Speakers
Merlee Cruz Jayme
Chairmom & Chief Creative Officer - Dentsu Jayme Syfu
The 2019 Drum Global Ranking announced the top 100 Chief Creative Officers in the world, and there were only 8 women in the list. One of them is Merlee Jayme.
Merlee is the first Filipino to be awarded: The Creative of the Year for Southeast Asia by Campaign Asia Pacific Agency of the Year and the Asia Women Marketeer 2019.
She is "Chairmom" and Chief Creative Officer of Dentsu Jayme Syfu and the only woman in the 20 top creative directors in ASIA as reported by Campaign brief Asia.
Her works push insights and innovation. She has won major awards that include a Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Mobile, Grand CLIO, NYF Grand Awards, D&AD yellow and wood pencils and just last year, a Gold and Silver Lion, a Gold CLIO, LIAA and Effies for Green Peace “Dead Whale”.
Aside from awards, 2018 has been good for business. She led her agency to win key accounts: The total sparkling portfolio of Coca-Cola, Nestle, Shell fuels and Wyeth.
Merlee is a sought-after international speaker and an opinion leader when it comes to topics close to her heart: From Working Mothers to Harnessing Creativity. Last year, she gave a talk about “Meeting the Momillennials” in Tokyo for Adweek Asia 2018 and has also mentored clients at the Young Marketers Academy in Cannes.
A seasoned judge in award shows, her jury duties this year include the Cannes Glass Lion, CLIO Print & Outdoor (Jury Head), and the London International Advertising Award.
She is CEO of MamaLab- a network of moms from Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and Japan, to create great ideas that truly understand moms.
One of CNN's Leading Women, she initiated the #sistergood project in the office to inspire women leadership.
A creative at heart, she wrote and illustrated an inspiring handbook to discover everybody’s creative side “Everyone Can Be Creative”.
Merlee is also a mom to 4 beautiful girls, and an inspiration in breaking the glass ceiling in this mad men’s world.
Assam Khalid
ECD / Head of Strategy - Ogilvy Pakistan
Working as both the Executive Creative Director & the Head of Strategy at Ogilvy Pakistan, Assam Khalid is one of the most prolific advertising award winners in the region, having won more than 300 international industry accolades in the last 4 years alone - including 2 Gold Cannes Lions. He is the #1 Strategic Planning Director in Pakistan & MENA and is one of the top 3 in the world as ranked by the Big Won Report in 2015. Armed with a Master’s degree in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin and over a decade of experience in creative communication, Assam has a real passion for creating disruptive ideas. His projects include “Beat Me”, “The World’s First Billbed” and “Not A Bug Splat" that is displayed at the Tate UK and was recognized as one of the top 100 marketing campaigns by Warc in 2016.
He has served on Juries for a number of international advertising award shows such as Spikes Asia, Effies, New York Festival, Mobius Awards, etc. and has been a speaker at the Dubai Lynx and the Spikes Asia International Festivals of Creativity. He has also been a speaker at the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics and frequently guest lectures at various universities across Pakistan. He has also been an instructor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences’ Rausing Executive Development Centre and has been invited to give many talks including 2 TEDx talks.
Tay-Guan-Hin
Founder / Global CCO TGH Collective
Tay Guan Hin is the Founder and GCCO of TGH Collective and the Creative Change Catalyst of the APAC Global Advisory. He is a profound alchemist of creative success in a team working on the most creative worldwide agency networks, like JWT, Grey, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Leo Burnett. Guan's role continues to deliver insightful creativity that builds on digital and innovative engagement to increase brand preference for Shell, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, P&G, HSBC, and Unilever, by improving their market share and solving complex business challenges. He operates well within this complexity, always matching flawless execution with inspiring creative ideas, staying true to the DNA of the brand. Besides serving as first Asian Cannes Lion Jury President, he has also been invited to sit on various digital shows such as Cannes Lions Digital Jury and the upcoming MENA Digital Awards 2019 (MDA). A charismatic keynote speaker for Vertical Storytelling (Creative Mobile Content), he was on stage in Adfest, Content Marketing Summit in Korea, including the upcoming E-Commerce Expo in Singapore.
