B&T'S WOMEN IN MEDIA AWARDS WINNERS, PRESENTED BY ARE MEDIA
B&T‘s Women in Media Awards have been celebrating and empowering women in the advertising, marketing and media industries for more than a decade. We’re delighted that you could join us for another incredible evening.
A MESSAGE FROM OUR PRESENTING PARTNER
At Are Media, we take pride in being Australia’s leading omnichannel content company for women, with a nearly century-long tradition of championing women’s voices and sharing their stories. Our commitment to supporting the B&T Women in Media Awards — a partnership we’ve maintained since their inception — remains as strong as ever.
Over the years, these awards have grown in prominence, and we are honoured to partner with B&T once again in recognising the exceptional finalists for 2024. These remarkable women represent the incredible talent propelling the Australian media and marketing industry forward, and we are excited to celebrate their significant contributions and outstanding achievements.
Jane Huxley
CEO, ARE MEDIA
A LETTER FROM B&T
B&T is incredibly proud, honoured and privileged to be able to hold our Women in Media Awards.
Each year, we celebrate the women who make our industry tick and push it towards a brighter future. From the executive assistants and account executives to the creatives, glass ceiling-smashers, marketing leaders, tech superstars and beyond — this awards show is for all of you.
This year, however, there is an elephant in the room. Allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and rank misogyny have rocked companies large and small across the industry. For some in the media, this provided ample ammunition for mud-slinging at rivals.
At B&T, we try to celebrate and highlight the achievements of these women, ensuring that their voices are heard and that they are empowered to work towards creating an industry that we thought — naively it now seems — were starting to leave behind. I should note here that our winners tonight have won based on the strength of their entries alone. Nothing more, nothing less.
I’d also like to point to our new Sustainability Champion award and our very worthy inaugural winner. Our planet is fragile and Australia’s unique and wondrous flora and fauna need to be protected — preserving them will likely be the biggest challenge we face as a species. We all need to lend a hand and be willing to learn from those who have made sustainability the focus of their careers, likely jeopardising their chance at greater personal enrichment in the process.
Bill Bernbach said a principle is not a principle until it costs you money. Perhaps in 2024, with the challenges our industry faces, that’s more true than ever. But that also provides opportunities for us to work closer together — quashing the bad and elevating the good. We’ll certainly be doing the latter at B&T’s Women in Media Awards this year, next year and beyond.
I hope you have a fantastic night and all leave with a smile on your faces.
Tom Fogden
Editor, B&T
Woman of the Year
SPONSORED BY
Cherie Clonan
Clonan is a standout leader, advocate and innovator in the digital marketing industry. As the CEO and founder of The Digital Picnic, Clonan has transformed her agency into a beacon of inclusivity and empathetic workplace culture, particularly for neurodivergent individuals.
Clonan’s journey is marked by resilience and advocacy. Growing up in foster care and later receiving an Autism diagnosis, she has leveraged her experiences to champion neurodiversity in the workplace. Her leadership is characterised by a commitment to radically inclusive hiring practices and policies that support neurodivergent women. These practices include using inclusive language in job ads, providing interview questions in advance and accommodating diverse work styles through flexible hours and remote options.
Under Clonan’s stewardship, The Digital Picnic has not only excelled financially, growing from a modest startup to a multi-million-dollar agency, but has also become a model for how inclusive practices can drive business success. The company’s retention rates are double the industry average, reflecting the positive impact of Clonan’s policies on employee satisfaction and career growth.
Women tend to be diagnosed with neurodivergent conditions much later in life than men, and Clonan covers the cost of these assessments for her employees and actively supports the broader community through pro bono work and scholarships for marginalised individuals. Her policies also include support for transgender colleagues, and she has addressed financial inequities by offering enhanced superannuation and leadership training.
Clonan’s influence is felt not only within The Digital Picnic but also in the wider industry. Her public speaking engagements and advocacy work highlight the realities of neurodivergent experiences and promote the creation of inclusive workplaces.
Clonan and The Digital Picnic serve as shining lights in the industry that we would all do well to learn from.
