Meet Our Judges

Susan Irving
Senior Director of Marketing
PepsiCo Foods Canada

Susan Irving is an industry leader with a passion for brands and a reputation for delivering business results through strategic integrated marketing campaigns. Now, as Senior Director of Marketing, PepsiCo Global Snacks Group, Susan is responsible for developing and driving a cohesive, fully integrated global marketing agenda for Doritos and Cheetos, two of the company’s billion dollar brands.

Before joining PepsiCo’s Global Snacks Group, Susan spent more than a decade at PepsiCo Canada. In her most recent role as Senior Director of Marketing for the Frito-Lay Portfolio at PepsiCo Foods Canada, Susan led a team of passionate marketers in creating successful campaigns that drove profitable growth for brands including Cheetos, Doritos, Lay’s, Ruffles and Tostitos.

Susan has nearly two decades of business experience spanning all aspects of consumer marketing including brand strategy; advertising and communications; P&L management; cross functional team leadership; media planning: digital; social media; innovation; public and corporate communications; sports and event marketing and consumer insights. Susan is known for her collaborative approach of working with teams to deliver breakthrough, insight-driven consumer campaigns and programs that deliver growth.

As an accomplished marketer, Susan has been recognized with several industry accolades including CMAs, Cassies, Cannes Lions, The Bessies, Media Innovation Awards and Canadian New Media Awards.  She was also among Marketing Magazine’s prestigiousTop 30 under 30.

Susan lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband Todd and their two sons. An avid athlete, Susan was a member of the Canadian Sailing Team, having campaigned for the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics. In her spare time you can find her on a sail boat or a ski hill or supporting her boys and their family’s passion for competitive sport whether it’s at a hockey rink, a road race or on the soccer field.

David Watson
Executive Creative Director, Design
Mosaic

If it seems like Dave has a feeling for the rhythms of visual communication, it comes to him naturally. A born lover of music, his dreams of playing drums for the Rolling Stones were crushed at an early age. However he quickly rebounded and turned his attention to design.

Simply put, Dave is an idea man. He believes that although visual and tech trends come and go, good ideas are timeless. He has used this way of thinking to help brands grow their business and win creative awards on the international stage.

Dave he enjoys preaching the philosophy of holistic branding to clients in Canada and the US, unless of course he gets a call from the Stones.

Steve Bolliger
SVP Marketing
Constellation Brands

Steve is the SVP of Marketing for Constellation Brands, Canada’s leading wine company.  He is a member of the senior leadership team heading up the company’s marketing efforts for a broad portfolio of wines including Jackson~Triggs, Inniskillin, Woodbridge, Kim Crawford, Ruffino, Bodacious and Ravenswood to name a few brands.  He has experienced the wine business from both sides of the boarder including 3 years in the US living and working in Northern California.   The first 15 years of his career were spent with marketing-driven companies like Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, S.C. Johnson & Sons, the Nabob Coffee Company and the Mark Anthony Group in Vancouver. 

A graduate of the Queen’s University Bachelor of Commerce program, in 2006 he was recognized as “Who to Watch” by Strategy Magazine and in 2007 he was nominated Canada’s “Most Innovative Executive” by Canadian Business magazine. 

Steve, his wife and 2 children enjoy weekends at the cottage, Water Skiing, Downhill Skiing, Hiking, Biking… and of course he always has time for wine!

Nuala Byles
EVP Executive Creative Director
Geometry Global

Andrea Hunt
VP Marketing, Weston Bakeries
WESTON FOODS

Andrea Hunt is Vice President Marketing/ CMO at Weston Bakeries. Andrea joined the Weston team in 2016 to help reinvigorate the business and lead an organizational transformation to ambitiously move the portfolio from largely supply driven to consumer-led.

Prior to joining the Weston team, Andrea helped drive growth over the last two decades at a number of blue-chip companies including CIBC, Kellogg, Molson, Kraft and Mondelez. While the collective portfolio’s boasted countless brands, Special K, Rice Krispies, Molson Canadian, Coors Light, Kraft Dinner, Oreo, and Wonder bread are a few iconic brands that are too important not to highlight. A series of increasingly senior roles spanning 20+ years contributed to a well-stamped passport with work chapters in Europe, Asia, and a desk in New Jersey as Vice President North American Innovation. As a member of Mondelez International’s North American leadership team & Global Steering team, Andrea was instrumental in launching new product platforms now enjoyed globally. An energetic and dynamic leader, her responsibilities have run the gamut from media, communication, innovation, strategic planning, supply chain reinvention, & commercial leadership.

