This Way Up acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we share and commits to leaving it in a better place. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and acknowledge their storytelling culture through art, dance and music.

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Australasian Writers and Art Directors (AWARD)

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Advertising Council Australia

Brian Cronk

Chief Product Officer, OMD

With over 25 years experience Brian recently moved to Sydney from New York to work at OMD as their Chief Product Officer. Previously he led communication strategy departments at award winning creative, media, and design agencies, and most recently consulted at Diageo to help build out a global consumer experience planning process. Brian contributes his growth and career success to his focus on a ruthlessly single-minded purpose he learned as a strategist while at Anomaly in New York; “Ensure the work, works.” Though missing the inspiration a daily ride on a NY subway can give you, Brian would trade it any day of the week for the incomparable coffee you can get here on almost any corner in the city.

Daniel Borghesi

Senior Copywriter, M&C Saatchi

Daniel joined M&C Saatchi in 2018, and has since grown into a senior writer on some of Australia’s most iconic brands. Working across clients such as Lexus, Minderoo, and CommBank, Daniel has created award-winning work at the world’s biggest award shows like D&AD, Cannes, and One Show. In 2024, he won Australia’s Young Lion competition, FBI Talent and LIA’s inaugural LAUNCH competition, and was ranked #38 copywriter in the world at The One Show. He tutored the next generation of ad genius at AWARD School for three years running, and spent too much time worrying about this bio.

Russel Fox

Creative Director, M&C Saatchi

M&C Saatchi Creative Director Russel Fox started his advertising career in Melbourne creating work that defied the status quo. From hidden pizza restaurants promoting the Yellow Pages, to tagging fish with tracking devices for Carlton Mid. His work peaked the attention of one of the biggest agencies in the world BBDO New York. It was there he honed his craft working on big budget briefs for global brands including Guinness, Starbucks, and Pepsi. Eventually, Russel returned to Melbourne’s Clemenger BBDO where he continued to create iconic work for CUB, NAB, Visit Victoria and Mars. Helping the agency become named 2017 Cannes Lion Agency of the year. Having won awards at every major award show around the world. Russel is a regular lecturer, judge and mentor to Australians up and coming creative talent.

Michael Ritchie

Managing Director/Co-owner of Revolver

Michael began his career in agencies, Head of Broadcast at Ogilvy in Sydney, then a more regional gig at DDB HK. From there he moved into production side and in 1999 saw his most successful collaboration when he became partners with Steve Rogers at Revolver.

Revolver’s Roster beyond Steve includes a long-time relationship with Glue Society, Kim Gehrig, Andreas Nilsson to name a few. Beyond being known for high end film, Revolver has also, with the creative guidance of the Glue Society, lead the way with experiential and art-based output, as evidenced by numerous Cannes
Grand Prix’s and D&AD Yellow pencils over the last 10 years.

Revolver have been fortunate to win prestigious ‘Production Company of the year’ accolades over 18 times spanning across Spikes Asia, Ciclope, New York Festival, Mumbrella, B&T, Adnews and Australia’s AWARD.

Revolver is the only Australian production company to have been named as runner-up for the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes Lions twice over.

Revolver has shared a long-term partnership with Biscuit Filmworks, both in the US and the UK.

Barbara Humphries

Creative Director, The Monkeys, Sydney

In her current role at The Monkeys in Sydney, Barbara has worked across local and international brands such as IKEA, Coca Cola, Berlei, Seafolly, NRMA, Sydney University and MLA. Prior to this role Barbara has worked at both Publicis Mojo Melbourne and Wieden+Kennedy London, producing campaigns for brands such as Nike, Lurpak, Tourism Victoria, Nestle, Yakult and Cadbury.

Always seeking out unconventional and surprising applications of creativity, her work has appeared everywhere from a footpath in Shoreditch to game show quizzes, and her “You Never Lamb Alone” Diversity ad made #3 in a top ten list of the best Australian ads of the last 60 years by ThinkTV. She has also been awarded at Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clios, One Show, Webbys and New York Festivals, and during her time at The Monkeys has helped them win Australian Agency of the Year 8 times across 4 National and APAC shows, as well as B&T’s Agency of the Decade.

Tara Ford

Chief Creative Officer, The Monkeys, part of Accenture Song

Tara Ford is the Chief Creative Officer of The Monkeys Sydney and Board Member of the Advertising Council of Australia.

