SPEAKERS

Christophe, 47, has held various positions in P&G ranging from consumer research to both strategic and operational marketing in both developed and developing markets for 21 years.

Christophe was born in Nantes-France, and holds a DESS Business degree from Paris IX Dauphine and an IT engineering degree from EISTI University.

He is currently GC Pringles and GC Fabric & Home Care – Marketing Director, based in Guangzhou, China.
 

Fernando Beretta, 42 years old has spent 16 in Grey managing P&G brands. Born in Argentina, he led Latin America for 12 years and has been leading China for the last 4 years as Executive Vice President, (P&G), Grey Group Asia Pacific.

His work has been rewarded by the festivals of Cannes, New York and London on several occasions - as with Effies, Abbies and Brand Building Awards.

He’s been married for 12 years with Carolina and has two children Abril (9) and Cisco (6). He is also an amateur photographer, scuba diver and blogger.
 

Christophe Bezu is Managing Director adidas Group Greater China. In this role, Christophe is responsible for one of the largest areas within the adidas Group.

Over the last 21 years, Christophe has held several leadership positions within the Group including Managing Director of adidas Japan and Head of adidas Region Asia/Pacific.

Christophe established a reputation as an achiever during his 13 years as Managing Director of adidas Japan, where he expanded the adidas business from a licensing deal to a subsidiary. Appointed regional Head of adidas Asia/Pacific in 2004, he continued to drive exceptional growth for the adidas Group.

Christophe inspired a culture of innovation and creativity in the company across the Asia/Pacific region. He has overseen a number of marketing highlights for adidas, including the largest online multiplayer sports game launched to date, the football-themed Impossible Game, and a range of dramatic campaigns, including the famous “vertical-field” promotions. He also led an extremely successful marketing drive based around the 2006 FIFA World Cup™ in the Asia/Pacific region.

Christophe also charted the course of adidas’ role as Official Sportswear Partner of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – another benchmark for the brand, both in China and across Asia.

Christophe was born in Calais in 1957, and now lives in Hong Kong with his wife and two daughters. He graduated from the well-known business school, Sup de Co, in Paris. Before joining the adidas team in 1988 as Product Director Footwear, he built a distinguished track record as Product Director with Hachette Filipacchi and as Regional Sales Director with K_Way/Berthier.

Christophe has always been a passionate sportsman and from 1975 - 1987 he captained the French national field hockey team.
 

Tim joined Ogilvy & Mather and moved to Asia in 2006. He is the President of Planning of Asia Pacific and leads Ogilvy`s effectiveness initiative globally. After graduating in 1976 with a degree in
philosophy and another in metaphysics, he started work in Beecham`s market research department but rapidly switched to advertising account planning at BMP, the first agency built around
planners. Over the next 30 years he worked at several other highly creative London agencies, including WCRS and Saatchi & Saatchi, and was the Planning Director and Managing Partner of Y&R and the Chief Strategic Officer of the Cordiant Group EMEA. Tim is the only person to have won two Grand Prix in the IPA Effectiveness Awards, was the Convenor of Judges in 2000, and served as
Chairman of the IPA Value of Advertising Committee and on the Economics Committee of the Advertising Association. He is the visiting Professor of Marketing of The University of The Arts
London and a Fellow of the IPA. He and his wife and his hi-fi live in Beijing, China.

Peter is COO of AdChina, the leading ad network in China. Peter joined AdChina from Adify, where he was VP of Product Management. Peter was instrumental in building Adify’s industry leading Built-Your-Own-Network (BYON) platform, and led Adify’s IAB Certification project. Prior to Adify, Peter worked for eBay as Principal Product Manager leading eBay's global Internet marketing initiatives. Before joining eBay, Peter held several senior marketing and product management positions at Vividence, Oracle and FedEx. Peter holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University and a BS in Computer Engineering from National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.

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.

Richard has more than 20 years experience in Marketing Communications with a breadth of experience across disciplines, categories, consumers and markets.  Although he started his work career as a nuclear engineer, he made the switch to advertising after just a few years.

He has worked at Wieden +Kenndy in Portland, Oregon with clients such as Nike, Speedo and Miller Brewing.  In the U.S. he has also worked for agencies such as Deutsch, Bates, Wells Rich Greene and finally started his own full service agency, BLACK Ink.  He has worked on a diverse group of clients such as JP Morgan Chase, American Express, Hilton, Louis Vuitton, Ikea, Deutsche Bank, Time Warner, Mandarin Oriental and Schick.  

