JUDGES

Bob was named Managing Director, Global Advertising in September 2006.   In this new role, Bob’s first responsibility was to launch an integrated global advertising campaign introducing the new company name ‘Citi’. Ongoing, Bob, in partnership with the businesses, regions and markets, is responsible for ensuring creative excellence, effectiveness and consistency in all customer/client-facing communications. Prior to joining Global Marketing, Bob served as the Chief Marketing Officer for the U.S. Cards business.

Prior to Citi, he was a Senior Vice President at SS+K, an integrated marketing company where he worked with clients such as The Lance Armstrong Foundation, Time Warner Cable and Chubb Insurance. Prior to SS+K, Bob worked at Pizza Hut, Inc. as the Director of Advertising. During his tenure at Pizza Hut, he helped to re-launch the brand and introduce Stuffed Crust Pizza, which, in its first year, became a billion dollar brand. Additionally, Bob worked at top advertising agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and Hill, Holliday - working with prestige clients such as Infiniti, Revlon, PaineWebber and Mexico Tourism.

Sandy heads up the growing Nokia Interactive Asia Pacific from Singapore, driving business development opportunities across the region. He enables Nokia services, leading publishers, and Telco’s to build revenues from marketing services.  He also helps drive mobile strategies for numerous media brands. He has a strong background in business development in both telecommunications and media.  Sandy was voted to the Global Top Mobithinkers List for 2009 and was Chair of the MMA Asia Pacific in 2007, and now serves on the MMA APAC board and as Chairman Emeritus.

Sandy joined Nokia Interactive when mobile advertising leader Enpocket was acquired by Nokia in October 2007. Sandy was managing director at Enpocket for the Asia Pacific region, and prior to that, held senior management positions at Star TV (Newscorp), ESPN, and Discovery Channel.

Nayantara joined Procter & Gamble India in 1988 and has worked across multiple categories and markets in Asia. She worked in India till 1999 on several new entries for P&G including Whisper sanitary napkins, Ariel and Tide detergents, and Camay toilet soaps.

Since leaving India in 1999 Nayantara worked as Regional Marketing Director for Hair Care ASEAN, Australasia and India and also Marketing Function Head for the region to develop core marketing capabilities for the company. In 2002 moved to Singapore as General Manager of P&G’s AAI Baby & Feminine Care businesses and later as Vice President of P&G’s Hair business. Most recently in July 2009, Nayantara was appointed Vice – President Asia Male Grooming business. Through her career Nayantara has a proven track record of brand building and retrieving businesses and teams from chronic issues to set them up for sustained turnaround and growth. Nayantara is an expert on low income markets. She is also passionate about diversity and developing Asian talent.

During her spare time Nayantara enjoys travelling, collecting art, reading, cooking gourmet meals, doing complicated crosswords, and planning fun family activities with her husband and 12 year old daughter.

 

Craig Briggs is Managing Director, Asia of Brandimage - Desgrippes & Laga.
 

As Managing Director, Asia, Briggs oversees all aspects of the Asia operations of Brandimage. He is based in Hong Kong. Briggs joined international branding and design firm Desgrippes Gobé Group in 2000, responsible for the Japan and Korea operations. Under his stewardship, he quickly expanded the company’s Asia network to include Hong Kong in 2001 and Shanghai in 2005. His remit has also included the diversification of the service offering in the company’s Asia operations, recently adding the design disciplines of environmental branding and corporate branding to complement the agency’s strong expertise on product branding.

Demonstrating the Asia network’s development over the last 5 years, core clients in the product branding area such as The Coca-Cola Company, CJ Corporation, Kimberly Clark and Danone have been complemented by new clients such as Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Philips, YGM Group, 7-Eleven, Dongwon, Godiva Chocolatier and McDonalds.

The agency represents clients and their brands in 11 countries in Asia, including Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines. Now with industrial design being added to the new company, Brandimage, Briggs sees another step change of opportunity to help Asian clients innovate and compete on a global stage.
 

Prior to joining Desgrippes Gobé Group, Briggs spent 16 years with McCann- Erickson WorldGroup. During his tenure, he worked in the USA, Hong Kong, Osaka and Tokyo. He is a recipient of the HK McCann Award for Leadership Excellence. Briggs is a graduate of the American Graduate School of International Management (AGSIM/Thunderbird, Arizona), and Auburn University (Alabama, USA).
 