In 2020 she was named Creative Person of the Year (Australia/New Zealand) by Campaign Asia. She made the B&T Women in Media Power list (no,18) making her the first and only creative to ever make the shortlist. And was on ‘The Global Creative Influencer of the Year’ top 100 list according to Creativepool. In recent years she has also been ranked #1for Executive Creative Directors in Australia according to Best Ads.

Ford has worked at some of the most creative agencies around the world. Her work has been consistently recognised throughout her career, at the highest level of every major international award show. The accolades include Cannes and Spikes Grand Prix. Just one example is her GAYTM campaign for ANZ Bank. It was also named the ‘Best Direct campaign in the World’ by the Big Won and #1 ‘Best of Print/Outdoor/Design’ by Creativity-online.com

Ford has judged and chaired at every major global award show.

And with her work as a board member of the Advertising Council of Australia and the AWARD Committee, she helps guide the future direction, reputation and values of the industry as a whole.

Mike Rebelo

CEO, Publicis Groupe ANZ

In his current role, Michael works with clients on their marketing and business transformation journey by bringing together the best of the Publicis Groupe capabilities and talent to help them solve their transformation challenges in fundamentally new ways by connecting creativity, media, technology and consulting.

Over the past 25 years Michael’s international agency leadership experience has spanned re-building, re-purposing, starting-up, acquiring and integrating agencies to deliver growth through creativity. He has helped advise clients, grow businesses and shape agency cultures across the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific. His agencies have been consistently and highly awarded at Cannes and beyond.

Michael is deputy chair of the Advertising Council Australia, and a board member of the Media Federation of Australia.

In Australasia, the Groupe employs over 1,800 people and owns industry-leading creative, media and digital brands including Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Digitas, Herd MSL, Razorfish, Arc, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness and Prodigious.

Rose Herceg

President, WPP ANZ

Rose Herceg has built a career as one of Australia’s most respected strategists and social forecasters.

Rose’s first business, Pophouse, became known as Australia’s best regarded company for innovation, social trends and business strategy. Rose sold her company to the STW Group.

In March 2016, Rose was appointed as the Chief Strategy Officer for the STW Group, now called WPP after its merger with global creative tech powerhouse WPP.

In February 2022, Rose was appointed President of WPP, Australia and New Zealand.

Rose has written three books – her latest ‘The Power Book’ has been translated into several languages.

Rose received Business Class Magazine’s Small Businesswoman of the Year Award from Prime Minister John Howard in 2002.

Wade Kingsley

Australian Lead, Contagious

Wade has spent over 25 years in media and marketing working in leadership roles at Nova Entertainment, Southern Cross Austereo and Dentsu. As Australian Lead of Contagious, he helps agencies and brands supercharge their marketing by adopting strategies used by the world’s most creative and effective companies and campaigns. Contagious provides these insights via its IQ intelligence platform, consulting services, and training and events.

Tom Martin

Co-Chief Creative Office and Partner, Special

Tom Martin is the Chief Creative Officer and Partner at Special Australia, a prominent independent agency. Throughout his career, he has explored the potential of marketing creativity to address client needs and cultural challenges, resulting in a diverse body of work. His achievements include winning the ‘Best of Show’ at Australia’s most pre-eminent Award show (AWARD) 5 times, recognising his position among the country’s top creatives.

He has judged at numerous local and international shows, including serving on the D&AD Film jury in 2020 and Cannes Entertainment jury in 2024. Tom has worked in both Australia and the United States and is responsible for nearly two decades of internationally recognised projects, including the NAB Bank ‘Break Up’ (which, in 2011, was the first bank campaign to win a Cannes Grand Prix in 30 years), The Four’N Twenty ‘Magic Salad Plate’, Cricket Australia’s ‘Big Warnie’, Guide Dogs Australia’s ‘Support Scent’, Pedigree’s ‘K9FM’ (D&AD Black Pencil), Tourism Victoria’s ‘The Remote Control Tourist’, Adidas Originals’ ‘Superstar’, and Go Gentle’s ‘Stop the Horror’, which contributed to changing Euthanasia laws in Australia.

At Special, he has been responsible for multi-award-winning and publicly renowned campaigns, including Uber’s ‘Tonight I’ll be eating…’, ‘Uber Don’t Eats’ and ‘Get Almost Almost Anything’, as well as Virgin Australia’s ‘Middle Seat Lottery’, among others. He also worked on Tourism New Zealand’s ‘Good Morning World’, which won one of only three Global Effies in the world that year.”

His leadership is even driving significant change across the advertising landscape, with Special Australia spearheading initiatives like Shift20, an industry-wide effort to promote disability inclusion in advertising.