Andrea has a Bachelor of Commerce from Queen’s University, an MBA from Schulich School of Business at York University, and is earning a Doctorate in ‘Patience’ as taught by her three young boys. When not engaged professionally, Andrea can be seen marathon running, in the hockey stands, soccer fields and very, very occasionally drinking in the solitude of galleries and finer décor haunts across Canada & the United States.

Nancy Marcus
Corporate VP Marketing
Kruger Products L.P.

Nancy has been a trailblazer since the start of her marketing career at multi-national companies like Phillip Morris and RJR MacDonald. Now Corporate Vice President of Marketing at KPLP, she has been the only female on the KPLP Management Team for more than a decade.

Her unique ability to create brands in commoditized categories, and her refusal to forsake long-term brand equity and profitability for the sake of short-term discounting, has made her both highly successful and widely admired. Her management of the transition of Cottonelle to Cashmere is a textbook example of how to transition a brand’s name while ultimately converting consumers and gaining share.

A passionate and open-minded marketer, Nancy has embraced experiential marketing, design partnerships, CSR and corporate sponsorship long before it became de riguer. Her pioneering support of the The White Cashmere Collection – a fashion show that features dresses designed using only Cashmere Bathroom Tissue – would be remarkable today. That it is now in its 13th year, and has raised over $2 Million for Breast Cancer Research, is proof of her vision, bravery and compassion. These instincts have quite literally made brands like Cashmere, SpongeTowels and Scotties household names and market leader in the consumer tissue industry.

A recipient of over 80 international and domestic awards including the 2014 Women’s Executive Network Top 100 Award and the Star Women in Grocery 2014 Award, Nancy has been an active and dedicated participant in community, particularly those focused on the advancement of women in the workplace. She currently sits on the board of the Canadian Marketing Association and is Vice Chairman of the Advertising Standards Canada.

Steve Miller
SVP Creative Director
OneMethod

Since 2005, Steve has led the creative and strategic thinking for OneMethod. With 18+ years of experience, he has worked with influential brands in Canada and the U.S., including Nestle, Pepsi, Frito-Lay, Microsoft, Nokia, McDonald’s, FedEx, Daimler-Chrysler, Google, and MasterCard.

While at OneMethod, Steve has helped the agency win more than 150 international awards across all disciplines, including digital, design and advertising. He previously spent time as a ‘suit’ at Identica Branding & Design in Vancouver, BC and as a Copywriter at BBDO Toronto.

A member of the Seneca College Advertising Advisory Committee and chair of the Humber College Copywriting Advisory Board, Steve has judged the Geminis, Webby Awards, and New York Festivals. He also regularly speaks at colleges and conferences.

Steve first worked in consulting where he developed feasibility studies, marketing plans and market research analyses (go figure!). In addition, he also spent several years as a touring singer/songwriter. When Steve isn’t creating award-winning work, you can find him playing music, sketching and writing bios.

stephanie nerlich
Chief Marketing Officer, Managing Director
MDC Partners Inc

Brent Nichols
EVP
Inventa

Brent has been a passionate leader in the Experiential Marketing world for over 25 years. He has spent the last 20 of those years establishing his agency Inventa as a leader in the XM field in Canada. Brent has lead over 1500 regional, national and international campaigns with clients internationally in Australia, the USA and Canada. Since starting Inventa he has been creating campaigns for some of the world’s largest brands including: Coca-Cola, Nintendo, Kellogg’s, Nestle, BMW, CIBC, Nike, RBC, Hershey’s, Ford, Samsung, Canadian Pacific, Bell, BMW, and Mondelez to name just a few.

Today Inventa’s business includes servicing a robust mix of fortune 500 clients in Experiential Marketing, Events and Sponsorship activation, Sales Promotions, Shopper Marketing, and Digital and Social Media. At Inventa Brent is constantly in search for new ideas and new ways to help their clients bring their brands to life with people at the center of how brands connect with consumers.

Christine Ross
Senior Vice-President
Free For All Marketing

Christine is an Executive Marketer with a 25+ year track record in helping organizations achieve their strategic financial goals.

She has spent her career launching and growing businesses for both agencies and clients with a focus expertise in integrated brand marketing across the experiential, digital, social and shopper marketing space. Prior to joining Free For All Marketing (one of Canada’s most trusted, leading brand activation agencies), Christine worked in senior management with several large network agencies developing winning campaigns for numerous top tier client brands.  Her deep understanding of consumer purchase behaviour coupled with the ability to build & lead the right integrated teams has consistently delivered measureable business results.

