Speakers

Kim Allain

Creative, MSL

Kim established her career within the New Business and PR team at Havas Sport and Entertainment Cake. She was recruited to help generate creative and innovative ideas for clients such as EE and it’s premier sponsorship of Wembley, BAFTA, and Glastonbury as well as Virgin Atlantic, Barclays, and Coca Cola.

Kim continued her PR career joining Talker Tailor Trouble Maker from its inception where she was quickly inaugurated as Creative Lead, making her the youngest black female creative leader in the industry. She was later listed as one of the Drums 50 Under 30 Top Female Creatives and became a PR Week Mentor.

Her role at Talker Tailor saw her heading up the creative of clients including Deliveroo, Mastercard, Tastecard, Poundland and Pernod Ricard as well as winning culturally significant and challenger brands for the agency such as Vice and Deezer.

Now at MSL Group, Kim’s most recent accolades is being listed as one of PR Week’s 30 Under 30 as well as representing the UK as one of ten ‘future leaders’ selected from Publicis’ global 80,000 strong workforce. Kim has helped multiple brands achieve award-winning success, now adding PUMA’s Cali Star Challenge viral hit to the trophy cabinet with 4+billion views as we write, with it becoming MSL’s first “billion viewed” piece of content. Other brand successes include her work with Mondelez, Rimmel and Operation Black Vote.

Kim has written multiple thought pieces for PR Week title as well as being a top contributor for Creative Moment in 2019 (PR Moment) and is a panel regular, featuring on BAME panels such as People Like Us and the Black Comms Network; and has judged for Cannes Lions, Creative Moment, PRWeek’s Purpose Awards.

Kim is experienced in delivering innovative, authentic and challenging creative as well as keeping herself imbedded in culture garnering great insight and contacts.

Lynzi Ashworth

Head of Digital Marketing EMEA, Aon

Lynzi is a leader of innovators and creators, helping businesses connect with clients through storytelling and immersive experiences. Fostering a culture of data lead decision making overlaid with marketing magic.

Lynzi spends the majority of her time creating a global digital marketing program which supports the continual growth of £11bn professional services organization, when she’s not doing that she’s either on horseback or at sea.

Elle Bellwood

Creative, Hope&Glory

Elle, an art director and ideation specialist, is one half of the PR team Elle and Gigi. After meeting at SCA 2.0 (in 2019) and studying advertising broadly, they fell in love with PR and took the plunge to become one of the first ever creative PR teams.

Finding their feet at Talker Tailor Trouble Maker, during the mid of the pandemic, they decide to go freelance and worked for agencies such as Taylor Herring, Grayling, The Academy and The Red Consultancy.

After entering the Cannes Lions PR competition last minute (and paying the agency fee themselves) they ended up winning the UK heat and went on to represent the nation in the global Cannes competition in June.

Off the back of the competition they have been hired permanently by Hope&Glory PR where they work with Uber, Airbnb, CALM, Sainsbury’s and on new business pitches.

Julian Boulding

President, thenetworkone

Julian began his career in advertising sales, before working in independent agencies in London. He then joined the DMB&B Group (parent of MS&L, subsequently acquired by Publicis), where he served in a succession of senior management roles in London, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and finally New York, where he became President, International for DMB&B’s sister network, N.W. Ayer.

In 2003, he left the traditional agency world to co-found thenetworkone, now the world’s largest independent agencies network. thenetworkone represents more than 1200 independent marketing and communications agencies in 116 countries, worldwide.

Julian is a Fellow of the Marketing Society, where he served as a Fiduciary Board Director for six years; and is currently a Liveryman and Honorary Treasurer of the Worshipful Company of Marketors in London. He holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Cambridge.

Jo Carr

Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer, Hope&Glory

Jo is a co-founder and managing partner at Hope&Glory. She started the agency with James at the end of 2011 having previously worked with him at Seventy Seven PR, where she was also a managing partner. Jo has over twenty years PR experience, including a long stint at QBO. In recent months, her favourite pieces of work include IKEA’s Dining Club, as well as Deliveroo’s “Fior-egg-tina” – an indulgent, Creme Egg-inspired Pizza. Jo gets a kick out of making sure our clients are happy and ensuring the team are delivering their very best work. She is generally the voice of reason in the office, and is good at keeping everyone calm under pressure, a skill she attributes to having two very boisterous sons at home.