Esther Clerehan
CLEREHAN
Esther Clerehan is a distinguished figure in Australia’s creative industries. Having worked in the industry for more than 35 years, Clerehan has been a pivotal force in shaping the careers of countless creative professionals and the success of numerous agencies. Her dedication to mentorship and coaching has earned her a reputation as a trusted advisor, sought after for her expertise and discretion.
Clerehan’s contributions extend beyond individual coaching; she is a prominent speaker and panellist on vital topics including diversity, leadership and career planning. Her extensive involvement with AWARD School since 1993, where she has lectured more frequently than any other industry leader and served on its Council for eight years, highlights her long-standing commitment to nurturing creative talent.
Her accolades speak volumes about her impact: she was named the 2024 AWARD School Legendary Lecturer and was listed in the 2023 B&T Women in Media Power List. She has also been honoured as the #1 Industry Recruiter by B&T in 2023 and has won multiple B&T Women in Media Awards for her roles in mentoring and people and culture.
Clerehan’s ongoing roles as a tutor at Copy School Sydney and a mentor with The Aunties underscore her continuous influence in the industry. Her service on the RMIT Industry Advisory Committee and her regular speaking engagements at prestigious events such as AWARD Creative Leadership and D&AD Shift further attest to her enduring legacy and commitment to advancing the media and creative sectors.
Lifetime Achievement
SPONSORED BY
People's Choice
Steph Dix
Operations director at DDB Sydney, Dix has been chosen by her peers for the People’s Choice Award. Over the past year, Dix has led numerous successful campaigns, including McDonald’s “McCrispy” and “Monopoly,” both of which considerably exceeded their income income forecasts. Her innovative project management skills have significantly contributed to McDonald’s recent success, with campaigns showing substantial growth in participation and awareness.
Dix has introduced new forecasting processes that improved visibility and accountability and has led global project management pilot projects, implementing agile methodologies that accelerated campaign timelines by up to 50 per cent. Her work has not only enhanced McDonald’s outcomes but also optimised DDB Sydney’s operations across its other large clients including Westpac, Volkswagen and PepsiCo.
A key figure in DDB’s Project Ivy, Dix is committed to advancing female talent within the organisation. Her dedication to efficiency and innovation has set new standards in project management and her leadership has had a profound impact on both clients and colleagues alike.
Kandiese Villella
GroupM Nexus, Mindshare
Excelling as head of performance at GroupM, Villella has driven structural changes and integrated performance staff into GroupM Nexus, creating the Campaign Delivery Department (CDT) and prioritising her team during the transition. Villella oversees a 52-member team excelling in search, social, programmatic and e-commerce planning across 21 accounts. Villella also notably led the transition of Mindshare’s largest client, Unilever, in Q4 2023.
Her commitment to mentorship and individual development is evident as she has grown her team, which now stands at 62 per cent female. She created the first job descriptions in the APAC market for the CDT team and built a custom training program, fostering a supportive community. Under her leadership, female employee retention improved, with turnover dropping from 32 per cent to 25 per cent.
Villella also gives up her time to help others in the industry, volunteering for The Village and GroupM’s in-house mentoring programs. Praised for her exceptional leadership and dedication, Villella is a champion of women and endeavours to make the industry a more empowering environment.
Agency Sales / Account Management
Best Ad Campaign
SPONSORED BY
"'Til It's Done"
Ogilvy Australia
The “‘Til It’s Done” campaign was pivotal in changing perceptions of women’s sports in Australia. Historically overlooked and underfunded, the Matildas faced significant hurdles, including outdated kits and lacklustre fundraising calendars. The 2023 Women’s World Cup, hosted in Australia and New Zealand, was pivotal to changing this narrative.
The campaign’s core message, “’Til It’s Done,” embodied the Tillies’ relentless pursuit of their goals and broader gender equality. It aimed to galvanise national support, increase World Cup viewership and boost women’s football participation. The campaign’s centrepiece was an inspiring film that captured the team’s determination, garnered extensive media coverage and used social videos and outdoor ads to amplify its message.
