2021 GLOBAL ACE AWARD JUDGES

Jill Applebaum
Chief Creative Officer, NY 
Wunderman Thompson

Jill may just love brands more than people. Jill just joined Wunderman Thompson NY as Chief Creative Officer while under COVID lockdown. She comes from the Facebook Creative Shop. Her work has garnered all major industry awards including the Titanium Cannes Lion and has been listed as one of Fast Companies Most Creative People in Business. Jill doesn’t like to toot her own horn, but for you she’s made an exception.

Mike Baron
SVP and Creative Director
Mower

Mike Baron is a copywriter, creative director and award-winning director, whose work strikes the perfect balance of strategic thinking and emotional resonance. Over his 25-year career, he’s crafted thoughtful, integrated campaigns for some of the largest CPG and B2B companies in the country. But his passion lies in complex categories such as healthcare and financial services, where his work has real relevance in people’s lives. Mike is a six-time Effie Award winner, so he champions “work that works.” His campaign for Less Plastic UK was also recently recognized at the ACT Exhibition in Cannes. Outside the office, Mike is an avid cyclist and downhill skier—and the father of a 16-year-old boy who’s learning to drive (which is absolutely terrifying).

Daren Bascome
Founder and Managing Director
Proverb

Daren Bascome is the founder and the creative director of Proverb, an award-winning, global brand-building agency that partners with innovative real estate developers, cities and other organizations that seek to transform the built environment. A native Bermudian who cut his teeth in exhibit design, Daren set out to create the type of agency that the industry tends to lack—dynamic, international and culturally relevant. Daren’s work has won numerous awards and drawn the attention of international media outlets, including Fortune, Fast Company, The New York Times, and The Boston Globe. He has served in various capacities on the boards of the Museum of Fine Arts, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and Facing History and Ourselves, among others.

Sharon Bronaugh
Former Senior Director Creative Services
Limelight Networks

Sharon’s colleagues say that marketing is her life blood. She is an award-winning creative thinker and marketing strategist and was the architect behind a few transformative and thought-provoking campaigns in tech and manufacturing. Bronaugh brings a wealth of brand management experience and a deep understanding of products and marketing, combining creative excellence with data-driven decision-making honed over more than 20 years. She has served on a variety of boards including BPA Worldwide, Boston Center for the Arts, Crisis Counseling of Worcester County, and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Sharon has lived in Europe and Asia and has travelled extensively in Central and South America.

Gene Campanelli
SVP, Group Creative Director
McCann New York

After having second thoughts about a life spent fixing photocopiers, Gene quit engineering school and spent a day at his dad’s agency. “I couldn’t believe people were getting paid to be creative for a living”. Over the last 20 years, Gene has created award winning work in everything from technology to finance to travel. For the past 5, he’s been leading brands like State Street Global Advisors & Verizon at McCann NY. His humanistic style of leadership is about giving to and understanding people. He unites teams around a shared purpose and creates environments in which they can thrive.

Courtney Cochrane
Creative Director
Doremus

Courtney Cochrane couldn’t be more excited about judging the ACE Awards, because she is, in fact, pretty judgy. With 15+ years as an art/creative director, she’s stood in judgement over accounts like T-mobile, Intel, RTX, Nokia and Yahoo. Her work for San Francisco SPCA was the number one trending topic on Reddit and was shortlisted at Cannes. Based in SF, she has favorably judged co-workers at Publicis, Ogilvy, CNET, Geometry and currently, Doremus. In the last year, she’s delved into breadmaking and mindfulness…just kidding!  She’s a mom and WFH so she’s just holding it together like everyone else.

Isidoro DeBellis
Executive Creative Director
Edelman

Izzy DeBellis is an Executive Creative director, a weekend bread maker and a believer that a good lunch can help solve almost anything. He has worked at, Chiat/Day/TBWA, Wieden & Kennedy, Kirshenbaum & Bond, VMLY&R and was a founding member of Berlin/Cameron & Partners. His work has been recognized by award shows nationally and internationally (Clios, One Show, D&AD, Cannes). Throughout his career, he has blurred the lines of strategy and creative, and for a brief time was the Chief Creative & Strategy at Naked Communications.  Today he is using his experience and skill set to help shape creative in Corporate and Public Affairs at Edelman.

Mike Fredrick
Chief Creative Officer
Nelson Schmidt

A copywriter by craft, he has worked on multichannel campaigns for clients ranging from Fortune 100 behemoths to local non-profit organizations. Mike has proudly dedicated his entire 25-year career to working at agencies in his home city, ignoring the notion that creativity is relegated only to certain locales. His philosophy is that creativity is the most powerful weapon in business today, and he works closely with clients to infuse their brands and organizations with a creative competitive advantage. When not at work, you’ll find Mike’s face in a book or his butt on a bike.

