2015 Jury

Matthew Diamond
Senior Vice President
Hunter Straker Ltd.

Matthew Diamond has a wealth of knowledge garnered on the client and agency side in his near two decades of experience in the marketing world.  Currently he is SVP of AMG Canada overseeing the entire CPG portfolio, including Hunter Straker North America’s only Purchase Design™ Agency, as well as Mosaic’s CPG business.  Prior to joining Hunter Straker, Diamond was a Partner at Capital C for nearly a decade.  He started his career as a Brand Manager at Kraft Canada, as well as working at the NHLPA and an internet start-up.  Matthew is one of Canada’s top thought leaders in his field, including: Chairman of CAPMA; Board of Governors Member for the ICA (Institute of Communication Agencies); frequent author and conference speaker; and faculty member at Ivey Business School, teaching an MBA elective marketing course. 

Nola Martin
Director Strategic Business Planning
Maple Leaf Consumer Foods

Nola is currently the Sr. Director, Joint Business Planning at Maple Leaf Foods, which allows her to strategically guide shopper impact with retailers. Over her career, she has worked to create a focus on the shopper within consumer packaged goods, and through targeted research.  Strong relationships with retailers has allowed for stronger in store impact, but there is still a long way to go. Currently, Nola is interested in how consumer packaged good, and more specifically food, can engage shoppers on their path to purchase.

Sandra Sanderson
EVP Marketing
Walmart Canada Corp.

Sandra Sanderson is Walmart Canada’s Executive Vice-President of Marketing, responsible for overall brand stewardship and leading marketing efforts to help Canadians save money and live better.

Sandra has an accomplished career in the marketing field and has worked in a variety of industries and companies, from Procter & Gamble, Kraft and Coca-Cola in consumer packaged goods to Canada Post in the public sector, and NBC Universal in the entertainment field.

Sandra entered the retail industry as Chief Marketing Officer of Danier Leather and later became the Senior Vice-President of Marketing at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Sandra was one of Strategy’s 2012 Marketers of the Year and is actively involved in the marketing community. She sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Marketing Association, and was the Chair of RCC’s Senior Retail Marketing Committee, as well as the Advisory Board of the Shopper Marketing Forum. Sandra is a frequent speaker at Marketing conferences and serves as a judge for marketing awards.

Sandra lives in Unionville with her husband Jim, and their two children.

Stephane Berube
Chief Marketing Officer
L'Oreal Canada Inc.

Stéphane Bérubé has close to 20 years of experience in the beauty industry.

After graduating from the Université Laval in Quebec in 1996 with a Business degree, he started his career in Toronto as an Assistant Brand Manager for an international cosmetics and consumer goods company.

In 2002, he joined L’Oréal Canada as a Marketing Director for the Maybelline New York brand, where he contributed to the success of the brand’s partnership with Star Académie, which garnered the team the “Marketer of the Year” award in 2003. He then moved on to become Brand
Director of the L’Oréal Paris brand in 2005 and became General Manager two years later. Amongst various successes, he initiated the brand’s successful partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

In 2013, Stéphane Bérubé was named General Manager of Media and Innovation for L’Oréal Canada. In this role, he oversaw L'Oréal Canada's media investments and negotiations, as well as large?scale corporate sponsorships. In April 2014, he was appointed Chief Marketing Officer and is now in charge of creating a pool of knowledge, activities, and development and expertise around five major axes: Consumer Care Centre, Consumer Insights, Business Intelligence, Digital, and Customer Relationship Management.

Mr. Bérubé, who was ranked among the “Top 30 Under 30” by Marketing Magazine, completed the International General Management Program of L'Oréal at INSEAD. He sits on several industry boards, such as the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA), the Bureau of Broadcasting Measurement (BBM) and the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB).
He also sits on the board of La Fondation en Coeur, a non?profit organization that provides help and assistance to children suffering from heart diseases as well as to their families, a cause that he strongly supports.

Nicole Bleiwas
VP, Consumer & Shopper Insights
Kraft Canada Inc.

Nicole Bleiwas is VP, Consumer & Shopper Insights, Kraft Foods Canada.   In her role, Nicole is focused on championing a deeper, richer understanding of the consumer & shopper across the organization.  She spearheads initiatives to better leverage and integrate insights into commercial decision making.   Prior to this, Nicole brought shopper marketing to life at Canada Bread.  She has also worked at Coca-Cola both in Canada and in a Global Capacity.

Nuala Byles
Executive Creative Director
Geometry Global

Nuala Byles is the Executive Creative Director at Geometry Global, the brand activation agency of Ogilvy & Mather Canada. Nuala and her partners Nancy Madonik, Managing Director and Katherine Barks, Strategic Planning Director, built the agency from 9 to 30 people and counting, in less than four years. Nuala entered the
entrepreneurial world with the launch of Metaphor Inc., a
creative agency specializing in entertainment, lifestyle and retail activation.

After 10 successful years,BBDO acquired Metaphor and she continued her career at various agencies and has produced breakthrough campaigns for brands, such as: Scotiabank, Cineplex, Pepsi, Nestlé, Maple Leaf Foods, SC Johnson, Unilever, Kimberly-­?Clark and Heart & Stroke Foundation. What compels a consumer into action? Few understand that better than Nuala.

She has a track record for consistently crafting insights, strategic thinking and even bigger ideas that engage consumers and shoppers, build long-­?term brand value and, most importantly, influence behaviour to drive
sales.

Brett Channer
Chief Creative Officer
Jackman Reinvention Inc.

A forward-thinking, innovative leader, Brett has more than 25 years of global executive experience in creative business leadership and transformation.

