Great Minds

Slovenian entrepreneur and CEO of Celtra, Miha Mikek founded a creative development and serving platform for mobile advertising that became a pioneer of mobile advertising technology. Today, the company provides cloud-based Creative Automation software for creative and marketing teams to collaborate, design and deliver digital campaigns across the ever-growing media ecosystem. Powering 400+ creative teams and 2/3 of Fortune 500 companies, brands and publishers alike use Celtra to transform their creative production and collaboration. Miha was recognized with several business leadership awards in Europe and honored as a 2012 Rising Star by Babson College. He lives with his wife Maja, Celtra's co-founder, and two kids in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sophie is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur, marketer and bestselling author who has worked in and with multinational companies, successful start-ups and agencies. An ‘acceleration addict’ she is constantly curious about how to speed up success. Her book on leadership ‘Superfast: Lead at Speed’ was published by John Murray Press and was shortlisted for Business Book of the Year as well as getting to a no.1 spot on Amazon. Sophie is an acclaimed keynote speaker, talking to organisations and at events regularly. Her highly creative and commercial approach comes from a career which began with classic management training at Procter & Gamble and then Coca-Cola. She later moved agency-side with Leo Burnett in the Middle East and Interbrand in London. She has personal experience of being a successful entrepreneur, setting up her own award-winning e-commerce business in the middle of the recession which she sold before running a luxury gifts business. Her most recent role has been as CEO of The Caffeine Partnership, a unique business consultancy which helps leaders to work with purpose and pace, where she has worked with impatient business leaders across the world. In July 2020 Sophie became the new CEO of The Marketing Society, a global community of senior marketers whose purpose is to empower brave leaders.

World-renowned creator of legendary ad campaigns for Levi’s, Lego, and Audi, among others, Sir John Hegarty is Chairman & Worldwide Creative Director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) where he presides over one of the most successful and creatively acclaimed agencies. Sir John started in advertising as a junior Art Director at Benton and Bowles, London, in 1965. He almost finished in advertising 18 months later, when they fired him. He joined a small ‘going places’ Soho agency, John Collings & Partners. They did – out of town. In 1967 he joined the Cramer Saatchi consultancy which became Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970, where he was a founding shareholder. One year later he was appointed Deputy Creative Director. Sir John left in 1973 to co-found TBWA, London, as Creative Director. The agency was the first to be voted Campaign magazine’s Agency of the Year in 1980. He left in 1982 to start Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Four years later in 1986, BBH was also voted Campaign’s Agency of the Year, and won the title once again in 1993. In addition, BBH became the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival’s very first Agency of the Year in 1993. It also won the title again in 1994. Throughout BBH’s two-plus decades, Sir Hegarty has been responsible for numerous accolades for the agency. Among his abundant award show honors, Sir Hegarty has taken home over 15 Clio’s alone, and his Levi’s 501 work is in the Clio Hall of Fame. since its inception in 1982 BBH has been named Agency of the Year more than six times, most notably by Campaign magazine, who also named BBH as their first-ever Network of the Year in 2004, Cannes, and others. Sir John’s credits include Vorsprung Durch Technik for Audi, and Levi’s’ Bath and Launderette. His awards include two D&AD Golds and six Silvers, Cannes Golds and Silvers, and British Television Gold and Silvers. More recently, he was awarded the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding achievement in the advertising industry and chaired the 1999 New York Art Directors Advertising Show.

Michael is a passionate and dynamic leader with over 20 years experience in the integrated marketing communications business. "I like to think of myself as a globalist - with extensive international experience and a love for technology, digital innovation and clients business - I've demonstrated a proven capability to build businesses, nurture client relationships. drive digital engagement, embrace and exploit technology innovation, convert new business opportunities, develop high performing teams and empower great people."

Emmy and Peabody award-winning marketer and business leader Ross Martin is President of Ad Age Agency A-List marketing firm Known and the Founder of venture capital fund Lunch Partners, an early-stage private investment vehicle for some of the world’s most inspiring CMO’s. He is the Executive Producer of Netflix’s Jeen-Yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy and the five-part docuseries Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space, both for Netflix, as well as Meal Ticket, a documentary about the McDonald's All- American Games for Amazon Prime Video and Deep Dive, a new series with Universal Music Group and TIME Magazine. He is the Executive Producer and Co-Host of the popular iHeart Media podcast “Future Legends of Advertising,” now entering its second season. Ross is a member of the National Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation, the Yale University Center for Customer Insights and the Digital & Innovation Council for St. Jude Children’s Hospital. Recent accolades include Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People In Business,” an Advertising Age “Media Maven” distinction, Fortune Magazine’s “40 Under 40” top business leaders and Adweek’s “50 Most Indispensable Executives in Advertising.” In 2014, he was inducted into the Advertising Hall of Achievement.

