Grand Effie Jury

Ellie Bamford joined Wunderman Thompson in 2023 as Chief Strategy Officer for North America. She is an Australian, New Yorker, and Ad Age's Media Person of the Year 2022. With 20+ years in the business of marketing, Ellie advises brands on how to thrive in a connected world and create impact through communication, inspiration, and human experience. At Wunderman Thompson, she oversees strategy across North America, focusing on driving breakthrough creativity and business growth for clients, strengthening talent, and integrated partnerships across capabilities. 

Ellie believes that if the work we create for brands is not profoundly connected to how it lives in the real world for real people, it won't be inspiring or effective. Ellie has delivered on this belief and mission throughout her career with progressive, award-winning work for Reddit, Pepsi, Nike, FILA, Uber, Samsung, Spotify, Sephora, American Express, and more. 

Before joining WT, Ellie served as Global Head of Media, Connections, and Influence at R/GA. Under her leadership, she drove a 50% spike in revenue for the Strategic Practice in 2021/22 and unlocked unexpected creative innovation. An example includes Reddit's 5-second Super Bowl, made within a week and named by The New York Times as the "unlikely Super Bowl winner." This Super Bowl game-changer experience led to a Cannes Lions Grand Prix win, contributing to R/GA's best-ever awards performance: 12 wins, 35 shortlists, and wins in seven new categories. Ellie was also the mastermind behind some of R/GA's most human-centered work, like changing Sephora's creative and search experience to push the discovery of Black Beauty content. This work for Sephora and Black Beauty is a multi-show award winner, culminating with a Silver Cannes Lion. 

Ellie serves as Jury Chair for the Clios, Judge for Cannes Lions and The Young Lions, and Grand Juror for the Effies. She cares about positively impacting the next generation of diverse creative brains and contributes to She Runs It and Out for Undergrad as a mentor. As an opinion leader, she has been featured in The New York Times, AdAge, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vogue, AdWeek, Wired and as a speaker at Cannes Lions, Advertising Week US & LATAM, Contagious, and DMEXCO. 

Jonny Bauer is a Managing Director in Portfolio Operations.  He leads the brand and business strategy in Blackstone’s Brand Strategy and transformation practice for its portfolio of over 250 companies. He is responsible for ensuring a brand’s purpose, categorical positioning and values are clearly defined upstream in the sequence of value creation and are connected to all elements of the business transformation for Blackstone portfolio companies.  Over a career that has crossed four continents, Jonny has helped create some of the most innovative and influential brand transformations over the last two decades. 

Prior to Blackstone, Jonny was Partner and Global Chief Strategy Officer at Droga5 (Adage’s and Adweek’s agency of the decade 2020), where he founded and led the strategic function at the agency while overseeing all strategic efforts for clients and new business, including brand and business strategy, innovation, media, data strategy and experience strategy. Recent experience includes leading the transformational thinking for JP Morgan Chase, Google, Facebook, Dyson, LVMH, Prudential, New York Times, Unilever, Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, United Rentals, among others. In 2011 he was the youngest inductee to the American Advertising Federation's Advertising Hall of Achievement (and only strategist), and in 2020 was named Chief Strategy Officer of the Year by AdAge’s Creativity Awards. 

Jonny holds a Bachelor of Business from UTS Sydney. 

As Chief Brand Officer, Kate Cronin is responsible for amplifying Moderna’s story and the promise of mRNA science for patients. 

Ms. Cronin joined Moderna from Ogilvy Health, part of WPP plc., where she served as Global CEO. In this role, she led the full spectrum of Ogilvy Health’s core capabilities including public relations and influence, brand strategy, advertising, medical education, market access, and patient and consumer engagement. Additionally, Ms. Cronin grew Ogilvy’s business in the health and wellness arena, encompassing a broad portfolio including pharmaceuticals, consumer health, insurance, hospitals, health technology and medical devices. Ms. Cronin led integrated campaigns involving social, digital, brand and public relations for Ogilvy’s largest, long-term health clients including BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck and Pfizer. 