Christine is often cited for her creativity, leadership skills and results focus approach on both an account level and companywide.

Denise Rossetto
SVP, Executive Creative Director
BBDO Canada

Denise is Executive Creative Director of BBDO Canada.

Denise enjoys the distinction of being one of Canada's top 10 creative directors. She has won awards in every national and international award show including: Cannes Lions, The One Show, Communication Arts and D&AD. She has brought home numerous Lions in several categories for clients such as Cialis, Subaru, Epson, Crime Stoppers, Mott's Beverages and Wrigley She has also won the Grand prix for the most effective Campaign in the country for her team’s work on Auto Trader. In February of this year her team won two gold Cassies for Pepsico and Wrigley as well as the distinction of the topping the effectiveness index for 2017.

Denise has judged several international award shows including Communication Arts, London International, the New York Festivals, The One Show D&AD and was a 2012 Cannes judge and a 2015 Cannes judge.

She sits on many advertising panels and was recently a moderator for Women of Influence. Being a mom of twin eight year-old boys she would love to do a campaign that changed the world for the better.

Clauderic Saint-Amand
VP Strategy and Creation
Bob Agence

As a senior strategic planner, talented speaker on marketing issues, and creative partner, Claudéric Saint-Amand puts his many professional interests to work for his clients.
He sees himself as his clients’ guide. He is intimately familiar with their needs and concerns, having worked for two major Canadian corporations for much of his career.
His experience enables him to pinpoint clients’ marketing issues and assess the value of their investment. He can then propose strong, effective, and profitable communications strategies that reflect their specific reality.
Claudéric made the leap to agency work to leverage his creativity by supervising numerous advertising campaigns. His talent for generating content and creating experiences underpin Bob’s experiential marketing expertise.
Claudéric Saint-Amand worked as national vice president of Sales and Marketing at Transat Inc. for 11 years and supervised a foreign tourism development strategy team at Intrawest for two years. He has done agency work since 2003.

Jennifer Stahlke
VP, Customer Marketing
Walmart Canada Corp.

In her role as VP, Customer Marketing, Jennifer is responsible for defining and delivering a comprehensive customer-focused marketing strategy.
Jennifer began her career with Walmart Canada in 2009 as Director, Field Marketing where she was responsible for store experience, private brands and multicultural marketing. Jennifer has held progressive marketing and cross-functional positions since that time including Senior Director, Customer Strategy, Senior Director, Merchandising, and Vice President Pricing. Jennifer is also the executive lead for Walmart Canada’s Women in Retail program that strives to provide tailored career development to women at all levels.
Prior to joining Walmart, Jennifer held marketing management roles at Nestlé Canada, Sanford Canada and General Mills Canada.
Jennifer has a Bachelor of Commerce degree, with a minor in Psychology from McMaster University.

Mark Stewart
President
Wondermakr

Mark Stewart has an extensive background in creative technology, digital strategy, event marketing and production, content marketing and building future-forward interactive brand experiences. Over the past 15+ years, Mark has worked with clients in identifying and developing innovative campaigns, products and platforms that connect the digital and physical worlds. He’s humbled and darn proud to have collaborated with awesome brands like IKEA, Disney, Dyson, Mattel, Benefit Cosmetics, Canadian Tire, General Motors, Nissan, Twitter and many more.

Pete Vanslyke
Director Chocolate & Innovation
Hershey Canada

Pete has the best job, leading Hershey Canada’s Chocolate marketing team and getting to eat, breathe and sleep chocolate every day while working with iconic brands like Hershey’s, Reese and Oh Henry! He’s passionate about building brands, creating culture, leading teams and winning. In 20+ years of marketing, he’s had the opportunity to work on everything from new launching new brands to re-launching iconic brands and every kind of brand challenge in between to drive equity, growth and share gains. He’s equally comfortable driving brand strategy, partnering with his IMC agencies and working the P&L with the finance team.

Pete isn’t just into brand building; he’s a former Chair of the Habitat for Humanity Toronto Build Committee and a recipient of the Government of Canada Year of the Volunteer award. He’s also a member of the Markham Skating Club Board.

Pete has an HBA from the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. He and his wife have two daughters. In his spare time, Pete can be found cycling north of the GTA, thinking about his latest brand challenge.

And yes, he loves eating chocolate every day.