Following The Matildas’ devastating semi-final loss, an impactful outdoor campaign featured a to-do list highlighting ongoing challenges for women’s sports, which went viral.
The campaign was highly successful, generating over 3.2 million impressions with the hashtag #tilitsdone, achieving a 61 per cent recall rate and a 77 per cent positive rating. It also secured a $200 million funding commitment from the Albanese Government for women’s sports.
Rachel Green
HOYTS Group
Green has had an exceptional 16-year tenure supporting Damian Keogh, CEO of the HOYTS Group. Her role extends far beyond a traditional executive assistant and she manages operations for a team of 200 within a company of 3,500 across Australia and New Zealand.
Green’s achievements include leading a huge refurbishment project for HOYTS’ offices, successfully handling the relocation of 190 staff, managing the budget, and resolving challenges, ensuring the project was completed on time and within budget.
In addition to her operational excellence, Green is a dedicated mentor, guiding emerging talents and fostering professional growth within the industry. She also promotes collaboration among business support professionals, hosting networking events and lunches to strengthen industry relationships.
Green’s community contributions are notable, raising awareness of endometriosis and serving as an internal ambassador for the RSPCA. Testimonials from industry insiders highlight her leadership, efficiency and positive demeanour, making her an invaluable asset to the HOYTS Group.
Business Support
Casting Agent
Simone Landes
Simone Landes, founder and director of The Lifestyle Suite, is a pioneer in representing health and lifestyle experts in media. She is a professional and dedicated agent with a knack for finding engaging talent through her meticulous approach to casting.
Established in 2013, The Lifestyle Suite has grown to list prominent female athletes such as Paralympian Ellie Cole and rally Driver Molly Taylor on its books. Landes’ efforts have placed her talent in high-profile roles, including Dr. Joanna McMillan on Good Chef Bad Chef and Dr. Preeya Alexander on ABC’s The Drum.
A significant achievement from Landes’ impressive career was her casting Ellie Cole in I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here, the first participant with a physical disability. Landes works tirelessly to showcase accurate representation, raising awareness of disability, LGBTQIA+ challenges and gender equality.
Landes’ leadership extends internally, where she runs a female-driven team and maintains independent ownership of The Lifestyle Suite. Her collaboration with her second-in-command, Kate MacAlpine, ensures the agency’s continued success.
Victoria Curro
R/GA
Victoria Curro, managing director for R/GA Australia, has been a transformative leader in adland since the late 90s.
Starting her career when female executives were rare, she quickly rose to leadership roles, inspired by mentors such as Ian Kennedy and Jane Neale. Her early work included some of the most significant projects in recent history such as the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000.
Curro has championed women throughout her career, supporting initiatives such as ‘Unearthed’ and SheSays. She addresses taboo subjects, including advocating for menstrual health in Uganda and bringing domestic violence issues to the boardroom. Curro has been critical in shaping R/GA’s domestic violence policies, including leave entitlements and safety protocols.
Under her leadership, R/GA has thrived, achieving significant growth and maintaining a balanced workforce. She also supports development through programs including Women Rising and WomanUP.
Curro’s dedication to diversity, equity and inclusion, innovative thinking and leadership make her a more than deserving winner.
Champion of Change
Client Services
Amanda Fuller
Fuller is the managing partner for DDB’s healthcare arm, DDB Remedy Australia. She also serves as Omnicom’s APAC regional health lead and has led DDB Remedy Australia to ten years of revenue growth with clients including Amgen, BMS, AbbVie, Pfizer, Aspen Pharmacare and MIPS. In the past year, DDB Remedy added Amgen and a medical insurance client, helping the agency grow by nearly 10 per cent.
Fuller is a steering committee member of DDB’s Poject iV, a female talent program to promote rising stars from within. She has also been busy relaunching Omniwomen in Australia, which provides women with leadership education, networking and mentoring across the holding company.
Fuller is an annual Effies judge and represents the Advertising Council Australia on the federal government’s Therapeutic Goods Advertising Consultative Committee (TGACC), where she ensures agencies and clients understand changes to the code and how it impacts marketing.
