Phil has chaired the judges at our annual DADI Awards since its inception in 2006 and has an amazing knack of pulling together a truly high quality and representative collection of judges year after year. 

Phil was recognised for his services to digital when he was inducted to the BIMA Hall of Fame and in 2020 he was Creativepool Influencer of the Year. Not bad for somebody who started out as a compositor in the printing industry before setting up his own type studio APT in the 1980s.

In 1994 Phil created the first podge lunch and invited 30 of the top designers in the country to attend. 27 years later there is a podge lunch for the digital, design, sport & music communities and Phil and his daughter Clare enjoy bringing the great and the good together every year and having fun.

www.podgeevents.com

Kirsty Hunter joined innocent as the European Marketing Director in 2020. Since she has been on board, Kirsty has overseen the launch of innocent’s new brand platform, innocent’s Little Drinks, Big Dreams, which is connecting a new generation of drinkers with innocent’s ongoing mission to make great-tasting, healthy drinks that help people and the planet. The European-wide campaign launched in May 2021 and showcases innocent’s commitment to sustainable business and balancing commercial success with community activism.

Kirsty joined innocent just days before the first national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last year, Kirsty has led the creation and implementation of a more connected and collaborative marketing team, with the capability to continue the exciting growth journey that innocent is on.

Kirsty has more than 20 years of experience in both local and global marketing role, previously working on brands like Tennent’s Lager, Stella Artois, Magners, Pepsi and Robinsons.

Matt is the co-founder of FX Digital, a London-based Connected TV-first and OTT app technology company, helping sports and entertainment brands reach millions of new customers by building and launching premium quality CTV applications across Smart TVs, Set-Top-Boxes, gaming consoles, web and mobile devices. FX Digital partner with global brands including Discovery Inc., Eurosport and ATP Media, helping them to reach new audiences by advising on strategy and designing, developing, and deploying applications across connected TV devices.

Flavilla Fongang is an award-winning serial entrepreneur, an international and multilingual keynote speaker. She is the founder of 3 Colours Rule, an award-winning branding and marketing agency. Flavilla was awarded the “She’s Mercedes” businesswoman award by Mercedes Benz among women such as Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook. She is the author of “99 Strategies to get customers”. She is also the founder of Tech London Advocates – Black Women in Tech. She published in October 2021 “The Voices In The Shadow”. A book that features stories of black women in tech and is distributed to secondary schools for FREE across the UK and Ireland. The Voices In The Shadow Volume 2 will be coming back in 2022. She is a judge at the AWS Software Startups Awards 2022. Flavilla Fongang is a recognised leader in marketing as she created the D.A.C. system and The Beyond Marketing Approach which have helped numerous brands successfully grow their business. Flavilla is the chosen brand advisor for BBC and provides actionable brand strategy advice.

Computer Weekly named her among the top 2 most influential women in tech in the UK. She is an Entrepreneurship Expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre for Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

She has been a keynote speaker for the most prestigious international events, such as AdWeek, HubSpot, DMWF, MozCon, AdWorld, Upgrade100, CTA, MarTech and many more.

She also delivered corporate talks for the following companies: Facebook, Toyota, Zoom, Levi’s, Microsoft, Deloitte and many more

Chris is accomplished agency leader and digital specialist with over twenty years’ experience of delivering complex marketing solutions, leading global accounts, developing, and optimising operational process, setting and implementing business vision at board level and driving successful new business initiatives. Throughout his career he has delivered initiatives within all major digital disciplines and run integrated accounts across a wide range of industry sectors. This includes the delivery of £8+ million eCommerce platforms, award winning creative campaigns, transformative consulting services and innovative digital media planning and buying.

He is currently President of BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) and has a focus on addressing the digital skills gap.

Carolyn McKeever is Specsavers Group Marketing Director. She has responsibility for identifying synergies and generating sustainable value for customers, JV Partners and Local Marketing teams across the 11 markets Specsavers operates in. She is an experienced Marketing & Communications Director with extensive multichannel retail, financial services & healthcare experience. An exemplary people leader she is skilled in vision creation, service and digital transformation, people development and generating growth and efficiencies.

Prior to Specsavers: she held senior marketing positions with Shell, Boots, Zurich and OgilvyOne.

