D& - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Development Manager / United Kingdom
Alex is a point of contact for all those interested in the D&AD Awards in North America and is always eager to help and support the local creative community in getting involved with D&AD programmes.
John Hegarty has been central to the global advertising scene over six decades working with brands such as Levi's, Audi, Boddingtons, Lynx, British Airways and Johnnie Walker.
He was a founding partner of Saatchi and Saatchi in 1970. He then helped start in 1973 the London office of TBWA as Creative Director.
He founded Bartle Bogle Hegarty in 1982 with John Bartle and Nigel Bogle. The Agency now has offices in London, New York, Singapore, Stockholm, Shanghai, Mumbai and Los Angeles.
John's creative awards are numerous. He has been given the D&AD President's Award for outstanding achievement and in 2014 was admitted to the US AAF Hall of Fame. He was also invited to be an Honorary Fellow of The Marketing Society in the UK in recognition of his contribution to outstanding communication campaigns.
In 1996, John was appointed as a Trustee for The Design Museum, London and has been on the Board of Trustees ever since.
John was awarded a Knighthood by the Queen in 2007 and was the recipient of the first Lion of St Mark award at the Cannes Festival of Creativity in 2011. In 2013 he was the honorary President of the Film Jury at the festival in its 60th year.
John wrote his first book ‘Hegarty on Advertising - Turning Intelligence into Magic' in 2011 and his latest book "Hegarty on Creativity - there are no rules" was published last year.
Job Titles:
- Global Chief Design Officer
Billy has over 20 years of experience creating innovative brand strategies and omni-channel customer experiences for leading brands in the automotive, CPG, financial services, retail, technology, and travel industries.
Prior to joining IBM iX in 2017, Billy served as the Global Head of Design for Citi where he was tasked with building and leading a global network of internal design studios and external agencies. In a short period of time, Billy opened new studios in NYC and Singapore, introduced new methodologies for customer-centric strategy, design thinking, and agile development, and was a founding member of Citi FinTech.
Prior to joining Citi, Billy served as the Global Chief Creative Officer for eBay Enterprise - the consulting and agency services division of eBay Inc. During his time there, he led a diverse team of marketing creatives, customer experience designers, and original content creators to deliver commerce solutions that drove engagement, transaction, and loyalty. He was also a member of the eBay Inc. Design Advisory Board, led by John Maeda, focused on activating Design Thinking principles across the organization.
Before eBay, Billy spent eight years at Digitas where he held the role of SVP, Executive Creative Director for the Atlanta, CT, and NYC offices and Mobile Practice Lead for North America working on a variety of integrated marketing platforms and digital vision assignments.
He spent his formative years learning from the best at DDB, FCBi and NW Ayer. Billy is a digital native who strives to discover the unique intersections between art, science, commerce, and storytelling. He has won numerous awards for his distinctive work and enjoys developing disruptive ideas that have lasting impact. He resides in Connecticut with his wife and two children and works at 51 Astor Place in New York City.
Job Titles:
- Designer, Teacher, and Entrepreneur / United States
Eddie Opara was born in London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University.
He began his career at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as senior designer-art director at 2×4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office. He joined Pentagram's New York office as partner in 2010.
His projects have included the design of brand identity, publications, packaging, environments, exhibitions, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media and clients including; lululemon, Samsung, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Nike, Grace Farms, the Menil Foundation, the Corcoran Group, Morgan Stanley, New York University, SHoP Architects, buroOS, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), David Adjaye Associates and Princeton Architectural Press.
His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Wired, Fast Company, Creative Review, Archis, Surface and Graphis. Opara is also a senior critic at the Yale University School of Art and has recently authored a book, Color Works, published by Rockport.
He was named one of Adweek Creative 100 in 2018, one of Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and 2014, and was featured in Ebony Magazine's Power 100 list.
