Celebrating females leading the way

Honourees

Brave Brands

Global Brand Communications/Global Brand, Innovation & Sustainability, Essity

Meet Tanja Grubner, one the clients behind Red.Fit, Blood Normal and Viva La Vulva, campaigns awarded 200+ times.

At global hygiene company Essity, together with AMV BBDO, they developed the Live Fearless platform for feminine hygiene brands Libresse / Bodyform. In 2016, they launched Red.Fit, tackling the taboo of pe...

Martina Poulopati

Global Brand Communications/Global Brand, Innovation & Sustainability, Essity

Meet Martina Poulopati the clients behind Red.Fit, Blood Normal and Viva La Vulva, campaigns awarded 200+ times.

At global hygiene company Essity, together with AMV BBDO, they developed the Live Fearless platform for feminine hygiene brands Libresse / Bodyform. In 2016, they launched Red.Fit, tackling the taboo of perio...

Tania Boler

CEO, Elvie

No stranger to controversy, femtech brand Elvie regularly makes headlines with impactful campaigns and stunts designed to challenge taboos around women’s health.

Its wireless breast pump was launched on the London Fashion Week catwalk, causing a stir that saw the product sell out in minutes. But, Elvie is best known for its issue...

Camilla Marcus-Dew

Head of Sustainable Growth, CLARITY & Co

In 2018 Camilla founded BECO, a social enterprise that makes environmentally-friendly toiletries with an 80% disabled or disadvantaged workforce. BECO encourages businesses and consumers to switch their soap for social good and in turn improve the opportunities for people with disabilities across the UK. Camilla is currently Head of Sustainable...

Meghan Farren

CMO, KFC UK&I

Meg has been at the helm during the most awarded, effective and courageous period for marketing at KFC.

“We’re Sorry” (known by some as that FCK bucket) won Cannes gold in 2018, “From AFC – ZFC” won silver in 2019 and the campaign launching new fries “Ain’t No Small Fry” recently won gold at the Effies. Yes, Meg l...

Kerry Chilvers

Brands Director, Direct Line Group

Kerry has successfully driven the repositioning of our entire portfolio - one brave decision at a time.

First Kerry brought Winston Wolf to Direct Line, leading the charge on our infamous Fixer campaign. Not only did this work disrupt a tired, commoditised category, it gave DLG back it’s mojo and reversed years of decline. Kerry ...

Jenny King

Senior Brand Manager, Pernod Ricard UK

Jenny King is a Senior Brand Manager at Pernod Ricard UK, having joined the business in 2008 as an Account Development Manager before moving into Marketing. Having previously overseen brands including Absolut, Malibu and Kahlua, she has recently moved to lead on Jameson, where her mission is to attract more female consumers to the W...

Tamara Gillan

Founder & CEO, Cherry London

Tamara is a visionary partnership marketing leader, who constantly pushes the boundaries of gender balance. A single mother and entrepreneur, Tamara started her own marketing agency 10 years ago, creating an environment where women can flourish and produce meaningful, engaging work.

Through her own experience, Tamara recogni...

Lindsay Turner

CEO, Spark Foundry

Lindsay has risen swiftly through the ranks and since May this year, is now in charge of not one, but two media agencies under the Publicis Media umbrella at just 37 years old. Turner has successfully led the agency’s founding client – Dixons Carphone – for the last eight years. In addition to Dixons, Turner most recently oversaw ...

Karen Blackett

UK Country Manager, WPP

A passionate advocate for inclusion in the workplace, Karen’s role means she is responsible for over 14,000 colleagues across the UK.

Karen has been instrumental in supporting women in the workplace and changing the face of the UK advertising and media industry. She championed a Women Returners to Work programme with the organisation ...

Dr. Rebecca Swift

Global Head of Creative Insights, Getty Images

Dr Rebecca Swift, Global Head of Creative Insights at Getty Images, has driven real change in the way minority groups – be that women, the elderly, people with disabilities, ethnic minority groups – are depicted in the imagery we see around us every day.

A veteran of the creative industries with over 20 years of experien...

Laura Jordan Bambach

Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, Mr. President

If anyone in our industry lives and breathes the definition of ‘championing change’ it is the SheSays co-founder and CCO of Mr. President, Laura Jordan Bambach.