Lucinda Barlow

Senior Director, Head of International Marketing (APAC, EMEA, Latin America), Uber

Lucinda leads Uber’s International marketing team, covering over 60 countries across APAC, EMEA and LATAM. She is responsible for connecting consumers
and earners to Uber’s mobility, delivery and membership solutions. Previously Head of Marketing for Uber APAC, her team in APAC has delivered many award-winning and highly impactful campaigns including Tonight I’ll be Eating, Get Almost Almost Anything and Bas Socho aur chal Pado.

Her expanded role as Head of International Marketing will help build synergies across markets while ensuring Uber has a strong local presence, scale Uber’s go-to-market strategies to accelerate brand-led growth, develop world-class marketing capabilities around the world, and champion a culture of risk-taking and creativity.

Prior to Uber, Lucinda led global consumer and product marketing for YouTube out of California, bringing YouTube to two billion daily users globally. She built and led product marketing, launched YouTube’s slate of ad-supported original shows and scaled YouTube’s Culture & Trends operation globally. Prior to this, Lucinda led Google’s marketing and communications teams in Australia and NZ for seven years, where she was responsible for bringing the best of Google, YouTube, X Moonshots and hardware to Australians and New Zealanders, helping large and small businesses grow online and building Google’s brand, reputation and marketing partnerships.

She brings over 25 years of experience working in Internet, media and mobile in Asia, the US and the UK. Before Google, Lucinda was VP Marketing for Symbian where she led a global team promoting smartphone technology and building Symbian’s first office in China. She has worked in two Internet start-ups and at BHP as a mission critical systems engineer. Lucinda holds first class honors degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and an MBA from INSEAD. She now lives in Bronte Beach Sydney with her husband and three children.

Mim Haysom

Executive General Manager of Brand and Customer Experience, Suncorp

Mim Haysom is Executive General Manager of Brand & Customer Experience at Suncorp Group (ASX 50 Insurance company) where she leads the Groups marketing and customer experience functions, with responsibility for setting the overall brand strategy, digital marketing, media, sponsorships, strategic partnerships, and customer experience for the portfolio of 9 insurance brands. She is widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading Marketers (#1 in Australia’s CMO50), and as an industry leader for her drive to find new ways to move the industry forward, and her contribution as an active speaker and mentor in the industry.

In addition to her Executive Role, Mim is a Graduate of the AICD (Australian Institute of Company Directors) and has held advisory roles for Wheelchair Rugby Australia and is currently on the Board of Trustees for St Vincent’s Clinic Foundation, a Director of The Australian Chamber Orchestra, and an Advisory Board Member for ADMA (Australian Data Driven Marketing Association).

Prior to Suncorp, Mim was a highly awarded agency leader with a proven track record in growing clients business both globally and locally, with vast experience leading some of Australia’s most loved and recognised brands, from large complex and corporate organisations such as Commbank, through to agile, customer led organisations such as Netflix. Under her leadership as M&C Saatchi’s General Manager, in 2017 the agency was named the most innovative company in Australia by the Financial Review.

Andy Fergusson

Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett Australia

Over the last 20 years, Andrew has created work for some of the most iconic brands across Australia, Asia and the USA. He spent 10 years at Droga5, which was serendipitously named ‘Agency of the Decade’ by both Adweek and Adage the year he left.

Andrew then moved back to Australia to lead the creative team at Leo Burnett. Since then, Leo Burnett has been named Australia’s #1 most awarded agency in 2023, and #2 in 2024 (WARC CREATIVE 100).

His team has won countless awards for creativity and effectiveness on major brands, including 9 gold pencils at AWARD, and a Cannes Grand Prix for innovation.

Brent Smart

Chief Marketing Officer, Telstra

Brent Smart is Chief Marketing Office at Telstra, Australia’s biggest telco and second most valuable brand. Previously he spent nearly 6 years as CMO at insurance giant IAG, where he led the creative transformation of the NRMA Insurance brand, picking up over 100 major creative awards and a coveted Grand Effie. He spent 20 years in the agency business, leading New Zealand Agency of the Decade Colenso BBDO and ending up as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York where he worked on some of America’s biggest brands like Cheerios, Tide and Walmart. Brent originally hails from Melbourne, which is why he loves AFL and coffee, but now lives in Bondi with his wife and 3 boys who don’t love AFL so much.

Micah Waker

Chief Creative Officer, Bear Meets Eagle on Fire

Micah is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer of award winning creative studio Bear Meets Eagle On Fire, which celebrated its fifth birthday on April Fool’s Day, in 2024.