Rebecca is COO at Kyan, a technology agency. With over 22 years agency experience she made the leap from the world of advertising and creative to a pure play tech business in 2020. Championing the creativity of tech agencies she is keen to see more tech businesses enter and win awards to celebrate the difference they make by solving clients business problems.

Previously to Kyan, Rebecca has worked in some of London's biggest agencies including: Ogilvy, Iris and MRM as well as setting up and running her agency for 10 years. Outside of Kyan Rebecca is an ultra runner, boxer, qualified behaviour change coach and during lockdown found her love of improv.

Mélanie has built her career on challenging the status quo of internationalisation and traditional models to offer a much more effective and qualitative approach by bringing local cultures back to the fore to feed globally-led initiatives. A proud award winner of the 2021 Female Frontier’s Championing Change category, which celebrates women constantly pushing the boundaries of equality, gender balance, and making dynamic changes within their work, Mélanie is very active in promoting DEI and has developed innovative initiatives to allow brands to successfully navigate complex inclusion pieces within an even more complex and diverse multicultural environment.

With over 15 years of industry experience in transcreation, cross-cultural communications and strategy, Mélanie has been advising international brands such as Barclays Wealth, Cointreau, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, L’Oréal Luxe, Maserati, Nokia, Orange, P&G, Sanofi, Sony and Urban Decay.

Patrick is a writer and strategist who has worked in branding, direct marketing and digital in the UK and US. He helps established and emerging brands create a distinct voice and clear purpose. 

Back in the days of WAP and dial-up he won a Cannes Lion, a Campaign Digital Award and a DMA Gold as the writer on the team that launched Diesel’s first e-commerce store and his work with Made Thought on the re-branding of G . F Smith was awarded a Black pencil by D&AD. He has put pen to paper, online and off, for the All Blacks, Audi, Ballymore, Barclays, Bayer, Brooks England, Chandon, Claridge’s, Diageo, Gilbert & George, Inglesina, Mars, Mulberry, RBS, Sunspel, StatsBomb and Tesco.

His writing on design and designers has appeared in Eye, Creative Review, Pulp, Graphis, Grafik, Design Week and P98APER and he is contributing editor at independent food and culture magazine The Gourmand. He is the son of a compositor, former chair of the Typographic Circle, an intermittent Chip Shop Awards judge and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

Cristel Lee Leed is the global Group Marketing Director for IG Group. IG Group is a global fintech providing its clients with cutting edge online trading platforms and products to unlock the global financial markets. IG Group includes the IG, IG Prime, tastytrade, Spectrum and DailyFX brands. At IG Cristel works with the key brands and has responsibility for a team of over 125 people based around the globe, who lead on in-house creative and production working out of Johannesburg, London and Krakow.

Along with leading the in-house agency for IG's marketing across APAC, Europe and North America, she also leads IG's group strategy on content, social media, marketing intelligence and CRM.

Prior to IG, Cristel has been a CMO / Director for Yolt (by ING), Nutmeg, WWF-Australia, giffgaff, Lulu.com, Virgin Media / NTL.

Cristel's focus on driving brand impact, customer growth and sustainable business value has been evident throughout her career. From her early days growing Onetel to a national brand with over 1m customers as the UK's first triple play telco, to launching and scaling up 'Best New Brand' giffgaff with a marketing team of just 5, to gaining over 1m users in Europe for app only fintech Yolt.

She has won numerous awards by leading her teams and agencies to create impactful campaigns recognised with industry awards such as The One Show, Asia Spikes, LIA's, Webby's, Ad Fest, Epica's, D&AD's and The Marketing Society UK for outstanding achievements in marketing excellence, TV, social, re-brands and brand launches, UX and digital design.

As CMO of WWF-Australia, Cristel led campaigns focused on the threats to the Great Barrier Reef, endangered species and climate change, and was honoured to lead the build and delivery of the world's first digitally immersive WWF branded visitor attraction featuring the species of, and threats to, Antarctica and the Southern Oceans.

Rob has spent most of his career agency side, working at Agency.com and Global Beach before founding and running his own agency for 16 years where his clients included Dreamworks, Paramount, Universal Pictures, Live Nation and Microsoft. His agency was also a production partner to BBH, Saatchi, Ogilvy, Sapient, Engine Group and several others.