Amgen Australia’s Jade Giorgio, a long-term client, hailed Fuller’s “ability to understand a complex communication challenge and distil it into a well thought out solution means she adds value to the marketing team’s day-to-day challenges”.
Emma Robbins
M&C Saatchi Group
Robbins is one of M&C’s top creatives and mentors and supports female creative talent across the M&C Saatchi Group. She also mentors women through the national Aunties program and is set to chair the AWARD Leadership course for the second year running.
Throughout her career, Robbins has forged a reputation for staring down discrimination and has thrived through a combination of talent, tenacity, kindness and elevating others.
In the past year, Robbins was the account lead for Minderoo for two award-winning campaigns: the “Plastic Forecast” and “We Are The Warning”.
The “Plastic Forecast” campaign measured the amount of plastic in daily rainfall, showcasing the weight of the world’s plastic problem. The campaign combined live weather data with complex scientific research on plastic in the rain to create the world’s first plastic weather metric.
It was launched on the eve of UNESCO talks by French weather presenter Chloé Nabédian and delivered the daily and weekly weather report on French news, social media and other channels. In two weeks, the campaign reached 1.31 billion people overall, 26 million through earned media and 130 countries started calling for binding global rules to tackle the plastic problem.
“We Are The Warning,” meanwhile, resulted in legislative changes regulating Australia’s vaping industry.
Creative
Creative Producer
Kate Gooden
Scoundrel
It’s been a year full of silverware for Gooden and Scoundrel, with the production company picking up more than 50 — yes, count them — industry awards.
Gooden heads an all-female production team, serving as a mentor and advocate to help them excel. Throughout the judging period, she supported the growth of her team, facilitating transitions from production assistant to producer for two female staff members, and from production assistant to director’s assistant for another. In addition to her work within Scoundrel, Gooden has championed female directors Lucy Knox and Selina Miles.
Gooden has worked on campaigns from an impressive range of brands in the past year, including Hyundai, CommBank, Amazon Prime, VB, Foxtel Hubbl and the Lottery Office.
A standout is her work on Toyota’s “Hilux In The Middle” campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi. Collaborating with director Tim Bullock, she workshopped the script, drawing humour from her own childhood experiences of navigating life between divorced parents and provided creative input and supervision throughout casting, shooting and editing, helping shape the campaign.
Equality Media + Marketing
Equality Media + Marketing (EMM), led by managing director Marilla Akkermans, scored highly in the AFR Boss Best Places to Work list for the second year in a row, placing second in the overall media and marketing list.
The Melbourne-based agency introduced a four-day working week in 2022 called Equality Time. This promotes inclusivity with a flexible 32-hour schedule that allows employees an extra day for rejuvenation.
Equality Time has broadened its scope to now incorporate inclusive provisions such as menstruation or menopause leave, paw-eternity leave for beloved pets and gender affirmation leave.
Progressive policies like Equality Time have helped EMM score highly among staff. One hundred per cent of its employees believe that they are empowered (well above the industry average of 84 per cent) and 94 per cent of staff believe the organisation prioritises their mental health (the industry average is 83 per cent).
Every part of the EMM recruitment process aims to make the organisation a welcoming workplace. This includes flexibility to allow for childcare, work from home, bespoke roles, training, support, additional leave entitlements and donations for the Women’s Property Initiative.
Employer
Entrepreneur
Chiquita King
Cocogun
Chiquita King set up Cocogun with Ant Melder in 2019 to redesign how a creative agency could operate differently, through a simple proposition of making “ideas that matter”.
Today, the agency has earned B Corp status and committed to a formal Business Impact Model that sees it commit five per cent of staff time to pro bono services.
Cocogun’s clients include American Express, amaysim, Panasonic, LinkedIn, College of Law, Anti-Slavery Australia, MissingSchool, The Pinnacle Foundation and Red Cross.
