Important update: Mumbrella CommsCon postponed

Sarah Trombetta is Chief Executive Officer of Red Havas Australia, responsible for leading PR, social and experiential teams across the company’s offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

With almost 20 years PR & Advertising industry experience in Asia, Europe and Australia, Sarah leverages award-winning credentials and diverse communication experience building global brands – including P&G, HSBC, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Facebook, Ford and GSK – to continually innovate and integrate Red Havas’ specialist services at scale, including its Social and BLVD divisions with content and technology offerings.

Before joining Red Havas, Sarah was CEO at WPP’s advertising agency Grey Group Hong Kong. It was awarded Creative Agency of the Year under her leadership and innovated its end-to-end marketing services solutions for Greater China’s largest clients. Bringing social commerce, advertising, PR, retail and activation specialists together with data at its core, the agency earned industry recognition for winning an unfair share of cultural conversation and conversion to grow brands and white space launches.

Prior to that, Sarah held leadership roles at global public relations and integrated communications agency, H+K Strategies. She served as Marketing Communications Practice Director for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong, elevating creative ambition and executional excellence for the region’s Top 20 clients and integrating the network’s crisis, corporate and social services to simplify solutions. Before that, Sarah was Board Director at H+K Strategies London leading the company’s fastest growing division with holistic award-winning campaigns, including P&G’s ‘Thank you Mom’ London 2012 Olympics Cannes Gold Integrated Lion winner.

With a firm eye on innovating for the future, Sarah is active within the local and international business community. Her relentless commitment to developing the next generation of leaders and creative ambition to collaborate with clients that push culture forward have shaped her contributions as Executive Committee Member of The American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s Hong Kong), Executive Committee Member at Hong Kong Baptist University (Graduate Career Board) and member of The Marketing Society APAC.

In 2017, Alex joined Red Agency as its first national Head of Strategy. Fascinated by culture and how it can engage and influence behaviour, Alex works with different client teams to ensure every idea is grounded in strong insights. He also plays a key role in the vision and positioning of the agency itself.

Alex started his career in London at Brands2Life, one of the UK’s most award-winning consultancies. After learning the industry ropes, he made the move to New Zealand, where he worked on digital strategy for a wide range of projects from full social media campaigns and mobile app launches through to experiential marketing projects. He feels lucky to have worked on clients such as DHL (sponsorship of Rugby World Cup 2011), 2degrees Mobile (a new telco that he helped take from 0 to 11% market share in less than two years) and Contiki. Whilst in New Zealand, Alex also completed AWARD School, to broaden his knowledge of other marcomms disciplines.

His next move was to Japan, where he established and ran the digital practice for Edelman, Campaign Asia’s 2012 Japanese Agency of the Year. Whilst there, Alex worked on pan-regional campaign for clients like HP and Hilton HHonors (Hilton Worldwide’s loyalty program). He was also the youngest member of the Edelman Japan management team.

Since 2013, Alex has been based in Sydney, including stints leading social strategy for Heineken’s global Open Your City campaign and setting up the native advertising offer at publisher, Bauer Media.

Alex takes a keen interest in developing the next generation of talent, running internal workshops and also teaching at AdSchool’s Strategic Planning course.

Lindsay Walters is VP, U.S. Public Affairs at Edelman in Washington, D.C. She has worked at the highest levels of government and political campaigns as an on-the-record spokeswoman. With extensive knowledge of economic policy, international and legislative affairs and regulation, she advises clients on messaging development, media relations and public affairs issues.

Lindsay joins Edelman after serving as the White House Deputy Press Secretary – from January 2017 to April 2019 – where she focused on issues related to the Department of Commerce, Office of the United States Trade Representative, Department of the Treasury, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, National Foreign Trade Council, Office of Management and Budget, National Economic Council, Securities and Exchange Commission, Council of Economic Advisers, Small Business Administration, Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Labor. Lindsay also traveled extensively on behalf of the White House, managing press corps logistics and briefing reporters aboard Air Force One. In addition to speaking on-the-record, Lindsay managed the Press Assistants and oversaw the day-to-day operations of the White House Press Corps both domestically and internationally.

Prior joining the Trump Administration, Lindsay was the National Spokeswoman at the Republican National Committee during the 2016 Presidential election cycle. During her tenure at the RNC, she frequently appeared on television, and managed the press engagements for the chairman.

As Deputy Press Secretary for Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner and a member of his gubernatorial campaign, she oversaw strategic talking points, external communications and briefing materials. As Communications Director for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Lindsay crafted and briefed the director on strategic messaging and media engagements.

Lindsay began her career as working for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and as a consultant for Glover Park Group’s financial services practice.