Yonathan Dominitz
Founder - Mindscapes
More than 35 Cannes Lions, including 3 Grand Prix lions, won by Mindscapes Trained Agencies, using our creative thinking tools. Yonathan has personally conducted projects in numerous companies and leading global ad agencies. He is a keynote speaker at numerous international conferences, creative advertising festivals (Cannes Lions, Eurobest, Dubai Lynx, Spikes Asia and more) and associations worldwide. He has over 20 years of experience working in senior positions in the advertising industry.
Indraneel Guha
Strategic Planner / Co-founder Ki Saigon
Indraneel Guha is a strategic planner and has more than 18 years of work experience in advertising across local and global markets in agencies like Ogilvy & MullenLowe.
He set up the MullenLowe Vietnam’s Creative Engagement and Strategic Planning unit in 2009. He was the youngest to head the planning for the country in his previous stint & was in Campaign Asia’s 40-under-40 best advertising people for Asia-Pacific.
He has won every respected creative and effectiveness award from Cannes to Jay Chiat to Effies to D&AD to Spikes effectiveness to London International awards. He has won over 50+ effectiveness awards and spearheaded the regional effectiveness council for MullenLowe. He was recognized as the top planner in the Asia Pacific by CampaignAsia for the region.
Indraneel started his own boutique agency called Ki Saigon in Vietnam 5 years back. His agency, since then has been awarded 3 Golds in CampaignAsia’s agency of the year.
For 2019, his agency was rated the top boutique agency in South East Asia by Campaign Asia. His clientele include top multinational and local brands like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Pepsi and Fonterra.
Indraneel has lectured in Solvay Business school for Strategy & Planning for an entire semester and has been Jury President for Young Lions in Vietnam.
Kum Kum
Creative Director / Co-founder Ki Saigon
Kumkum Fernando is a native of Sri Lanka and has worked in multiple international markets in his decade long career. He was the youngest creative director in his previous role in Vietnam. He led a team of 30+ creatives and handled the agency portfolio of the largest clients. He has won multiple creative awards at Cannes, D&AD, One show, New York Festival. Epica & London International awards.
Kumkum started his own boutique agency - Ki Saigon, 5 years back and since then his agency has been awarded boutique agency of the year South East Asia 2019 by CampaignAsia’s agency of the year. His agency is ranked the no.1 independent agency in Vietnam. And for the past 5 years the agency has been in the top 3 consistently.
He conceived and started an alternative art studio : Reborn, which has combined art with storytelling to create a host of art shows, films, products, concepts in Vietnam, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Kumkum has directed acclaimed films for CloseUp, Lifebuoy and Clear. His personal art shows have been featured in Ho Chi Minh Fine arts museum & he was one of the few artists in Asia to be featured at Singapore Fine arts museum for their special SG50 year celebrations.
Udara Withana
Head of Strategy - APAC Toaster
a.k.a Udz to everyone else, is currently the head of strategy for Asia Pacific at Toaster, based out of Singapore. With a primary focus on the Google brand and its 20+ product lines, Udz is a part of a team that builds and executes eco-system narratives for Asian markets. He also leads a team that deploys digital transformation projects for businesses - both regional and local - in nature in Asia.
Starting off at JWT Colombo and then India, he moved to Singapore having won the Cannes Young Lions competition in Sri Lanka. With an extensive footprint across the region: namely Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, Japan and New York: capturing over 100+ awards and accolades over the years, he’s had the pleasure of working with some of the most iconic brands such as Google, YouTube, Google Pay, Shiseido, Unilever, Disney, Marina Bay Sands, Subway, M1 telecom, Toyota, Canon, Sentosa, Prudential Insurance, Singapore Tourism and also special projects commissioned by the Singapore Government on a global scale.
In 2017, he became the youngest person to helm the head of strategy role at Dentsu Singapore. He is a visiting lecturer at the prestigious National University of Singapore (NUS) as well as the Singapore Management University (SMU) and is a mentor for start-ups across the region through his key note speeches at Tech in Asia forums over the years.