Alina Diaz

Managing Director, MSL

Scott Dimbleby

Creative Director, W Communications

Greg Double

Creative Director, Mischief

Mike Doyle

President & CEO, Ketchum

Mike Doyle leads one of the world’s top communications consultancies, with offices and affiliates in more than 70 countries.  He and his colleagues help companies tell their stories, connect with the people they care about most and use communications to inspire action. Mike has helped clients launch products and services, merge or acquire new companies, navigate issues and crises and determine their purpose in an increasingly competitive, connected and consumer-empowered global society. He is the co-chair for Omnicom’s global OPEN Pride employee resource group and serves on the global Board of Directors for GLAAD, the world’s leading organization dedicated to accelerating acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. Mike is also a member of the Arthur W. Page Society, the foremost professional association for senior communications executives and educators.

With more than two decades of experience in the field, Mike has partnered with clients in a variety of industries to advance and protect their corporate and brand reputations.  He has led or joined global teams servicing brands including Target, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, FedEx, Mastercard, Wendy’s, Pfizer, IKEA, Bank of America, Dow Chemical, Procter & Gamble and Pernod Ricard.  He began his Ketchum career in the agency’s Washington, D.C. public affairs and issues management practice, where he worked on corporate social responsibility efforts, activist and NGO engagement. 

Mike’s career has been a long series of valuable experiences, thanks to deep and important client engagements and opportunities.  He served as a media consultant to the Office of the Minister of Public Enterprise during the privatization of the Egyptian economy in the late ‘90s.  He led Ketchum’s relationship with the New York Stock Exchange during successful and tumultuous times, among them the tragic events of 9/11 and the ouster of the Exchange’s chairman and CEO.  He served as vice president of corporate communications at NBCUniversal, where he led strategic communications for the network’s digital division and international channels and was on a taskforce dedicated to combating piracy and intellectual property theft in the earliest days of that seismic issue.  And he was Omnicom’s delegate on the steering committee to create the World Economic Forum’s Partnership for Global LGBTI Equality, supported by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human rights and launched in January 2019.  In 2007, he was named to the first-ever PRWeek “40 Under 40” list.

Mike is a native of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a magna cum laude graduate of Muhlenberg College.  He and his husband, Bret Kobler, split their time between New York City and Asbury Park, New Jersey. 

Mirna Eskarous

Senior Art Director, Hill+Knowlton Strategies

Mirna is a strategic multidisciplinary Senior Art Director in The Studio, the creative hub at H+K METIA. Joining H+K in September of 2017, Mirna's remit was to help grow and further develop H+K’s creative services through overseeing a team of diverse creatives across the METIA region, with a focus to help and merge their skills with creativity to create pixel-perfect designs.

Mirna works closely with the strategy leads and the wider H+K team to create insight-driven campaigns across all sectors. During her time at H+K, Mirna worked on award-winning campaigns for various clients such as UNHCR, Dubai font, Azerbaijan Tourism Board, and HONOR Arabia. 

Having a vast set of skills, Mirna pursued her career in the creative industry after completing her master's degree in Design and Digital Media at The University of Edinburgh. Mirna's expertise lies under the umbrella of integrated marketing communications with a focus on conceptualization, 360 campaigns, creative strategy, art direction, content creation, and brand identity design.

Growing up in the UAE and having spent her last few years as an Art Director at Edelman, she worked on delivering creative campaigns and content for various brands and organizations in the region including HSBC, Majid Al Futtaim corporate, RSA insurance, Meraas, The Federal National Council of Abu Dhabi and Crown Prince Court. 

And before that, Mirna was part of the SocialEyez creative team, a digital engagement agency, where she worked with international brands such as Cold Stone Creamery, Schwarzkopf, and Etisalat. Projects for these brands focused on content creation and creative strategy for their digital platforms. 

Mirna has been constantly transforming the definition of creativity and where it belongs in our industry and will passionately continue to do so.

Rachel Friend

CEO, W Communications

Rachel Gilley

President EMEA & Managing Director, London, Clarity

Rachel is President EMEA & Managing Director, London. Prior to joining Clarity, Rachel was at Bite Global for 19 years where she was the UK MD.  Rachel has worked across a range of start-up and scale ups through to enterprise clients including Apple, Microsoft, HP, Samsung and Oracle. She has launched well-known brands such as WeWork with their first office in the UK, announced Nest’s arrival into Europe and advised through its acquisition by Google and worked closely with Pure Storage as they launched into Europe and then worked up to and through their successful IPO.  Rachel specialises in working closely with executive teams and boards, consulting on approaches to new markets, reputation management and crisis communications.

