All In Summit 2023

Biography

Ben Hunte is a senior reporter for VICE World News, investigating stories about LGBTQ people, race, and inequality from across the world. Previously, Ben was the BBC’s first LGBTQ Correspondent, reporting on stories surrounding sexuality and gender, before becoming the BBC’s West Africa Correspondent. He is one of the UK’s most recognisable LGBTQ broadcasters and his in-depth journalism led to several viral reports.

Before moving into journalism, Ben worked as a Strategy Manager for Google alongside growing his YouTube channel, with over 100,000 followers. He left to become a full-time influencer and train as a journalist, starting his journey reporting for Channel 5 and ITV news, hosting shows on BBC Radio 4 and then a news anchor for BBC News Africa.

One of the BBC’s youngest correspondents, Ben’s journalism exposed many issues including Poland’s ‘LGBT-Free Zones’, the government’s failure to record LGBTQ suicides, electric shock ‘conversion therapy’ and the rise of hate crimes during the pandemic. He is open about his own experiences as a Black gay man and is passionate about not only serving the LGBTQ community but educating those less familiar with the issues affecting the community.

Ben has a strong track record of delivering agenda-setting original journalism
online, for TV, and radio. He has been named on both The Guardian and DIVA
Magazine’s Pride Power and has won several awards for his journalism.

Biography

Kathryn is the CEO of Pearl&Dean, the cinema advertising company, famous for its “Pa, pa, pa, pa” sonic logo.

In previous roles Kathryn has worked in national newspapers, magazines, radio and in a cross media role at Scottish Media Group. As well as having the opportunity to watch films for a living, Kathryn sits on the Development Board of RADA, the Board of AOC Sport (which offers sport opportunities to college students), the Council and Board of the Advertising Association and the Executive Council of SAWA. She is a past president of WACL.

In 2016 the book she co-authored with Sue Unerman, “The Glass Wall” was published and since then they have given over 150 talks about the book. In October 2020, Sue and Kathryn joined forces with Mark Edwards to write another book “Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusion and Equality at Work”. Esquire called it “The most important business book of the year”.

Biography

Danny is now the Managing Partner at mFUSE and has spent nearly 30 years working in the UK’s best agencies: TBWA, Ogilvy, CHI and Saatchi and Saatchi. For more than 20 years, he’s had Multiple Sclerosis, a progressive neurological condition leading, in most cases, to significant disability.

Biography

Nadach joined Kantar to expand Kantar’s Inclusion and Diversity offer for clients. She has experience driving DEI from the ground up, with expertise in intersectionality. Nadach has worked with a variety of clients in developing and implementing DEI strategies to make their workforce more representative, equitable, supporting diverse thinking.

Biography

Ade is the Group Director of Diversity and Inclusion at ITV. She is the first Diversity Director to be on the Management Board of a FTSE 100 company. She leads ITV’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy to deliver its published targets and partners with all Management Board leaders, the Commissioning teams, Social Purpose and Human Resources teams to deliver the ITV Diversity Acceleration Plan.

Prior to joining ITV, she led the Creative Diversity team at Channel 4, spearheading the delivery of their 360 Degree Diversity Charter. Her career started in production as a Producer with credits including Big Breakfast, This Morning and A Question of Sport. Ade is on the Board of BAFTA, chairs their Learning, Inclusion and Talent committee and sits on the Board of Trustees of TimesUp UK and Women in Film and TV.

Biography

Twice crowned as the advertising industry’s “Number One Media Agency Leader” by Campaign Magazine, Josh Krichefski is CEO of GroupM EMEA and the U.K. where he leads more than 16,000 people passionate about making advertising work better for people. A member of GroupM’s Global Leadership Team and a key player in maintaining the company’s role as the leading media investment organization throughout EMEA, Krichefski partners closely with agency and GroupM leadership throughout the region, harnessing GroupM’s scale to deliver more powerful and innovative media solutions for clients across markets and cultures.