Briggs’ interests go beyond a passion for brands. A passionate hobby is trekking. Despite growing up in the flattest state in the United States, Florida, he has hiked the tallest peaks in Asia – Mt. Fuji (Japan), Jade Mountain (Taiwan), and Mt. Kinabalu (Borneo), in addition to Mt. Kilimanjaro (Tanzania), Kala Patar (Nepal), and Mauna Kea (Hawaii).

Barry Cupples is the CEO of Omnicom Media Group Asia Pacific and oversees the overall operations for both the award-winning OMD and PHD brands in the region.

With over two decades of experience in the media arena, Barry first embarked on his media career at Grey in London in 1987, and after two years joined the London based media independent, AMS, as a Media Planner. He later joined a media house in London's west end and after surviving six fun-filled years in London’s Soho, left in 1995 as a Board Director to join Omnicom in Eastern Europe as one of the pioneers in the region, setting up Omnicom media operations. Under Barry’s leadership, OMD CEE grew to be a significant force. OMD Hungary was the third office to open globally, with Poland and Czech being fourth and fifth respectively.

After spending six years in central Europe, he left in 2000 to establish a content and sports rights company in partnership with Kirche Gruppe, Germany. In autumn 2001, he rejoined OMD to become CEO of the CEE region.  Under his management, OMD grew its position as the lead billing agency within the region and dominated the new business and Media awards tables across the region.  OMD CEE has been conferred several Cannes Lions and leads the Effies for the region regularly. Most recently, under Barry’s leadership, OMD Asia Pacific was crowned Agency of the year 2008.

Barry attended Holland Park School and Kingsway Princeton College where he enjoyed moderate success.

Based in Singapore, Barry is married with two daughters and enjoys spending time with his family and pursuing in his free time research for all things historical.

A keen competitor, Barry enjoys playing sports with friends and colleagues whenever possible.

Based in Hong Kong, Lynne Anne S. Davis is Regional President and Senior Partner of Fleishman-Hillard, overseeing its Asia Pacific operations, which include 13 wholly owned offices in nine countries. 

Ms. Davis joined Fleishman-Hillard at its U.S. headquarters in 1990 and later transferred to Asia in 1997 where she led the Hong Kong office as managing director. Fleishman-Hillard Hong Kong was named “Asia Pacific Consultancy of the Year” at the 2000 Asia PR Awards. 

Ms. Davis assumed regional responsibilities in 2001.   Since that time, the firm’s Asia Pacific business has more than tripled in size and is the fastest growing region in the company.

Recruiting and career development for the firm’s greatest asset – its talent – are among Ms. Davis’ chief responsibilities.  Since the beginning of 2007, the region’s business in APAC has grown 60%.  In 2004 and again in 2008, the firm was named “Asia Pacific Network of the Year”, among the highest honors in the Asia PR Awards competition, judged on extraordinary growth, client and employee retention and satisfaction, innovation, and service.

Fleishman-Hillard is a world-leading strategic communications consultancy specializing in change management, financial, public affairs, technology, healthcare, corporate and stakeholder communications, and crisis and issues management.  Ms. Davis has extensive experience counselling clients on corporate communications and stakeholder relations in the US and Asia.  She has provided issues and crisis-management consultation in a range of scenarios, such as high-profile boycotts, accidents, animal rights activism, multi-geographical product recalls, and regulatory challenges.

Ms. Davis holds a journalism degree, cum laude, from the University of Missouri.

Her other achievements include winning a CIPRA (Creativity in Public Relations Award) in 1996. In 2000, she received the John D. Graham Award for Excellence, which is Fleishman-Hillard's top honor for employees who demonstrate commitment to the firm’s values.  She was chosen to participate for three years in the Omnicom University Senior Management Program taught by Harvard Business School faculty members.

Ms. Davis’ public relations perspective on Asia-related industry issues has appeared in The Asian Wall Street Journal, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, PR Week, The Australian, Beijing's Capital Views, CNBC Asia “Squawkbox”, Korea’s Chosun Ilbo, and the Dow Jones newswire.

She is married with two young sons who keep her life as full of adventure at home as it is at work. 
 

Dirk is an idealist who dreams of playing guitar for a good cause. For the moment however, he dedicates his passion and creativity to interactive advertising and brand experiences in digital media.