Richard has been in Asia since 2006; first working for Leo Burnett Bangkok as Engagement Planning Director.  He then was promoted to Regional Planning Director Asia-Pacific working on developing and implementing the new LB planning methodology across the region.  In Asia, Richard has worked on McDonald’s, Coke, Shell, Johnnie Walker, Friesland Campina, Heineken and Carrefour.  

Richard joined the Shanghai office in 2010.  He is bringing an “ideation” approach to planning across the Leo Burnett Group in China that includes advertising, digital, event, promotion, shopper marketing and branding. 

Tarun Deo has more than 15 years of experience building public relations businesses across Asia Pacific and providing strategic communications counsel to clients in government and industry. He has lived and worked in Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

At Fleishman-Hillard, Mr. Deo serves on the firm’s regional senior leadership team driving market development efforts in Asia Pacific. He also leads the technology group and is building out the firm’s digital integration business.

His contribution to the public relations industry is active through conferences, speaking opportunities, and contributed articles on the increasing value of communications in the rapidly changing new economy.

He lives in Singapore.
 

Tom, born and bred in America’s Detroit and educated in Chicago, somehow took a detour to Hong Kong in 1994, then to Shanghai in 1998, and never quite made it back to the States. In the meantime, he has become one of Asia’s most respected and well-connected marketing professionals. His unique combination of pan-Asian work, plus more than a decade experience in China, has made him a leading expert in the cross-border management of brand architecture and brand building. He is also regarded as the leading expert in understanding how Chinese culture and psychology impacts both consumer communications and mainland corporate structure.

He has appeared regularly on CNBC, NBC, Bloomberg and National Public Radio and is frequently featured in publications ranging from the Financial Times and Business Week to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.  Furthermore, he is a sought after keynote speaker for events such as the International Advertising Association’s global symposium, University of Chicago’s Global Management Conference, the China Luxury Summit and the JPMorgan Asia Pacific Equities conference. 

Tom started his advertising career at Leo Burnett in Chicago but jumped ship to JWT (Chicago).  In 1994, he moved to Hong Kong as Regional Business Director for clients such as Pepsi, Philip Morris/Kraft and Citibank.  In 1998, he landed in China as the Managing Director of JWT Shanghai.  In 2002, he was appointed Northeast Asia Area Director (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Korea) and Greater China CEO.   In 2008, he also assumed leadership of JWT Japan. 

Through diversification into customer relationship marketing (CRM) and trade marketing, promotion network management, digital engagement and brand identity/design, JWT North Asia has emerged as one the most synergistically integrated, creatively dynamic communications networks.  Some of JWT North Asia’s key clients include:  AIA, HSBC, Unilever, DeBeers, Nestle, Ford, Perfetti, Las Vegas Sands, InBev，Nokia as well as several leading local enterprises in respective markets, such as Lenovo, China Unicom, COFCO foods, TCL, Yili dairy and Anta shoes in China, Maeil Diary, Hite Beer, Aekyung Personal Care in Korea and Epson, Toshiba, Unicharm in Japan.

Tom is the recipient of the “Magnolia Government Award (白玉兰政府纪念奖),” the highest honor given by the Shanghai municipal government to expatriates and was selected to be an Official Torchbearer for the Beijing 2008 Olympics.  He is also the author of the best-selling book "Billions: Selling to the New Chinese Consumer” and his blog on the Huffington Post is actively followed by reviewers. 

Tom completed his undergraduate studies at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and his MBA at the University of Chicago.

Ross is a global marketer, and we can safely say that he is obsessed and passionate about China. He has lived here for the last 10 years and has a detailed understanding of data acquisition, qualification, customer engagement and program measurement. Ross’ fascination for response driven direct marketing started in the late 80s in the UK insurance industry. But he is too energetic to work in insurance so after 8 years he moved to direct marketing.

Having worked with world leading brands in IT hardware (Apple, IBM), phones (Ericsson, China Unicom), infant milk formula (Cow&Gate), airlines (Etihad), pet care (Pedigree/Whiskas) and credit cards (Amex), Ross’ focus of the past 5 years has been cars and alcohol marketing. In China and across Asia Pacific Ross has worked on and built relationship marketing teams on Chivas Regal, Ballantine’s, The Glenlivet, Martell, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Infiniti and Ford. Before joining DDB China Group he worked at TBWA.

Ross’ wife and son were both born in Beijing and Ross is lucky enough to be able to call both Shanghai and Beijing home. Ross enjoys cars, driving and single malts (but never at the same time). Ross heads up RAPP in Shanghai.
 

