Judging Panel

Anthony Booth
Chief customer officer, Mobilicity

As CCO of Mobilicity, Booth oversees sales and marketing operations focusing on brand development and expanding the company’s national network of retail stores and dealer partners. Before that, he spent almost 11 years at Mars Canada, the last three as GM of the Food division. Earlier in his career, Booth spent a decade at P&G in Canada and the U.S. in sales and business development, holding various titles including project manager of the global sales research and innovation team.

Ariane de Warren
Senior marketing manager, Groupe Dynamite

Marking her 10th year at Groupe Dynamite, de Warren leads creative designers, marketing and PR teams in her role as senior marketing manager with the Montreal-based fashion retailer. She started in a visual presentation role at Dynamite’s HQ while studying at HEC Montréal Business School, and after graduating moved on to a special events position, managing the U.S. expansion for the Garage brand. De Warren is known for engaging mobile and viral campaigns.

Luc Du Sault
Creative VP, Lg2

Du Sault started his career at Cossette Québec, where he worked as art director for 11 years. In 2004, he accepted the role of creative VP at Lg2, whose client portfolio includes Desjardins, Bell, Familiprix and the Quebec Health Ministry. Over the past five years, Du Sault has judged many Canadian and international awards, and his work has been recognized by the Créa Awards, the Extra Awards, the London International Awards and Cannes, to name a few.

Joanne Forrester
VP, marketing, Boston Pizza

Forrester started her career in Vancouver in retail marketing, working with Unipharm Wholesale Drugs, managing the flyer program for 200+ drug store chains including Peoples Drug Mart, Independent Drugs, Medicine Centres and Apple Drugs. Thirteen years ago, she joined Boston Pizza as national promotions manager. For the last four and a half years as VP, marketing, she has led brand and campaign management as well as menu planning, sports bar marketing and media planning.

Joe Hospodarec
Founding partner and ECD, Wax Partnership

In just seven years Hospodarec has helped grow Calgary-based Wax from a start-up with five people to an agency with 34 employees. Before co-founding Wax, he was CD at TBWA\Calgary, and previously held CD roles at Brown Communications, Parallel Strategies and Trigger. He has worked with Shaw Cablesystems, Tourism Alberta, CP Rail, Enbridge and Direct Energy, and his work has been recognized by the One Show, Clio Awards and the London International Awards.

David Klein
VP, marketing & innovation, Aeroplan

Klein brings more than 20 years of direct marketing and communications experience to Aeroplan, where he leads a team focused on customer, market and competitive environment knowledge. Prior to joining Aeroplan in 2006, Klein was VP, strategic services at FCB Direct, where he oversaw the development of database and communications programs for clients including Air Canada, Aeroplan and CIBC. He started his career as a media buyer with Wunderman in Montreal.

Dave Nicholls
National brand manager, domestic premium beers, Labatt

Nicholls brings 15 years of marketing and advertising experience to overseeing brands like Alexander Keith’s, Rolling Rock and Labatt 50 as the national brand manager for domestic premiums. Prior to this role, he worked on the successful launch of Bud Light Lime in Canada. Nicholls has also been director of marketing and sales for the Island Lake Lodge and Mica Heli Skiing in BC. He started his career agency-side at Communique and Ammirati Puris with brands like Vaseline, Sunlight, Johnny Walker and Hotmail.

Syed Zeeshan Shams
Associate marketing director, P&G Canada

Shams was recruited to P&G on campus at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in Pakistan, and began his career as ABM, personal cleansing, in the Middle East. With over 13 years at P&G, the last eight in Canada, Shams leads the oral care, personal health care and feminine care business as associate marketing director. He has also co-chaired the P&G Canada United Way campaign and served as board member for Consumer Health Products Canada.

Brian Sheppard
EVP & Co-eCD, Saatchi & Saatchi Canada

With close to 20 years on the creative side, Sheppard has worked on brands as diverse as Levi’s, Nabisco, Jaguar, Newfoundland and Labrador Tourism, IBM, Dove and Toyota. Co-ECD at Saatchi, Sheppard joined the firm in 2007 as associate CD. Before that he worked as creative group head at Target Marketing and senior writer at Ogilvy & Mather, and he got his start as a writer at Harrod & Mirlin. His work has been recognized at Cannes, the One Show, the CASSIES and the CMAs.

Howard Thomas
VP, marketing communications & brand, CIBC

Thomas has experience leading and managing brands including Tourism Canada, Panasonic, Hiram Walker and Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. Before joining CIBC in 2010, Thomas was CMO/director of corporate marketing at Samsung for five years, and prior to that he was president of start-up venture Canadian American Transportation Systems. Thomas has also worked agency-side in senior roles with clients like P&G, Kodak and TD Bank.

Christina Yu
EVP, creative director, Red Urban

As EVP/CD of Red Urban in Toronto, Yu is responsible for clients like Volkswagen. Before joining Red Urban, Yu was VP/CD at Lowe Roche. She was also VP, associate CD at BBDO in Toronto and art director at Taxi in her early days. Over the years, Yu has earned recognition from Cannes Lions, the One Show, D&AD, the Andy Awards and the Clio Awards for clients including FedEx, Jeep, Flow 93.5, Pepsi, Stella Artois, Audi and Capital One.