Israel Garber
Global Executive Creative Director
Havas

Izzy is the writer/creator of some of America's (and Havas’) most acclaimed integrated advertising campaigns. He convinced Mr. Charles Schwab to let investors call him by his nickname. Izzy wrote the game changing idea Talk to Chuck. The campaign is taught as a case study at Harvard Business School. Other notable platforms include Open for Fun (for Ritz), Brew the Love for Keurig, and The Green Room for TD Ameritrade. 2018 saw three Cannes Lions and a Titanium nomination for Havas and TD Ameritrade. Most recently, in 2020, Izzy led the pitch for BNY Mellon and launched the “Consider Everything” platform and created the first-ever slowed down podcast ad.

Derek Green
Executive Creative Director
R/GA

As Executive Creative Director, Derek leads a team of creatives on the Samsung Global. During his 25 year plus career, Derek has led and built teams over 3 continents - Sydney, Geneva, Chicago and NY - winning Gold EFFIE effectiveness awards and Gold Cannes Lions while working on blue chip clients P&G, Novartis, American Express, Kimberly Clark, KFC and Corona Extra. Previously, Derek briefly ran the McDonald’s US business at We Are Unlimited Chicago and was the ECD at Ogilvy Australia.

Joe Kelly
Client Partnerships Director
Omobono

As Client Partnerships Director at Omobono Inc, Joe is responsible for strategic communication campaigns that help some of the world’s biggest business brands deliver outstanding client experiences. From food to finance, technology to transformation, Joe’s insights draw on more than 15 years in industry. Originally from the UK, Joe spent four years in Chicago before moving to his current base in the NYC metro area. With such broad experience across multiple roles in diverse sectors, he brings a unique perspective to every situation. He’s passionate about leveraging cross-industry learnings and believes that some of the best opportunities come from looking outside your own industry bubble.

Stewart Krull
SVP, Executive Creative Director
MRM

In a career that began at a small New England agency that counted eight different banks as clients, Stewart learned early on how to dig for the kind of details that distinguish brands in complex, competitive marketplaces. His adventures over the years have included serving as a hand-double for Martin Scorsese, acting as a reality-show plant for Ben Silverman and authoring game-changing chapters in the stories of American Express, Citi, Emirates Airline, HP, Johnson & Johnson, Visa and other global brands during long, successful stints at DDB, Ogilvy and Atmosphere BBDO. Presented with the opportunity to join MRM this past February, Stewart now spearheads the network’s Princeton office, helping to drive marketing initiatives and business innovation for some of the world’s most important healthcare businesses.

Tanya Kuznetsova
Lead Art Director USA
Stein IAS

Tanya crafts creative ideas that are different, engaging, and strategically sound, bringing them to life through stunning and unique visuals. Based in New York City, she is a skilled creative and has an eye for a wide range of artistic styles. She has worked with clients as varied as World Science Festival, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Covance, UL, Oracle, and Merck.

Ant Lillingston
Head of Strategy, SF
Iris Worldwide

Ant spent the first 10 years of his agency career in London where he helped start and grow the breakthrough agency, Founded (now Iris). Ant moved to San Francisco in 2016 to replicate the same success in the Bay Area, he now leads a rapidly growing team that serves some of the most cutting-edge names in tech, including PayPal, Google and Rakuten, as well as helping numerous high-growth companies find their voice and fuel demand by blending the very best of consumer and B2B marketing.

Margarita Loktionova
Content Marketing Lead
SEMrush

Margarita is a New York-based B2B content marketing expert. She is currently Content Marketing Lead at SEMrush. Prior to that she covered content and campaign management at Refinitiv, one of the world’s biggest financial data providers. She had been overseeing the end-to-end production of the Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives podcast for almost 2 years. Before that, Margarita was leading digital marketing and content marketing at startups in Barcelona and international advertising agencies. She also holds two MBA degrees in Marketing.

Juan Manotas
Design Director
Bloomberg

Juan David Manotas is a Colombian Design Director with a sophisticated eye and passionate about ideas that go beyond the expected. With a deep appreciation and understanding of the creative process, Juan David thrives in creating pixel-perfect work that is not only beautiful but always smart and durable. Currently, he leads the Design Team at Bloomberg's internal agency (The Studio): a diverse group of specialists responsible for the creation, production, and implementation of marketing assets designed for Financial Products, Company & Media groups at Bloomberg. With his broad experience in branding, advertising, and design, Juan has learned that the best ideas are simple, scalable, and effortless, making design flow in a natural way.

Allison Miller
Creative Director
McGarryBowen

Allison Miller is a Creative Director at dentsumcgarrybowen Chicago. Throughout her over nine years at dentsumcgarrybowen, she's helped grow and modernize huge global brands like Disney, Marriott, and Kraft. Her passion lies in working on beloved brands, like Burt’s Bees and Brita, that have a strong sense of corporate responsibility and brand purpose, helping those brands find a unique voice. Her work has been recognized at Cannes, Addys, Hugos, CA Advertising, and more. She loves to travel the world and goes on long walks with a good podcast whenever she can. 