Prior to her role as CEO, Ms. Cronin held numerous leadership roles within Ogilvy including Global Managing Director, Managing Director of Ogilvy Public Relations’ New York office, and most recently Co-President of Ogilvy Health in the United States. Before her 17-year tenure at Ogilvy, Ms. Cronin was a Partner at Porter Novelli. 

Before starting her career in communications, Ms. Cronin conducted research in the field of neurobiology at Cornell University Medical College. She coauthored several research articles focused on learning and memory and published in peer-reviewed publications. Ms. Cronin received a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Smith College. 

Once upon a time, Oriel was a chef. But, after tiring of the long hours and intense pressure he got into advertising. He started his career in New Zealand at Special Group and Colenso BBDO before moving to the US, where he spent time at Droga5 and Spotify before joining the Mother family as Chief Creative Officer of the New York office. 

He has won 100+ awards for his work on global brands, nonprofits, social justice initiatives and failed Presidential campaigns. He is the founder of Corpleisure, a work-from-home-wear brand and ONE School, the first free, online portfolio program for aspiring Black creatives. Established in 2020, ONE School has graduated 130+ students to date, who are working in some of the industry's best creative departments. He lives in New York with his family. 

Marc-Antoine leads marketing and communications strategy for Accenture globally. Before joining the company, he spent over twenty years in advertising, with clients ranging from high luxury to high technology. Along the way, his work won two Cannes Grand Prix, three Effies, and seventy-plus lions and other awards for iconic campaigns like ‘Shot on iPhone’ for Apple or ‘core values’ for Louis Vuitton. 

At Accenture, his role spans from research to content and editorial strategy, talent brand, and strategic planning. Though he dropped out of his Ph.D., Marc-Antoine never abandoned his passion for social sciences, and now he is combining it with technology to inform better, more effective ideas and programs. 

 

Jacki Kelley is Chief Executive Officer of dentsu Americas and Chief Global Client Officer. Jacki joined dentsu in 2019 as President, Chief Client Officer, dentsu. She has management oversight of dentsu and its award-winning agency brands in the Americas, and oversees a global portfolio of strategic clients, building and growing relationships with the world's leading companies to drive client value and co-innovation.     

Jacki has been a recognized and lauded leader in the advertising and media industries for over 25 years. Prior to dentsu, Jacki spent five years at Bloomberg, first joining as COO of Bloomberg Media in 2014 and then moving to Bloomberg LP in 2017 after being appointed Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Bloomberg, Kelley was the CEO, North America, and President of Global Clients for IPG Mediabrands as well as Global CEO, Universal McCann. She was also a Vice President, Worldwide Strategy & Solutions, at Yahoo! and worked with USA Today for 18 years, leaving the company as a Senior Vice President.    

Jacki is Chair of the Ad Council’s Board of Directors and serves on the board of FreshPet. She has been honored with the United Way of New York City’s Power of Women to Make a Difference Award. She was named a Matrix Award Honoree by New York Women in Communications; Advertising Woman of the Year by the Advertising Women of New York; a New York Women in Film & Television Muse Award Honoree; and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement. She has been honored as one of Crain’s New York Business’s 50 Most Powerful Women in New York and Advertising Age’s 100 Most Influential Women in Advertising, as well as number one on Business Insider’s 30 Most Powerful Women in Advertising list.

Eileen Kiernan is the Global CEO of IPG Mediabrands, and is responsible for the vision, strategy, and performance of the media and marketing solutions division of IPG, and its 18,000 employees across 130 countries.

Previously, she served as the Global CEO of award-winning IPG Mediabrands agency, UM. With more than 25 years of experience spanning brand stewardship, integrated marketing, creative strategy, business development and team leadership, Eileen brings a rich blend of purposedriven creativity, innate curiosity, and diversity of thought to her role. Eileen has worked on many internationally recognized efforts, including J&J’s Grand Prix-winning documentary, 5B, and served as a juror for award ceremonies around the world, including Cannes Media Lions and Festival of Media Global. She was named a 2022 Campaign Female Frontier Award Honoree and a 2016 Media All-Star by Adweek. Originally from Ireland, Eileen holds degrees from University College Dublin and Pace University. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, Denis, daughter, Grace, and their many four-legged friends.

