcasing women who are beyond compare, elevating them to where they belong ‐ above gender roles, above labels, and above comparison.

Most recently, she has helped lead a series of campaigns and brand actions for Facebook set on helping their users find and connect with each other. One of those, “Born in Quarantine,” was a message of support to new mothers in the extreme circumstances of COVID-19. It is told from the perspective of one of the very few people alive who has been here before: one hundred-year-old Anita Sampson, who was born during the last pandemic: the Influenza 1918 to 1920. 

She would like to continue to create work that is soulful, poetic and has a unique voice that deserves to be celebrated

Hosoda joined Hakuhodo in 2005, and after his stay at TBWA\CHIAT\DAY in Los Angeles, he joined TBWA\HAKUHODO in 2012. He is responsible for overall creative direction for a number of global brands including automotive, apparel, sports, finance, and beauty. He is also responsible for corporate vision development and business, product, and service concept development, and has garnered attention for his activities beyond the advertising industry. So far he has received more than 500 prestigious national and international awards, including the Cannes Lion Gold, or Grand Prix from NY ADC, CLIO, Spikes Asia, and ACC Japan. In 2015 and 2018, he was named as Creative Person of the Year by Campaign.

Bridget Jung is Chief Creative & Strategy Officer at Ogilvy PR Australia.

Bridget has more than 20 years’ experience as a creative leader, with a background in art direction and design. Bridget returned to Australia in 2014 after spending most of her career in Europe where she was Chief Creative Officer at DigitasLBi Paris, and Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne Paris. 

Bridget has judged numerous award shows including Cannes Lions, The Loeries, Clio Awards, D&AD, Cresta Awards and Adfest. Bridget co-authored a book called The Decade of Do which is all about how marketing has moved from telling and talking to action and doing.

Anil has been part of a core founding team that built one of India’s top 10 digital agencies that was eventually acquired by Publicis Groupe and merged with Saatchi & Saatchi India.

Anil has been responsible for managing and growing the advertising and digital businesses as well as handling strategic planning and brand stewardship for a wide variety of brands in the Indian context. He has led one of the largest brand transformation exercises in India for the transition of Hero Honda to Hero Motocorp and has helped launch ITC ( a tobacco company) personal care portfolio and co-managed its communication strategy for 15 years across a series of category and brand launches.Anil was also part of the team which won India’s only digital grand prix at the Abby’s for Tata Capital.

Additionally, he has worked on brands such as Dabur Real Activ, Future Group & Big Bazaar, Idea Cellular, Tata Realty, Patanjali, Lodha Group, Muthoot Fincorp, BPCL, ICICI Bank, DBS Bank, Birla Liva, IDBI Federal Insurance, Bombay Dyeing, Creative Group, Gini & Jony, P&G, Unilever, Bajaj Electricals, Skoda Motocorp and HCC India. His dream is to help brands create inspiring fireplaces & communities, help them tell great stories, add tangible value and create sustainable ecosystems using the power of creativity and technology in tandem.

Michelle is the Head of Creative at AKQA, San Francisco, where she leads creative vision and digital innovation for her clients. She is responsible for developing digital experiences across emerging platforms, ecosystems and retail channels, and fostering an environment for entrepreneurs and innovators. She is a member of the Global Creative Council and founded “Women for Women,” a community to inspire, support and mentor women.

Prior to this, she worked with acclaimed agencies including Landor, Razorfish, and frogdesign. Throughout her career, she has created global brands and developed integrated marketing solutions for some of the most widely recognized brands in industries ranging from technology to financial services to retail. Her client roster includes Apple, Audi, Disney, Facebook, Gap, Google, Lufthansa, Mattel, Target, Verizon and Visa.

Her work has been recognized by The One Show, World Retail Awards, AdAge, AdWeek, Communication Arts, FWA, Graphis, PRINT, Webby’s and WIRED. She has been a judge at esteemed creative competitions including Cannes Future Lions, FWA, One Show, Webby’s and has been a featured speaker at Cannes. 