Cos Mingides
Founding Partner
True

Cos is a Founding Partner of True, the London office of BBN International, who were named Creative Agency of the Year at the 2020 Global Ace Awards. He began his career in business development, supporting the growth of several pioneering digital and mobile agencies where he won and led digital production accounts for some of the UK’s leading advertising agencies, including AMV BBDO and BBH. Since co-founding True in 2012, Cos has been on a mission to make B2B marketing more effective, more human and more creative. He is a strategic partner to some of the world’s most recognised B2B brands including Volvo, Logitech, Kaspersky and EY, helping their communications live up to the agency’s mantra of ‘Make it memorable’.

Silviu Mocanu
Design Director
Retina

Silviu Mocanu is an award-winning designer and the design director at Retina, the ANA 2020 B2B Agency of the Year and The Drum’s 2020 B2B Martech Agency of the Year. Silviu approaches every project with one aim: to provide the complete creative experience and break through to clients in unexpected and inspiring ways. Silviu’s extensive B2B experience includes Thermo Fisher Scientific, IBM, Oracle Flexport, The US Department of State, The Energy Project, HPE, and Houlihan Lokey, among many others.

John Paolini
Partner, Executive Creative Director
Sullivan

As a Partner and Executive Creative Director, John supervises all aspects of creative development at Sullivan. For over 20 years, he has worked closely with brand strategists, marketers, writers, designers, and technologists to create communication experiences that shape perceptions and change behaviors. He has acquired the unique ability to marry business objectives, brand identity, and user needs, resulting in a strategically-focused creative product. John has worked with clients across various industries, including financial services, and technology, such as American Express, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Insight Partners, Two Sigma, and Weill Cornell Medicine. When John isn’t flexing his creative muscles at work, he can be found making craft cocktails with his family in Connecticut.

Sarah Przybylak
Managing Director
Earnezt

Sarah has spent the last 11 years in B2B marketing, working with global organizations such as 3M, Kaspersky, Centrica, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Vodafone. Helping them to achieve creative and strategic cut through. She currently runs Earnezt, the award-wining B2B marketing agency that’s chasing out the humdrum and reminding us that business people are people too – they just happen to be at work (or home!). Earnezt is the North American arm Earnest.

Anne Swan
Chief Creative Officer
Prosek

Anne Swan knows design, branding and the power of simplicity. Before joining Prosek Partners, Anne was Chief Creative Officer/Partner at Dear Future. Prior to that, she spent 12 years as the Executive Creative Director for Siegel+Gale – one of the largest and most respected branding firms in the world. Anne has led and built relationships with scores of clients including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, CVS Health, Aramco, The New School, DXC Technologies, Micron, Quibi, Hudson Group, The Philips Academy of Newark, AARP, Kahn Lucas, Florida State University and American Express. A prominent figure in the industry, Anne has led global branding programs in virtually every sector and has received international recognition for her work.

Mike Tittel
Executive Creative Director
gyro

With more than 20 years of experience in the advertising industry, Mike believes the secret to great work lies in the respect and trust that agencies have with their clients. His collaborative leadership style brings to life expansive, idea-driven campaigns that produce business results for clients. Mike started his career as a commercial photographer and got into advertising through the creation of interactive experiences. Mike has led marketing and branding initiatives for global brands such as HPE, Hitachi, Pitney Bowes, SAP and Roche. Currently Mike is the Executive Creative Director of gyro east, running the creative teams in New York and Cincinnati.

Brandon Winckler
Creative Director
Schermer

Brandon is Creative Director at SCHERMER in Minneapolis, where he leads design and content teams in delivering buyer-centric creative and communications with the sole purpose of generating real revenue opportunities for his clients. Over the past couple years, his teams have won ANA B2 Awards for two business-driving websites: ADP.com (2019) and DuPont.com/water (2020). Most recently, he’s lead creative strategy and execution for brand initiatives, demand and awareness campaigns, and website experiences for a high-quality client roster that includes 3M, Cargill, Dude Solutions, Ecolab, and Mayo Clinic Laboratories. When not creative director-ing, Brandon is an active steering committee member of MAGNET (a global independent agency network), a proud #girldad x2, and an aspiring bogey golfer (this is the year!).

Heather Keets Wright
Co-Founder and CEO
Wright Creative

For the last decade, Heather has led agency creative and content marketing teams in support of complex enterprise brand storytelling and messaging. Wright Creative’s clients include TIAA, Sunbelt Rentals (the Ashtead Group), Parkdale, and Kellogg. Wright Creative Agency is a certified 100% minority and woman-owned business. A proud winner of the ‘Women in Content Marketing Award 2020 – General Excellence’, Heather has a passion for helping organizations stand up and optimize content development, with a focus on financial services--clients have included  Wells Fargo, USAA, and AAA/Auto Club Group. A journalist by trade (Entertainment Weekly, Essence, Black Enterprise, Vibe, Martha Stewart Weddings), Heather believes those early days prepared her for what she does now: bringing diverse thought to content, where there is none.