King set up a partnership between Cocogun and the Anti-Slavery Australia (ASA) to help support young girls who are forced to marry against their will. Cocogun has made a lifetime commitment to ASA and MissingSchool, offering pro bono creative services as long as the agency exists.
King is passionate about driving equality and female empowerment through creativity. An example of this is Cocogun’s work with female-focused insurance brand Stella Insurance. She has led the partnership, landing the “Unapologetically for Women” creative platform and driving the award-winning “It Takes Boobs” campaign, which was led by women across product, creative and production.
Jacquie Alley
This is the second year in a row that Alley has won the Executive Leader category following an outstanding year in which The Media Store posted impressive results on agency performance and culture.
The agency grew its revenue by 65 per cent after winning two new clients, while also reducing its recruitment fees by 89 per cent.
The Melbourne indie has a pay gap of 19.74 per cent in favour of women, who make up 60 per cent of the senior leadership team. The agency was voted the 13th Best Workplace In Australia across all industries in the annual Great Place to Work list with 100 per cent of employees saying the agency is a great place to work, well above the average of 56 per cent.
Alley has long been an advocate of diversity. She set up the Independent Media Association of Australia (IMAA) DE&I Council, helped launch the Female Leaders of Tomorrow mentoring program and is a founding member of the Experience Advocacy Taskforce.
She is a champion for creating an inclusive working environment and is noted for a leadership style that is described as “kind and compassionate, curious and empathetic but also decisive and visionary”.
Executive Leader
SPONSORED BY
Glass Ceiling Award
SPONSORED BY
Cherie Clonan
Clonan believes that “altruism doesn’t need to follow a formula” — she has truly forged a path of her own. Staring down neurodivergent misrepresentation in the industry and founding her own agency in 2014, she constantly empowers others to do the same.
Whether it’s paying for undiagnosed women to receive a neurodivergent diagnosis, financially contributing to a trans colleague’s gender reassignment surgery, or ensuring that pregnancy doesn’t spell the end of a woman’s career ambition, Clonan is proof that smashing the glass ceiling doesn’t mean rising to the top of the tree so other women can gaze up at you.
Her commitment to inclusion shows in her agency’s radically different hiring practices to ensure more neurodivergent women can find psychologically safe work.
The Digital Picnic’s team comprises 60-70 per cent neurodivergent men, women, and non-binary staff, and it routinely smashes industry retention benchmarks. The four-year average tenure at The Digital Picnic is double the industry average and some staff are even pushing the seven-year mark.
Clonan and the agency’s approach is working, too as it went from just $4,000 in revenue to more than $4 million in a mere four years and it successfully navigated COVID.
Fiona Ellis-Jones
ARN
Ellis-Jones is resilient. She turned personal grief into a support system for others, leading events and support evenings for Red Nose to raise awareness of the risks of stillbirth.
She has contributed immensely to the broader media industry, both in her role at ARN as head of news and information, where she leads a team of more than 60 journalists nationwide, and in her other journalistic pursuits such as hosting and producing a monthly In Conversation: series, promoting female and gender-diverse voices within the media industry.
Ellis-Jones has spearheaded transformations in newsroom culture and performance, overseeing a major restructuring that improved editorial oversight, on-air quality and productivity.
As a founding member of ARN’s Gender Equality Workstream, she promotes gender equality and works to eliminate gender pay gaps. She recently established a “News Voices” project to address gender bias in reporting and ensure greater representation of female voices in news.
Journalist / Producer
Marketing
SPONSORED BY
Polly Blenkinship
Blenkinship is a powerhouse of the marketing world both in Australia and globally. She is business-driven, open-minded and people-focused. Alongside raising a family, she has driven significant growth for Audible around APAC from her base in here in Australia.
Blenkinship has a passion for supporting working women through pregnancy and maternity leave stages in their careers.
After driving subscriber acquisition across Japan, Australia and India, in her role as head of acquisition marketing in the APAC region at Audible, Blenkinship moved into global head of brand media.
She is responsible for managing a significant brand and content media budget across 13 countries, as well as teams across Europe, North America, APAC and Latin America.