Job Titles:
- Creative Director / United Kingdom
Joining Design Bridge as a Studio Junior in 2000, and taking on the role of Chief Creative Officer in 2019, Emma has played a fundamental role in building the company's reputation for creative excellence. Emma has worked with a broad, challenging and enticing range of brands - everything from small entrepreneurial start-ups with a new story to tell, to prestigious global brands with a rich history. She is a regular on the creative industry awards scene having judged with D&AD, Creative Review and many more, and her work has won countless international accolades including from D&AD, DBA Design Effectiveness, Pentawards and New York Festivals.
In 2022, Emma was appointed to D&AD's Advisory Board, and in recent years she has spoken at The Pentawards Conference and London Design Festival. Passionate about supporting the next generation of creative talent, Emma has been a coach and mentor for the D&AD New Blood Academy and a speaker for Creative Equals.
Job Titles:
- Designer
- Creative Director / United Kingdom
- Design Trustee
Jack Renwick is a multi-award winning designer with a strong passion for ideas. She works closely with clients, getting to the heart of their problems and showing how creative thinking can be the way forward.
Jack runs a creative branding agency, wittily titled Jack Renwick Studio, based in Whitechapel, London with designers who are more talented than her. She has worked on a huge variety of projects over the past 25 years for clients including Amnesty International, eBay, BBC, Nokia, Royal Mail, Sir Elton John and Stella McCartney and received recognition from most of the world's most prestigious awards.
Jack originates from Glasgow and is frequently sought out as an awards jury member for her ‘refreshingly frank' views. She is a Fellow, a board member, an examiner, an advisor, a judge, a writer and a speaker and has received the epic honour of being selected as the D&AD President for 2023/24.
Job Titles:
- President
- Head of Creative Agencies Asia Pacific / Singapore
Joanna Catalano is President, Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) Solutions and CEO for iProspect, Asia Pacific. In this dual role, she is responsible for delivering specialism and domain expertise to drive growth and innovation for brands across the region. As President of DAN Solutions, Joanna leads a newly developed capability designed to build new revenue streams, create strategic client opportunities, accelerate product development and cultivate meaningful partnerships to deliver on DAN's mission ‘To innovate the way brands are built'. As CEO of iProspect Asia Pacific, Joanna Catalano leads iProspect's regional business growth strategy across 1,000 digital experts in fourteen markets, focusing on client leadership, talent development and product go-to-market to drive business performance.
Joanna has 18+ years of experience managing sales and marketing teams, building trusted advisor relationships with multinational companies and managing high impact change initiatives. Prior to joining Dentsu Aegis Network in 2017, Joanna spent five years with Google Asia Pacific in leadership roles spanning clients, product go-to-market and monetization roles. She has 15 years in-depth digital experience, managing complex, global clients in the United States, Western Europe and now Asia, where she has spent the last eleven years.
Joanna commenced her career in economic development partnering with the Ukrainian government on media and communications, and micro-lending for female start-ups, as it transitioned to a capitalist economy initiating a lifelong commitment to diversity and entrepreneurship. Within Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), Joanna serves as executive sponsor for Diversity & Inclusion with responsibility for DAN's Female Foundry (an accelerator programme focused on developing and funding female led start-ups in emerging markets) and its expansion across Asia Pacific. Outside of work, Joanna led Singapore Female Founders, a non-profit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting equality for founders of tech-enabled businesses for two year. To support the industry, she's served as Vice Chair of the Singapore Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), three years as a judge for the Asia Pacific Effies, a judge at West Tech Fest and as a member of the D&AD Impact Council. In 2018, Joanna was recognized by The Drum in their Digerati APAC as one of the most influential digital marketers across the region. When not involved in any of the above, she is mom of two, design aficionado, avid traveller, and foodie.
Job Titles:
- Craft & Other Specialists Trustee
Job Titles:
- Professional Development Executive / United Kingdom
Job Titles:
- Japan / Member since 2012
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder
- Advertising Trustee
- Creative Executive
Kwame Taylor-Hayford is a creative executive and entrepreneur with a career spanning advertising, fashion and philanthropy. He is Co-Founder of Kin, a company that creates social change through culture for brands including Mailchimp, Delta Air Lines and Ben & Jerry's.