Graham Goodkind

Founder & Chairman, Frank

Graham is the founder and Chairman of leading consumer public relations agency Frank. Winning just about every industry award there is, Graham has been behind many of the most creative and engaging campaigns in the business and is the person responsible for introducing the word Talkability to the PR lexicon. 

He set Frank up in September 2000 (and trademarked Talkability®) having cut his teeth at the ‘absolutely fabulous’ agency Lynne Franks PR, where he worked his way up from JAE to MD.    In 2007, he sold the business to the Photon Group, a publicly-listed Australian marketing services company, which was subsequently re-named Enero.  At the start of 2021, Graham orchestrated an MBO and the agency is therefore fully independent once again.

He combines the role at Frank with some other appointments.  He is the Chairman of both Look After Group, which offers purpose-led fame for ethically-minded brands, and Noise Media, a social media agency that drives tangible growth for brands.  He is also a Dutch Uncle, a new type of business consultant/non-exec who deploys a slightly more challenging, provocative and cajoling method to elicit optimum performance, to other consultancies specialising in experiential, digital and cultural marketing.  Graham is an NED of KXC, a brand house for CBD-based products, and a trustee of The Growth Project, a non-profit organisation that provides personal development to charity and business leaders in a unique group learning environment.

Graham hosts a podcast series about creativity, is a guest paper reviewer on TalkRadio, writes regularly for PR industry titles and publications, and speaks at events, universities and schools.  He is a proud father of twins (Dexter and Summer), an OK husband (to Lisa), a better golfer and a massive Arsenal fan.  He's also appeared on Baywatch alongside David Hasselhof and Pamela Anderson.

Jesse Hamlin

VP of Brand Marketing, Avalara

Jesse Hamlin is the VP of Brand Marketing at Avalara (NYSE: AVLR), a SaaS platform for global tax compliance. She leads internal and external communications, content and creative strategy, and global brand. Jesse built Avalara’s employee and executive communications functions, which serve Avalara’s global, 3,500+ team with a fun mix of multi-channel communications.  Prior to Avalara, Jesse worked with leading B2B and B2C businesses through Hotwire Global, a leading tech PR firm based in San Francisco.

Gail Heimann

CEO, Weber Shandwick

Gail Heimann is Chief Executive Officer of Weber Shandwick, a leading global communications network that delivers next-generation solutions to brands, businesses and organizations in major markets around the world.

Gail believes that Weber Shandwick’s highest purpose is “solving” – addressing the toughest problems and issues of clients across the globe in a way that delivers measurable, positive impact. She oversaw the development of the firm’s evolved service delivery model, designed to drive the kind of deep integration it takes to solve for clients, whether it be locally, regionally or globally. She is dedicated to continuing to build an organization differentiated by the depth of its specialist expertise, its commitment and willingness to innovate and its culture of collaboration.

Gail has spent the better part of her career at the epi-center of solving through idea-creation. She brings a relentless pursuit of ideas that touch, move, build, transform and deliver results. In recent years, Gail has accelerated innovation and activation across the firm’s global practice areas, with a particular focus on its digital services and analytics operations. Gail has helped to build brands and burnish reputations for organizations across the industry spectrum – from the technology and finance sectors to food & beverage and healthcare.

Gail was a catalyst in Weber Shandwick being named as the only PR agency to the prestigious Ad Age Agency A-List in 2014, 2015 and 2020, and featured as an A-List “Standout” Agency in 2017 and 2018. Ad Age also named Weber Shandwick to its Best Places to Work list in 2019. Weber Shandwick was also honored as PRWeek’s Global Agency of the Year four years in a row (2015 to 2018) and PRovoke‘s Global Agency of the Year in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Under Gail’s leadership, Weber Shandwick has won nearly 100 Cannes Lions in partnership with leading brands around the world. Gail has served on three juries at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: President of the Public Relations jury in 2012; a member of the inaugural jury for the Glass Lions, which celebrate work that breaks through gender bias and stereotypes, in 2014; and a member of the Cannes Lions Titanium jury in 2018.