Born in Bogotá, Sergio is an advertising creative who believes in the true power of experiences. Through his career, he has achieved several accolades such as being ranked as the 10th best copywriter in 2012 according to Creativity Report Awards, and recently named the most admired Ad-professional in Colombia by Scopen 2020 along with his creative partner Mario Lagos. His multiple awards include Latin America´s first Titanium Lion and D&AD´s Black Pencil of the Decade. His portfolio includes award-winning works for international clients such as Unilever, Nike, Chevrolet, MasterCard, Pepsi and Netflix among others. Currently, he is the Chief Creative Officer of Sancho BBDO, Colombia´s largest agency, that has been ranked as the most effective agency in the world 6 times and just named Colombia´s most creative agency in 2020.

Myles’ 24-year career in advertising has seen him work at agencies like Lowe and Springer & Jacoby and leading two of Berlin’s most recognized creative agencies; Heimat and DDB Berlin. Recently he moved to Serviceplan to create the campaign division of Berlin’s House of Communication. His campaigns for CNN, Volkswagen, Audi, BVG, Pink Ribbon and Swisscom have garnered over 400 international awards. Myles is an Executive Member at the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, has judged at Cannes and is a regular Executive judge at the Webby Awards. When he’s not making advertising, you’ll find Myles tending to his NGO ‘Siya Bengezela’ which supports education in township areas of his hometown, Cape Town.

Sandra boomeranged back to Saatchi & Saatchi LA two years ago to work on Toyota’s Retail business after spending time on other automotive brands at FCB, Y&R and Garage Team Mazda as SVP, Creative Director. Her early career started in Texas at GSD&M where she honed her writing skills on brands like Southwest Airlines and then in Dallas at NY Ayer and Bozell, both on

JC Penney. Sandra loves her SoCal lifestyle but still pines for Austin’s Tex-Mex

Viral’s work has left an indelible mark on the advertising and design firmament in the Indian subcontinent.

In a career spanning more than 25 years, he has left his fingerprints all over every kind of category, nationally and internationally – from educational institutions to liquor brands, from automobiles to toys, from charity to luxury goods. And, along the way, won awards by the bushel.

Viral’s work has appeared in several award annuals, including the New York Festivals, the One Shows, Communication Arts, Luerzer's Archive, D&AD Kyoorius Awards, and AAAI Goafest Abbys. He has numerous nominations in print and design, including a Design Gold at Cannes Lions, and has to his credit more than a dozen and a half Merits, a Silver Pencil, and two Bronze Pencils at the One Show. His shelf also has the prestigious 'NY skyline' trophies and certificates of the New York Festivals, over the years. According to Luerzer’s Archive’s overall creative rankings in India, Viral occupies the No.3 position in Art and the No.2 position in Copy. The posters he designed were selected for display at the Museum of Design, Zurich in 2012. He has also been part of the jury at One Show Design, New York Festivals, Cannes Lions, Dubai Lynx, and has been chairing the jury at AAAI Goafest (India's biggest Creative Awards) in multiple disciplines for the last four years.

Not only has he helmed leading agencies, but also founded a few – like Out of The Box, which he ran successfully for more than 10 years, together with Sabu Paul. At present, he is a partner at Cog Digital + Design, creating cutting-edge work that intersects digital and design. The agency was chosen as the Design Agency of the Year, and the Still Craft Agency of the Year at the last-held AAAI Goafest.

Over the years, Viral has mentored and groomed many advertising professionals who now occupy leadership positions in leading agencies, and are practically the who’s who of the ad world.    

Today Viral continues to pursue his vision of making a difference in the industry. He also acts as a guest faculty member at reputed universities in India.

Allison Pierce, Global Chief Creative Officer for Intel, VMLY&R

Since joining the agency in 2010, Pierce has been a major force at VMLY&R, producing some of the agency’s most innovative and awarded work. She played an integral role in helping VMLY&R land the global agency of record for Intel and has led creative duties for the brand since early 2020.