With $22 billion in media investment billings across 41 markets, GroupM owns a 32% market share in one of the world’s largest regions. Josh was previously Global COO of the newly formed EssenceMediacom, where he led the merger focusing on culture, people, product, client growth and revolutionizing the operating model. He oversaw the agency’s global client practice with hubs in New York, San Francisco, London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Singapore as well as the agency’s marketing function.

Before EssenceMediacom, Josh was MediaCom’s Global COO and EMEA CEO where he oversaw 4,400 people across 37 offices, driving the vision, culture and growth of the agency for the region. He has extensive experience with independent organizations as well as in holding groups and has held senior management positions at global, regional and local levels.

He is well known for his focus and determination by his colleagues, competitors, and clients, and balances a drive for performance with a passion for instilling an inclusive and learning culture.

As Global COO and EMEA CEO at MediaCom, Josh introduced numerous programs to improve life at the agency, resulting in the lowest staff churn for years. These include the launch of the Mental Health Allies programs, numerous activities around Pride, the introduction of Empathy Ambassadors, Unconscious Bias Training, Diversity surveys and Conscious Leadership for the top 65 leaders in the business. He also oversaw the launch of a new partnership with Scope to make MediaCom more inclusive.

During his time at the agency, Krichefski accelerated MediaCom’s industry acclaim and prestige, dominating awards honors across the Campaign Media Awards, the Media Week Awards and the IPA Effectiveness Awards. MediaCom UK also won a Cannes Media Lions Grand Prix for Tesco’s “Food Love Stories.” This was a first in the agency’s history. He was a critical driver of MediaCom’s work that led to being crowned Campaign’s Agency of the Decade two decades in a row.

Before joining WPP, Josh worked on the creative agency side, working at St. Luke’s in the early 2000s and then founding his own digital agency before joining BLM in 2006.

Josh is trustee of Transformation Trust, advancing career development opportunities for children from underprivileged backgrounds and a founding member of the World Wellbeing Movement and the MS Society Appeal Board. In the area of mental health, he has created a Manifesto for a new era of mental health in business, working with U.K. government to help businesses manage mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. He’s a Fellow of the Marketing Society and has recently been selected as the next President of the IPA.

A long-suffering Arsenal supporter, Josh grew up in North London where he still lives today with his wife Deb, an architect, and two children Ruby and Leo.

Biography

Pete Markey is Chief Marketing Officer for Boots where he is responsible for brand and marketing for the UK and ROI. Pete is also the Exec Sponsor for Marketing for Change and the Boots Pride BRG network as well as co-Exec sponsor for the Boots/Macmillan partnership.

Pete has previously held senior leadership roles at TSB, Aviva, the Post Office, RSA and MORE TH>N with his early career at One.Tel, the AA and British Gas. He has experience of working across a range of disciplines including marketing, sales, digital, data & analytics, customer experience, operations and strategy.

Pete has been awarded four prestigious Marketer of the Year awards and is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Pete is very active in the marketing industry and is Vice President at ISBA. He has regularly featured in the “Hall of Fame” in the Campaign Power 100 and the Marketing Week Top 100 most effective marketing leaders.

Pete has been recognised for his extensive work on diversity and inclusion winning both the Diversity Ally award at the European Diversity Awards in 2019 and the Corporate Ally award at the Rainbow Honours Awards in 2022. Pete is also a mentor for The Marketing Academy and Solent University.

Biography

The Avenir Network was set up by our Founder and Director, Dinah Williams. After a successful yet personally challenging career in the media industry, Dinah decided to pursue her passion and pivot her career into the Equity, Inclusion and Diversity sector. 

Dinah is a passionate and experienced EDI consultant, previously part of an award-winning global EDI consultancy as part of the senior leadership team as Client Services Director and Client Director at another international EDI consultancy. As a consultant, Dinah believes the most effective way to long-lasting change is to partner with clients to unpack complex challenges with long-term solutions as well as supporting their purpose and vision to be inclusive, innovative and accessible to all.

For 12 years, she worked driving media sales teams at content marketing agencies including John Brown Media on the Waitrose Portfolio and the Holland and Barrett portfolio at River Publishing as well as National Media-owner brands including News UK, Mail Metro Media and Time Inc. 