Blenkinship displays strong executive presence and leadership and has a fast-growing reputation within the marketing world.
Blenkinship work doesn’t stop at with her 9-5, however. She is also a mentor for her high school alumni group, giving personal and professional advice to young women in their first six years of experience within the marketing and advertising industry.
Katherine Pochroj
EssenceMediacom
Katherine Pochroj stares challenges down and turns them into opportunities. With a bigger goal than advancing her career, she seeks to uplift and mentor her colleagues and contribute to the wider community. Her key KPI is “prioritising staff happiness”.
Pochroj leads a team of 28 media buyers, handling accounts such as Coca-Cola, Bayer and eBay.
Pochroj spearheaded the Future of TV educational program, assisted in the creation of the MFA Guide to educate the broader industry, and served as a panellist at the IAB’s Out-of-Home event engaging with industry leaders on the topic of programmatic DOOH.
Mentoring is a fundamental aspect of Pochroj’s leadership approach. She is a founding leader of the agency’s mentorship program, where she has advised and guided its talented young female staff.
Pochroj has led the agency’s partnership with Dolly’s Dream, a foundation dedicated to ending childhood bullying — a cause that resonates deeply with Pochroj and her team. In 2024, she collaborated with 39 media partners to secure more than $10 million in free media, greatly enhancing the visibility and impact of this important initiative.
Media Planner / Buyer
SPONSORED BY
Media Sales / Account Management
Jess Cameron
ARN
As well as being an exceptional account director at ARN, Cameron has left an indelible mark on Perth’s media landscape, creating the InspHERation Series.
A firm believer in the power of having strong female leaders and mentors to support other women in the industry, Cameron created the Series to as a female-empowerment networking event for WA’s media and agency firms.
At InspHERation, female speakers from ARN and Perth-based agencies share stories from the most poignant parts of their lives, opening a discussion about shared struggles and how to overcome them. It allows attendees to build relationships outside of their workplaces, which Cameron claims “ is the secret to success”, and we agree!
During her time with ARN, Cameron has been instrumental in the business flipping its NPS on its head and being named the top Radio/Streaming/Podcasting Sales Team of the Year WA.
Philippa Moig
PHD
Being a positive disruptor is part of who Moig is — she was the first girl to play soccer for her local team, the only woman mustering cattle on Australia’s largest cattle station and building a life and a family with an Aboriginal man from the “wrong side of the tracks,” Moig has been shaped by experiences that have taught her to use her voice even when it isn’t comfortable.
She believes in shifting the dial to justice, equity, representation and a better future. She is the mother to a young Aboriginal girl who is neurodivergent and is “hell-bent” on making these unique characteristics a source of pride and not shame for her daughter and others.
Moig’s natural leadership led her to launch a national Mentorship Program with incredible impact. It has seen an 11 per cent retention increase and 100 per cent of the women who participated reporting increased confidence.
What’s more, Moig is PHD’s DEI chair and an MFA DEI Council member, celebrating diverse backgrounds and helping to create inclusive environments. What’s important to Moig is empowering the next generation — she has delivered an MFA NGEN “Inclusivity Workshop” to do this.
Mentor
People and Culture
Marilla Akkermans
Equality Media + Marketing
Akkermans’ unwavering dedication to people and culture positions her as an industry leader, stopping at nothing to ensure people’s wellbeing and purpose are prioritised.
Akkermans spearheaded a workplace relations program, Equality Time, implementing a four-day work-week at Equality Media + Marketing (EMM) at full pay in 2022. Intending to tackle challenges faced predominantly by women in balancing career and family responsibilities, Equality Time is now in its second year.
In March this year, Akkermans introduced Quality Time to foster connection and knowledge sharing across her agency. Staff dedicate 30-60 minutes bi-weekly to engage in informal one-on-one meetings with different team members, to break down barriers between departments.
Earlier this year, EMM received the prestigious accolade of the 2024 AFR BOSS Best Places to Work — Most Outstanding Practice for Employee Flexibility across all industries. Additionally, it secured the runner-up position for the Best Places to Work in Media + Marketing category.