In 2020, Gail was named the PR Agency Head winner in Campaign’ inaugural U.S. Agency of the Year awards. In 2019, she was honored twice by PRWeek as US Agency Professional of the Year and Global Agency Professional of the Year. In 2016, she was inducted into PRWeek’s inaugural Hall of Femme, recognizing female trailblazers in communications. And in 2015, Gail was named to PRovoke’s North America Innovator 25 list, which celebrates individuals who accelerate innovation and push boundaries within the public relations industry. Earlier in her career, Gail was named an Ad Age Woman to Watch.

Gail and her husband have two daughters and live in New York City.

Paul Holmes

Founder & Chair, PRovoke Media

Paul Holmes, founder and chair of PRovoke Media, has been writing about public relations for more than 25 years. Paul began his career in local newspapers in the north of England and also worked for a newspaper group in South London before joining PR Week as news editor in 1985.

In 1987 he moved to New York to launch the short-lived US edition of that publication, and after that project came to an inglorious end worked with Adweek and Adweek’s Marketing Week for a year.

In 1989, he launched his own company, initially publishing Inside PR, and later Reputation Management magazine, both focused on providing analysis of critical trends and issues in the public relations industry. He created the annual Public Relations Agency Report Card, which included profiles of the leading PR firms in the US, and the Creativity in Public Relations Awards, which grew to become the largest in North America.

Early in 2000, Holmes launched The Holmes Group, which provides knowledge and insight to public relations professionals across a variety of platforms, including a website, an e-newsletter, events, printed reports, research and consulting assignments, and the SABRE Awards competition. The group’s flagship title, PRovoke Media (p/k/a The Holmes Report), covers the public relations business in the Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and the Asia-Pacific region. In 2011, Paul was inducted into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Judy John

Global Chief Creative Officer, Edelman

As the first ever Global Chief Creative Officer at Edelman, Judy leads the team of creatives and planners globally. Before joining Edelman, she was at Leo Burnett where she served as Chief Creative Officer for North America and CEO for Canada.

Judy has been recognized globally, winning at virtually every show and is known as the driving force behind the Always #LikeAGirl campaign which went on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial, Black Pencil at D&AD, Titanium, Grand Prix and Glass Lion at Cannes, and was named by CBS as one of the top three Super Bowl Commercials of all time.

Judy ranked as the #1 CCO in the world in Advertising Age's Awards Report 2015, was named to Business Insider's 30 Most Creative People in Advertising, and Advertising Age's Creativity50 2014: The Most Creative People of the Year. And in 2019 was named on Gold House's A100 List of most influential Asians in culture.

Along the way, she's judged and chaired top international awards shows including Cannes, The Clios, ADC and D&AD. Judy also sits on the Board of the One Club for Creativity, Ad Council Creative Review Board, and Girl Culture Films Advisory Board.

Heather Kernahan

Global CEO, Hotwire Global

Heather has spent her entire career immersed in technology, and moved over to Hotwire from Eastwick Communications after its acquisition in 2016. As well as agency experience she has a wide range of in-house knowledge. At Autodesk, Heather focused on integrated brand communications and led the development of the company’s first sustainability report and played an integral role in Enphase’s successful IPO and aggressive expansion into Europe.

Avra Lorrimer

Executive Vice President, Hill+Knowlton Strategies New York

Executive Vice President for Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ New York market, Avra recently returned to the US after 12 years living in the UK, including seven at H+K London where she led the consumer packaged goods sector and was the WPP PR lead for Ford of Europe. Avra previously worked at Edelman and Ogilvy Public Relations. Her work has received industry recognition, including a D&AD pencil for PR, PRWeek’s Hall of Femme, Drum Marketing’s Global Brand Strategy of the Year, Marketing Week’s Purpose Beyond Profit award and a shortlist at Cannes Lion in Creative Data.

Ian Loughran

CCO and Co-Founder, iDAL

Elizabeth Luke

Brand Communications, Pinterest

Elizabeth Luke is a seasoned communications professional with a passion for telling stories about the influence that tech and advertising have on culture. She currently leads brand communications at Pinterest, where she manages public relations and communications efforts demonstrating Pinterest’s influence and impact as a platform for advertisers. She also has worked on the communications teams at Twitter, High10 Media and Nielsen.