Outside of work, she continues to be a force for change. With her co-founder Elizabeth Anyaegbuna, co-founder 16x9media, they set up Bloom in Colour, an internal inclusion group for Black women and WOC within Bloom UK, a networking group to accelerate gender progress across the Marketing and Comms industries. She continued to elevate the conversation of Black representation in the workplace having moderated and participated in several panels discussing EDI issues from intersectionality and allyship to Black representation in media, specifically the challenges for Black women in leadership roles – an area Dinah is personally passionate about and keen to see tangible, positive change. 

Having personal experience of often being the only Black woman in a senior position within a business, Dinah understands the challenges of overcoming sexual harassment, microaggressions, gaslighting and tone-policing, pay inequality, overt and covert racism as well as working full-time as a single parent to twins – she’s resilient but also exhausted on how common-place her personal experiences still are for others in the workplace today. 

Dinah started The Avenir Network with one purpose in mind- to use her expertise and skillset to work collaboratively with organisations to eliminate as many barriers she’s experienced and support them to become more purpose-driven through sustainable equity and inclusion, particularly with attracting, retaining and promoting Black and global majority talent and underrepresented groups.

Biography

Sharon Lloyd Barnes is Commercial Director and Inclusion Lead at the Advertising Association, which represents the UK advertising industry and includes advertisers, agencies, media owners, tech platforms and production companies in its membership. Previously, she ran magazine ad sales teams in London and New York before co-founding The Drive Partnership, a consultancy working with businesses across a range of sectors to build profitable growth. Outside of work, Sharon co-founded a school for autistic children in 2000 – now called Beyond Autism – serving children from most London boroughs.

Biography

Sufia Hussain is the Inclusion, Equity and Diversity (IED) Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Wunderman Thomson (WT). At this prestigious advertising agency, Sufia now heads a team that leads, designs, and implements WT’s IED strategy. She ensures that inclusion is considered and actioned upon at each stage both within the employee lifecycle and the creative process. Sufia is committed to building an ethos of belonging and creating conditions for psychological safety to empower her colleagues to unleash their full, unfiltered potential.

Prior to WT, Sufia successfully rose from entry-level to director in her time at McCann World Group. Here within Business Development, she identified a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic gap within the industry, spear-heading the launch of McCann Reach, a division focused on messaging ethnic minority communities through culturally sensitive marketing.

She holds an unwavering belief that everyone should have access to positive opportunities in business and society. She is ardent about leaving a legacy of good for her three children and in 2018, achieved her post-graduation in Human Resources by The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Sufia was winner of the prestigious IPA iList inaugural award, 40 Over Forty award and finalist at the Asian Women Awards (2022).

Sufia sits on as advisor across many industry bodies including MEFA, timeTo, BRiM and mentor at Bloom. Outside of work, Sufia works as a mentor for women seeking to build their confidence and leads on numerous women empowerment groups. She also volunteers as an Interview Coach at various social enterprises as well as at Trustee level.

Biography

Sarah joined Saatchi & Saatchi in December 2019. She works with Chris Kay our Chief Executive Officer, to both shape the strategic direction of the agency and drive the day-to-day business.

Previously a nine year veteran of Grey London where she held the role of Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Account Management and was responsible for some of the agency’s flagship creative accounts – including The British Heart Foundation and Lucozade.

Sarah has worked in both global network agencies and start ups and across organisations as diverse as Mars, GSK, P&G and the Home Office.

A staunch believer in the need for greater diversity of talent at all levels across advertising, Sarah has been a driving force behind the industry wide Advertising Diversity Task Force, which brings together the most progressive agencies across the communications industry to use their combined energy, expertise and skills to shift the diversity dial.

Biography

Co-founder and co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network (CAN), a leading global movement in human rights based advertising. CAN is a cross industry group of 150+ global brands, agencies and civil society members working to create a safe, inclusive and commercially viable information ecosystem for advertisers and society that supports quality journalism and content, diversity of media and scientific consensus.

Co-founder and Managing Director of Media Bounty, a certified B Corp, on a mission to be the leading independent ethical creative and media agency by 2023.