At Jackman Reinvents, he leads creative output for the company’s reinventions and ongoing engagements, and contributes bold vision to the company’s long-term growth strategy.

Before joining Jackman Reinvents, Brett was the Chief Creative Officer and President of Red Lion, a Publicis Groupe start-up, where he developed new creative solutions for clients including Whirlpool, Kitchen Aid, Joe Boxer and the Globe and Mail.

Prior to Red Lion, Channer held a dual role of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, where, over eight years, he transformed the Canadian office from an “on-the-brink” agency to one of the most award-winning offices in the Saatchi network. Clients during his time at Saatchi & Saatchi Canada include Toyota, Procter & Gamble, Kroger and Novartis.

In his early industry days, Brett worked at Gee Jeffery and Partners in several roles, and it was receiving Gold at the One Show for copywriting that led to his appointment as ECD at the firm. He also led work for Toyota that resulted in the first Cannes Film Gold Lion ever won by an independent Canadian agency. Other prestigious industry hardware for Brett’s creative leadership includes awards from the Canada’s Art Directors Club, the Canadian Marketing Awards and the Cassies.

Dan Howe
VP, Marketing, Communciations & Loyalty
Overwaitea Food Group

Dan Howe has been working for over 20 years in the CPG and retail industry.  Dan is responsible for marketing for Overwaitea’s five banners (Save-On-Foods, Price Smart, Coopers , Overwaitea, and Urban Fair), communicating to its more than 16,000 employees and managing the 3.1 million active members of the More Rewards loyalty program.  Dan brings a breadth of experience to this role, having worked as Chief Marketing Officer at Yum Restaurants (Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell) – Canada & Europe, Campbell’s Soup Company, and ACNielsen. Developing a win-win partnership with vendor sales and marketing organizations is the goal of Overwaitea as it adapts its 2015 shopper marketing programs.

Robert Linden
President
SampleSource Inc.

Rob Linden has worked in Tier 1 Consumer Packaged Goods over a decade. Ranked a Marketing Magazine “Ones to Watch”, he began his career at Procter & Gamble where he held various roles in Health and Beauty, Household Needs, and corporate initiatives, winning numerous awards for cause, in-store, and new launches. He now leads North America’s largest CPG digital sampling platform, SampleSource.com, helping clients including SCJ, GSK, KAO, Hershey, Quaker, EPC/Schick, L’Oreal, Garnier, Colgate, Clorox, Kellogg and Kraft reach new shoppers before the FMOT with a highly targeted, cost-efficient sampling system. He has also guest written numerous articles in Strategy Magazine. 

Ricardo Martin
VP Marketing
Unilever Canada

A passionate and eloquent marketer, Ricardo (“Dickie”) Martin, has led teams for Unilever across Latin America, Eastern Europe, London and New York. He brings a world of award-winning experience to his current position as Vice President, Brand Building, Unilever Canada.

A native of Argentina, he has helped architect market development models around the globe that have paved the way for the introduction and growth of multiple brands into #1 positions in multiple countries.

He is an innovator at heart, who also knows when it’s best to adapt the best practices from other markets to work locally. His education includes a Master of Business Administration (The London School of Economics and Political Science/New York University/HEC Paris) and a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Management (UCA - Buenos Aires, Argentina).

Kelly McCarten
CEO
LAUNCH!

Kelly has worked both client and agency side which strengthens her cross-functional business experience developing and implementing strategies to deliver profitable growth, build brands, and drive market share.  She worked for Coca-Cola for 10 years and was successful leading their Coke Retail Business Unit and achieved #1 Shopper Marketing Team in Canada across all CPG companies.   She then started her own company working with start-ups to multi-national companies for 6 years winning awards for the integrated campaigns she lead for Heart and Stroke Foundation.  She currently is CEO of LAUNCH! Brand Marketing a leading Retail and Experiential agency in Canada.  

Jane Murray
Executive Creative Director
Lowe Roche

Jane Murray is Co-Creative Director at Lowe Roche in Toronto. Her 18 action-packed years in the ad business have been spent writing and creative directing effective, talked-about work for Telus, Winners, Mini, Reitman’s, Molson, TFO, Missing Children’s Network, and many more.

As well, her work has appeared in all the top award shows and publications, including The One Show, Cannes, The Clios, D&AD, Applied Arts and Communication Arts.

On top of trying to single-handedly bring back the jingle, Jane blogs about life in Canada’s most famous 50’s suburb, and hunts for mid century modern furniture at yard sales.

Laura Panetta
Sr. Shopper Marketing Manager
ConAgra Foods Canada

Laura Panetta has over 12 years of CPG marketing and sales experience.  She is currently leading the shopper marketing team at ConAgra Foods where she is responsible for driving the vision and strategy.  Prior to joining ConAgra, Panetta led the development of the shopper marketing function at Novartis Consumer Health.  She was recently featured in the World View 2013 global shopper marketing trends review by the Path to Purchase Institute (May 2013).

Laura’s background in brand management and media sales has helped to shape her passion for shopper marketing.  She held several marketing roles on the Aquafresh and Sensodyne brands at GlaxoSmithKline.  She also spent time managing the Kimberly Clark and Proctor & Gamble accounts while at News Marketing Canada.

Sandy Salmon
Director of Advertising
Staples Canada Inc.

Sandy Salmon is Director of Advertising for Staples Canada. In this role, Sandy oversees the internal agency – including creative, production, media and flyer distribution. She lives in Uxbridge with her husband and golden retriever. She loves to read, do crossword puzzles and is gathering fodder for a book she hopes to write one day.