TONY FERNANDES CBE, LÉGION D’HONNEUR
Group CEO, AirAsia
Intrepid pioneer, entrepreneur and connoisseur of life; Tony Fernandes has a passion for all things revolutionary. He is most famously known for co-founding the AirAsia Group, renowned today as one of the world’s top low-cost airlines. Besides being the mastermind behind the airline giant; Fernandes also holds the helm of conglomerate, Tune Group. Through the group, he spreads his passion to various fields, including English football via the illustrious Queens Park Rangers FC, automotive industry via the famed Caterham Group and hospitality industry via the Tune Hotels Group. With his contagious love for excitement, Fernandes is undeniably a mover and shaker in this generation’s global markets.
DAVID WHELDON
CMO, RBS
In July 2015, David joined the Royal Bank of Scotland as its first-ever chief marketing officer; responsible for all aspects of brand, marketing, communication, and corporate responsibility. He is also the President of the World Federation of Advertisers as of March 2015. Prior to joining the executive board of RBS, he has spent three years at Barclays as managing director of brand, reputation, citizenship and marketing. David started his career at Saatchi & Saatchi as a graduate trainee where he rose to Group Account Director. He then moved on to be the Managing Director of Lowe Howard-Spink in London, before being recruited to Global Director and Vice President of Advertising for the Coca-Cola Company based in Atlanta. David then returned to the agency world as President of BBDO Europe and then joined Tempus as a main board director and CEO of Tempus Partners which was later to be purchased by WPP, where David set up Team Vodafon. He joined Vodafone in mid-2004 and became Global Brand Director in 2005, later becoming the CEO of Vodafone Ireland Marketing Ltd in January 2008. David left Vodafone in September 2010 returning to live and work in London.
Maria leads Mondelēz’ Marketing team in Latin America. Named among Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in 2013, she is known for creating a culture of experimentation where discomfort, curated chaos and prototyping are welcomed. Maria is the driving force behind Fly Garage – a transformational initiative reinventing the way Mondelēz creates value through innovation, collaborating with talents, students, agency partners, artists and agitators on different projects. In 2015, she became the global leader of the company’s New Agency Model and Fly Fearless, with the task of expanding new ways of collaborating with creative partners globally. A digital-minded leader, Maria is also at the forefront of Mondelēz’ digital transformation in Latin America. Her ambitious vision for the region recently led to the launch of the company’s Digital Accelerator, a new programme that will no doubt continue to shake the way Mondelēz reinvents itself.
AMIT SINHA ROY
VP, Strategy & Marketing, Global Market Insights, Partner Marketing and Operations, TATA Communications
Amit Sinha Roy is Vice President of Strategy & Marketing, Global Market insights at TATA Communications, part of the TATA Companies. With over 20 years of experience in the global IT industry, Amit defines winning strategies for Tata Communications’ business, in both emerging and developed geographies. This entails delivering market insights for segmentation, targeting and positioning of key products and solutions. In his current role, Amit is also responsible for the global partner programme designed to achieve specific business outcomes with a focus on engaging and enabling Systems Integrator partners for specific products and services. Prior to Tata Communications, Amit was Head of Marketing, Cisco India & SAARC at Cisco India. He also held various senior marketing and strategy positions in Hewlett Packard, Syntel Inc. and Compaq India. He has a Master of Science (Hons) degree in Physics and a Master of Management Studies from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, India.
SURESH BALAJI
Regional Head of Marketing, Asia Pacific, HSBC
Suresh Balaji is the Regional Head of Marketing for Asia Pacific for HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management, based in Hong Kong. He has held various leadership roles in strategy, sales, product development, media and marketing in pharmaceuticals, consumer goods and financial services. Before joining HSBC in 2005, he worked for GlaxoSmithKline and WPP. He describes himself as a data and analytics junkie, foreign and public policy dabbler and philosophy dilettante. Suresh has lived and worked in 6 cities across India, Middle East and UK. He is a Chemistry graduate and has a post graduate degree in business from the University of Oxford.
SMITA GUPTA
Regional Marketing Director, Asia Pacific, TATA Communications
Smita Gupta is a visionary Strategy, Marketing and Business Development Executive. She is noted for innovating integrated marketing and business development strategies to capture and maximise significantly enhanced revenue streams in the enterprise business. Recognised as a thought leader in her field, Smita facilitated the application of technology platforms to improve business productivity, customer engagement, sales performance and return on marketing investment at leading international corporations such as Tata Communications, Akamai Technologies and Cisco Systems.
JOHN KEARON
Founder, CEO and Chief Juicer, BrainJuicer
John is Chief Juicer at BrainJuicer Group PLC. His role in conceiving and leading BrainJuicer made him Ernst & Young’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’, the ARF’s Gold Award for Research Innovator and twice winner of the ESOMAR award for best Methodology. BrainJuicer has been voted ‘Most Innovative Market Research Company’ for the last four consecutive years, in the industry GRIT report. John’s recipe for entrepreneurial success is; creativity, resilience, determination, perseverance, stamina, drive, imagination, resourcefulness, courage, self-belief, commitment, ability to go without sleep and a touch of madness.
MIGUEL DE ANDRÉS
Head of Creative Technology, APAC, Google
Miguel is Head of Creative Technology at Google Asia Pacific. Prior to Google, he was Creative Director on Nike SEA innovation projects at BBH Asia Pacific and set up BBH Labs. Miguel is on the advisory board of several technology start-ups in London and Tel-Aviv and is the founder of the Mind Sport Olympiad Singapore. He holds a PhD in Art and Computational Technology from Goldsmiths University of London and a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Zaragoza, Spain.
Jon was one of the founders of Naked, the ground breaking international communications agency. Jon pioneered the concept of media neutrality during his time at Naked, speaking regularly at the World Federation of Advertisers on integrated marketing. He worked on a range of local and global clients including Coca-Cola and Unilever and remained at Naked for 13 years as it grew into an international group with offices in cities including New York, Melbourne, Sao Paolo, Paris, Singapore, Dubai and Tokyo. Jon joined Karmarama at the beginning of 2014 as Executive Chairman, his first role since leaving Naked. Jon has been developing the Karmarama integrated offer, increasing the capabilities of the agency in data and mobile and working with key clients to help them grow their business through strategy and creativity. He also is a regular speaker at the IPA, The World Federation of Advertisers and Cannes Lions.
James leads the continuous evolution of R/GA London, driving strategic and creative vision and consistently ranking as one of the top agencies in the world. Ever collaborative, he curates a diverse collective equally capable of creating innovative products, as they are emotive ads. A founding member of R/GA London, he has grown the team to over 300, heading up EMEA offices across Stockholm, Bucharest and Istanbul, and forging partnerships with brands such as Beats by Dre, Disney, Dyson, Google, Nike and Unilever. James is a much sought after judge for awards, including the Clios, Cannes Cyber and Titanium Lions and the D&AD Black Pencil, a long-term member of Campaign’s A-List, a UK Board Member of the Mobile Marketing Association and is widely recognized as an industry thought leader.
Working out of Singapore, Ranji is WFA’s Marketing Director for Asia. Ranji’s main role is to support WFA corporate members in the region by helping to build on the existing working groups that come together regularly across Asia-Pacific and help nurture a fully-fledged regional CMO group. A Singaporean national, Ranji was previously at Samsung, working in various roles including regional head of marketing (for mobile phones) and regional head of digital marketing and media management. Before that, she worked as Executive Director of the IAB South-East Asia, as well as an Executive Search professional at The Talent Business.