Sarah Long is Chief Marketing Officer at WhistlePig Whiskey, the global industry leader of the luxury rye whiskey category.  In her role as CMO, Sarah brings 20 years of brand management, marketing, sales and innovation experience to lead the strategy and growth plan for the WhistlePig portfolio of exceptional whiskeys.   

Prior to WhistlePig, Sarah served as CMO at Mars Wrigley and Rémy Cointreau respectively where she oversaw their respective multi-billion dollar portfolios of iconic global brands in North America. Over her career, Sarah has held several leadership positions across marketing, sales and innovation at Diageo  North America, Molson Coors Brewing Company and Procter & Gamble.  

Among her many achievements growing brands, Long was named Campaign US’ 50 Trailblazing Marketers and Brand Innovators’ Top 100 Women in Brand Marketing, she is also a Marketing Academy Fellow. 

 

Matthew started his career working in family business with his dad, and since built a 30-year track record of impact and results across the consumer the packaged goods industry. Most recently he completed his tenure as CEO of Ben & Jerry’s & executive board member, where he led his team to grow the iconic business over 30%, become the #1 packaged ice cream brand in the US, and become parent Unilever’s newest €1+ billion global brand. He led the business to thrive through huge disruptions of the last several years and redoubled the company’s commitment to its long standing social mission. Under Matthew’s leadership Ben & Jerry’s has proven repeatedly the importance of driving corporate purpose in delivering sustained financial performance through addressing real climate and social justice issues…and that you can have fun along the way. Matthew has long been a champion of equity, founding Unilever’s Men As Allies group for gender equity, and making racial equity and inclusion core to Ben & Jerry’s growth vision. 

Prior, Matthew was Vice President of Unilever’s Foods division in North America, where he also sat on the US country board. In his 26 years with Unilever, Matthew has led a number of classic and entrepreneurial brands across the Foods, Nutrition and Personal Care divisions, including Hellmann’s, Knorr, AXE, Dove & Dove Men+Care. Matthew led Men’s Grooming for Unilever NA which included the acquisition of Dollar Shave Club and the launch of many successful personal care innovation platforms. 

Matthew is known for his down-to-earth and human-centered leadership. Often quoted “compassion is a business imperative,” Matthew’s consistent prioritization of coaching and mentoring are at the heart of who he is as a leader. His results in building talent, a relentless dissatisfaction for the status quo and constructive criticism of old-power corporate structures are hallmarks Matthew’s impact to date. Matthew and his wife Lisa are passionate animal wellfare advocates, and Lisa herself is a leader in wildlife conservation with her 30+ years at the Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society. Matthew’s work and that of his teams has received numerous industry recognitions including Cannes Gold Lion, One Show Gold Pencil, IAB MIXX; Matthew received Adweek’s Brand Genius award, Fast Company’s Most Creative, Columbia Business School’s Bernstein Center Botwinick Prize in Business Ethics, and Adobe MAX Creative Luminary. 

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. 

Aki is currently an Advisor and Jury Chair for the NYFestivals’ AME Awards first-ever Equality category. He actively co-chairs the Cultural Collective committee with ANA AIMM (Alliance for Inclusive Multicultural Marketing) where he has recently shaped industry guidance on “embedding inclusive norms into the creative process end-to-end.” And he is a Trustee for Advertising Research Foundation (ARF). 

He was previously Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Digital Officer of TBWA/Chiat/Day NYC, and prior to that Director of Digital Strategy at Fallon Worldwide spanning a career servicing clients like Nissan, Hilton, Adidas, Apple, GM, H&R Block and McDonalds. 

Aki has been featured at conferences across 4A’s (Planning-ness, Advertising Week), AMA (Multicultural Marketing Conference), AIMM (Member Forum), Chief Digital Officer (CDX) Forum, and The Economist’s Commercialising Quantum. He has been published in journals like Fast Company, AdMap, The Economist, and The Age of Conversation books. His work has been awarded by Cannes, Effies, AdFed, and Google Creative Canvas. He has also taught the first e-Marketing curriculum at University of Minnesota. And he was most recently noted as one of Campaign Magazine's "40-Over-40" Digital Marketers.