She received degrees in business administration and communications from Drexel University.

Dany is a software engineer turned marketer who has been starting businesses since the age of 13. Throughout his career, Dany has worked at agencies, created an agency, consulted for global brands, and failed multiple startups before creating Koala with his childhood friend, Mitch Taylor.

Brendan O’Grady joined GMG as Group Communications Director in 2017 from FTSE 100 publisher and Financial Times owner Pearson, where he held a series of senior communications roles. Earlier in his career, he held communications roles at the British Embassy in Washington DC, and in the Downing Street Press Office in London under Prime Ministers Blair and Brown.

Georgia Wright joined CHE Proximity in 2018 and heads up their PR offering in her role as Director, PR. Before relocating to Australia, she held global PR roles at both Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi advertising networks. Passionate about the role PR can play in creative communications, over the last 14 years she has helped develop award-winning, highly effective campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Nike, Pepsi Max, American Express and Lynx.

Candice is the National Communications Manager at the United Nations Association of Australia and a Doctor of Behavioural Science. Passionate about the celerity and dynamics of social marketing, Candice has a strong interest in humanitarian, health and non-profit industries, the United Nations and international affairs. Her research focuses on spokesperson effects, the psychology of decision-making, and the impact this may have on behavioural intentions. Candice has previously completed her Bachelor, Masters (with Distinction), and Ph.D. at the University of Newcastle and comes with a professional background in health, marketing & communications, and research.

Shouvik leads the Digital, Analytics and Content (DAC) team at Golin Singapore, spearheading its integrated communications efforts to help brands create greater relevance with their target audience and deliver business impact.

He has led multiple award-winning campaigns for brands including Twitter, LinkedIn, Porsche, Volvo Trucks, Heineken, Guinness, Nespresso, McDonald’s, Samsung, Panasonic and several Unilever brands.

With fifteen years of experience working across public relations and creative agencies, Shouvik’s current focus is to explore how brands can take a progressive earned-first approach in communication by combining data, analytics and creative thinking.

Shouvik holds a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Calcutta, India and a Post Graduate Diploma in Mass Communication and Public Relations from GTTI, India.

He has been on the PR Jury at Cannes Lions 2019, and PR and Glass jury at Spikes Asia 2019. He is a travel enthusiast with a passion for photography. Taking long walks in the nature parks with his dog Tara help fuel his creative spirit.

Jason co-founded and leads PwC’s behavioural economics practice, a multidisciplinary team of social and behavioural scientists who help clients achieve better behavioural outcomes. Jason has a PhD in economics, focused on human decision making. He is a founding columnist of Behavioral Scientist, and is organiser of the Sydney Behavioural Economics and Behavioural Science Meetup. He blogs at jasoncollins.blog.

Prior to joining PwC, Sonia spent more than a decade in PR, where she held senior agency leadership roles and directed award-winning campaigns which spanned consumer brand building to corporate reputation management.

Most of all, Sonia loves speaking about herself in the third person – because she can make outrageous claims (like she invented the press release) and no one can question them.

Matt is Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director of paid, owned and earned PR agency Poem. With 16-years experience in London and Sydney at innovative agencies and with clients at the forefront of brand entertainment, he’s passionate about placing PR thinking at the start of the creative process. Ideas focused on human insights and emotion that move people to take action.

The creative PR agency Poem has had a rapid rise, with Sony PlayStation, Wotif, Movember and adidas, just some of the high-profile brands that they’ve produced content-led campaigns for.

His campaigns have been recognised by over a dozen awards at the likes of Cannes Lions, AWARD Awards, Mumbrella, CommsCon, Effies and Spikes Asia.

Katie is Content Business Director, carries out key senior leadership role and leads Poem Studio – a content team of internal and external creatives, producers and content creators. She has just over 9 years of agency and in-house experience in the Australian market. Working on integrated campaigns early in her career helped spark her passion for non-traditional PR work and when Samsung snapped her up as their Senior PR Manager, it provided her with invaluable knowledge of global marketing team operations within a brand team. Katie is passionate about all things content, campaign integration and process efficiencies, whilst also being a big advocate of removing PR stigmas and opening minds on what defines modern PR. She has worked on award-winning content-led campaigns and major brands such as Sony PlayStation, Qantas, Nike, Google, Meat and Livestock Australia, Tourism Australia, and Optus.

Bio coming soon…

TEDx speaker, awarded innovator, and mental health advocate Sean Hall has built his career on being an energising force of change for individuals, teams and brands. And it all started as a lycra clad aerobics instructor in New Zealand.

