Meet The Panellists: The Future of Agency Brands
On Tuesday 17th June, join us at the LBB & Friends Beach for an essential conversation about the evolving role of the agency brand in a rapidly changing creative industry.
As the advertising world transforms, fueled by technology, global shifts, and evolving client expectations, are strong agency brands more important than ever?
In this candid conversation, Brittney Rigby, managing editor AUNZ at Little Black Book, will sit down with four of the world’s top creative leaders for a vital conversation on the evolving role of the agency brand.
Britt will be joined by:
- Nancy Reyes, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide
- Zaid Al-Qassab, Global CEO, M&C Saatchi Group
- Melissa JP, Global Managing Director, Brand Design, R/GA
- Amitesh Rao, CEO, Leo India
Find out how to get onto the LBB & Friends Beach.
The Future of Agency Brands
Brands are magic. They shape human behaviour and turn sugar water into billion dollar businesses. They’re why we head to Cannes Lions every year. But what happens when the masters of brand creativity turn the lens on themselves? We’ll be getting deep with leaders to find out the truth behind recent network rebrands and to discuss why, in an era when big storied names have been disappearing, the agency brand matters more than ever.
Nancy Reyes, President and CEO, BBDO Worldwide
Nancy Reyes is the President and CEO of BBDO Worldwide. With over 25 years of experience in the advertising industry, Nancy is a transformative leader who has driven both creative excellence and business growth across some of the world’s leading brands. Throughout her career, she has worked with a range of high-profile clients, including Apple, PepsiCo, AT&T, Hilton, and Mars.
Before joining BBDO, Nancy held senior leadership roles at TBWA\Chiat\Day and Goodby Silverstein & Partners. A passionate advocate for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), Nancy has devoted much of her career to advancing these principles within the marketing industry. In 2018, she founded a program called Circle of Women which provides executive coaching to women on the cusp of leadership to build a pipeline of future female leaders. She is a founding member of Times UP, an organization addressing gender inequality, harassment, and discrimination within the advertising world and serves on the boards of Prep for Prep, Creative Ladder, and the Ad Club of New York. In recognition of her leadership and impact, Nancy was honored with the Matrix Award for Women in Communications in 2024.
Zaid Al-Qassab, Global CEO, M&C Saatchi Group
Zaid Al-Qassab is Global CEO of M&C Saatchi Group, the global creative solutions company. He is an award-winning marketer and business leader, with experience of customer-centric change management, digital transformation & brand-building in a wide range of sectors. Zaid has previously served as CMO at broadcaster Channel 4, and at UK telecoms giant British Telecom, and spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble leading UK, European & Global businesses. Zaid graduated from Oxford University in PPE (Philosophy, Politics & Economics). He is a passionate champion for diversity & inclusion.
Melissa JP, Global Managing Director, Brand Design, R/GA
Melissa JP is the SVP Global Managing Director of our Brand Design & Consulting group at R/GA having worked at the forefront of brand, innovation and experience design across three continents. She leads a global team of strategists, designers, coders and writers, accountable for shaping brands and experiences that add value to people and businesses. In the past year they’ve rebooted the largest operating system brand in the world, Android, and created the much anticipated live sports streaming brand from ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
She joined R/GA from award-winning, creative network B-Reel where she served as Global Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to this, she was Head of Strategy at one of the first agency/consultancy hybrids, co:collective, and also spent nearly a decade with WPP in multi-disciplinary roles across agencies, following-on from their prestigious Fellowship program. Over the course of her career she’s led brand transformation initiatives for a broad array of organizations, including: Microsoft, Under Armour, Google, IBM, the UN, and for Dwane (the Rock) Johnson’s portfolio.
Her work has been recognized at every major creative and effectiveness competition, published in the Journal of Brand Strategy, and she was most recently highlighted as one of the strategists of the year by AdAge. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s ITP program, exploring imaginative applications of communication technologies.
Amitesh Rao, CEO, Leo India
Amitesh Rao joined Leo (part of the Publicis Groupe) as Chief Executive Officer, South Asia in January 2024. In his current role, Amitesh will be leading Leo into its next phase of growth through his business acumen, dynamic leadership and visionary ideas.
Amitesh Rao is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore with over 25 years of leadership experience across advertising, marketing & sales, and as a tech entrepreneur. Amitesh comes with cross-disciplinary and cross-category experience from various leadership roles, a remarkable track record on client businesses and a wealth of expertise across technology, data and creativity.
In his advertising stints he has held top positions at McCann, TBWA, Y&R, and Wunderman Thomson, working across markets on marquee client businesses such as Nestlé, Reckitt, PepsiCo, Airtel, Coke, Mastercard, Nissan, Dabur and Hero, developing brands that lie at the confluence of creativity, culture and commerce. His marketing and sales experience has been in the Telco and Data space, and he has founded gaming and simulation businesses as an entrepreneur.
MODERATOR
Brittney Rigby, Managing Editor, AUNZ, Little Black Book
Brittney is LBB's managing editor across Australia and New Zealand. She joined in 2024 to grow the brand and editorial momentum across the region, champion the most creative and effective work, and ask the biggest names the biggest questions about the biggest issues.
She is a seasoned journalist with leadership experience across both newsrooms and agencies, including as editor at Mediaweek, deputy managing editor at Mumbrella, and head of communications at DDB Group Australia.
She has also written for a range of other industry titles, freelances regularly for mastheads like The Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald, and appears on radio and TV to talk about her work. In 2022, she was awarded a 30 under 30 accolade.
Brittney is qualified as a lawyer, and worked in law firms before joining adland.
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