Diana Caverly, Global Chief Strategy Officer, MRM

Fearless believer in making an impact, Diana is a transformative leader at the forefront of business, culture, and technology. She has a proven acumen for effective brand-building that wins in culture, drives transformation at scale, reshapes categories and fast tracks business growth.

Diana’s iconic work has been consistently recognized for creativity, effectiveness and sustained success by the Effie Awards, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, WARC, Fast Company, Best of CES, Best of SuperBowl and more. She’s a true globalist, having worked on both deeply local and massively complex global brands - with extensive B2C and B2B experience across multiple categories including automotive, telecom, financial services, retail and consumer goods; and across multiple clients, including General Motors, Mastercard, Vodafone, The Coca-Cola Company, Yum! Brands. 

Certified in Corporate Innovation by the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a member of Chief – the network for the most powerful women in leadership, Diana has also been an early proponent of women in web3; advocating for equity, ethics and inclusivity in the space and co-founding the McCann Worldgroup Metaverse Practice. She takes pride in being a lifelong learner and stepmom of two incredible daughters.

Matthias doesn’t fit the stereotype of a typical advertiser, yet he has achieved recognition as one of the world's esteemed Chief Creative Officers. Before venturing into his career as a copywriter and Creative Director, he worked in the theater industry as a director and stage designer. In 2023, he attained an impressive #7 ranking among the most awarded CCOs worldwide.

Matthias loves diving into new playgrounds for brands while staying true to their essence. He explores the resonance fields of brands in society and how they influence one another. All of this fueled by a special passion for design and culture.

BMW Motorrad, MINI, Sky, LEGO, Hipp or Penny are just a few brands that Matthias has provided significant impulses to. As the longtime CCO of Serviceplan Germany, he played a major role in making the agency one of the most successful independent agencies in the world. In 2022 alone, Serviceplan was named Independent Agency and Independent Network of the Year 21 times.

Since 2022, Matthias has embarked on a new adventure. As the CCO, he pushes Saint Elmo's, an independent agency brand within the Serviceplan Group, to new boundaries. Always in search of even better ideas, exciting people, and inspiring cases.

Matthias holds the position of Board member at the Art Directors Club of Germany e.V. (ADC) and is a member of the D&AD and the One Club for Creativity. He is a frequent participant on juries including Cannes, Eurobest, D&AD, One Show, ADC Germany, ADC Europe, and New York Festival. With his expertise, he is a sought-after contributor and keynote speaker, covering a range of creative and strategic topics. Recently, he discussed the influence of architecture on New Work. With over 1000 national and international awards, Matthias Harbeck stands as one of Germany's most highly acclaimed creatives.

Ralf Heuel is CCO and Partner at Grabarz & Partner in Hamburg – the agency he cofounded as a Junior Copywriter in 1993. At that time, the company comprised five employees. As Creative Director and, since 2002, as CCO, he made the agency one of the most creative locations in the country, in the process repeatedly propelling Grabarz & Partner into the top five of the most creative German agencies.

When asked what inspires him most you will probably hear something about movies, music and listening to people. Or driving an air-cooled Porsche, on a curvy mountain road. Luckily, what has always been his personal passion became the agency's client in 2016.

Ralf and his agency received several honours over the past years: In 2013 and again in 2017, Grabarz & Partner was named by British magazine Campaign as one of ‘The World’s Leading Independent Agencies’ and named ‘agency of the year’ in 2015 by w&v magazine. In the same year Grabarz & Partner was ranked as the number 1 creative agency in Germany by w&v and HORIZONT, and the most decorated German agency at several international award shows.

In 2016, the magazine HORIZONT named him and the other managing directors of the agency as the ‘Men and Women of the Year’ in the Agencies category. At the same time he was awarded ‘Creative Leader of the Year’ by the Lead Academy, an award for which he was also nominated in 2012.

The current Big Won Report lists Grabarz & Partner in 13th place in the most creative agencies in the world. The agency also came second in the German 2018 creativity ranking of w&v magazine – 8th for 2019. And in 2017 Grabarz & Partner was Germany’s most successful independent agency at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and voted Eurobest’s ‘International Independent Agency of the Year’.

Under his creative leadership, Grabarz & Partner became the first independent agency ever to acquire a large portion of the German Volkswagen account in 2001; in addition, Heuel has now been developing the advertising for IKEA Germany – the most important market for the Swedish furniture store – for more than 25 years.

300 employees are today responsible for the domestic and international accounts of Grabarz & Partner, which include Volkswagen, Porsche, IKEA, Burger King, EURONICS, and Melitta.

Ryan currently serves as VMLY&R | WPP | Ford | Chief Creative Officer for North America based out of New York - and sits on the VMLY&R Global Creative Board. He has helped brands like Absolut become the number one selling vodka, taken Edgars from closing-down to commercial success, and won Vodacom its first Cannes Lions.

He has led and shaped agencies, created culture shifting work for global brands and creative ventures. In Amsterdam, Ryan worked at several agencies before co-founding The Soon Institute - a company focused on prototyping the futures of brands. He co-founded Join the Pipe, a water sustainability NGO that won Best New Initiative from UNICEF. In Germany, Ryan helped to take Serviceplan to Germany’s Number 1 ranked creative agency. He formed his own film production company, writing and directing, including BMW’s first ever 3D film, various music videos, branded content & commercials, and an environmental documentary, shot on location in the remote South Pacific islands of Tuvalu.

As CCO of VMLY&R South Africa, Ryan led the agency to creative success and massive commercial growth, including winning Africa’s largest brand Vodacom, consistently positioning the agency in the top creative rankings, and winning Bookmarks Agency of the Year twice and Cannes Entertainment Agency of the Year.

Ryan’s work has won hundreds of awards across almost every global award shows, including multiple Gold Cannes Lions, D&AD, NYF, One Show, ADC, Loeries, and has been a regular judge at global award shows. Ryan was listed in Mail & Guardians Top 200 South Africans, The Media Magazine’s Top 40 under 40, and was invited to sit on the Creative Circle EXCO Board. Outside of work Ryan enjoys getting endless inspiration from his 3 daughters, surfing, travelling, and devouring all forms of creativity.