In his role as Executive Creative Director and Managing Partner of Tribal DDB Asia Pacific, Dirk leads the creative product for Tribal’s 17 offices across the region. His award-winning work includes online, offline and through the line campaigns for clients such as Unilever, Pepsico, Philips, Volkswagen, Audi, Adidas, DHL, Motorola and Nokia. Dirk and his creative teams have been honored at many local, regional and international creative award shows, winning the first Cannes Cyber Lion and D&AD Pencil for China.

Originally from Munich in Germany, Dirk has been calling Asia home for over a decade. He lives in Beijing and when he has time to spare, he judges advertising award shows, speaks at industry conferences and seminars and leads lectures and workshops for young Chinese advertising and design students. He is an occasional runner and partner in Yugong Yishan, China’s best club for live music.

Paul joined Ogilvy & Mather London as a graduate trainee in 1987 where he worked on Lucozade, Shell and Guinness.

After stints at Lintas, Y&R and Brazilian internet company, IG, Paul returned to Ogilvy & Mather in Hong Kong in 2003. In January 2006, Paul was invited to lead the Advertising unit of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific. Under Paul’s leadership, Ogilvy & Mather Advertising achieved record growth in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and won Media Magazine’s Network of The Year for three consecutive years. In January 2009, Paul assumed the new role of CEO for Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific, the region’s leading marketing communications group with 124 offices in 19 countries, 29 cities and over 6,000 employees.

Paul was appointed to the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Board of Directors in April 2009.

 Susan assumed her current position in 2007 and is responsible for driving Standard Chartered’s brand strategy and agenda across the bank’s footprint in over 70 markets. Her role encompasses all corporate advertising and sponsorships, the bank’s corporate identity and how it is presented across customer touchpoints, as well as internal brand-building initiatives to embed the brand and values amongst its employees.

Since joining Standard Chartered in 2000, Susan has held a number of international positions based in Hong Kong, Singapore and London, including management of the bank’s websites, Consumer Banking marketing, Executive Assistant to the Group CEO and Head of the Creative Industries Group in Wholesale Banking. Susan pioneered film-financing projects on behalf of the bank, including Zhang Yimou’s Curse of the Golden Flower, John Woo’s Red Cliff and The Weinstein Brothers’ Asian Film Fund.

Prior to banking, Susan began her career in advertising, working for Wunderman, Young & Rubicam in New York and Foote, Cone & Belding Asia Pacific.

A native of Malaysia, Susan is also an accomplished pianist and holds a degree in Piano Performance in addition to Marketing.

Keith Smith graduated from Durham University gaining a BA in Politics/Law and obtained a Master degree in Business Studies in 1972.

From 1972 to 1981, he worked at a number of agencies – DDB London, McCann Erickson (London) and Grey Advertising (London) as head of the P&G business.

In October 1983, Keith became a Partner in Holmes Knight Ritchie/WRG which later became TBWA/Holmes Knight Ritchie in 1989. The most significant business coup was to win the Playtex Wonderbra advertising for the Agency. The Ads presented were the 3 that won the business and became “European Campaign of the Year in 1994.

In October 1996 Keith moved to Hong Kong to set up the regional network in Asia/Pacific for TBWA which now has 258 offices in 75 countries.

TBWA Asia/Pacific was voted Regional Network of the Year for 2004 and 2005 by Media Magazine.

In December 2006 Keith was named President International of the TBWA Group with responsibility for Europe, Africa, Middle-East and Asia-Pacific and was voted Asia-Pacific Advertising Agency Man of the Year for 2007 by Media Magazine.

As a passionate senior executive and entrepreneur, Paul Hu is acknowledged for ground breaking efforts in driving marketing and sales initiatives that build brands and propel sales growth. Career reflects success in corporate world and entrepreneurship. As head of Volkswagen brand marketing, he oversees the full spectrum of Volkswagen’s marketing activities in mainland China and Hong Kong ensuring the continuing success of the brand.  His responsibilities cover advertising, media, digital, retail marketing and trade fairs across the networks. Previously, Paul Hu was managing director of an integrated marketing agency in the Ogilvy Group China and Head of Marketing Programs and Corporate Communication at Northwest Airlines in China.

Based at the corporate headquarters of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts in Hong Kong, Brendan is the group’s Vice President – Brand Communications. He is responsible for driving brand identity globally, overseeing the brand communication strategy, standards and guidelines for all brands and product lines.