Over the course of two decades of leadership in both customer and employee experience, Sean has five world firsts in bringing tech innovations to life, run a $10B telecommunications brand impacting 16 million customers, and designed culture strategy and strategic transformation programs for 40,000 employees. He’s built two start ups and been employee #11 in another.

But perhaps most importantly, Sean learned why wellbeing is important the hard way by suffering burnout, or what he calls an energy crisis, twice in three years.

As Chief Energist of wellbeing company Energx he works with global brands like Facebook, Unilever, Deloitte, Google, Intuit, Contiki and AON who believe their most valuable asset is the collective energy and creativity of their people.

I’m an award-winning brand strategist with a background in consumer trends.

I have won the following strategy awards for my thinking: 3x Australian Effies (1x Gold & 2x Bronze), Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lion (Gold), 2x Euro Effies (Grand Prix & Gold), 4x North American Effies (incl. 1x Gold, 2x Silver), IPA Effectiveness Award (Sliver) & 3x APG Creative Strategy Awards (Gold, 2x Silvers).

(www.slideshare.net/mattspringate)

Specialties: Brand positioning, cultural research, naming, creative development, consumer trends, brand strategy, qualitative research, writing (published in Campaign UK & US, Admap & New Statesman), youth culture.

As General Manager of Eleven, Fiona has led some of the agency’s bravest and most awarded work including ANZ GAYTMs, Krispy Kreme American Classics, M.J. Bale Unsuitable Journey and Gatorade Bolt Rate.

Fiona has an innate understanding of how to create culture and craft hero campaigns that cut through locally and globally.

With nearly 15 years’ experience in the industry, Fiona has held senior positions in London and Sydney working on brands such as British Airways, P&G, Campari Group and Tourism New Zealand.

Bio coming soon…

Richard Brett has over 20 years’ experience of marketing communications, brand strategy and communications agency leadership. His passions including using public relations and social media to lead integrated campaigns, outcome based measurement and using new technology to drive innovative creativity for brands.

Richard is currently CEO for opr, working across all the opr businesses to deliver stand out, effective campaigns for clients such as eBay, Netflix, Ford, Microsoft, Atlassian, KFC and IKEA. The agency was named Sabre’s 2019 Australasian Agency of the Year, and Richard was named CommsCon’s Leader of the Year 2019.

Richard also leads opr’s annual thought leadership platform ‘Futures’, which outlines forthcoming insights that will impact Australian business, government, brands and organisations. In the last two years Futures has been presented to over 70 different organisations and almost 4000 people across Australia and New Zealand.

Before becoming CEO, Richard spent four years as managing director of the brand marketing team of opr – Pulse Communications. During Richard’s tenure the Pulse team won or was shortlisted for over 30 awards including being named CommsCon Highly Commended Agency of the Year 2016.

Previously Richard was managing director of Shine Communications in London between 2009 and 2013, and global VP of marketing communications for Samsonite between 2006 and 2009.

Richard has been shortlisted or received over 120 awards for his work. He has an MBA in Management from Imperial College London.

Bridget Jung joined opr as our first ever Executive Creative Director working across the breadth of briefs that the agency works on from consumer, to corporate, to government.

Bridget is a seasoned Creative Director with over 20 years experience and a background in Art Direction and Design. She’s at her best helping teams develop creative platforms that build brands, sell products and win awards. Today Bridget is excited about how creative thinking can make brands matter to their audiences.
Bridget recently moved back to Australia after spending the majority of her career in Europe where she was Chief Creative Officer of DigitasLBi Paris and Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne Paris. Before joining opr Bridget was most recently Creative Director at Marcel Sydney.
Bridget has judged numerous international award shows including Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, The Loeries, Art Directors Club, Clio Awards, IAB, Cresta Awards, Adfest and D&AD.

Bridget’s client experience includes: Hermès, Louis Vuitton, Lancôme, Tiger Beer, Berocca, Nescafé, Nissan, Renault, Dacia, Peugeot, Evian, Hennessy, Pernod Ricard, La Poste, Wonderbra, Nestlé and Mattel.

Joan is recognised as one of Australia’s leading social researchers. She has dedicated her career to working with government agencies to deliver better social outcomes. Joan regularly speaks at national and international conferences and is passionate about the potential for social research to create a better world.
Joan first joined Colmar Brunton to establish the Wellington Qualitative Unit and The Social Research Agency. She was made Joint Managing Director of the Wellington office then moved to Australia to establish Colmar Brunton’s government business which is now a leading supplier of social research for Australian government and not-for-profit agencies. She was appointed as Colmar Brunton’s CEO in 2010.