Elizabeth was named one of PR Week’s “40 Under 40” in 2018 for her work on diversity and inclusion. She has spoken at venues like the Apollo Theater in Harlem and at industry events including Advertising Week. She also has interviewed notable figures including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, actress Gabrielle Union, actress Tessa Thompson, anti-racist activist and author Ibram X. Kendi and others.

She earned a communications degree from the University of Southern California. She is @ElizLuke on Twitter and Pinterest.

Nontokozo Madonsela

Group Chief Marketing Officer, Momentum Metropolitan Holdings

She went from outgrowing the studying of BCom Accounting as a student at UKZN, to embracing her calling into the world of marketing. This gave rise to the woman we now know as the passionate guru of marketing. Nontokozo is a valiant force to be reckoned with and is a living example that marketers must avoid doing the obvious in today’s cluttered world of communication. This means there must be purpose that is integrated in marketing campaigns right from the start, and the authentic empowerment of women is a key part of her quest for brands make a difference in the world.

Nitin Mantri

President of ICCO, Group CEO at AvianWE

Sami McCabe

CEO and Founder, Clarity

I’ve spent my career pursuing entrepreneurial ventures of various types, with varying degrees of success. Amongst other things, my various businesses have included another PR firm (Ubiquity), a one-stop-shop marketing and branding agency for small businesses (Forge), a meta-layer to the internet I launched in partnership with Stephen Fry (Pushnote) and a video content production company (Pindex). I really found my stride in the early 2010s when I became involved in the burgeoning startup community in London. This led me to launch Clarity which continues to be the most rewarding and exciting venture I’ve ever pursued. And we’ve only just begun.

Chris McCafferty

CEO, MSL UK & Salterbaxter

Chis McCafferty is CEO of Publicis Groupe’s Influence practice in the UK, overseeing MSL and sustainability consultancy SalterBaxter.

Prior to Publicis, he was the founder of Kaper, part of the Karmarama Group which acquired by Accenture Interactive in 2016. After the sale, Chris was Managing Director of Accenture Interactive’s Experience Agency, including working with GSK, helping clients combine right-brained consultancy thinking with left brain creative thinking.

As founding Corporate Communications Director at MySpace, Chris was instrumental in its successful launch across Europe. Prior to MySpace, Chris was the first ever Corporate Affairs Director at MSN UK, part of Microsoft.

Chris has advised some of the world’s most prominent founders and CEOs including Bill Gates and Heinekens’ owner Charlene Heineken.

Alice McRoe

Creative, Grayling

Alice started her career as a designer before transitioning to a broader creative role at Frank, working across clients such as Burger King, Aldi & Huawei. She now works as part of Grayling’s Ignite team, championing the agencies creative offering across a range of consumer and corporate clients, and using her design background to craft killer content. She plays an important role in supporting and mentoring creative talent across the agency and was recently selected as one of PR Week’s 30 Under 30 2021.

Emily Mekstan

Director of Retail & Merchandising Communications, Walgreens

Emily is Director of Retail & Merchandising Communications for Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreens – one of the nation's largest drugstore chains, included in the Retail Pharmacy USA Division of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. Emily joined Walgreens in 2013 as a media relations specialist and over the past eight years has managed internal and public relations campaign development, brand and retail promotion strategy and CSR initiatives, to name a few.

Ray Page

EVP Head of Global Innovation and Social Impact, WE Communications

As EVP and head of global innovation and impact, Ray Page partners with WE’s DXT and I&A teams, Global Marketing, and business development leaders to champion global innovation across the agency. He coordinates with global teams to create programs that drive social impact, and put data and analytics, digital, planning, content, social strategies, experiences and reporting to work for WE, our clients and brands.

In a communications landscape that changes by the minute, Ray’s deep background in both traditional and digital mediums empowers him to tell digital stories across multiple channels—always with an eye on how to best lead them to new thinking and inspire changes in behavior.

His career journey has led Ray to Tokyo, Seattle, Denver, and a few stops in between. The time spent abroad with esteemed agencies like Hakuhodo helped fine-tune his design aesthetic as well as an approach to problem-solving that reflects a global perspective. Ray has had the privilege of leading work for some of the most recognizable Fortune 500 brands in the world including Coca-Cola, Bacardi, Samsung, Microsoft, AT&T, Adidas, Amazon and The North Face.