Bec Coulson
IMAA
Beyond being an outstanding leader and innovator in project management, Coulson prioritises sharing knowledge to empower the next generation of female media leaders.
She spearheaded the Independent Media Agencies of Australia’s (IMAA) Academy, which marked the largest investment in training for the media industry. Coulson was instrumental in collaborating with third-party organisations to create e-learning modules and writing extensive resources.
She also spearheaded the Female Leaders of Tomorrow program, marking a significant step towards nurturing the next generation of female media leaders.
Her ability to curate and deliver top-notch educational content has enhanced the participants’ skills and set a new benchmark for excellence. Her strategic foresight and meticulous planning are evident in every aspect of the program. Combining her rich experience in project management and her passion for advancing the industry through education have made the IMAA’s events a must-attend.
Project Manager
Public Relations
SPONSORED BY
Caroline Catterall
Keep Left
Catterall is brave. “She lives by a creed of ‘Why not?’ and backs herself. And she backs other women,” said one industry insider. At the turn of the Millennium, she stepped out on her own aged just 23 to found Keep Left.
Now, 23 years later, the agency keeps improving and growing. In the last 12 months, it has won a record number of clients — with its highest-ever pitching win rate. It has opened offices in Brisbane and the Philippines, adding to its Southbank and Darlinghurst offices, in Melbourne and Sydney, respectively. Plus, it now works with some of the biggest businesses in Australia, including ANZ, Australia Post and Guide Dogs Australia. It employs 40 staff, with an 80 per cent female leadership team.
But there’s more. Last year, she appointed Katarina Farrell as Keep Left’s Sydney MD. As a return-to-work mum based in Newcastle, many other agencies might have passed up her application. However, Catterall hired Farrell based on her CV alone, choosing to work through the practicalities later. Plus, she supports working mums with a free school holiday program, with kids supervised in the office. She is also helping a young account exec explore her tech side hustle.
Cindy Diep
Ogilvy Australia
It is no secret that the creative side of the industry has a problem with gender. Women over-index at junior-to-mid levels before exiting at significantly faster rates than their male counterparts. For women of colour, that attrition rate is even higher.
However, Diep is on a mission to change that. Having joined Ogilvy as a graduate account manager, she transitioned to a copywriter in 2022. After spending six months in the role, she looked around and wondered what she could do to change that. Along with two peers, she founded SHECD, an internal Ogilvy initiative that supports and prepares women in advertising for future leadership roles.
What’s more, her client work has a positive impact for women, too. She played an integral part in Ogilvy’s “10 v 10” campaign for Dove UK, asking why girls as young as 10 years old were being exposed to harmful social media content, pressuring them to adopt unnecessary anti-ageing skincare regimes. The powerful work saw it achieve more than 1.5 million views in its first week and spark an international conversation around body image and age.
It’s no wonder that she has been described as a “small but mighty” Ogilvy Giant.
Rising Star
SPONSORED BY
Social Change Maker
SPONSORED BY
Lisa Muxworthy & Kerry Warren
news.com.au
Endometriosis affects millions of women around Australia and the world. However, for too long they have been told by doctors and gynaecologists that their very real symptoms are just bad period pain.
News.com.au’s editor-in-chief and editor Lisa Muxworthy and Kerry Warren have been integral parts of News Corp’s “About Bloody Time” campaign to change that. It called for longer consultations for gynaecologist appointments for those with endometriosis. Launched in March, the campaign called for 20,000 signatures on its petition. It achieved more than double that.
Working with journalist Lexi Cartwright, Muxworthy and Warren ensured the campaign was expertly coordinated, working closely with designers, planning and producing social roll-outs and more.
They petitioned Health Minister Mark Butler, who then announced a $49 million investment into tackling the condition. From July next year, women with endometriosis will have longer specialist consultations of 45 minutes or more covered under Medicare.
Muxworthy and Warren’s campaign is a beacon, showing that committed journalism is one of the most effective tools for bettering lives. When the press faces so many challenges, they show us why we need it more than ever.