Brendan joined Shangri-La in 2000 and prior to that, held various senior hotel marketing positions in Australia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and China. He has been based in Asia for the past 16 years

An experienced hotel marketer, Brendan’s professional responsibilities have expanded his knowledge in the areas of brand management, communications, and delivery of the brand promise.

Mark joined SABMiller in 1997 as Marketing Director of SAB Europe, and was extensively involved in the acquisition of Pilsner Urquell. In 1999, he was appointed MD of Pilsner Urquell International, and following the formation of the Group Marketing function in 2002, he was appointed to manage SABMiller’s portfolio of international brands. In December 2003 this role was broadened to include an M&A brief and he was appointed to International Business Development Director. In November 2005, following the acquisition of Bavaria, he was appointed Senior VP Marketing based in Colombia with responsibility for overall marketing strategy across Latin America.

In September 2008, Mark was appointed to his current role as Commercial Director Asia, overseeing SABMiller Sales & Marketing functions in the region. These include China, India, Vietnam & Australia.

Prior to joining SABMiller, Mark spent 2 years with BAT in a variety of Marketing Director roles based in Latin America, and 9 years with Fosters Brewing Group in the UK, latterly as both Strategy Director and then Brands Marketing Director.

Michael is President of JWT. He joined JWT in 1990 as Chairman and CEO of JWT Germany, based in Frankfurt.   In 1993 he also took on the role of Area Director Central and Eastern Europe before becoming President of Europe, Middle East and Africa in 1997. Michael is a member of the Board of the J. Walter Thompson Company, New York and a member of the Office of the Chief Executive.

Before joining JWT, Michael worked for Young & Rubicam for some 13 years.   He joined Y&R Frankfurt as a trainee and worked his way to Account Director before moving to Vienna, his birthplace, in 1978 as Chairman. In 1983 he returned to Y&R Frankfurt as Executive Director and General Manager.

In 1985 Michael was hired by Ted Bates Werbagentur, Frankfurt as Chairman where he remained before moving to JWT.

Michael has a degree in economics from the University of Vienna. He is married with three children.

A graduate in commerce from Birmingham University Mark began his media career in London as a marketing and then sales executive with a leading billboard contractor (now Clear Channel).

In late 1988 he joined Ogilvy & Mather London as a media planner and progressed over the next 7 years to the position of Media Group Director. In his time there managed clients including Ford, Compaq, Microsoft. Unilever and American Express .

Mark moved on to join a medium sized media agency 20:20 Media as deputy managing director, becoming managing director four months later. Clients included Daimler Chrysler, Nortel Networks, Financial Times and Seiko.

In October 2000 Mark moved to Tokyo to take on the role of CEO of MindShare Japan and worked with the team there in establishing MindShare as the first major media agency in Japan focusing on media planning

In 2002 Mark’s role extended to CEO North Asia and in mid 2003 he relocated to Hong Kong managing China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.

In 2005 Mark was appointed as CEO GroupM North Asia and then to COO GroupM Asia Pacific in 2007 and last June to the role of CEO GroupM Asia Pacific with responsibility for all WPP’s media assets in the region including MindShare, MediaEdge:CIA (MEC), MediaCom and MAXUS with combined billings of over US$10bn (RECMA).

Mark is Hong Kong based.

Graduated from University of Auckland, New Zealand with a Bachelor of Laws.
 

Kevin began his advertising career as an Account Executive at Charles Haines (now
FCB) in Auckland in 1978. In 1983, he joined Colenso Communications (BBDO), the
largest agency in New Zealand, as an Account Director and rose to General
Manager of the agency. In 1989, with three partners, he founded his own boutique
agency Angles and as Managing Partner built it into New Zealand’s largest fully
independent agency. In 1992, Angles was merged with J. Walter Thompson New
Zealand, and Kevin was appointed Managing Director. He then took on various
senior positions with J. Walter Thompson in the U.S., Australia, and Asia Pacific,
latterly as Asia Pacific President. In 2002, after three years of leadership in the
region, J. Walter Thompson was named Asia Pacific Network of the Year.
 

In 2003, Kevin left J. Walter Thompson and, after a short stint with M&C Saatchi as
President of Asia, he joined McCann Erickson Japan as Representative Director,
President & CEO. In July 2007, he was appointed Regional Director of McCann
Erickson Asia Pacific. Under his leadership McCann in the region has seen a
resurgence in its profile, new business success and creative product. In 2008 the
network enjoyed unprecedented success in the Agency of the Year Awards; rose to
an all time high creative ranking of 4, was the most awarded agency at the Asian
Interactive Awards, and topped the Asia Pacific new business league.
 