The studio was the first recipient of the AWARD Special Award for Individual Creative Agency of the Year in 2023, and was named by Adage in New York as the #2 International Agency at the 2023 Small Agency Awards. They have also been named Small Agency of the Year, for two years in a row, by Campaign Brief.

Prior to Bear, Micah built his unique, global reputation working with some of the most respected creative brands and agencies in the world.

Formerly a Creative Partner at Fallon London, he has also led various agencies as Executive Creative Director in Australia, the UK and US. Before returning to Sydney in 2017, he spent four and a half years as one of the creative leaders of Wieden + Kennedy in Portland.

His work has been recognized with over 200 international and local Awards, including Australia’s first ever Grand Clio in film for the iconic Boag’s “Pure Waters” campaign and he has received D&AD awards in both advertising and design.

Micah has been named to juries at D&AD, Cannes, AWARD, the One Show, London International Awards, AICP, Creative Review UK, and the Immortal Awards.

Steve Coll

Chief Creative Officer, M&C Saatchi

Current M&C Saatchi CCO and ex Meta Head of Creative Shop, Steve has 20+ years experience producing world-class advertising for brands in Ireland, Australia and the UK.

Named ADMA’s Australian Creative of the Year 2016, he is also proud to have won the inaugural Cannes Creative Effectiveness Grand Prix for the Walkers ‘Sandwich’ campaign, a campaign that helped him rank in Campaign Magazines ‘Top Ten UK Creatives’. As ECD at Havas Worldwide Australia, he led an agency that had never been awarded at Cannes to 12 Lions in two years, a coveted Black Pencil at D&AD, and Campaign Brief ‘NSW Agency of the Year’ 2013.

Matty Burton

Group Chief Creative Officer, DDB Group Aotearoa

Hello, I’m Matty. I’m lucky enough to be the Group Chief Creative Officer of DDB Group Aotearoa where I work across a group of best in class agencies to deliver a seamless brand experience for our clients and their customers. I basically help brands live in the world, wherever in the world, in all sorts of creative ways.

We’re big for New Zealand but small for the rest of the world and we’re experts in creative collaboration with an ambition to be the very best in the world who just happens to be from Aotearoa.

Previously I was APAC Creative Chief at Google (alongside Mr Bowman), leading a specialised team of creatives, engineers, designers, producers and strategists working across Asia Pacific on Google’s most valuable and strategic partnerships.

For the last 20+ years I have worked in the creative fields at some of the world’s most renowned creative agencies, including co-founding Special Group in Australia, The Glue Society and Droga5 NYC.

Outside of ‘work’ I co-founded Refill Magazine, a design and art based publication that has received international acclaim and was voted one of the best independent magazines from the last decade by the Tate Modern.

I’m also very, very tall and very, very attractive.

Tara McKenty

Head of Innovation and Co-ECD, BMF

Tara McKenty is the Chief Innovation Officer and Co-Executive Creative Director at BMF Australia.

She started her career at TBWA in Aotearoa/ New Zealand before heading to Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney, Australia then moving to Google where she held multiple roles and lead teams that ignited love in the Google brand through creativity.

One of Tara’s most notable career achievements to date was founding Rare with Google – an initiative that provides equitable opportunities for underrepresented creatives.

Tara led a project with client OPSM that was named the most effective marketing campaign in the world by the WARC 100 in 2016 and continues to disrupt the status quo and has won over two hundred awards during her advertising rebellion including D&AD pencils, Cannes Lions, Grand Prix’s, and Best in Shows.

Dave Bowman

Chief Creative Officer, Publicis Groupe AU & NZ

Dave has spent the last two decades working in creatively-led companies across the globe and in innovation, most recently as Google’s APAC Head of Creative and leader of Google’s Partner Innovation team, which works to make Google technology accessible, useful and exciting for the 4.8 billion users across APAC.

Throughout his career, he has been lucky enough to be recognised at the highest levels in creative industry award shows, is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, and has, more recently, launched projects at I/O, The World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, Mobile World Congress, Berlin Open Air Tech Festival and the UNESCO world summit on language technology.

As Chief Creative Officer in ANZ, he is partnering with Groupe CEO Mike Rebelo to bring ideas, data, media, technology and storytelling together in ways the world hasn’t seen before across the 20+ companies in the Publicis Groupe stable.

Chaka Sobhani

President and Global Chief Creative Officer, DDB

Chaka Sobhani is President and Global Chief Creative Officer of DDB Worldwide. Prior to that, she was Global CCO of Leo Burnett Worldwide, and headed up key accounts and creative content at leading UK indie agency, Mother.