After 23 years in business news, Chris Graves joined Ogilvy PR in 2005 as president and regional CEO of Asia Pacific and became Global CEO in late 2009. Prior to joining Ogilvy PR, he spent 18 years with Dow Jones on both the news and business sides.

Chris has provided public relations expertise, crisis management counsel and training to numerous corporations, and worked directly with the regional CEOs including Goodyear, Adidas, UPS, Intel, HSBC and Ford.

Chris was one of the founders of Wall Street Journal Television in 1987, managing editor of Asia Business News (Asia’s first TV news network), vice president & head of network news and programming for CNBC Asia, vice president & head of network news and programming for CNBC Europe, managing director of business development (EMEA & Asia) for Dow Jones Consumer Electronic Publishing (WSJ.com) and managing director of Far Eastern Economic Review (a 60-year-old leading magazine which one magazine of the year under his tenure).

A frequent public speaker and moderator, Chris has led discussions at: World Economic Forum events in Davos and Asia, often chosen to run the closing plenary sessions with top CEOs and political leaders; The World Islamic Economic Forum; Boao Forum on Asia (China’s most influential forum); Titans of Industry (chaired Singapore’s highest-level conference for 4 years). He has led one-on-one public questioning/debate sessions with Tony Blair (former UK Prime Minister), Lee Kuan Yew (founding father of Singapore), and dozens of ministerial level officials and global CEOs from China to India and across the world.

Graves was named Asia Pacific PR professional of the Year in 2007 and Ogilvy PR was named Asia Pacific Agency of the Year under his tenure in that region.
He has received an EMMY nomination as well as a number of awards from The New York Film and Television Festivals and the Asian Television Awards for programming made under his supervision.

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.

Reuben has been CEO of MRM Worldwide since 2004 and leads a team of 2,500 employees around the globe in creating Customer Utility™, loyalty and return-on-marketing investment.

Under his leadership, the agency was transformed from a well respected direct-mail shop into a top-five global digital and CRM powerhouse that has 62 offices in 40 countries.

In 2009, he led the agency’s efforts in expanding the General Motors business, and the network now handles almost of all of the automaker’s digital assets worldwide, through the main agency and its wholly owned subsidiary, MRM Supply.

Before joining MRM, Reuben was an EVP at Digitas, where he was key to building the company from a 200-person direct-marketing agency in Boston, to a leading digital agency. Earlier in his career, he was an executive with American Express.

Andres  Kiger  is the Senior Director of Integrated Marketing for Coca-Cola China. In his role Andres is responsible for a wide array of marketing functions including National Media, Digital, Promotions, Sports and Entertainment properties and Events.

Andres joined Coca-Colas’ Retail and Trademark operation Group in Atlanta in 1999. After working for 2 years as Director of the Latin American region team, he was promoted to Director of Global e-Ventures based in Hong Kong.  In this position Andres created and launched the first B2B procurement platform to help consolidate and coordinate the global production and procurement of Coca-Cola merchandise around the world.  In 2005 he was given the new responsibility of Director of World Wide Licensing for Asia region where he was in charge of developing and managing the Company’s licensing operations as well as developing innovative marketing and communication platforms for multiple brands across the region.  

In August 2007, Andres was promoted to his current role as Senior Director of Integrated Marketing. As part of his responsibility, Andres managed the development and implementation of the Olympic s platform for Coca-Cola China in 2008.  He is now in charge of the Integrated Marketing team in China which manages a portafolio of leading brand initiatives including Minute Maid, Yuan Ye and Sprite amongst others.

S Y Lau, joined Tencent in 2006 with the responsibility of overseeing the company’s online media business division, and also the mandate to further develop the company's online advertising business, and enhancing the corporate brand values for its various web properties. SY Lau is a seasoned professional in branding and marketing communication with more than 19 years of solid experience working in leading international advertising agencies, and with the previous 15 years in a leadership position in China.
 
  In early 2007, SY Lau was named by the China Advertising Association as "Person of the Year 2006 in the China Advertising Industry."
 
 That year, he also sits in the advisory board for Ad-Tech, the globally renowned organization for Online Marketing.

 At the end of 2007, SY Lau held the post of Vice President of China Advertising Association, as well as the Visiting Professor of Shanghai Normal University.

 In March 2008, SY Lau was honored with the prestigious "Remarkable Contribution Award for China's 30 Years Advertising History" from China Advertising Association.

 In May 2008, SY Lau was honored to be the Olympic torchbearer and took part in the Olympic torch relay on behalf of Tencent.

 In January 2010, SY Lau was employed as the Adjunct Professor of School of Journalism and Communication of Xiamen University.