Shivani Maharaj
Wavemaker
Maharaj is a leading light in the Australian influencer marketing landscape. As Wavemaker’s chief content and partnerships officer, she leads a team that has produced some of the finest work in the industry.
Earlier this year, she judged the Social & Influencer category at Cannes Lions and collected Wavemaker Australia’s first Lion with “Hero” for Maybelline Through Their Eyes. After returning from the south of France, she went straight back to upskilling Australian marketers with ‘Creator Advantage’ workshops. She also ran a Cannes Lions Download session with VML for Colgate-Palmolive and shared what she learned in countless presentations and meetings with staff, clients and media vendors.
The results she delivers for clients such as Netflix, Schwarzkopf, Vodafone and, of course, Colgate are beyond impressive, too. Regularly racking up millions of views and engagement off-the-charts, Maharaj’s work on insights, strategy, production and planning is second to none.
But Maharaj is also a figure from whom the industry would learn well. Described as an “incredible colleague, an industry innovator [and] a generous friend,” she is truly a leading woman in media.
Social Media
Strategy
Celia Garforth
Special Group
Garforth has led some of the industry’s best campaigns for Uber Eats — “Tonight, I’ll Be Eating…” and “Get Almost, Almost Anything” — helping Special become one of the most renowned creative agencies in the world. In fact, her ideas for Uber have been so successful that they have been exported globally to different markets.
In fact, her influence on Uber’s brand strategy is so great that Special now has an expanded remit on its global mobility business, acting as a strategic consultant to the San Francisco head office.
However, she has also helped Uber Eats launch an initiative to provide one-for-one sanitary product donation-matching during its most recent brand campaign. This saw the company raise $308,000 for the Share the Dignity charity, helping make life better for the one in five Australian women facing period poverty. She has also been a champion of flexible working, fair pay and improved terms for parents during her time at Special.
Described as a “world-class brand strategist” with “exceptional leadership and influence” Garforth is a standout performer in the industry.
“She is a force of nature with a brilliant mind, fearless energy, and passion without bounds. Celia lifts us all up and makes us better,” said one industry insider.
Natalie Dean-Weymark
Compass Studio
Being a sustainability champion involves more than creating initiatives and producing reports about progress on KPIs. It has to run through your veins — and it certainly does for Natalie Dean-Weymark.
She co-founded Compass Studio eight years ago with the aim of “amplifying the impact of world-bettering brands.”
To that end, she and Compass have certainly been successful. It is a B Corp-certified agency and is on the path to becoming Climate Active certified. The agency only works with brands that are similarly aligned with its values. During the judging period it has worked with the likes of Patagonia, Ben & Jerry’s, Thankyou and B Corp itself — making for quite the client list.
In her role as the co-director of Compass Studio, she is determined to prove that a more sustainable agency model is not only desirable but also viable and profitable. Slowly, inexorably Dean-Weymark and Compass are proving that their steadfast principles can be differentiators and money-makers.
“Without a doubt, Natalie is the leading female within the media industry’s sustainability landscape,” one adland insider told us. We couldn’t agree more.
Sustainability Champion
Tech
Danica Bellchambers
CHEP Network
Bellchambers is absolutely instrumental to CHEP Network.
Not only has she devised and implemented the agency’s Synapse approach that uses machine learning, computer vision and data science capabilities to help its clients make data-driven decisions effectively and affordably. For one client, it reduced research analysis time from 400 hours person-hours to just one hour of the computer’s time, freeing up time for the client’s team.
However, Bellchambers does more than only provide for clients. She developed a data science internship at CHEP in collaboration with UNSW. The program so far has given eight students real-world experience and created six revenue-generating products for the agency. She also led a partnership with Melbourne University to create a Carbon Conscious Campaigns initiative for its Masters of Data Science degree.
She also actively supports, mentors and educates young individuals — irrespective of gender. She is a mentor at her undergraduate university and a keynote speaker at her high school. On International Women’s Day 2024, she highlighted the importance of inclusivity and confidence for a young crowd at her former high school for the theme ‘Count Her In’.