International student Arlian Ecker, who lives part-time in Austria and Australia is on a global mission to save the ocean from plastic pollution.  Since 2017, Arlian, known as ‘Plastic Free Boy’, has united hundreds of thousands of children in Australia and internationally by sharing his inspiring and educational documentary ‘Plastic Alarm’ in schools, showcasing the problems and solutions of plastic pollution.

He engages school children with his mission in protecting the ocean and our waterways, not only for marine animals but for future generations, by highlighting scientific facts such as microplastic and its effects on human health. 

Arlian’s ongoing film making campaign and international speaker engagements have been featured on national and international media on a number of occasions, he has been nominated for the ‘Green Globe Awards’ and has been named 2019 Youth Ambassador for ‘Clean Up Australia Day’ and ‘Ambassador for World Clean-Up Day’, which involved 21 million people globally last September. He was the youngest speaker ever at the last 2019 Asia Pacific Cities Summit and Mayor’s Forum connecting with 100 City Leaders and Delegates from the Asia Pacific Region and beyond.

Stu has more than 13 years experience developing and managing integrated communications campaigns for major brands in Australia and the UK.

His passion is solving complex business challenges with innovative thinking, creative ideas and robust execution.

As Herd MSL’s Strategy Director, Stu is responsible for providing strategic guidance and counsel to clients, driving innovation across the agency and supporting the Herd’s talented team.

In 2015, the Stay with Pride campaign Stu led for Airbnb won the brand its first ever Cannes Lion. In 2016, Stu was awarded PR Consultant (Agency) of the Year at the national CommsCon Awards.

Mel officially joined Optus in November 2016 and leads the team for all customer-facing marketing and engagement. A self-confessed tech-freak, she is renowned for creating impact for brands with bold and ambitious campaigns in complex and challenging environments.

Mel has extensive global experience working across a range of brands and sectors with executive roles both client and agency side. Most recently she spent 4 years as Global Head of Brand for Vodafone in London and has previously led brands such as Absolut Vodka, the British Army, Nestle and Fujitsu. Mel has lived and worked across Europe, Asia Pacific, the U.S and the Middle East.

Mel has been a guest lecturer at the London School of Economics; a contributor to Fast Company Magazine and a mentor to various U.S-based start-ups.

‌New business is a science for Julia Vargiu, founder of New Business Methodology and Australian Director of SI Partners, a global M&A consultancy advising creative and technology businesses to achieve maximum value for shareholders.

She is an international business-growth consultant, masterclass facilitator, keynote speaker and mentor.

For over 20 years she has advised a multitude of agency CEOs around the world to win more business from current and future clients – without relying on pitching.

This depth of knowledge and years of global industry data enables her to transform an agency’s ability to achieve fast-paced profitable growth.

A sought-after speaker on new business best practice and how to keep your pipeline full, she is the creator of New Business Mastery™ for Agencies, instilling commercial rigour into agencies’ efforts to ensure they are match-fit to win business.

By request Julia created Stakeholder Mastery™ for Marketers, advising marketing teams to better influence the motivations of their stakeholders.

Julia founded New Business Methodology in 1998, after relocating to Sydney from Manhattan with a broad background in advertising and marketing communications.

She’s is a native of San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. Alumni of Aiglon College, Switzerland. Danced regularly with RuPaul in Atlanta, before running away with the gypsies to become an actress. She then ran away from the gypsies to join a New York management consultancy.

organisations including Microsoft, eBay, Mars, AstraZeneca, 3M, Newcrest, Origin Energy and American Express.

Susan joined Edelman in 2020 to drive the reputation and public affairs practice. A trained facilitator, Susan brings a strong public affairs and advocacy skills set and many years of issues and crisis management experience, particularly in highly regulated and complex
stakeholder environments.

She has managed communications for clients on issues including product recalls, fraud, workplace accidents, regulatory breaches and data breaches.

Susan was previously Group Managing Director, Corporate for Ogilvy Public Relations, overseeing the Parker & Partners government affairs practice, Ogilvy Impact employee engagement firm and OPR’s crisis and issues unit.

She was previously a partner at independent agency SenateSHJ and held senior positions at ASIC and the NSW Business Chamber. She has won a range of national and international awards for her work with corporate, government and not-for-profit clients, and regularly speaks on guest lectures on issues and crisis communications.

Georgia Wright joined CHE Proximity in 2018 and heads up their PR offering in her role as Director, PR. Before relocating to Australia, she held global PR roles at both Proximity and Saatchi & Saatchi advertising networks. Passionate about the role PR can play in creative communications, over the last 14 years she has helped develop award-winning, highly effective campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, including Nike, Pepsi Max, American Express and Lynx.