NED at the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit

Biography

Veriça joined Channel 4 as Chief Revenue Officer in November 2020, after spending over 20 years in media planning and buying agencies. She started her career at MediaVest in 1998 before moving to MEC in 2002. She worked in both the account management and strategy teams across a wide spectrum of clients during her time at MEC, before moving to PHD UK in 2009 to run the Sainsbury’s business. She became MD in 2013, before being promoted to CEO in April 2017.

Veriça has always had a great love of television and was thrilled to have the opportunity to lead Channel 4’s commercial team. She has responsibility for all of C4’s revenue streams working in both linear and digital sales with an increasing focus on developing new innovative advertising models, especially in the digital space.

Biography

After winning a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival, Neil turned his back on a glittering stage career and started in advertising, working on some of Unilever and Nestle’s biggest brands. Moving to BBH he worked on the multi- award winning campaigns for Lynx, Häagen-Dazs and Boddingtons. Neil joined St Luke’s in 1996 becoming MD in 2002 and an FT Face to Watch the same year. Neil later became CEO and led a management buyout of the agency in 2010. Under his management, the agency has been shortlisted for Agency of the Year 3 out of the last 4 years and has been in Campaign’s Best Places to Work winners list for 5 consecutive years. Neil is an elected member of the IPA Council and an IPA Fellow. He is also a BAFTA juror.

Biography

Omar Oakes is one of the UK’s most well-known advertising industry journalists and commentators, specialising in media. He has been editor of the The Media Leader since May 2021 and launched the title’s expansion and rebrand from Mediatel News in 2022. He joined Adwanted Group (previously Mediatel Group) from Haymarket Media Group, where he spent six years on Campaign, first as news editor, then as global technology editor, and latterly as media and technology editor. He has also worked at The Telegraph and Newsquest.

Biography

Harry Tan is a business-to-business marketing specialist with over 20 years of experience in Discovery, BBC Studios and Sky. Now the SVP of marketing and digital product, Harry is also leading non-scripted in the global marketing team at ITV Studios.

Biography

Sue Todd joined NABS as CEO in April of this year following a varied 25 years with well known brands from across the sector.

She was most recently the CEO of Magnetic Media, the marketing body for the UK’s magazine industry, but previously ran her own brand and culture consultancy, Wonder, which supported businesses such as MEC (now Wavemaker), Channel 4, Primesight ( now Global Outdoor) and Grey advertising with transformation & cultural change briefs to maximise employee and business potential.

Her leadership roles at Emap Advertising ( as Marketing and People and Culture Director ) and CBS Outdoor, were where she was first inspired to bring understanding about commercial propositions together with a desire to create enabling cultures which individuals and teams thrived in.
She is also a non exec director for The Big Issue and spends her spare time trying to practice mindfulness, cycling and getting to the theatre and cinema as much as possible.

Biography

Melissa is a disabled actor working in both TV & Theatre. She plays series regular, Miss Scott in ITV’s Grantchester and is also most known for playing Hannah Taylor in Mike Bartletts BBC’s One show – LIFE.

In 2022, she made her West End debut in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Henry V alongside Kit Harrington.

Last year, she completed the first U.K. tour of her sell out one woman show – SNATCHED. The show is now being developed for TV.

Melissa trained at East 15 Acting School and between 2017 & 2019, played the role of Imogen Pascoe in Coronation Street.

Other credits include Sadie Moore in The Intercepter, FLACK, In The Long Run, SILK, Casualty, I Hate Suzie, to name a few. Theatre credits include – OthelloMacbeth at Lyric Hammersmith & HOME, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Sheffield Crucible, The Prize at Live Theatre and Graeae Productions.

During her time at Drama School, Melissa represented East 15 during award season and went on to win the Laurence Olivier Bursary Award. She was one of the first physically disabled actors to win the award.

Melissa has been running drama workshops for the past 11 years for children and young people both with and without disabilities. She created Quite Frankly Theatre & Scene Talent which both run accessible drama and devising workshops. She worked at The Royal Free Hospital Children’s School where she ran drama sessions with young people experiencing mental health difficulties and eating disorders. She gained a foundation in Multimedia Advocacy and was the first to use Wikisites as a way of helping young people with mental health challenges to communicate and enhance self-advocacy.