Prior to joining Tencent, he was the Managing Partner of Publicis China and the CEO for BBDO China. Before that. He had also held senior management positions at Dentsu Young & Rubicam in Shanghai, and McCann-Erickson in Beijing and Hong Kong. Mr. Lau has been a prolific speaker and article contributor in the advertising industry. He was a former chairman of Shanghai 4As Council in 2003.

SY received his EMBA from Rutgers State University of New Jersey, USA. And in 2007, he completed the Advanced Marketing Management courses of Harvard Business School.
 

Amanda started her career as one of the first data planners in Londong.  She moved to Australia to work for O&M but left within six months to set up her own company, Octopus.  Octopus was a full-service agency which won clients like MasterCard, Westpac and Optus.  After eight successful years, WPP purchased the agency and Amanda was headhunted to work for the Publicis Group.  Here she managed the successful growth of their integrated suite of companies.

In early 2000, she joined DDB Sydney as head of all non-advertising companies.  Her reports included Rapp Collins, Tribal DDB, Mango (PR) and Remedy (Healthcare). 

In 2004 she was promoted to Group Managing Director winning fully-integrated accounts such as AV Jennings, Konica Minolta, Continental and Arnott's. 

In 2005 she won the Dell account by providing a better way for Dell to do business in the ANZ region.  Over the following 18 months she led the highly talented team to gain savings for the client in excess of 46%.  She totally challenged the ODG strategy and introduced an affliate strategy, reducing cost per sale by 60%.

In 2006 she moved up into the APJ region as VP Business Development.

July 2007 saw her take on APJ President role for Tribal DDB and grow the regional offering to 17 offices.

Innovation has driven her career and her passion is to work with people who want to redefine the communications world.

She has two teenage children and loves to travel, which is a good job considering how much of it she does!

Sharanjit Leyl joined BBC World News as a producer and reporter in September 2003 and has since reported and presented from Singapore, Tokyo and London for BBC World News’ Asia Business Report, Asia Today and World Business Report.

Sharanjit began her broadcasting career at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in 1997. It was here that she reported for the award-winning show, The Pacific Rim Report. In 1999 Sharanjit moved to Singapore where she had a similar role at the financial news service provider Bridge Information Systems.

She joined Bloomberg Television in March 2000 and moved to its headquarters in Tokyo. There she presented its main three-hour newscast, On The Money Asia, reporting on breaking financial stories as well as major news events such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Her other interviews have included the Chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz; Microsoft founder Bill Gates; the Prime Minister of Pakistan; former leaders of Singapore and Malaysia and the head of the World Bank. Sharanjit played an integral role in editing and influencing the content of Bloomberg’s Asian programming.

Born in Singapore, Sharanjit currently lives there with her British husband. She earned a degree in both Journalism and English Literature at Maryland University (Washington DC), and completed her Masters degree in English Literature at the University of British Columbia.

MARTIN LINDSTROM is a 2009 recipient of TIME Magazine’s “World's 100 Most Influential People” and author of Buyology—Truth and Lies About Why We Buy (Doubleday, New York), a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best–seller. He is the CEO and Chairman of LINDSTROM Company and Chairman of Buyology Inc (New York), as well as BRAND Sense Agency (London). Lindstrom is a trusted advisor to numerous Fortune 100 companies including McDonald’s Corporation, PepsiCo, Nestlé, American Express, Microsoft Corporation, The Walt Disney Company and GlaxoSmithKline, amongst others. His personal global audience is estimated at over a million people.

Lindstrom has and continues to feature in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, TIME, The Economist, New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post, USA Today, Fast Company, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, Chicago Tribune, The Independent, The Times, The Guardian, New York Post, and has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, ABC News, CNN, CBS, Bloomberg, FOX, Discovery and BBC. His recent book, BRANDsense, was acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal as “…one of the five best marketing books ever published.”

Lindstrom’s latest book, Buyology, was voted “pick of the year” by USAToday, and, between 2008 and 2009, reached ten of the Top 10 best–seller lists in the U.S. and worldwide. His 5 books on branding have been translated into more than 30 languages and published in more than 60 countries worldwide.

Lindstrom frequently contributes to the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Parade, Contagious, CNN.com and Advertising Age and can often be seen on America’s #1 ranking morning TV show; The TODAY Show at NBC with his TV series: “Marketing Mind Games”. More at martinlindstrom.com.

Hans began his marketing career as a market researcher in the Philippines – first on the client side (at Coca-Cola), and then on the consulting side (at TNS).  After deciding he wanted to be a ‘user’ of research instead of just being a ‘doer,’ Hans decided to cross over into the agency world to become a planner.