Laura is a prominent voice championing bold creative experimentation, gender equality and diversity. In 2019 she was invited onto the Cannes Lions stage no less than 8 times...

Ali Gee

Deputy CEO, FleishmanHillard Fishburn

Diversity in our industry is dire. Ali Gee decided enough was enough.

She decided to make a measurable difference, committing to the 200+ staffers at London’s FleishmanHillard Fishburn (FHF) that it would “become the most diverse and inclusive agency in London…for the work and the workforce to reflect the society in which we live.” ...

Stephanie Drakes

Managing Partner: Business & Relationships, Social & Local CIC

Following redundancy from a major advertising firm in 2011, Stephanie Drakes knew there was no future for her – 55 and female – in the advertising world.

She started to build a vision for the first social advertising business. Enter SoLo, the only communications company to be established as a Community Interest Company, investi...

Tamara Cross

Executive Director, Head of Creativity & Innovation, Manning Gottlieb OMD

At a time when media creativity is business critical, my approach to creativity has driven MG OMD to quickly become the most creative media agency in the UK.

Having started at OMD in 2001, I cut my teeth on the emerging digital age and this thirst for proto-typing, innovating and pushing at the edges of what media can be has never ...

Nadja Lossgott

Executive Creative Director, AMVBBDO

Not only has Nadja taken the reigns of AMV BBDO, one of the world’s most awarded creative agencies, but she’s the youngest, the first woman and (alongside her partner Nicholas Hulley) only the fourth pair of hands since David Abbott to do so.

But breaking new ground should come as no surprise. She’s reached this summit by buil...

Loren Cook

Creative Lead, MullenLowe Group UK

Bronwyn and Loren are a senior creative team who apply their love for humour, honesty and curiosity to every brief they tackle from big ideas to banners.

They joined forces two years ago and have gone on to create category-challenging work that’s engaging and highly effective.

Their first challenge together was to take on the global ...

Bronwyn Sweeney

Creative Lead, MullenLowe Group UK

Loren is one half of a senior creative team who apply their love for humour, honesty and curiosity to every brief they tackle from big ideas to banners.

They joined forces two years ago and have gone on to create category-challenging work that’s engaging and highly effective.

Their first challenge together was to take on the global T...

Landy Slattery

Creative Director of All 4, Channel 4

As Creative Director of All 4, Landy recently rebranded Channel 4’s online platform. Giving the brand a strong identity that can support the full breadth of All 4 content. Landy makes the ambitious marketing strategy an impactful creative reality in this growing area of the business. Always on the lookout for innovative ways for creative to r...

Kimberley Rowell

Assistant Editor, BBC Stories

Kim is a phenomenal storyteller and inspiring creative leader.

As Commissioning Editor at The Telegraph, Kim was the driving force behind ‘Telegraph Films’. Covering everything from Britain’s loneliness epidemic to collaborating with the Bill and Melinda Gates Global Health Foundation; her feature for World Aids Day investigating HIV ...

Vicki Maguire

Chief Creative Officer, Grey London

Vicki Maguire is nothing short of a beacon of creativity.
She’s the rarest of talents – an incredible creative, a woman leading the charge and a force for modernising our industry.

From her first steps at BDDH, she’s worked on campaigns for some of the best agencies in the world – including Widen + Kennedy, Mojo and Amster...

Sara Tate

Chief Executive Officer, TBWALondon

As CEO of TBWALondon, Sara strives to create groundbreaking culture. She is not interested in recounting the old ways of working, but in building a modern creative business. Putting diversity at the forefront of TBWA’s strategy, Sara has pioneered a progressive parental leave policy, implementing enhanced maternity pay from day on...

Natalie Bell

Managing Director, Manning Gottlieb OMD

As Managing Director of MG OMD, 2019 saw Natalie lead MG OMD to its most successful year in its history. Now the UK’s 3rd largest media agency with 500 people and £700m billings and Campaign and Media Week’s Media Agency of the Year, the agency has flourished under the unflinching dedication and energy of Natalie’s management.

W...