Prior to launching Kin, Kwame worked at Chobani where his team was named 2019 In-House Agency of the Year by Advertising Age and, citing the creative work on the brand, Fast Company included Chobani on its Most Innovative Companies list three years in a row. Earlier in his career, Kwame was a Partner at Sid Lee and led teams at Anomaly and Saatchi New York.
Kwame was included on Adweek's Creative 100 list in 2022, on Adage's 40 Under 40 list in 2020 and was inducted into the American Advertising Federation's Hall of Achievement in 2019. He has been on the D&AD Impact Council since 2017, serving as Impact Jury President in 2020 & 2022 and is currently a member of the D&AD Board of Trustees.
He is also a Co-Founder at SATURDAY MORNING, a not-for-profit organization that brings awareness to and shifts perceptions on racial bias and injustice.
Job Titles:
- Executive Chairman & Global CCO / United Kingdom
As Executive Chairman & Global Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide Mark leads the network's unrivalled creative firepower across the world. He is the first creative leader of the iconic advertising agency since Leo Burnett himself. Mark oversees the creative output for some of the world's most respected brands, including Samsung, McDonald's, Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, Nintendo, Kraft Heinz and General Motors.
In 2015, Advertising Age recognised Leo Burnett as the most awarded network in the world. Under Mark's leadership, the network has also topped the Gunn Report's "All Gunns Blazing" category for seven of the past eight years, leading the industry in new world thinking. And is one of a very small group of agencies to have ranked in the world's Top 5 most awarded creative networks for 11 years in a row.
One of the most awarded creative directors in the industry, Mark's work has garnered every major creative accolade. During his tenure, Mark has won over 600 Cannes Lions, including 10 Cannes Grand Prix, three Titanium Lions, four Glass Lions, the first ever D&AD White Pencil, two coveted D&AD Black Pencils, 25 D&AD Yellow Pencils, 70 D&AD Silver Pencil Nominations, six Grand Clio Awards, eight Clio Hall of Fame Awards, five Grand LIA Awards, eight One Show Best of Show Pencils, two ADC Black Cubes and two Emmy Awards.
Under Mark's creative leadership, Leo Burnett has developed award-winning campaigns for some of the world's most iconic brands, including P&G, Samsung, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Kraft Heinz, Nintendo, Diageo, General Motors, Disney, United Airlines and Mercedes-Benz among others. Under his purview Samsung, Coca-Cola and McDonald's were named Cannes Lions "Creative Marketer of the Year".
In 2013, Mark introduced "Creativity Without Borders", a game-changing vision for marketing communications to Leo Burnett that is now widely adopted and embraced by the network. Borderless creativity allows for global collaboration by opening up remarkable opportunities for the way the network operates and creates.
Mark has had the honour of chairing the world's greatest award shows many times over, including D&AD, LIA Awards, Clios, Art Directors Club Global Awards, Eurobest, Spikes Asia, ANDY Awards, AdFest and the Art Directors Club of Europe. He is also one of the only creative directors in the world to serve as a Cannes Lions Jury President five times.
Campaign magazine named Mark the No.1 Worldwide Creative Director, earning him the title of top global Creative Crusader in 2009, and was the first recipient of the Creative Leaders Tribute Award at the Epica Awards in 2018. In 2023 he was awarded the inaugural Created for Creatives LIA Legend Award.
Mark sits on the D&AD Global Advisory Board, the Facebook Creative Council, the One Show Board of Directors, and is a member of the Royal Society of Arts.
Job Titles:
- Brazil / Member since 2014
Pablo is a point of contact for all those interested in the D&AD Awards in South America and is always eager to help and support the local creative community in getting involved with D&AD programmes.
A graduate in philosophy and literature, Rémi Babinet began his career in 1985 as a copywriter at the French agency BDDP. In 1994, he founded his own agency with Eric Tong Cuong backed by the Havas group. In 1995, Mercedes Erra joined them and the agency became BETC.
Job Titles:
- Partnerships Director
- Partnerships Manager / United Kingdom