An international multi-award-winning creative, Samira has worked across Fortune 500 brands including AB InBev’s Michelob Ultra, U by Kotex, ESPN, Virgin Atlantic and P&G’s Pringles. In 2022 she brought home the only Cannes Gold Lion in Innovation for a world-first physical vs. virtual tennis match between real-life John McEnroe and his digital avatars from the past for Michelob Ultra. ‘McEnroe vs. McEnroe’ alsoreceiveda 2023 Sports Emmy Award in the Best Digital Innovation category. In 2022 she was recognized onAdweek’sCreative 100 list. Career highlights include turning the consumer problem of the NBA bubble during the pandemic into an opportunity – with the highly awarded digital experience, “Courtside” for Michelob Ultra, by transporting fans closer to the action. She’s made headlines with her brutally honest work for U by Kotex, forever changing the way female sanitary products are marketed, taking Pringles to the Super Bowl for the first time ever, re-launching the P&G laundry business throughout Europe, and successfully launching Mike’s Hard Lemonade throughout South America. Prior to Deutsch NY, Samira led the AB InBev portfolio of business at FCB New York. She’s worked across three continents and held creative roles at Johannes Leonardo, Grey Group, Leo Burnett New York, TBWA\Chiat\Day, J. Walter Thompson and Saatchi & Saatchi Paris.Her work been recognized at the Cannes Lions Festival, The D&AD, Effies, The One Show, Clio, and the ADC.

Julie is both fiercely competitive and “Minnesota nice.” Her clients benefit from her tenacity and flair for making the seemingly impossible, possible. She has led dozens of integrated marketing programs for modern brands, from launching the car-of-the-future with Steven Spielberg to giving affluents permission to fly private jets again. Protecting pricing power and shifting market share for her clients drives her. She previously served as Executive Director, Account Management, overseeing the agency’s Lexus National and Dealer Association accounts, and has been with Team One for 18 years. She has held a number of senior management positions, including director of experiential marketing, director of business development, and executive director leading numerous agency clients, among them The Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, HSBC Premier, Häagen-Dazs International, American Express, Flexjet, Icelandic Glacial, Anaheim Ducks, Northern Trust, and Procter & Gamble. Before joining Team One, she was the Marketing Director at a premier Northwest resort, Crystal Mountain, running all aspects of marketing and sales.

Avinash is the global Chief Strategy Officer of Croud, a leading full-service marketing Agency. His prior professional experience includes a sixteen-year stint at Google, and roles at Intuit, DirecTV, Silicon Graphics in the US & DHL in Saudi Arabia. Through his newsletter “The Marketing < > Analytics Intersect”, his blog “Occam's Razor,” and his best-selling books “Web Analytics: An Hour A Day” and “Web Analytics 2.0,” Avinash has become recognized as an authoritative voice on how marketers, executives' teams and industry leaders can leverage data to fundamentally reinvent their digital existence. Avinash puts a common-sense framework around the often-frenetic world of web analytics and combines that with the philosophy that investing in talented analysts is the key to long-term success. He passionately advocates customer centricity and leveraging bleeding edge competitive intelligence techniques. Avinash has received rave reviews for bringing his energetic, inspiring, and practical insights to companies like Unilever, Dell, Time Warner, Vanguard, Porsche, and IBM. He has delivered keynotes at a variety of global conferences, including Ad-Tech, Monaco Media Forum, Search Engine Strategies, JMP Innovators' Summit, The Art of Marketing and Web 2.0. Acting on his passion for teaching, Avinash has lectured at major universities such as Stanford University, University of Virginia, University of California - Los Angeles and University of Utah. Among the awards Avinash has received are Statistical Advocate of the Year from the American Statistical Association, Most Influential Industry Contributor from the Web Analytics Association, and Founder's Award from Google.

Julia Haart is a self-made businesswoman, designer, and bestselling author. She was raised in an Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. At age 42 she fled, changed her name, and without any formal education or background in fashion launched her career as a designer with her namesake shoe collection. Just a few years later, she was named creative director of La Perla and would become co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group and one of the most influential people in fashion. In 2021, Julia and her NETFLIX hit series "My Unorthodox Life", which streams in over 190 countries, took the world by storm. In her memoir BRAZEN, Julia writes with radical vulnerability and honesty, sharing her deeply personal journey of heartbreak, resilience, and courage to flee a fundamentalist community. Released in April 2022, BRAZEN became an instant bestseller in the U.S. and U.K. Above all else, Julia applies her experience and platform to be a force for positive change in the world and supporting women who have dedicated their lives to building a better future. With the right for women to choose under threat, Julia has taken a leading role in the pro-choice movement marching in support of women's rights, rallying her community of influential friends and followers, supporting organizations such as #VoteProChoice and Plan C, and serving on the Advisory Council of the Equal Rights Amendment Coalition. With so much at stake at home in the U.S., Julia has also worked tirelessly to campaign for pro-choice politicians and support organizations such as Emerge America to help recruit and train like-minded women to run for office. As a champion of democracy globally, Julia fights for the right to freedom around the world including Iran and Ukraine where she led a mission to deliver ambulances and critical humanitarian supplies.

Andrew has over fifteen years of Ad and MarTech experience at eBay, Google, Facebook/Meta, Netflix, Snap, and fintech startups. He has tackled hard challenges in product, strategy, growth, go-to-market, and partnerships across many verticals and geographies. He is highly strategic, and has experience building and applying buy- and sell-side ad technology at scale. Andrew has been advising companies of all shapes and sizes since 2012--from start-ups to Fortune 500 enterprises. He has spoken at large conferences (Meta's F8), guest-lectured at universities (UGA, Santa Clara, Rotman School of Management), and served on various ad industry boards & working groups (IAB, MMA, MRC, ARF, WFA).