Over the years, Hans’ work has inspired many breakthrough campaigns for local as well as multinational brands in the Philippines; and has been instrumental in the success of many pan-Asian campaigns for Unilever, and San Miguel Beer.

At BBDO China, Hans leads insight and communication strategy development for clients like Pepsi, Wrigley’s, Lay’s, Johnson & Johnson, P&G, Tiffany and Co., HP, Fonterra, Bayer, FedEx, and Christie’s.  He also supervises BBDO Voices, the agency’s insights program aimed at understanding the leading socio-cultural forces that shape everyday life in China.

At SapientNitro he is our strategic thinker helping clients grow their business, by bringing insight to strategy and inspiration to creativity. He thrives on a challenge and has a natural ability to make the complex become understandable.

With over 20 year’s experience, he has worked on both client and agency sides. All giving him a great expanse of communication and brand strategy experience.
Darren has worked across a wide range of local and global brands including: Virgin Blue Airlines, Virgin Megastore, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Foster’s Brewing, Yalumba Wines, Footlocker, Supercheap Auto, Volvo, various Governments, Tourism Queensland, Sanofi Aventis, Mars Snack Foods and many more. Recently he was the project leader and strategist behind the “Best Job in the World” campaign for Tourism Queensland. And, he serves on global strategy teams collaborating with clients and colleagues across the world.

His broad background, experience through Australasia and skills in communication strategy make him a versatile beast, and one of Australia’s leading strategists. His work has received many creative and effectiveness awards all over the world.
He once followed a dream and even owned his own agency, but now he prefers to just build them up. He was a founder of the Brisbane agency in Australia that has won three consecutive ‘agency of the year’ awards and is recognised as one of the most creative agencies in the world.
When not at work, he enjoys scuba diving, riding his Harley Davidson, fishing or reading some strange book on psychology or an obscure biography.
 

Carol has degrees in Western history and Chinese language from the University of London  and worked at the British Museum from 1991 where she was a curator in the Department of Asia, responsible for looking after all early material, all jades and snuff bottles.  Carol is now semi-retired but continues to work part-time at the Museum and for one of its patrons.  She has written many articles and contributed to the BRITISH MUSEUM OF CHINESE ART, BMP 1992, CHINESE JADE FROM THE NEOLITHIC TO THE QING, with Jessica Rawson, BMP 1995, and she curated and wrote the catalogue of an exhibition of loan objects from China, GILDED DRAGONS: Buried Treasures from China’s Golden Ages. This was opened in October 1999 by the President of China, Jiang Zemin, and Her Majesty the Queen. She also wrote CHINESE ART IN DETAIL, with a colleague, Jane Portal, and this was published in 2006.

Carol has also been responsible for the digitisation of the Museum's collection of material from Dunhuang and surrounding areas.  This is a long term project, funded by the Mellon Foundation with the aim of making this fragile material accessible to all on the internet.

More recently Carol was involved in the British Museum’s recent very successful exhibition, The First Emperor, as one of the authors of the catalogue and as one of the lecturers engaged to speak about it. In 2009 she curated an exhibition of jades and bronzes from the Shanghai Museum at the British Museum and in 2010 will be helping to organize an exhibition of Qin and Han dynasty (221 BC –AD 220) material in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm.

Adam's early career was spent in advertising in the UK and US where he became increasingly interested in the subject of challenger brands. In 1997 he established the Challenger Project, a research project into how challenger brands succeed across a variety of different categories.

This continually evolving study led to the publication of ‘Eating The Big Fish: How Challenger Brands Can Compete against Brand Leaders’ which has been translated into eight languages. Adam currently works with clients such as PepsiCo, Eurostar, Guardian Newspapers, Unilever, Channel 4 and Lexus running workshops to develop and maximise their position as challenger brands in their marketplace.

His second book, published in 2004, was entitled ‘The Pirate Inside: Building a Challenger Brand Culture within Yourself and your Organisation’, and explored the personal qualities and behaviour required of a challenger individual within a large organisation.

Adam currently divides his time between working closely with clients on challenger workshops and having just published an updated edition of ‘Eating the Big Fish’, (click here for more information on the book, and press interviews with Adam). He is now researching a third book about ‘Opportunity’.

He is also a frequent speaker, addressing both business and marketing conferences around the world, as well as individual intra-company offsites, such as the Orange Global Brand Forum and the bmi Senior Management Conference, on the subject of brand strategy and challengers. Following a speech at the US Marketing Forum, he was the highest ranked speaker in a workshop.

Mainardo de Nardis is the CEO of OMD Worldwide, managing the award-winning agency across the globe.  