He’s particularly passionate about helping brands bring people and resources together that result in social change. As the creative lead for the Issues & Advocacy division at Tribal DDB, Ray crafted a vision for both his clients and the agency which lead to widely-acclaimed success for foundations such as The Gates Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In his previous role as EVP/ECD at POSSIBLE Seattle, he blazed a path of innovation and creative excellence by combining data, strategy, creative and technology to produce the agency’s most effective digital experiences.

Maja Pawinska Sims

Associate Editor, PRovoke Media

Chris Paxton

Chief Strategy Officer, Hotwire

Chris is Hotwire’s Chief Strategy Officer, responsible for delivering insight-led strategies, ideas and communications across our clients. Previously, he spent 12 years at The Leading Edge where he helped evolve an insights business into a global strategy consultancy. Some of the brands Chris has worked with include Nokia, Sony, Nestle, Bayer, McDonalds, Vodafone and AB inBev. He prides himself on translating data into opportunities and turning them into strategies for growth.

Lucy Reynolds

Director of Communications, CSR and Sustainability, Boots

As Director of Communications, CSR and Sustainability, Lucy is responsible for Boots UK’s external communication and corporate affairs, consumer communication, internal communication, CSR and sustainability initiatives. Lucy was previously Head of External Communications at Vodafone and prior to Vodafone, she was Head of Product PR and Global PR Communications for Jaguar Land Rover.

Gigi Rice

Creative, Hope&Glory

Gigi, a copywriter and ideation specialist, is one half of the PR team Elle and Gigi. After meeting at SCA 2.0 (in 2019) and studying advertising broadly, they fell in love with PR and took the plunge to become one of the first ever creative PR teams.

Finding their feet at Talker Tailor Trouble Maker, during the mid of the pandemic, they decide to go freelance and worked for agencies such as Taylor Herring, Grayling, The Academy and The Red Consultancy.

After entering the Cannes Lions PR competition last minute (and paying the agency fee themselves) they ended up winning the UK heat and went on to represent the nation in the global Cannes competition in June.

Off the back of the competition they have been hired permanently by Hope&Glory PR where they work with Uber, Airbnb, CALM, Sainsbury’s and on new business pitches.

Arun Sudhaman

CEO/Editor-in-Chief, PRovoke Media

In 2015, Arun became the youngest-ever inductee into the ICCO Hall of Fame.

Paul Valentine

Creative Director, Tin Man

Paul Valentine is a Creative Director at Tin Man.  He works on trying to bring Tin Man’s promise of growing brands through emotional connection to life and in trying to infuse interesting twists into comms campaigns to make them matter to real people.   

He spends his time chasing eureka moments, from Tin Man HQ or from his shed office at home (and tends to have a thoroughly lovely time doing just that.)  He has two children, two cats and too many books on his desk at any one time.  

Melissa Waggener Zorkin

Global CEO and Founder, WE Communications

When Melissa Waggener Zorkin founded WE in 1983, she wanted to tell the technology stories that weren’t being told, and share the incredible ways human lives are transformed by innovation. She knew instinctively tech would play a transformational role on the world stage, changing the way we live and communicate, and she was right.

Over the decades, Melissa has partnered with the world’s most groundbreaking brands, telling their stories and navigating transformation by keeping purpose, the “why” behind innovation, as her north star. Melissa’s own bold sense of purpose is how she led WE through good times and bad, maintaining the agency’s spirit of independence and willingness to put people first, even when times were hard. The approach worked: Melissa and her co-pilot Pam Edstrom grew the company from four tech communications pioneers working out of a free office in Portland, Oregon, into one of the largest global independent communications agencies in the world.

From launching the first version of Microsoft Windows to working with world-class brands like Volvo, McDonald's, Cisco and VSP, Melissa is uniquely qualified to lead clients through transformation with a simple formula: Keep people and purpose at the center of all decisions. Under Melissa’s direction as CEO, WE Communications pursues its purpose: to use the gift of communication to move people to positive action — for clients and for the world.

Melissa is an advocate and voice for women in business and has dedicated her career to lifting up women and girls inside and outside the agency. She currently sits on the board of ColorComm, an organization dedicated to connecting and empowering women of color in the communications industry, and is a mentor with ColorComm's Mentorship Program. For more than 15 years, Melissa was a member of the board of directors for Mercy Corps. Through that work and her own passion projects, she’s helped women entrepreneurs start their own businesses, and championed numerous positive social impact initiatives that served communities throughout Africa.  

