Judges

John Azevedo
Senior manager, consumer marketing, Nintendo of Canada, Vancouver

Azevedo leads all Nintendo advertising, public relations, promotional and experiential marketing efforts in Canada. He started his career on the agency side, working on campaigns for Labatt, Nissan and Boston Pizza. In 2004, he joined the Nintendo marketing group in Vancouver. Since then, Azevedo has been part of the team that won BCAMA Marketer of the Year, and led the successful marketing efforts behind the launch of Nintendo DS and the Wii in 2006.

David Baldwin
Lead guitar, Baldwin&, Durham, N.C.

AOY international judge Baldwin is the founder of the newly formed Baldwin&. He has worked for some of the best creative agencies in the world including Della Femina, Travisano & Partners, Hal Riney & Partners, Cole & Weber, Deutsch and McKinney, where he served as executive creative director for 10 years. He has worked on such brands as Audi, Sony, Travelocity, Dr. Martens, Ikea, Virgin Mobile and Polaroid. Baldwin served for five years as chairman of the One Club between 2004 and 2009.

Claude Bernier
EVP, marketing and customer innovations, Rona, Boucherville, QC.

Since 2008, Bernier has headed up all Rona marketing and customer innovations, as well as operations for the Totem banner in Alberta. He started his career in sales at Procter & Gamble before joining the advertising team at Sports Expert Inc. After eight years at agencies including Planicom PNMD, Publicité BCP and Groupe Morrow, where he rose to VP, Bernier joined Ro-Na Dismat as the company’s new director of marketing in 1988, and became national VP marketing two years later. In 2001, he was appointed EVP in charge of operations for traditional corporate stores and management recruiting for affiliated stores across Canada.

Danielle Bibas
GM, P&G Health & Beauty Care Canada, Toronto

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Bibas has been a marketing expert with Procter & Gamble for the last 15 years, moving into her current position in 2007. She is responsible for the Canadian health and beauty business, marketing and sales strategies for brands from Cover Girl to Vicks. Her main focus areas are working with industry stakeholders, developing business strategy direction, managing top customer relationships and generating/championing scaled programs across categories and brands. Her global experience with P&G laundry, fabric conditioners and feminine protection categories extends to the UK, Scandinavia, Europe and Brazil.

Mike Collinson
Director, marketing & product strategy, Mazda Canada, Richmond Hill, ON.

Collinson oversees all aspects of Mazda’s brand marketing, including communications, digital, CRM and product strategy. He has played an integral role in the evolution of the brand in Canada since 1991, when he joined the company to helm a CRM program. He progressed through several departments including marketing communications, product planning and regional management. Nearly two decades later, he has driven recent initiatives like the alternate reality game “33 Keys” for the Mazda 3 and Mazda’s iPhone application Concert Quest.

Kevin Edwards
VP marketing, Grand & Toy, Toronto

Since joining Grand & Toy in 2006 Edwards has played a key leadership role in the company’s bold move from office supply vendor to its current niche as solutions provider to Canadian businesses – as well as the development of new corporate brand strategy and emerging retail experience. Prior to joining Grand and Toy, he held brand leadership roles including VP marketing at Jamieson Vitamins (Laboratories), and on the media side as director of marketing at Baton Broadcasting.

Robin Heisey
CCO, DraftFCB Canada, Toronto

Chief Creative Officer at DraftFCB, Heisey began his career as an account executive at Ted Bates before moving into writing. He went on to McCann Erickson, Saatchi, Bozell and Young & Rubicam, and was a partner at Canadian independent Gee Jeffery. His work has won Cannes Lions, Clios and One Show Pencils. Heisey has served on the film jury at the Cannes Festival, as the chair of the Bessies and on the board of the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.

Brian Hickling
CD, Colour, Halifax

Hickling helped transform CCL (Corporate Communication Ltd) into Colour, now considered one of the most creative advertising companies in Atlantic Canada. While he now calls Halifax home, he started out as an art director at Hayhurst Advertising in Toronto. During his 25 years in advertising he has worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, Chiat/Day, Cossette Communications-Marketing, Leo Burnett and Bensimon Byrne D'Arcy. Some of the clients he has worked for include Kellogg's, Nike Canada, Saturn Canada, Labatt and Molson. Hickling chaired the 2008 ICE Awards.

Ian Mirlin
Partner, Ignyte, Toronto

Mirlin’s experience as a writer, creative director and agency president spans almost four decades. His work has been honoured in shows from New York to Cannes while helping drive lasting brand success for a long list of clients including Levi Strauss, Suzuki, Nabisco, Kodak, Fairmont Hotels, Evian, Häagen-Dazs, Quaker Oats and TD Canada Trust. Mirlin is a winner of both of the Canadian industry's Lifetime Achievement Awards: the Television Bureau's Spiess Award and the Advertising & Design Club of Canada's Usherwood Award. He founded Ignyte in 2008 with long-time creative partner Brian Harrod and two other partners, to serve the rescue and renewal of brands in flux.

Kristen Morrow
National marketing manager, Bud Light, Labatt, Toronto

Morrow has 12 years of marketing experience in consumer-led organizations. Since joining Labatt in November 2007 she's led the charge on campaigns including the creation of jumpsuit-wearing fictional spokesperson "Budd Light". She oversees activities from product launches to social media efforts across Canada, including Quebec. She started out at P&G 11 years ago where she worked on the repositioning of the Royale brand as Charmin. She moved to online dating brand Lavalife in 2003 and from there to youth-oriented telco brand, Virgin Mobile, where she worked on the launch of its post-paid mobile service.

Suzanne Sauvage
EVP/Chief Strategy Officer, Nurun Inc.

Sauvage is responsible for spearheading Nurun’s global offering as well as its acquisition strategy. Before joining Nurun, she was president, Canada, of Cossette Communication Group since 2005. She joined Cossette in 1997 as SVP, national client leader, responsible for the Bell Canada account, and then rose to president of the Montreal operations in 2002. Prior to that, Sauvage spent 15 years with PR network Burson-Marsteller, where she worked as VP/GM of the Montreal office for four years before transferring to Paris in 1988 to become president of the French operations and finally EVP Europe in 1996.

Sonny Wong
President & CD, Hamazaki Wong Marketing Group, Vancouver

Wong is president and CD of Hamazaki Wong, a multi-disciplined agency located in Vancouver that creates marketing-communications for a multicultural world. Throughout his career, Wong has led major campaigns for clients in a wide range of industries including Air Canada, BMW, Coast Capital Savings and Tropicana. Along with client work, he also leverages the agency’s network and resources to develop live events and other projects focusing on sustainability, arts and culture, creativity and social innovation.