Pierce has also overseen creative for the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development for the past seven years, spearheading innovative work like, “The Colorblind Viewer” — an experiential campaign that launched a scenic viewer equipped with high-tech lenses to make it possible for colorblind people to see fall colors for the first time. The campaign went on to win multiple Cannes Lions, Effies and a gold cube at the Art Directors Club, among others.

She has also led creative for range of VMLY&R client brands including Gatorade, Wendy’s, Kashi, Electrolux/Frigidaire, Boehringer Ingelheim Equine and Cobra Puma Golf.  Her work has been awarded by Cannes Lions, the One Show, Effies, Clios, New York Festivals, Art Directors Club, LIA, D&AD, Webbys and others.

Jason Romeyko is a storyteller across many stages and channels: a journey that began as a copywriter at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1993 and took him around the world for the next 23 years before finally joining the Serviceplan Group in 2016 as Worldwide Executive Creative Director. Since then, he has been responsible for the creative work at all of the company's rapidly expanding international footprint.

From Grand Prix to Bronze, he has received over 500 international awards at festivals such as Cannes Lions, Eurobest, Golden Drum, Epica, Clio, LIA, ADCE, ADC, CCA, ADCI and numerous others around the world - including an MTV Music Award for "Video of the Year" for Katy Perry's song "Firework".

Born in Australia, over the years Jason has led and enjoyed life as a globetrotter and speaks seven languages - which is why Muse by Clio once aptly described him as a "multilingual empath". Jason brought to life the concept of ÜberCreativity- it is now the driving philosophy of Serviceplan: “A higher form of innovation that happens when different disciplines, talents, cultures, media and technology collaborate and interplay. ÜberCreativity is how Serviceplan creates Best Brands.” Additionally, he is also the inventor of the WigWam, an explosive, condensed creative process with a resounding output.

Ramanuj Shastry is an MBA and an HR executive who stumbled into copywriting in ’94. In his thirty-year long career - twenty of which were spent with Ogilvy, McCann, Publicis, DY&R and Saatchi & Saatchi - Ramanuj has worked on scores of memorable and award-winning campaigns for top Indian clients.

In 2013, Ramanuj started Infectious - one of Mumbai’s fastest growing hot shops - with partner and industry veteran, Nisha Singhania. In his spare time, Ramanuj writes poetry, learns languages (Persian, Urdu) and practices Nasta’liq calligraphy.

David has had the pleasure of serving as Chief Creative Officer of Decoded Advertising, a NY/LA based agency focusing on unlocking creativity through the lens of data. He and his teams manage clients like Visa, T-Mobile, Hulu, Intuit and SCJ to name a few. Prior to Decoded, David worked MRY, MRM, and Euro RSCG in New York, where he was a Creative Director, contributing to successful campaigns for high-profile clients including Dos Equis and Kraft. And earlier? Weinstock worked in the programming/digital space building his reputation as a creative and digital expert with companies pioneering the digital landscape. Over the years his work has had the honor of being recognized by The One Show, D&AD, Cannes, The Andy’s, NY Festivals, Radio Mercury Awards and many others. Before advertising, David attended the University of Chicago, where he has a degree in Anthropology, something his parents still consider an “interesting choice.”

Aug.2005, joined Focus Media (China) holdings Co. Ltd that is the largest lifestyle media group in China as Chief Strategy Officer. 2017, be selected as Focus Media Group Partner.

A top management team member responsible for integration of acquired companies into Focus Media, privatization from NASDAQ and IPO in China's stock market. Excels in management. Served more than 3000 brands, such as Benz, BMW, Apple, Samsung, Siemens, Unilever, P&G, Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba, JD, etc.