Melissa was named Alumna of the Year for University of Essex (& East 15 Acting School). This was the first time the alumni award had gone to someone in the arts. Melissa won the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) of the UK award in 2017 and went on to win the TOYP of the World Award in the category “Children, World Peace & Human Rights” In 2018. She has also been nominated for “Actor of the Year” in the Diversity in Media Awards and was shortlisted for “Positive Role Model of the Year” in the National Diversity Awards 2018. Melissa is ambassador for REACH and Models of Diversity.

In 2020, Melissa was part of the line up for Celebrity Masterchef. She does not like cooking.

Biography

Caroline Dinenage was appointed Minister of State for Digital and Culture in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 13 February 2020.

Caroline was Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care from 9 January 2018 to 13 February 2020 and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions from June 2017 to January 2018.

She was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Women, Equalities and Early Years at the Department for Education from July 2016 to June 2017.

She was elected Conservative MP for Gosport, Stubbington, Lee-on-the-Solent and Hill Head in 2010.

Biography

Maria started her career as a digital delivery consultant working with a vast array of digital agencies and brands spanning the past 20 years. She has spent her career managing, building and nurturing teams and departments.

Cultivating teams over the years led Maria to develop a deep passion for mentoring and coaching. She is a former member of the BIMA mentoring council and Head of Mentorship for Brixton Finishing School.

“I know what it is like to stall in my career,  be labelled, not championed and ‘left for dead’. I also know what it is like to have an advocate and how a true mentor and sponsor can change not only the direction of your career, but also your life.

The aim of lollipop is to ensure that Black women have access to individuals who can help to get them to the next level. I want them to know that they are not alone – there is help.”

Biography

Jon is our Chief Customer Officer, and before that our CMO. So it’s no surprise that with his leadership and unparalleled energy and drive, System1 is expanding at an exponential rate. Jon always reaches for the stars…. and catches them.

In 2022 Jon stepped up into our Chief Customer Officer role where he’s accountable for all our products, marketing and sales. Jon used to be a System1 customer, so his superpower is a practical understanding of our customers’ needs and challenges, with genuine empathy.

Jon is an experienced commercial leader with a track record of delivering substantial growth across a large number of brands. His previous experience includes a short stint as CMO for Brewdog, Marketing Director at Suntory leading some of the UK’s most iconic brands, on the Board of Purity Soft Drinks, a private equity-backed soft drink business, and working for Britvic Soft Drinks running a ‘Seed Brand Unit’ in conjunction with Pepsi.

Jon also hosts the ‘Uncensored CMO’ podcast, a mix of work and pleasure and a great way to meet potential clients. It’s at number 1 in Apple’s marketing category for 4 countries.

Outside of work, Jon enjoys the freedom of road cycling, “it energises me and I love the social aspect. All my best ideas happen when I am riding my bike”. Jon cycles for fun and fitness, with the occasional competition. He aimed high for his first-ever Time Trial – the Duo Normand – where, thrillingly, he got to compete against pro cyclists. He blended in seamlessly (he hopes) save for the fact he had no team car (!) and has never been so proud to come 257th!

Biography

Matt is Managing Director of Agencies, Partners and Creative at Google where he works with leading advertisers and agencies to help them get the most from the digital opportunity. Matt joined Google in 2010 from the digital publishing industry and before that he worked in National and Local press. Matt is a regular speaker on many topics around digital, technology and media and is also a Trustee of NABS. Matt loves running, especially to music that reminds him of his youth, and doing his best to be a great Dad to 3 daughters.

Biography

Kat is proud to have clocked up 17 years in this wonderful industry across various planning and buying roles, as well as spending time in a full service creative agency. Most of these years have been spent at MG OMD, working in sectors that span Public Sector, Automotive, Beauty, Tech, Travel and FMCG. Last year, she joined the leadership team as Managing Director. A proud member of MEFA, Kat is involved in D&I initiatives both in and outside of the agency and is excited to help create a new dawn of responsible practice in the industry.