Lindsay Pattison

Chief Client Officer, WPP

As Chief Client Officer, Lindsay is responsible for WPP’s top global client relationships (overseeing the 50+ largest accounts and 40,000 colleagues globally) and driving organic growth. She ensures that major clients have access to the combined strengths of WPP, that the best talent is working on their accounts, and that they wor...

Caroline Paris

Creative Director, Brave

Caz is a creative trailblazer with a fairly unique back story. Caz joined Brave 11 years ago straight from university and has worked her way to the top of the agency to be it's sole creative director at the age of 33. In that time the she has driven the agency to grow 10-fold. She has done everything that could be asked of a creative leader - d...

Sarah Broadbent

Producer & HR Director, Orillo Films

In 2016 we had an 2 big issues:

1) We were a York based company wanting to be recognised in London.
2) Our team were lacking confidence, seeing working in Orillo as a stepping stone, rather than a career.

Tackling issue one, Sarah changed her own career path, transitioning from Editor to Producer. She managed to tackle the...

Katy Leeson

Managing Director, Social Chain

During her six years at MediaCom, Katy co-ordinated 66 pitches with a 63% conversion rate, securing 32 new clients including Missguided, which MediaCom still works with today. In her current role as managing director of Social Chain UK - a position she secured after just six months at the company - her leadership has seen the business e...

Jen Smith

Co-Founder, Craft Media London

18 months ago we realized that the media and advertising industry had hit peak bullshit, full of angst and silos, murky transactions and short term vision. So we launched Craft. Craft is a specialist communication consultancy that sits in the middle between creative and media, making sense of the myriad of channels, managing audienc...

Sally Weavers

Co-Founder, Craft Media London

Jane Ostler

Global Head of Media Effectiveness, Kantar

Jane has been a strong proponent of media, and in particular digital media, for over 20 years: leading the UK digital planning and buying team at Mindshare’s inception, as well as digital teams at Ogilvy and JWT, before moving clientside to work on the digital TV switchover.

Her biggest mark has been made in the last 4 years ...

Rosie Kitson

Head of Strategy, Mindshare

Rosie is on a mission to make media matter for the brief of our lives; the climate emergency.

Rosie works on holding the space for Mindshare to face into the opportunity that the shift to purpose-driven business and the climate crisis presents. She believes in harnessing Mindshare’s creative and strategic firepower to create a better world fi...

Libby Robinson

EMEA Managing Director, M&C Saatchi Performance

In a historically male-dominated industry, Libby Robinson has built a robust, creative, performance-driven media empire with the purpose: ‘change advertising together’. Gathering experience across all aspects of the M&C Saatchi Performance business, she has successfully scaled it globally from its mobile roots.

As Commercia...

Hannah Blair

Co-Founder, VRcalm

I graduated last year in Computer Science recently finished a graduate scheme as a software developer at Deutsche Bank, now having gone on to work as a senior frontend developer at a startup, Defty.

I work full-time while running a healthtech startup in my free time. I cofounded vrcalm, which is a therapeutic Virtual Reality experie...

Abigail Stephenson

Creative, VMLY&R London

Abigail is worthy of a place on the Influential Women list because she is exactly that, influential. In her short time in advertising (barely two years) she has already worked for some of London's top agencies including Droga5, Lucky Generals and BBC Creative.

Her most recent campaign featured comedian Katherine Ryan appearing on a...

Danni Washington

Science Communicator & Ocean Advocate, Big Blue Enterprises

Danni is one of the most amazing, inspiring, and influential women I know and have had the pleasure of working with.

She's accomplished so much and positively impacted so many people. She's the first African American woman/woman of colour to host her own science television series. At age 21, Danni co-founded the Big Blue & ...

Sophie Deen

CEO, Bright Little Labs

Sophie is the founder, CEO and chief story maker of Bright Little Labs - a media startup on a mission to make Sesame Street for the digital age. She believes in the power of storytelling to promote critical thinking, computer science and equality for ALL kids. Her flagship story is about Detective Dot, a tech-whizz who is on a dangerous...

Jennifer Quigley-Jones

CEO & Founder, Digital Voices

Jennifer Quigley-Jones is the 29 year-old founder of London-based YouTube creator agency, Digital Voices, which is on track to make +£1m this year, having only launched less than two years ago.