January 2010 saw Kevin appointed Chairman and CEO, Publicis Asia Pacific.
 

Outside of advertising Kevin’s passion is rugby. He played for Auckland, the top
New Zealand province, in the late seventies and early eighties. More latterly he has
been a consultant to both the New Zealand and Japanese Rugby Unions. His latest
project has been assisting the JRU with its successful bid for the 2019 Rugby World
Cup.

A 20-year veteran of Grey Group, Nirvik Singh was appointed to lead Grey Kolkata at the age of 26 by Grey India’s Founder CEO, Ravi Gupta. In short order, the agency grew to become the city’s second largest, producing some of India’s most path-breaking campaigns and winning Agency of the Year four consecutive times. 

Singh became the head of Grey India at 33 and championed its transformation, turning it into a profitable, high-profile total communications company with offices in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata. Grey is now one of the top five agencies in India and its re-engineering is a B-school case study in success.

Singh became COO of Grey South Asia in 1997, and took on further responsibility of leading Grey’s South East Asian operations in 2005. Singh spearheaded the agency’s expansion into Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Vietnam, and was instrumental in the agency’s growth and resurgence in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

Taking on the additional role of CEO of G2 Asia Pacific in 2007, Singh made major strides in building the network’s activation marketing capabilities. Singh led premier acquisitions such as Star Echo in China and Rams in India, recruited new talent and achieved significant growth in the region.

Business Today, a leading business magazine in India, honoured Singh as one of 25 young rising stars in India, and Media magazine in Asia named Singh Agency Head of the Year – National. Singh also received the Bharat Nirman Rattan Award from the National Integration and Economic Council for outstanding individual achievements and distinguished services to India, among many other awards. Under Singh’s stewardship, Grey India won Agency of the Year at the 2007 Brand Asia Summit Awards, while Grey Bangladesh won Agency of the Year for Bengali Advertising five consecutive times.

Singh was elevated to the current position of Chairman & CEO of Grey Group Asia Pacific in January 2009. Today, Grey Group Asia Pacific, which includes Grey and G2, delivers best-in-class communications across channels and continually breaks new ground in brand experience and building relationships.

Nancy L. Smith is President and CEO of Analytic Partners. Nancy founded Analytic Partners in 2000, and under her leadership, AP has grown from one person with a business plan in 2000 to a global provider of analytic services to with approximately 100 employees. Analytic Partners maintains offices in New York City, Cincinnati, and Dublin, Ireland and Singapore.
 

Prior to founding Analytic Partners, Nancy was a Senior Manager in Market Research for Clairol (now: P&G). Prior to joining Clairol, Nancy was a Senior Manager at ASI Market Research (now: Ipsos-ASI). Nancy's experience at Clairol and ASI gave her insights and perspective from both the client-side and supplier-side of the marketing research industry, and motivated her to start Analytic Partners to fill a need in the marketplace.

Nancy earned a B.S. degree in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany, and an M.B.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management.

Nancy is an active member of the Advertising Research Foundation and has served as a judge for the Ogilvy Awards. Nancy is also a member of the prestigious Market Research Council.

 Adrian Toy is Regional VP of Marketing for Bausch & Lomb, the world’s leading eye health company. Based in HK, Adrian is responsible for the company’s marketing activities including go-to-market strategy, consumer and customer marketing, advertising, new products, research and interactive in the Asia-Pacific region including Japan across the following brands: ReNu, Medalist, Soflens, PureVision, Boston Solutions.

Adrian has over 12 years of experience in Asia Pacific and he is passionate about integrating technology, data and marketing to deliver business outcomes which has led him on a journey through direct marketing, CRM, digital media and now overall marketing function in both agency and client side.

Prior to joining Bausch & Lomb, Adrian was the Regional Director of Interactive at Universal McCann, and before that, Adrian was the Regional Head of Interactive at Johnson & Johnson VisionCare in Asia. 

He has also held several leadership roles across GE’s financial services and healthcare business units in Europe, Asia and Australia focused on marketing strategy and new product introduction.

He also holds a Six Sigma Black Belt, where he has worked on many projects to drive efficiency and effectiveness in the business.