The man at the helm of OMD Worldwide has over 25 years' experience of marketing services. Mainardo started his illustrious career back in 1980 in client services in Italy, first at McCann Erickson, and then at Young & Rubicam. In 1985, he co-founded third wave advertising agency 'Alberto Cremona' in Milan, becoming its first Managing Director.

In 1987, he moved from advertising to media communications, becoming Vice-Chairman and partner of independent media agency Medianetwork in Milan. In those years he also co-published "The European Media Map", one of the first books on the development of the European and global media scene, and also developed MediaNetwork International, a European Association of local independent media agencies of which he became Chairman.

In 1993, Medianetwork Italy merged with London-based CIA and Mainardo moved to the UK as CEO of the merged business for Europe, Middle East and Africa. In 1997, he joined the board of CIA's quoted parent company, Tempus Group plc, and the following year succeeded the founder Chris Ingram as CEO of CIA Worldwide. In late 2001, following the acquisition of Tempus by WPP Group plc, Mainardo became CEO of the newly formed Mediaedge:cia (MEC).

In late 2005, Mainardo left MEC, a company at which he spent some 18 years under three different ownerships, to become CEO of Aegis Media worldwide and a board director of publicly quoted Aegis Group plc. Aegis Media was the world's leading independent media communications business with brands including Carat, Vizeum, Posterscope, Velocity and Isobar. 

In March 2009, Mainardo moved from London to New York to become CEO of OMD Worldwide, the world’s largest media agency according to RECMA with more than 140 offices in 80 countries. OMD is recognized as the most creative media agency in the world by The Gunn Report for Media and as Adweek’s Global Media Agency of the Year for 2008 and 2009.
 

Prasad Narasimhan is the Chief Marketing Officer at Virgin Mobile India. His key responsibility is to lead strategic marketing plans for the company including new business development, product developments, strategy and innovation. Prasad also played a pivotal role in successfully launching the Virgin Mobile brand in India. Recently Prasad along with the likes of Ratan Tata, Akshay Kumar, Ronnie Screwvala and  Lalit Modi has been included in the “TOP 10 BRAINS THAT BUILT BRANDS IN 2008” report by a leading marketing magazine.

A marketing and strategy professional, Prasad brings with him over 18 years of experience in the field of Marketing. Prasad began his career with ITC India Pvt. Ltd. Post his stint at ITC, he joined Unilever where he held various roles including consumer insights, brand management, corporate strategy, competitive intelligence and marketing across several categories.

Before Prasad took over as the CMO at Virgin Mobile India, he was the Vice-President, Marketing for TVS India Pvt. Ltd. where he was responsible for new product development and strategy, apart from leading Marketing. While at TVS, he successfully conceived the design and launched TVS Star, Apache and Flame. He was also responsible for introducing a path-breaking concept of 99 colors for scooty bike for the first time in India.

After graduating in engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, Prasad went on to complete a Post Graduate degree from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). He is a voracious reader, a sketch artist and loves to catch up on some good music; he has also played the flute professionally.
 

Mimi is the Regional BAL Director for Pringles Asia Pacific at Grey Hong Kong. Having started her career in marketing she has since spent the last 4 years working on P&G business, with the first 3 of these working across Western European brands, based at Grey London. Alongside FMCG she is also experienced with fashion and beauty brands and is hugely passionate about her involvement with corporate social responsibility and charity campaigns.  She is currently leading the implementation of the new Brand Agency Leadership (BAL) team for Pringles across the region, and has recently launched the first use of Augmented Reality gaming for P&G in Asia, building on the successes of P&G’s only totally digital brand.

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.

Carol Potter has been in China since 2006. 
 

One of the most experienced women in global advertising she had previously worked successfully in Australia, Japan, the USA and Europe, marketing and advertising  some of the world’s most famous brands, 
 

The companies and brands she has worked with include Unilever,  Pepsi,  Visa,  Kelloggs,  United Biscuits,  Avis,  Parker Pens,  Reckitt Colman,  Dunlop,  Cinzano and Nivea.  She spent between 2001 and 2004 running the De Beers account globally.  During that time more women in the world received a diamond than ever before.
 

Before moving to Shanghai Carol was no stranger to China having spent six years marketing a diverse range of products, from diamonds to detergents, to the Chinese consumer.

After a classical high school in Rome, Ms Riccardi entered the Rome State University to study Political Sciences and International Relations, with the goal of pursing a diplomatic career.  She graduated from the University in 1984 with a diploma cum laudae. As one of the best post graduate students in Italy, Ms Riccardi was awarded a fellowship in Marketing Studies in a series of universities.  After extended training in Marketing at Yale University in the USA, she decided to move to a business career.