Mentoring young people in communications is one of Melissa’s top priorities. As a member of the Board of Advisors to the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Public Relations, Melissa works with leaders of the world’s top brands to help connect students and academics with the PR industry. Melissa also honored the legacy of her business partner Pam Edstrom by establishing the Pam Edstrom Scholarship and Endowment Fund to support undergraduate communications students in the Pacific Northwest, where WE first opened its doors. The impact of her work, and her ability to mentor countless individuals to harness the power of their voices, earned her place in the PRWeek Hall of Femme in 2017, and her induction to the ICCO PR Hall of Fame in 2020. 

As CEO of WE, she drives the agency’s commitment to creating an inclusive workplace where differing ideas, perspectives, experiences, lifestyles, and cultures are embraced and respected. In 2021, for the third year in a row, WE received a score of 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which measures U.S. corporate policies and practices that impact LGBTQ employees. WE was also named one of PRWeek's Best Places to Work in 2020.

Melissa has spoken about purpose-driven leadership at Cannes Lions, Mumbrella360, ColorComm, SHEQUALITY, Global ICCO PR Summit and the Indie Summit. She’s a regular contributor to WE’s blog, where she shares her perspective on current events, civility, leadership, ethics and innovation.

For balance, Melissa relies on her centering sense of humor and her circle of family and friends. Books — all of them — are her oxygen. If she’s not working, you can bet she’s outside, trekking through mountains to see the gorillas in Rwanda or cruising the city streets on her Vespa, living each day with passion and wonder.

Rebecca Wilson

EVP Australia and Singapore, WE Communications

With over 20 years of communications experience, Rebecca Wilson is the executive vice president of WE Communications Singapore and Australia. Overseeing a team of over 120 communicators, Wilson is responsible for driving the overall strategic direction, commercial operations and global client growth across both markets, and driving collaboration across the APAC region.   

Beginning her career as a journalist, Wilson entered the communications industry in 1997 as an account manager with Rowland Communications. Starting out as principal at Buchan and then CEO at WE Buchan, Wilson has had an extensive career working across everything from high-level and complex stakeholder engagement and integrated communications to issues and crisis management across multiple sectors such as healthcare, finance, technology and consumer. Key to Buchan and WE Buchan’s success, Wilson spearheaded a growth strategy and this led to Wilson becoming the agency’s CEO in 2016 where she doubled its revenue in that five-year period. WE Buchan went on to become the recipient of the Mumbrella CommsCon Large Agency of the Year award in both 2018 and 2019. Following Wilson’s success at WE Buchan, she was appointed as EVP of WE Australia & Singapore in 2019. Focused on career development for her team, Wilson’s introduction of steering committees allows everyone to develop a better understanding of the operations within the agency. Wilson has been a strong advocate in mentoring young professionals in the industry to become the next generation of directors, and sits on the advisory board for the Gillian Fox Leadership Development Group. Wilson joined the Board of Health for Alcidion as a nonexecutive board member in 2017 and was elevated to chairman in 2019. 

A mother of two, a wife and a close friend to many, outside WE Rebecca enjoys spending time with those she loves, and can also be found deep in a good book. A keen skier, Rebecca enjoys the slopes of the Australian snowfields and carves up the river on a slalom ski.  

Lord Simon Woolley

CEO, OBV

Lord Simon Woolley is a political and equalities activist. He is the founder and director of Operation Black Vote and was a commisioner at the Commission for Racial Equality and the Advisory Chair of the Government of the United Kingdom’s Race Disparity Unit.  

Simon has been credited with helping to transform the ethnic and racial makeup, not only of parliament, but also local authorities, the magistracy and public bodies, and was knighted in 2019.

Simon is the new Principal of Homerton College, Cambridge University.

Stuart Yeardsley

Executive Creative Director, 3 Monkeys Zeno

Stuart has responsibility for creative strategy, vision and cross-channel execution. With 20 years experience, Stuart has worked with some of the world’s most exciting brands including BBG, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Kerry Foods, Nestle, Lenovo, Gold Sachs McDonald’s, Marks & Spencer and Lynx.