Chris graduated from Bristol University with a joint honors degree in History and English.  He entered the advertising business at Dorlands in 1984 where he worked on Heinz and BT. In 1987, he joined Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO as an account manager where he spent the next ten years. During this time, he worked across a broad range of the agency’s clients including Volvo Cars, Smiths Crisps, The Leeds Permanent Building Society, Cellnet, and the Health Education Authority.   When he left the agency he had been new business director for three years.

In 1997, Chris joined Ammirati Puris Lintas as Managing Director. Two years later, Ammirati Puris Lintas merged with Lowe Howard-Spink, and Chris was appointed Managing Director of the newly formed Lowe Lintas. The merger created a top 5 UK agency. In the year after the merger, Lowe Lintas was awarded Campaign Agency of the Year in 2000 and European Agency of the Year.

Chris was appointed Chief Executive of Lowe Lintas in April 2001 and worked on a range of the agency’s clients including Vauxhall, Nestlé, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, HSBC and Braun to name a few.

In September 2003, he was appointed Chief Executive of Proximity London, which is the leading integrated, direct and digital agency in the United Kingdom. The agency has more than 250 employees and a client list including Sainsbury’s, the BBC, Shell, Masterfoods and VW. During his tenure at Proximity, the agency was the third most awarded direct agency in the world, top of the UK client satisfaction survey and voted IPA’s Best of the Best Integrated Agency.

In January 2006, Chris was appointed Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of BBDO Asia. He is responsible for all of BBDO’s advertising and Proximity’s integrated, direct and digital business in Asia.

Clients include SingTel, HP, Pepsi, Visa, FedEx, Wrigley, Mars, Fonterra and ICI Dulux.  

Chris is based in Singapore and is married with four children.

Based in Hong Kong, Alan VanderMolen serves as President of Edelman’s Asia Pacific region, overseeing operations in eighteen Edelman offices in 10 markets.

Since joining Edelman in 2002, VanderMolen has broadened the firm’s traditional consumer marketing focus into a full-service offer lead by Corporate Reputation work and supported by Healthcare Communications, Technology PR, Marketing PR, Public Affairs Financial Communications, Social Media and Social Engagement.  VanderMolen has also overseen the development of significant proprietary intellectual capital in the areas of Stakeholder Relations, Corporate Trust, Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Media.

VanderMolen personally leads Edelman’s regional relationship with Microsoft, as well as being active in consulting for Johnson & Johnson, Starbucks and Wal-Mart.

In his 20 years in public relations, VanderMolen has lived and worked in Washington D.C., New York, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Warsaw and Brussels.  VanderMolen was recognized as PR WEEK’S Asia-Pacific PR Professional of the Year in 2005.

Shawn Warren is currently Vice President, Marketing for Kraft Foods Asia Pacific. He is responsible for the Marketing function across 14 countries, and has over 15 years of experience at Kraft Foods and in other leading FMCG organizations.

Mr. Warren joined Kraft Foods Canada in 1994, and subsequently held a variety of positions such as Product Manager, Senior Product Manager, Category Business Director and Senior Category Business Director across Canada, USA and Asia Pacific. Mr. Warren led numerous notable product launches, including the Kraft Delissio Rising Crust Pizza launch, which went on to win the 2000 Canadian Grand Prix “Best New Product” Award, and the iconic “Mr. Peanut” campaign for Planters Nuts.

In 2005, he was appointed to Vice President, Category Development - Snacks, where he was responsible for development of the Asia Pacific Snacks Long-Range-Plan, driving accelerated growth of the Oreo brand across Asia-Pacific and for expanding the Asia Pacific Biscuit new product pipeline. In 2007, he was appointed Vice-President for the Marketing function across all of Kraft Foods Asia-Pacific businesses.

Prior to joining Kraft Foods, Mr. Warren worked for Procter & Gamble and Labatt Breweries of Canada. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with Honors from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada.

Rahul Welde is the Vice President - Media at Unilever for the Asia, Africa, Middle East and Turkey region. The role covers areas of Media Strategy, Planning and Buying.  It includes shaping the overall approach in the context of rapidly changing landscape and driving the agenda through a network of agencies and media partners. The key thrust is on Media Effectiveness which covers the gamut of Innovation, Cost Management and Analytics. Unilever is the leading advertiser in the region with strong presence across countries.