Dedicated in China media market for decades and as the earliest Chinese top manager worked in international 4A group, also as China media market professor, Chan contributes in media insight, consumer insight and market insight. With KantarMedia Research, pioneered Infosys OOH Assessment System, 1st in the world outdoor TV audience rating system. Teamed up with Millward Brown, promoted MixReach system, the first multi-screen assessment tool in China, which evaluate media effectiveness cross screens from home TV, outdoor TV, pc to mobile.

2000-2005, worked for international media agency, Zenith Media, Publicis. Orchestrated the outdoor team, the biggest outdoor team at the time and act as deputy General Manager of China. Established a standard work procedure including media planning, arguing, buying and researching. The work processes created then is still widely used by 4A group. First introduced OSCAR™, the outdoor media-evaluation system, from the UK, and Chan modified it to fit China's conditions which eventually became the first quantitative evaluation system for outdoor media in China. In addition, a national information base of outdoor media and national outdoor media monitoring system were also established. Such developments contributed to the fast development of outdoor advertising in China.

Prior to 2000, worked In Sales, Marketing and management roles in foreign entities.

Polina has spent enough time in advertising to learn that people don't read each other's bios.

She believes all they care about is whether or not their work is getting awards.

For Polina, an award-winning ad is a new ad. Because, if you can see a dozen references shining through – it's not the best work. It can be good, even beautiful, as all smart copies usually are, but it can't be considered best.

An award-winning ad is a real ad. Because spec work is easy.

An award-winning ad is a brave ad. Because something that could have gone horribly wrong but didn't, gives us all more freedom.

And, if you are still reading this, then yes, Polina has won Gold Lions and Pencils, judged shows: from Cannes to Red Jolbors Central Asia, appeared on all kinds of random lists and ratings, and probably that's why she's judging NYF this year.

Or maybe she's just hacked them – that's what Russians do.

Nicolás Zarlenga is CCO & Partner of The Juju Argentina, the creative agency of the Latin ecosystem Untold_, He arrived to the agency last September to lead the creative efforts of the company in Argentina, together with Federico Plaza Montero.

Their arrival at the company is a commitment to a model that seeks to promote a new generation of talent in the industry, of which Nicolás and Federico are referents.

In their more than 14 years of career, and more than 10 as a creative duo, they have been awarded at numerous festivals such as Cannes, D&AD, Webby, LIA, Fiap, El Ojo de Iberoamérica and Diente among others, and were creative directors in well-known worldwide agencies such as David Buenos Aires and Ponce.

Prior to their arrival at The Juju, they served as Regional Creative Directors of HOY (Latin creative Network of Havas Group), where in just two years they managed to position the agency in 4th place among the best companies in Argentina, and were a key part in the opening of HOY's offices in Bogotá and Medellín in 2020.

This new bet of The Juju seeks to generate relevance in a context of hyper communication, with a young team and the support of an independent company of regional prominence like Untold_.

COO at WMcCann since January 2019, Kevin Zung leads all the agency’s areas with the mission of helping brands play a meaning full role in people's lives. WMcCann pursues being the main partner of its clients, having as a metric the brand’s business result. Among them are: Chevrolet, Coca-Cola, Estácio, Mastercard, Nestlé, Seara and SBT.

Before joining WMcCann, Kevin worked during 2 years at Publicis headquarters in Paris, He directed projects’ creation for the European market with clients such as Renault, Heineken and Sanofi. He also competed in Oppo, China's second largest smartphone maker and won the pitch to launch the brand in Europe.

Prior to his international experience, Kevin was the executive creative director for Publicis Brasil. Combining creativity, innovation and business results for clients, he helped the agency become Agency of the Year at Caboré 2016 and awarded at the most relevant creativity festivals for 7 years. In addition, he has won 11 Lions at the Cannes Festival.

In his first year leading WMcCann, together with Chairman & CEO, Hugo Rodrigues, WMcCann was nominated as agency of the year at the Caboré Award 2019, the main recognition of the communication market in Brazil.

Kevin has a degree in Advertising from ECA/USP and has taken courses at Central Saint Martins (London) and Hyper Island (New York).