Ali Rez
Regional ECD - Impact BBDO
Ranked amongst the Top 10 Creatives in the world by The Big Won, and named South Asia Creative Person of the Year by Campaign magazine, Ali Rez is one of the most prolific award-winning creative leaders in the industry, winning more than 400 international accolades in his career across USA, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. These include Grands Prix, Golds, Glass and several other metals across Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD, Effie, One Show, NYF, LIA, Dubai Lynx, Spikes and many more.
Rez's work has been instrumental in helping BBDO win Network of the Year at numerous industry shows over the last three years, and has brought not only tremendous success for the global brands he looks after, but also transformed culture in several markets.
Rez has been a member of the prestigious Glass jury panel at Cannes Lions, in addition to juries at D&AD, Effies, Clios, LIA, NYF, Loeries, and President of the Jury at Spikes Asia and Adfest.
Besides lecturing at Oxford University and St.Martin’s College, Rez has exhibited at Tate UK, spoken at Tedx, captained a cricket team in California, and - being a firm believer that curiosity leads to creativity - has travelled to 130 countries.
Adam Ferrier
Consumer Psychologist / Founder of Thinkerbell
Adam Ferrier is the founder of THINKERBELL, an agency that creates 'measured magic'. Adam is one of the leading consumer psychologists in Australia, a brand strategist and an authority on Behavioural Economics. He's also the author of “Stop Listening to the Customer” and “The Advertising Effect”. Adam is part of The Australian Creatives’ ‘Power 20’; A regular on the Gruen Transfer and Sunrise 'Masters of Spin', and featured on The Project, Celebrity Apprentice and ABC Radio.
The creator of the idea behind the WARC World Innovation prize (2013), and winner of the rare Cannes Gold Lion and Gold Effie double, Adam has won at all of the major advertising shows. Adam also created the successful board game ‘The Analyst’ (translated into four languages). Adam Ferrier doesn’t just think outside the square – he’s blown the square up.
An unstoppable force in the Australian advertising landscape, Adam was previously co-founder of Naked Communications – taking it to Australian Agency of the Year.
Adam hands delegates the keys to make behavioural change happen. Either through sky rocketed motivation, or a deep understanding of behavioural economics. Adam also sits on the boards of social giving company Good Thnx, and social influencing company TRIBE.
Philippe Paget
CEO Maydream
Philippe Paget, has twenty five years of experience in the marketing, communication, media, internet and technology industries. A pioneer of the online advertising industry, he founded Real Media, one of the leading online rep companies in 97. He left after the merger with 24/7 Media in 2002, and then co-founded Mistral Partners, a consulting agency based in Geneva where he intervened as an operational consultant for startup projects. Back in Paris, since 2006, he resumed his seat as chairman of Présence d'Esprits, and invested in a new venture, Weetiz.com, specialized in web conferencing and online events. Weetiz.com was merged with AdForum in 2009 and Philippe was named CEO worldwide. He is working on revamping AdForum, shifting its business model from an Agency directory and a Creative archive, into a new platform offering extended services to the advertising community.
Mark Tungate
Editorial Director Epica Awards
Mark Tungate is a British journalist based in Paris. He is the author of several books about branding and marketing, including The Escape Industry, Fashion Brands and Adland. His articles have appeared in publications ranging from Campaign and Advertising Age to the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph. He is a regular contributor to the ad industry intelligence site AdForum.
Alongside his writing, Mark Tungate is editorial director of the Epica Awards and has lectured on advertising and branding at universities and conferences around the world.
Rajdeepak Das
Managing Director India & Chief Creative Officer, Leo Burnett, South Asia.
Raj is a native of Odhisa – one the most disaster-prone states of India. Growing up with a father who was a doctor, a large part of his childhood was spent being part of flood rescues and spending school breaks in village hospitals. These experiences taught him one of his biggest life lessons - Empathy.