In more recent years Rob switched to client-side where he was Head Of Design for Pizza Hut Digital Ventures and is currently a UI Motion Design Consultant at a Tier 1 Investment Bank.

Malcolm Garrett is a Founding Partner and Creative Director of the design consultancy Images&Co, and a Founder and Artistic Director of the annual Design Manchester festival.

Collaborative and user-focused, he is widely regarded as a key influence on contemporary British communication design. As one of the UK’s leading authorities on design and branding in music, Malcolm’s career spans four decades from Punk to digital download. At art school in Manchester in 1977 he founded the graphic design group Assorted iMaGes, and later in 1994 the pioneering digital agency, AMX, one of the first in London’s Shoreditch. He has been a creative lead for numerous international design initiatives, working at the interface of digital, virtual and real world experience.

In 2000 Malcolm became the first Royal Designer (RDI) in ‘new media’, and served as Master of the Faculty from 2013 to 2015. He represents the Royal Designers on the Sir Misha Black Awards Committee, the only awards anywhere in the world that recognise excellence in design education.

Ben is Head of Sport Services at JMW Solicitors LLP and leads the team managing Barn Door, the firm’s commercial platform connecting athletes with new business and active commercial opportunities.

Ben’s work at the intersection of athlete involvement in the start-up ecosystem sees him advise clients on commercial partnerships & sponsorships, growth strategy and branding for consumer facing challenger brands, high-growth startups and digital enterprises within sports, health, wellness and web3.

He has overseen deals involving Anthony Joshua and West Ham striker Michail Antonio, as well as many Premier League teams, Premiership Rugby sides and national governing bodies.

Ben has close to 10 years of experience within sport, previously representing talent at CAA Base and then acting for clubs, rightsholders and brands as part of the global partnerships team at Lagardere Sports.

Ben is regarded as an authority in commercial, branding and marketing.

Ela Osterberger was named as one of the most influential people in Data and Analytics in 2022. As Director of Data Science at Deliveroo - one of the UK's most valuable startups - she managed one of Europe's largest Data Science teams.

Prior to optimising the restaurants, riders and consumers' experience, she ran the audience data team at the Guardian. Outside of work, Ela enjoys baking (and eating) cakes, encouraging her kids to speak Austrian slang, and bike rides. She is passionate about developing Data Scientists and creating an inclusive work environment.

Matt is the Global Managing Partner for IBM iX, the Customer Transformation & Business Design arm of IBM Services. Matt leads a team of 17,000+ creators and makers, across a network of 57 studios around the world.

Matt joined Price Waterhouse as a graduate consultant 22 years ago and came into IBM through the PwCC acquisition. His experiences lies in large complex business & technology transformation projects for clients across multiple industries around the world. Matt was an early leader in establishing IBM’s Digital business in 2012 and today he has global responsibility for the IBM iX service line, the customer transformation and business design arm of IBM. It’s a role that involves building strategic direction, spending time with clients and teams out in the markets, supporting key accounts/deals, and aligning closely with strategic business partners (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe & SAP CX amongst others).

Matt graduated in Computer Science from Warwick University and has a postgraduate diploma in Strategy & Innovation from Saïd Business School, Oxford University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Outside of work, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife and three children and supporting his family golf course, opened in 2004. He lives in the United Kingdom and is based out of IBM’s London office.

Jamila has 15 years’ experience working across multichannel marketing, events and comms. She brings commercial insight and a strategic approach garnered from a mix of in-house and agency positions, paired with co-founding two independently owned brands.

She is passionate about the role of digital within the sporting sector and leads the creative people behind the brand which is synonymous for Coaching in the UK - a system partner of Sport England, collaborating across over 400 partner organisations to deliver one vision: to build healthier and happier nations through sport and physical activity, with coaching as the catalyst.

A strong activist for female leadership, Jamila is determined to create more opportunities and nurture creativity and passion. She strives to bridge the gaps between some of the most prominent and fundamental issues, raising awareness through campaigns that inspire action and behavioural change. She takes a no-nonsense approach and delivers marketing that delivers real impact and tangible results.

A marketeer by day and co-owner of an independent speakeasy by night, Jamila also holds a multi-award-winning luxury spirit brand under her belt.