In 1985 Ms. Riccardi joined Procter & Gamble Italy in Marketing. In 1991 she was promoted and moved to Brussels as Marketing Manager for the Household Cleaning business in Europe. Three years later, Ms. Riccardi transferred to Bogota, Colombia as Marketing Director for P&G’s Laundry and Cleaning products business.  After 3 years, she was appointed General Manager with responsibility for P&G’s Laundry and Cleaning business in Latin America based in Mexico (1997) and later in Caracas, Venezuela (1999).

In July, 2001, Ms Riccardi was appointed Vice President and General Manager, P&G Eastern Europe, in charge of one of the most dynamic and fastest developing subsidiaries of P&G.  At that time the 3 countries in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, had a portfolio of more than 23 brands, an organization of over 2,000 people and local manufacturing facilities. During her 4-year tenure sales in the region, which were approximately $350MM when she started, grew 4-fold to $1.6MMM by the time she left the region. Ms Riccardi was on the Board of Directors of several Russian organizations and was the sponsor of P&G’s diversity program for the Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region (105 countries).

In March, 2005, Ms Riccardi’s career development took an important turn:  She was appointed as President of P&G Greater China, based in Guangzhou.  P&G Greater China is the second largest market in volume for P&G globally, in the top five in terms of sales value, one of the fastest growing P&G markets in the world and is one of the most important engines of P&G’s global growth.  This important assignment was recognition of her excellent track record in building P&G business in a series of developing markets.

Ms Riccardi is married with two children. Linguistically talented, she speaks Italian, French, English, Spanish and Russian.  Ms Riccardi is trained as a professional ballet dancer and still maintains her ballet skills.  Fascinated by Chinese culture, she is currently learning Mandarin Chinese.
 

Siraj has become synonymous with building, managing and driving momentum of new brands and businesses. With more than 19 years experience, he is one of Asia’s foremost marketing communications professional in brand planning, data, digital and CRM.  He was instrumental in setting up data, CRM and digital practice in agencies like Y&R, Euro RSCG and RAPP.

He has a track record of regional leadership and has done diverse roles in Asia. At Y&R Brands, he was Regional Digital Director at Y&R and Regional Managing Director, Wunderman SEA. Prior to this he was Regional Director – CRM at Euro RSCG Asia.

Presently, as CEO for Rapp Asia, Siraj is responsible for revitalizing, repositioning and growing the world’s leading data driven marketing company across 12 offices from India to Japan.

He strongly believes that the future is an open book. Customers have evolved and so have the markets and marketing needs to be re-thought. With his core skills of data, digital, analytics and a deep understanding of what works in Asia, he consults clients to identify business opportunities and drive business growth. He believes that data is the key in driving insights driven marketing.  In its true form data driven marketing presents marketers a medium to be highly responsive and offer enriching experiences to consumers. It offers opportunity for experimentation, and allows brands to participate in an interactive way with users, creating their own content.

Siraj currently makes his home in Singapore and travels extensively to meet the needs of his clients and to explore business opportunities in every corner of Asia. He has lived and worked in many Asian cities – Bangalore, Muscat, Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

He is an avid traveller, specifically to under-developed or developing countries.  He says ‘real world and real people exist here’, he wants to see these places before they are changed by rapid development.

About Rapp: Rapp covers 12 markets in Asia Pacific and is one of four key regional operations for Rapp Worldwide. Specialising in digital, CRM, direct marketing, loyalty marketing, as well as the management and analysis of marketing data, Rapp’s key clients in the region include:  Hewlett Packard, Exxon Mobil, Air France, Canon, McDonald’s, ANZ Bank, Disney and Financial Times.

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.

Greg spent his first 20 years on the marketer side and agency side, most of it in the Asian region, with brand experience on Nokia, Audi, HP, Microsoft and American Express.  he has lived and worked in China, HK, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia, Europe and the US.
 

Richard Pinder stepped up to take sole leadership of Publicis Worldwide in May 2009 which, with 9000 employees in over 80 markets, is the largest Publicis Groupe agency network. He sits on Publicis Groupe’s P12 Management Board and reports directly to Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO.

He has focussed Publicis Worldwide on Creating Contagious Ideas that Change the Conversation around clients’ brands.

This approach has led to significant new assignments from existing clients including P&G, Nestlé, Pernod-Ricard and Citi and a stream of new clients including Compaq, Crest, Carrefour, Malibu, Armani fragrances, T.G.I. Friday’s, Chevrolet, Marriott Hotels and BMW.