So when he joined advertising, his goal was to use creativity and help brands make a positive impact on human lives. From creating India’s first online micro-financing system for business giants TATA, to innovating “Roads that Honk” – the world’s first anti-collusion road management system for a Petroleum giant. In 2015, the team with him saved India’s biggest national treasure - a warship, from getting redundant. With the help of Bajaj, India’s biggest automobile company they melted the scrapped ship and made motorbikes out of it so that every Indian can own a piece of the national treasure.
On his way to creating work which is impactful and change oriented, he has also won multiple Grand Prix and medals at Cannes, One Show, D&AD and Spikes Asia. But he believes his biggest creation till date is Apollo 11 a specialised division of Leo Burnett India, consisting of what he calls ‘the mutant creatives’. Team of young people in their 20’s with backgrounds like aerospace engineering, product designers, data analysts and environment scientists solving human and brand problems with him.
Babita Baruah
Managing Partner, GTB India. A WPP Unit.
Currently on her 23rd year in the industry and with WPP, Babita Baruah now leads GTB India as a Managing Partner.
She joined HTA ( Wunderman Thompson ) Kolkata in 1996. Over the years, she took on roles in the agency’s Mumbai and Delhi offices, as well as working with the Wunderman Thompson Unilever team in Bangkok on mega brands, Sunsilk and Lux.
Her portfolio and experience extends across categores in FMCG, Finance and Technology. Besides being a part of global agency teams on the brands Nestle, Johnson and Johnson, Radiant & Knorr in Unilever, she has led her team on Nokia India, before moving on to setting up a dedicated integrated solutions team for PepsiCo, India, in 2016.
Babita is passionate about the intersection of consumer behaviour, culture and technology, leading to creative solutions that shift the needle for the brand and business. Collaboration with WPP and non WPP partners has been key to her business relationships. She believes in the power of influence of the communication industry towards a purposive future.
In 2004, Babita was one of the 12 Indian women to be selected for the prestigious British Chevening scholarship in the U.K, on Women and Leadership. In 2016, she was invited to Harvard Business School as a speaker on Trends in India Marketing, at the India Conference. Last year, Babita was invited to speak on Women as Professionals, at the Women Influence Forum in Geneva.
Babita is driven by her efforts on diversity, mentoring young professionals, engagement with management institutes and taking initiatives for making the work place culture conducive, to inspire talent and strong partnerships. She has initiated programmes like SheHour and SheTime to connect and empower women at work in her workplace. Currently she is also one of the WPP Stella India mentors for WPP women.
She lives in Gurgaon with her husband Bobo Dutta and her thirteen year old daughter, Joya.
Ted Lim
Chief Creative Officer Dentsu Asia-Pacific
The Dentsu Regional Chief Creative Officer for Asia-Pacific who works with 30 offices from China to Australia believes marketing in the experience economy has to move people to move business. “Data tells us where the customer is. Media gets us there. What we do when we are face-to-face with the customer, that’s creative.”
Ted repositioned the work Dentsu Asia-Pacific produces as "Innovative Business Solutions" ; work in the experiential, digital and social space that gets people to stop, stare and share. Work that is different and makes a real difference from engagement to transaction.
Dentsu won the D&AD Black Pencil, the Cannes Lions Grand Prix, The One Show Best in Discipline and the Facebook Award for Innovation. The network was crowned Campaign Brief Asia’s Most Creative Network 2017 and 2018 and AdFest Network Of The Year 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Ted served as Jury President at Cannes Lions, Spikes Asia, AdFest and Ad Stars, judged D&AD, One Show, Clio, New York Festivals and London International Awards, spoke at the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul, shared his thoughts on “When Data Meets Creativity” in Cannes and talked about “Simple Truths” at the P&G Asia Brand Managers College in Singapore.
Ted’s integrated campaign for Toyota got millions of views and TIME magazine's attention, “This Toyota ad is utterly insane – and wonderful”. The work his team produced helped Dentsu win a slew of business – Coca-Cola, Sprite, Zespri, Prudential, Unilever, Adidas, Qantas, Uniqlo and Yamaha – and global recognition.
AdWeek picked Ted as one of the 13 global creative leaders whose ideas are advancing advertising worldwide in 2019.