Liarne is CEO at Codec, a cultural intelligence platform. She is an award-winning digital marketer, who is passionate about technology, culture, communities and their impact on brands.

With 20+ years experience across global companies like LADbible, Livity and Jack Morton Worldwide, she has a wealth of experience in designing and delivering new business and diversification strategies to drive growth and optimise business performance. She is truly passionate about talent development, DE&I and increasing team happiness and performance.

She is a member of leading industry organisation WACL (Women Advertising & Communications Leadership) and a proud mentor for the She Says ‘Who’s Your Momma’ program.

Tom Ollerton is the founder of adtech platform Automated Creative who turn Impressions into Intelligence. Their technology understands consumers by analysing their responses to optimised paid advertising. Their clients include Diageo, Reckitt, KFC, GSK, Nivea, 3M, P&G, MARS, Beam Suntory, Wm Grants, Mondelez, Wickes, Unilever and NCS. Tom is the host of the Shiny New Object podcast and Advertisers Watching Ads which explore the world of advertising and marketing with the industries’ leaders.

Cactus is Europe’s leading corporate advisory and growth consultancy for agencies. The Cactus team have supported thousands of agency owners globally over the past 10 years in growing, buying and selling their businesses.

Spencer started his agency life in 1999 and exited his agency, Bluhalo, to Gyro in 2008 and took Bluhalo/Gyro to the 8th largest Digital Agency in the UK in 2009, now part of the Dentsu Network. Over the past 10 years he’s dedicated his time to supporting the now, next and future generation of agency owners.

Spencer is the co-author of Agencynomics, the Amazon five-star rated best selling book and Audiobook, aimed to help all types of agencies scale from start-up to the first £5M in revenue. He’s also the Co-founder of the Agencynomics community, the UK’s largest for independent agency owners.

Iain is Head of Digital & Creative Product for CNN International Commercial’s award-winning brand studio Create. Working across a diverse range of clients, he helps brands tell stories that resonate with the CNN audience. Prior to this, he’s worked across international publishers and agencies.

Heather is passionate about designing delightful experiences that have a positive impact on people’s lives. She brings over 25 years of experience designing end to end service and product experiences across multiple industry sectors, including airline, healthcare, banking and automotive. Creative Director on large digital transformation projects, she also recently became part of the Global Impact Team at Accenture Song, tasked with placing creativity at the heart of Accenture and focusing on work that drives impact for the people and business at scale. Award winning creative with experience as a judge for international design competitions, she has worked for some of the most respected design agencies globally and co-founded the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design in Denmark. She has lived and worked in the UK, USA, Spain, Italy and Denmark and is a champion of inclusion and diversity. Clients include Ford, Meta, Sky, HSBC, Prada and Lufthansa.

Jed has 20+ years experience launching, building and scaling brands, marketing, and operation functions at start-ups and large companies.

Jed has a track record of driving business growth and increasing customer satisfaction by optimizing the customer experience across all touch points - sales, marketing, and support. Jed is currently at Facebook as Head of Global Media and Digital Marketing.

Prior to Facebook, Jed held positions at both early-stage start-ups and large, public companies. Jed was COO and VP, Marketing at social e-commerce start-up, Yardsellr. Prior to that Jed was Director & Head of SEM for ebay.com, eBay Motors and Half.com.

Jed has an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in Finance from Boston College.

Alexis Sanders is an SEO Director at Merkle. She works with a team of SEOs to ensure the accuracy, feasibility and scalability of technical, content, and strategic SEO recommendations for clients across multiple industries. She is a contributor to the Moz blog, Search Engine Land, OnCrawl, and TechnicalSEO.com, creator of the TechnicalSEO.expert and technicalseo.guru challenge.

Michelle is a purpose and people led inspirational leader with 25 years experience in marketing and digital transformation within Financial Services. She spent 12 years at Santander, took some time out to co-found the charity Mission Beyond and then joined Sainsburys Bank last year.

She is passionate about the effective use of talent, data and technology to achieve a positive commercial impact by delivering great customer experiences and outcomes.

She believes everyone should have the opportunity to fulfil their potential and leads cultural and organisational change by building sustainable and diverse team structures and operating models.