Sobhani has worked on countless global brands including McDonalds, Disney, Coca-Cola, Google, Kelloggs, Samsung, Boots, VW, AXA, Morrisons, Tui, and Sky, and has won numerous accolades including Spikes, Clios and Cannes Lions. Before joining the ad industry, she spent over a decade as an award-winning filmmaker and in television, where she set up ITV’s first in-house creative agency. Under her watch, the network regained the no.1 position in the UK, created its most successful global formats and content in shows like the X Factor and Downton Abbey, and won the prestigious Channel of the Year for the first time as well as numerous BAFTA’s, Golden Globes and the prestigious Rose D’Or.

KEYNOTE SESSION, DAY 1

On Tuesday 13 August at This Way Up, Chaka will deliver her keynote address, “Bring on the Feels: How Brands Can Capture Emotion, Feeling, and Heart in the Crisis of Connection.”

In a world where connection feels increasingly fragmented, she will explore the profound impact of emotion in branding and marketing and how brands can genuinely resonate with audiences by tapping into the emotional undercurrents that drive human behaviour.

“People are intrinsically wired to seek connection,” says Chaka. “We see this reflected everywhere in everyday life, particularly in the shifting media habits of consumers. Social media platforms like TikTok have paved the way for a more diverse and inclusive array of influencers, opinion leaders, and communities—voices that truly represent the passions and perspectives of society beyond the privileged and vetted few. But while advancements in technology and data mean we can easily communicate en masse, are we doing the best job of forming true connections and relationships with each other?”

Don’t miss this insightful session that promises to redefine how brands engage with the heart of their audiences.

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Nilesh Ashra

Founder and CEO, OK Tomorrow

Nilesh Ashra is a creative innovator and has spoken numerous industry events including Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, FastCo Innovation Festival, and SXSW. As a technologist, Nilesh focuses on helping companies navigate the ever-changing, but extremely exciting, creative business world. His specialist inspiration, OK Tomorrow (Portland), is based on the belief that organisations can get far more innovative thinking from their people, and he believes everyone’s best idea is still yet to come.

KEYNOTE, DAY 2 @ THIS WAY UP

‘Meeting the Machine Age with Creative Experimentation’: We all have a good surface understanding of generative AI. But what if we deepen our understanding? Could we be open to entirely new types of creative collaborations—but with machines and models? We’ve got the opportunity to build the beginnings of creativity-fostering tools. In this session, Nilesh will lay out a set of demos and experiments at the intersection of creativity, serendipity, and generative AI.

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Damon Stapleton

CCO and Founder, The Monkeys Aotearoa & MD, Accenture Song

Damon opened The Monkeys Aotearoa, as part of Accenture Song New Zealand, in 2021. He is a founder and the Chief Creative Officer and has been at the creative helm of other respected agencies in the APAC region including DDB New Zealand & Australia and Saatchi & Saatchi.

Stapleton’s best work has been for global brands such as BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Heineken, Visa, and McDonalds, which resulted in him winning more than 500 international awards at some of the most prestigious advertising festivals including D&AD and Cannes Lions.

KEYNOTE, DAY 1 @ THIS WAY UP

What the F**k is Creativity Anyway?: What do people think creativity is and what can it actually do? In this unmissable session, Stapleton showcases the gap between the definition and the underused superpowers creativity has.

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Liz Taylor

Global Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy

For over two decades, Liz Taylor has been recognised as one of the industry’s most progressive creative leaders. She currently serves as Global Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy, where she oversees the agency’s creative product across 131 offices in 93 countries. Under her leadership, Ogilvy has been lauded as one of the most creative agency networks in the world. Recent accolades include being named to Fast Company’s 2023 World’s Most Innovative Companies list, being ranked the world’s leading agency for both creativity and effectiveness by WARC as well as the most awarded creative network of 2023 by The Drum. This comes of the heels of Ogilvy being named Network of the Year at the 2022 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity as well as by The One Show and London International Awards.

KEYNOTE, DAY 2 @ THIS WAY UP

‘What Would Taylor Do?: The world tells you :06 seconds is the preferred length for videos. What would Taylor do? Create a 10-minute one. The recording studio claims ownership of your albums? Easy, re-record every song. The production company can’t make timing work for your film? Obviously, you produce it yourself. Here, renowned industry leader and Ogilvy’s Global Chief Creative Officer Liz Taylor draws inspiration from another Taylor – Swift – alongside her own career experiences, to share how great creative risks can reap even greater rewards, and career lessons that anyone can take forward to help chart the future of our industry.

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