Meet The Panellists: Leaders Of The New School: How the Next Gen of Agency Leaders is Changing The Game

PANEL SYNOPSIS 

MODERATORS

Matt Cooper, Founder, LBB

Matt Cooper has been working in the ad world for over 35 years. He began at Saatchi & Saatchi, London in the crazy world of the 1980s before the internet and mobile phones but at a time of flash company cars and bottomless expense accounts. He moved over to a small effects company called The Mill, now one of the top post companies in the world with offices in London, NY and LA. While at The Mill, Matt launched the online advertising approval, archiving and distribution site BEAM.TV. It was during his time at BEAM, travelling constantly to meet ad people all over the world, that the idea for LBB was formed. He needed to know the best companies to contact, the best places to stay, ideas for where to take clients for a meal, and what other info he needed whilst in each city. There was no central place where he could find any, let alone all of this information. LBB began as a series of books before going online. 

Shauna Seresin, Co-founder, Minerva 

Co-founder of Minerva, a business development and management consulting company that represents a diverse and award-winning roster of companies and creative talent to brands and ad agencies.  

With a long history of opening doors, starting conversations, and promoting opportunities for minorities and women in Advertising, Marketing and Media, her deep commitment to expand diversity grows through her role as an Advisory Board Member of The Commercial Directors Diversity Program (CDDP) and the international organization, People of Color Creative, (POCC). In addition, she has added her insights on numerous Diversity panel discussions, for the University of Texas Diversity and

Equity Student Council, Utopia, an organization for culture–change in business, as well as The Commercial Directors Diversity Program (CDDP).

Today every company on Minerva’s roster includes Women and People of Color among their lineups of artists. Committed to excellence first and foremost.

PANELLISTS 

Oriel Davis Lyons, CCO, Mother NYC

Once upon a time, Oriel was a chef. But, after tiring of the long hours and intense pressure he got into advertising. He started his career in New Zealand at Special Group and Colenso BBDO before moving to the US, where he spent time at Droga5 and Spotify before joining the Mother family as Chief Creative Officer of the New York office.  

He has won 100+ awards for his work on global brands, nonprofits, social justice initiatives and failed Presidential campaigns. He is the founder of Corpleisure, a work-from-home-wear brand and ONE School, the first free, online portfolio program for aspiring Black creatives. Established in 2020, ONE School has graduated 130+ students to date, who are working in some of the industries best creative departments. He lives in New York with his family. 

Shannon Washington, Global CCO, Gotham

Creative, traveler, culturist—Shannon Washington is a busy woman.

Currently, Shannon serves as Global Chief Creative Officer for gotham, the global boutique creative brand in the McCann Worldgroup network of agencies. Shannon returned to gotham in 2024 to lead the creative evolution and expansion of the agency, from a legendary, 30+ year player in the beauty space, to a full-stack creative powerhouse for a new set of categories, brands and talent.

Shannon previously served as the US Chief Creative Officer, Connected Communications for R/GA US, the network’s largest and flagship region where she focused on reshaping the region’s campaign creative vision, fidelity and work culture.

At R/GA, her intersectional and craft-centric style of leadership led to a renewed creative vigor in the office, resulting in an impressive set of award wins, including a Webby Agency of The Year win, a #2 sport for AdAge’s A-list, and three impressive award seasons, with a net of campaign awards the network had not seen since 2016. Business-wise, Shannon successfully led a host of winning pitches for Uber, Sephora and TurboTax, which was the second largest win for IPG in 2023. In addition, her approach has earned her three distinctive honors: Ad-Age CCO of The Year, The AdWeek 100 and one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business.

Shannon joined R/GA after a stint in Los Angeles with Media Arts Lab, where she helped launch Apple TV+ and build a foundation for original content marketing in the Apple ecosystem, and at Deutsch Los Angeles where she led the H&R Block team. Before that, Shannon was at Droga5 NY, where she led the culture-driven “I Am What I Make Up” relaunch of CoverGirl and the launch of You Invest with Chase.

When she can, Shannon can be found actively adding to the discourse around the culture of leadership and inclusivity in advertising through panels and public conversations. When she's not in front of a monitor, Shannon is working on adding another stamp to her passport or attempting to run a 10-minute mile.

Shannon is a proud and loud graduate of Howard University and lives in New Jersey.

Mo Said, Founder & CEO, Mojo Supermarket

Mo Said is the Founder and CEO of creative agency, Mojo Supermarket. Since founding Mojo in 2018, Mo has quickly gained notoriety for headline-worthy business transformations for Savage X Fenty, Peloton, Meta, Match and more. Mo has been named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, most creative people in business list, Adweek Creative 100, and Mojo Supermarket was Small AdAge Agency of the Year and, AdAge Best Places to work 2022.

Said is the Founder and CEO of creative agency, Mojo Supermarket. Since founding Mojo in 2018, Mo has quickly gained notoriety for headline-worthy business transformations for Savage X Fenty, Peloton, Meta, Match and more. Mo has been named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, most creative people in business list, Adweek Creative 100, and Mojo Supermarket was Small AdAge Agency of the Year and, AdAge Best Places to work 2022.

Before Mojo Supermarket, Mo worked at Droga5 and BBDO New York.

Gabrielle Shirdan, Founder & CCO, Kitchen Table

Armed with a passion for crafting authentic and emotionally provocative work, Gabrielle strives to build the creative that moves culture forward. Gabrielle founded Kitchen Table, a full service creative agency built so all brands have a seat – creating work for the culture from within the culture and focused on championing underrepresented brands. Since launching, the agency has created award winning work for Bevel, Issa Rae's Sienna Naturals, Fifteen Percent Pledge, Hebru Brantley x Adidas, Madam CJ Walker, StatusPRO and more.

Gabrielle is also the co-founder of Heir Loom, a new Black and woman-owned holding company in the advertising industry. Gabrielle was voted to AdAge’s 25 Most Inspiring People according to Industry Creatives, Adweek’s Creative 100 and also named AdCouncil’s Champion for Good. Prior to the launch of Kitchen Table, Gabrielle was SVP at McCann NY and has had the honor of crafting work for leading brands such as, Ulta Beauty, LinkedIn, AdCouncil and Microsoft. Throughout her career, Gabrielle has collaborated alongside cultural icon Spike Lee and led campaigns for global brands such as; New Era, Nature Valley, Adobe, Smirnoff, Cadillac, JBL and more. She takes pride in mentoring underrepresented talent in advertising – creating the table.