Rahul was the Head–Media Services, Unilever South Asia prior to his current role. He joined Unilever in 1991 after completing his MBA and has worked in a variety of assignments – in Commercial, in Sales and in the Corporate Centre - since then.    

Rahul has been actively involved in industry issues and has extensive experience in spearheading new initiatives in media innovation, media effectiveness and measurement.  

Rex Wong is currently VP in charge of marketing and new products of ABI China. He is responsible for all the marketing activities and product innovation in China.

Prior to the current role, Wong was the VP of marketing and new products of Anheuser-Busch Shanghai. Wong joined AB in 1999 and took the responsibilities of Marketing Director and Deputy President for BU East in the following 8 years.  In 2007, Wong was promoted to VP of marketing and new products. In Nov 2009, with the merger of Inbev and AB, the new company ABI was formed. Wong was nominated VP  in charge of marketing and new products of ABI China.

Before joining AB, Wong used to work in Carlsberg Shanghai and Hongkong. He also used to work for JWT.

Wong was born in Hongkong and graduated from University of Hawaii, majoring in marketing. Rex made great contribution to Budweiser in China. He positioned Budwesier as “King Style”, made Budweiser stand out of many other beer brands. Together with his team, he produced “ant” series TV commercials, winning awards in both domestic and international competitions; he established the brand strategy as “Big Brand”, “fashion” and “quality and taste”. Centering on this strategy, he conducted a series of marketing activities including Beijing Olympics marketing, Bud Music Kingdom, the latest Ant TVC script collection for 2010 Chinese New Year, South Africa FIFA etc. In terms of marketing method, Budweiser is also bold enough to make use of the Internet to conduct very creative marketing activities both above the line and below the line.

Prior to the above, Wong served as Regional ECD in Y&R, and Executive Creative Director with Ogilvy & Mather South China, M&C Saatchi, and Bates Greater China, where he won his first 2 Silver Lions.

To date, he has more than 300 major creative awards under his name. He led McCann Hong Kong to win the Nike account, and creating a campaign for the client that helped the agency to win their first Grand Prix at Cannes and the first Design Grand Prix at Spikes Asia, a first for the agency network and first for the whole Greater China region. Also, he just won the most renowned award in the industry – Creative Person of the Year by MEDIA. He is also ranked number 3 in Media’s Creative Ranking 2009. Under his leadership, McCann Hong Kong is ranked 5 in Media’s Most Successful Creative Office in the same chart, making McCann HK the highest ranking office in Greater China on the chart.  

He was also the international judges of D&AD, Clio, Adfest, ADC, Media Asian and China Advertising Festival. He is also the Chairman of HK 4A’s creative committee.

“Why not do more ads which does not look like an ad.” is the phrase he always says right now.

Campaign Brief Asia named Yang as one of the top Creative Director that would shape creativity in China when he moved to Shanghai in 2006. Since then, creative campaigns he led made the Global Gunn Report Top 10, thrice.
 

He won China it’s first Cannes Gold Lion, and a slew of Grand Prix at effectiveness, digital, and creative award shows with the adidas Beijing Olympic campaign, the China Environment Protection Foundation ‘Shan Shui’ campaign, and Ford’s ‘Human Car Race’ film.

JWT Shanghai under Yang’s creative leadership was the most awarded agency at the Asia Pacific AdFest, walking away with the ‘Agency of the Year’ accolade, another first for a China based agency.

The LongYin Review ranked Yang the top Creative Director in Greater China. Most recently, he also topped the Asia Pacific Creative Rankings, where China emerged for the first time as the region’s leading creative market in 2009, compiled by Media in association with research firm TNS.

A staunch advocate of marketing effectiveness, John Zeigler launched the world’s first integrated agency in 1986, making him the most experienced integrated marketer at a time when everyone was taking the single minded approach to communications. Having lived and worked in three continents, John is a great believer in reinvention and what that implies for brands in this global, think local, market. He is adamant that the development of creative work and its evolution and management should be most highly valued; all of which clients need to be involved in.

A painter, photographer and restorer of cars in his spare time, John considers himself a creative marketer who believes in harnessing the potential of others.

As the leading voice, Chairman and CEO of DDB Group, Asia Pacific, Japan & India, John’s responsibilities span 21 agencies in 16 countries, and more than 2,500 employees.

With a genuine desire to see people succeed, it’s no surprise that John lives by President Harry Truman’s famous words, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”