IAPI and Diageo 2021 Female Futures Fund Coaching Bursary Recipients Announced

With the generous support of bursary sponsor Diageo, IAPI has announced the recipients of the 2021 Female Futures Fund. This unique bursary running for the second year, will give 25 women in our industry the opportunity to develop their leadership skills.

IAPI, in collaboration with Diageo, have designed the 2021 programme to broaden its reach through a comprehensive group leadership coaching bursary. This year's review panel were thrilled by the sheer volume of entries and the high standard of applicants.

Charley Stoney, CEO, IAPI said: “Huge congratulations to our recipients who clearly demonstrated their potential leadership qualities. I would also like to congratulate those that weren’t selected, as the standard of applications was so high, it made the task of selecting the final 25 Female Futures Fund recipients even more difficult!”

The full list of the recipients of this years’ bursary are –

· Alex Ingerfield, Senior Copywriter, Rothco Accenture Interactive

· Ali Donnelly, Digital Client Director, Spark Foundry

· Anne Zahan, Strategy Director, Core

· Aoife Butler, Head of Shopper Marketing, Pluto

· Bairbre McGlade, Senior Art Director, Boys + Girls

· Catherine O’Connor, Account Director, Elevate

· Claire Healy, Senior Art Director, Publicis

· Deborah Tracey, Account Director, PHD Media

· Donna Parsons, Account Director, Thinkhouse

· Egle Jankeviciene, Account Director, MediaCom

· Gemma Gilmore, Business Director, Spark Foundry

· Jen Walsh, Head of Digital, Zenith

· Laura comber, Group Client Director, PHD Media

· Laura Halpin, Copywriter, Folk Wunderman Thompson

· Laura Rice, Senior Arty Director, In the Company of Huskies

· Lisa Meindl, Digital Performance Lead, OMG

· Mary Sheahan, Insight Director, MCCP

· Maura O’Malley, Social Media Manager, Marketing Network

· Niamh Murphy, Head of Planning & Behavioural Science, In the Company of Huskies

· Samantha Griffin, Programmatic Performance Manager, OMG

· Sarah Byrne, Account Director, Verve

· Sarah Chadwick, Senior Producer, Boys + Girls

· Sarah Geoghegan, Client Director, Core Sponsorship

· Sinead Duell, Senior Account Manager, iProspect

· Tamara Conyngham, Senior Strategist, Rothco Accenture Interactive

IAPI are particularly pleased to see such a broad range of roles and skillsets included in the final 25 from creatives to media planners, from strategists to client managers, from digital specialists to producers.

The Review Panel undertook a comprehensive process that ensured all applications were assessed by a number of judges across two rounds; with agency judges recused from judging their own agency.

"The quality of the applications and the high potential demonstrated by the entrants was truly impressive. We’d like to thank all of those who invested time in applying and a special congratulations to the winners. We very much look forward to meeting you in person at the leadership training events in the Autumn." Carol Montgomery, Head of Guinness in Society and Brand Experience, Diageo.

The response to this initiative speaks volumes of a deeper industry-wide need for more concentrated and, specifically, female leadership training across member agencies. This has been noted by the IAPI board and the IAPI Diversity & Inclusion Council and IAPI will endeavour to continue to provide supports to meet member's needs.

The 2021 Female Futures Fund will be masterminded by Danica Murphy, founder and director of PRISM. Danica is an internationally recognised expert in the areas of executive coaching, high performance team development, training & design, and facilitation.

“The objective of this leadership coaching bursary remains the same. It is designed to ensure that we retain our best female talent by helping women realise their full potential whilst also achieving a life balance that may include family and/or other lifestyle priorities,” says Stha Banks, Head of Social Media, Core and D&I lead on the IAPI Board.