With major investment in acquisitions and start-ups, subsidiary Publicis Modem has become a formidable global digital network of 40 offices and over 1000 employees and is now ranked as the world’s fourth largest digital agency (RECMA).

Creatively, Publicis’ rising reputation is winning recognition: it is the third most creative network in Europe (Eurobest) and the second most creative network in Asia (MEDIA). Publicis is Agency of the Year in Brazil, France and Australia and has landed the Kinsale Shark Grand Prix. For the second year running, Publicis USA has been awarded Adweek’s highest agency grade alongside four competitors and scooped nearly 60% more awards than in 2008.  

 
Before joining Publicis, Richard was successively Regional Managing Director of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific and President of Leo Burnett EMEA over a period of 7 years during which time Leo Burnett was acquired by Publicis Groupe.  His career began at Grey Advertising in London where he rose from Graduate Trainee to Client Services Director.  Richard then joined Ogilvy & Mather as UK Managing Director before moving to Leo Burnett in Asia Pacific.

Richard is 45 years old and lives in Paris with his partner and their daughter.

Prior to joining HP, David was Vice President of Corporate and International Marketing at NVIDIA. He also held a number of different marketing leadership roles at Apple computer in Europe, Asia Pacific and the USA. His last apple role was vice president of worldwide advertising and brand marketing.  

David is the recent recipient of the Creativity 50 award to honor those most influential creatives in the year 2008 for the work he’s done spearheading the HP advertising and marketing campaign. HP has also won the Advertising Age Campaign of the Year award based on the success of HP’s The Computer is Personal Again campaign.  

David graduated in Architecture and Industrial design from the Queensland University of Technology (Australia) after starting his architectural studies at the Polytechnic of Torino (Italy). He also pursued executive MBA studies at INSEAD in Paris.

Dheeraj leads the consumer insights and strategic brand planning function for Bates141 in India. In his career across McCann Erickson, Euro RSCG and Bates, Dheeraj has worked on brands such as Reckitt Benckiser, Mastercard, LG, Dabur, Tata AIG, Panasonic and Goodyear to name a few. His work on brands like Virgin mobile and Marico have been winners of several effectiveness awards including the national Effies, AME and Jay Chiat Planning award. Dheeraj has also been awarded the WPP Atticus awards for best published thinking in the consumer insight category. Dheeraj has spoken and written extensively about the changing consumer mindset in India and its implications for brands and businesses.

Adam Swann is Global CEO of the Media Management practice at Accenture, which is the leading  media auditor and consultant globally, including a presence in China and across APAC. Before joining Accenture in 2007, he was international Media Director at Kellogg’s for 10 years, where he was also responsible for Marketing Effectiveness evaluation. During that time, he was also Chairman of the Media Committee of the WFA, which he was a member of for 9 years. This followed 10 years in Media agencies, including roles ranging from buyer/planner to Managing Director in UK, Austria and Eastern Europe at Initiative and O&M.

Sir David Tang, is a Hong Kong businessman and socialite best known as the founder of the Shanghai Tang chain, though he sold his entire interest in the company in 1998.

Known for his love of Cuban cigars, Sir David is also a cigar importer and the Honorary Consul of Cuba in Hong Kong. He is a columnist for Apple Daily; a selection of his articles for the paper has been published in book form in English as An Apple a Week, where his colourful upbringing, remarkably generous spirit and always challenging opinions can be enjoyed. Other interests include aviation and gold-mining.

He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2008 New Year Honours in recognition of his charity work.

Sir David was born in Hong Kong and attended The Perse School, Cambridge. He has two grown-up children from his first marriage, and lives in Hong Kong with his wife, Lucy.

Gary is the founder/CEO of leading video sharing site in China, Tudou.com, launched in April 2005. Prior to Tudou.com, Gary was Corporate Development Director of Bertelsmann Group and Managing Director of BOL China. As Corporate Development Director, Gary was responsible for developing Bertelsmann Group’s overall strategy in China. As Managing Director, Gary undertook the restructuring of BOL China.

From 1997-2001, Gary was Business Development Manager and Product Specialist with Hughes Electronics, the provider of DIRECTV and DirecPC services. Gary was responsible for all satellite broadband and set-top-box products in Asia. Gary was also involved in strategy and several strategic investment cases.

Spending over 8 years in the U.S. and 1 year in France, Gary has been living on and off in China since 1999 and has resided in Shanghai since 2002.

Gary holds an MBA degree from INSEAD France (2002) and a Master’s in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University (1999).

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.