Since founding the company with just £500 in her business account, Jenny’s paired YouTube creators with brands across the world to m...

Saffana Monajed

Media Planner, Omnicom

Saffana is what we need in our sector to drive diversity and inclusion. She's here to make real change and goes out of her way both internally and externally to deliver real change yet you probably have not heard about her because she's doing everything to make a really impact, not just talk.

Internally she'll do everything fro...

Sara McCorquodale

Founder & CEO, CORQ

Sara McCorquodale is single-handedly shaping the world of Influencer Marketing. As the leading authority in the UK influencer space, she launched CORQ. in 2018 with a view to provide brands and agencies with an independent, informed, and journalistically led platform they could trust. Although driven by data, Sara also spotlights th...

Carole Humphrey

Managing Director, Grand Central Recording Studios

Despite not having a background in science, Carole has been a pioneer in the transformation from analogue to digital in the audio world. In 1985 she was instrumental in purchasing a Synclavier, hitherto a renowned musical sampler, and working to make it the de facto standard for recording and sound design in audio post.

GCRS was th...

Kath Ludlow

MD Four Engage, Four Communications Group

Kath has spent her working life harnessing customer data and technology to transform how brands connect with high-value audiences. A pioneer of branded content and segmentation from her 13 years delivering customer loyalty communications for Tesco, she co-founded Legend Engage in 2013 and co-created the agency’s unique, award-winning insi...

Rowena Humby

Chief Product Officer, Starcount Insights

Rowena is Chief Product Officer at Starcount, a leading London data science consultancy that builds cutting-edge data solutions for UK and global clients such as Marks & Spencer, Jaguar Land Rover and Holland & Barrett.

Rowena has a passion for problem-solving through data-driven decision making and has been a part of Starcount since it...

Lai-Ping Lai

Chief Product Officer, tails.com

Lai-Ping joined tails.com in October 2018 as Chief Product Officer. No other business in the world can do what we do at tails.com - create a unique recipe for every single dog on a mass scale - and it’s down to our industry-leading, game-changing marriage of technology and manufacturing. Our proprietary systems and technology platforms make u...

Melissa Snover

CEO and Founder, Nourished

Melissa Snover has been a successful entrepreneur for 15 years and is considered an expert and innovator in the food tech industry. In 2015 she developed the world’s first 3D printer for food to reach the consumer market with FDA and FSA approval, and has since launched her machines into retail outlets, amusement parks and education insti...

Vicky Smalley

Chief Technology Officer, FundamentalVR

Vicky Smalley has extensive tech experience, starting her career specializing in Artificial Intelligence for PC and Console titles and has since moved her focus on the educational sector. She is passionate about new technology and since 2017 has been CTO at FundamentalVR, working with cutting edge VR and haptic technology to deliver immersi...

Sarah Conway

Precision Planner, Wavemaker

Inclusivity isn’t about “including everyone”.

It’s not enough to include people. People need to feel like they belong. I’ve learned this first hand over the last 18 months – having been diagnosed with MS last May.

But inclusivity isn’t new for me; I have been keenly involved in initiatives over the last 10 years; active from t...

Carole Humphrey

Managing Director, Grand Central Recording Studios

Growing a diverse team has never taken a concerted effort from Carole. She has always used her independent position to take full control over GCRS’ recruiting policies and company culture. It has never been her style to seek out new graduates from the same colleges as her competitors, but rather look further afield for those with a genuine pa...

Tim Noblett

Head of Data, TBWALondon

As co-chair of OPEN Pride UK, the OMNICOM LGBT+ group, Tim has developed a programme of activities that support Omnicom LGBT+ employees and engage allies across 5000 people and 50 agencies. OPEN Pride UK strives to educate agencies about the importance of accurately representing LGBT+ people in marketing communications; as part of this,...

Ali Gee

Deputy CEO, FleishmanHillard Fishburn

Asad Dhunna

Founder, The Unmistakables

Asad has grounded himself in his own purpose of making our industry more diverse, inclusive and representative and wants to bring people along with him. Setting up The Unmistakables, a consultancy made of minorities, has created a space for people that are typically underrepresented and ignored to be seen and heard. Through setting up t...