Guy cut his teeth working at multinationals on Coca Cola, MasterCard and Microsoft. He joined Bashful in 2013 looking for a more entrepreneurial, independent and creative environment. He became a partner in 2015. He’s developed Effie winning campaigns for P&O, Spikes Grand Prix winning activations for The Star and APG winning innovations for Biozet Attack. Outside of work he obsesses over the novels of Nabokov, the backhand of Federer and the anthems of Paul Kelly.

Lija Wilson has worked for some of Australia’s biggest brands and businesses, with over 20 years experience in senior marketing roles, working predominately with digital remits.

She’s a passionate innovator and industry participant, having previously been named a top Top 40 under 40 Australian marketer, Jury Chair for the AMY Awards (2018), Flexible Work Day Ambassador (2019) and winner of the 2019 BeMPowered pitch competition for female entrepreneurs.

Lija spent 8 years with Fairfax Media working on a number of roles, including the Group Marketing Director for Transactional Businesses (including brands RSVP, Stayz, Domain, Drive, InvestSmart ). Following this role, she relocated to Melbourne for 5 years and worked with the Jetstar and Qantas businesses to establish their online hotels division and also spent a year as the Head of Marketing for TEDx Melbourne.

She launched Puffling in 2017 as a result of her personal experience returning to work and attempting to balance a senior level role with children on a flexible basis.Flexibility, gender diversity and inclusion are the drivers behind the launch of Puffling.

Puffling has won a number of awards for it’s success in diversity and championing innovation in flexible work.

Kim McKay is an entrepreneurial leader and founder of Klick X, one of Asia-Pacific’s most awarded agencies. Kim has pioneered multi-disciplinary campaigns creating digital, social, data and mobile experiences for brands across luxury, travel, hospitality, entertainment and consumer portfolios.

With a proven track record, honed over more than two decades and her strong commercial instincts and broad business prospective, Kim is able to design and drive campaigns that position brands exactly where they want to be.

A passionate technology advocate, Kim’s current trend obsessions are Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Work.

Darren Woolley is considered a thought leader on all aspects of marketing management. A Problem Solver, Negotiator, Founder & Global CEO of TrinityP3 – Marketing Management Consultants, founding member of the Marketing FIRST Forum, Industry Commentator and Author. He is also a Past-Chair of the Australian Marketing Institute, Past President of the Melbourne Advertising & Design Club, Ex-Medical Scientist and Ex-Creative Director.

Nathan Hodges has consulted to over 150 of the world’s most successful marketing organisations.

He has solved problems, led change and re-engineered structures and processes for clients as diverse as Coca-Cola, the Ministry of Sound, Australia Post, ANZ Bank, Bankwest, Sony, The Iconic, NAB, Lendlease, the UK Labour Party, Optus, the Federal Government, Telstra and Qantas.

As TrinityP3’s Managing Director, for the last ten years Nathan has led the specialist consultant team in the alignment of marketing culture, strategy, structure and process, in roster management and agency remuneration, and in marketing team capability and behavioural change.

For around 15 years, reputation expert Gerry McCusker has been analysing, documenting and weirdly entertained by brand and business PR disasters.

As the author of the pop-academic text and blog ‘Public Relations Disasters’ (Kogan Page, 2005), he has closely studied the hidden characteristics of those brands that all too regularly face PR flak.

In fact, most of Gerry’s PR and crisis consultancy work has been for brands that are not exactly ‘lovemarks’.

Now he’s written a new book about the phenomenon of “tough-to-love” brands – organisations that ban, deny, enforce, govern, legislate, police and tax – and he’s got a checklist inventory to help you spot if you deal with, or work for, a ‘tough-to-love” organisation.

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Gerry has published insights and articles for the AFR, IPRA, Mumbrella, B&T, Marketing Magazine. He is the creator of trans-media crisis simulator, The Drill.

www.thedrill.com.au

Annabel has over 10 years’ experience in social marketing, holding roles across various industries including FMCG, telecommunications, technology and aviation both client-side and agency-side. She has been at Coca-Cola South Pacific for the past 6 years where she built their social media function from the ground up including the development and management of the Coca-Cola Social Centre, an end to end social media capability from strategy through to content production and community management. Annabel is responsible for building social media capability and performance across Coca-Cola’s portfolio of brands and corporation.

Simon loves words, ideas and nachos. After working as a copywriter for some of Sydney’s leading ad agencies, he has now carved out a niche as a social creative specialist.

Since starting as the lead social creative at Coca-Cola, their reactive content has been picked up by the likes AdNews and Mumbrella and Fanta was nominated for Best Social Media Campaign at the 2019 CommsCon awards.