our 2020 mentors
As the 2019 program drew to a close, we pondered what we wanted Assisterhood to look like in 2020. We knew we wanted to increase, and diversify our panel of mentors – and offer potential mentees powerful and professional mentors with more experience across a wider range of industries. Fortunately, we didn’t have to look far and wide for these new Assisters – with many of them calling Brisbane home. So, this year we’ve recruited 21 stellar Assisterhood mentors plucked from Advertising, Media, Creative, Design and Production powerhouses.
Not only are these Assisters successful in a career sense, but they know the power and value a mentor can provide, both professionally and personally. Without further ado, we’re excited to share this year’s line up with you. No matter what your career interest, there’s a talented and experienced Assister here for you.
simone waugh
Managing Director, PublicisWW
Simone is the leading brand strategist in Queensland and the Managing Director of Publicis Worldwide in Brisbane. Her breakthrough thinking is achieved by having extensive experience working for large corporates, government, small business and agencies. Simone’s category experience has breadth and depth across financial services, health, tourism, government agencies, education, not-for-profits and FMCG. Her strategic approach is to put consumers at the centre of all thinking, coupled with creativity to engage, connect and cause desired attitude and behaviour change to happen.
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vicki lee
Head of Broadcast & Content, PublicisWW
Vicki Lee is a BADC hall-of-famer for a reason: she’s one of Queensland’s most experienced producers, having spent years in agencies, production companies and post-production in Australia and the UK. Basically, what Vicki doesn’t know about production isn’t worth knowing.
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alexandra sundqvist
Executive Digital Director, PublicisWW
Alex makes the impossible look easy. She’s passionate about guiding clients through digital transformation and ensures that digital is at the core of their business. She’s done this for big-name clients from Europe to the Asia-Pacific.
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tia queen
Co-founder and Creative Director at Gangplank
Tia Queen (@tiarajadequeen) is a brand innovator and strategic thinker. Tia co-founded Gangplank (@studiogangplank) where she works closely with company leaders to invigorate their brand, from the creation of large-scale identity systems to boutique packaging. With a passion to give back to the industry, Tia is also a design educator (@shillington_) and served as Chair on the Australian Graphic Design Association council (@agdagram @agdaqld).
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karen (zippy) hayward
Senior Producer, Prodigious Productions
Karen is one of the most highly respected producers working in Australia today. Her experience and creativity have taken her around Queensland, Australia and the world on TVCs that number in the hundreds. Exhausting for most but Karen aka Zippy’s boundless energy and focused commitment to every job is what keeps people coming back for more… that and her scrumptious cupcakes. She has had the pleasure of working with many clients throughout her career including … Suncorp, XXXX, University of Queensland, Seaworld, Kelloggs USA, Dreamworld, EMI Music Australia, Queensland Department of Health, QSuper, Big W, BCF, Energex, Tourism and Events Queensland … and more!
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megan elliott
Group Business Director, Zenith Media
Megan’s post university years have seen her involved in communications planning across events, media and agency roles in three markets spanning 25 years. Her agency life includes Leeds Media, AIS Media, Starcom and MediaCom, through to her current role as Group Business Director at Zenith Media.
Behaviour change planning sits at the core of her experience, having worked will all major levels of Government across Road Safety, the Arts, public transport and major events.
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susan lyons
Strategy Director, PublicisWW
Susan is a business strategist who just happened to end up on the advertising side of the fence. She makes connections that often otherwise are missed in the effort to strike the balance between commercial interest and what’s right for the customer. Having worked for some of Australia’s best agencies, as well as recently the Director at PwC and General Manager of Marketing for Michael Hill globally, Susan offers a unique insight into business solutions.
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sarah-jane peterschlingmann
Managing Director, ATech
Sarah-Jane is the Managing Director and owner of ATech, a company that helps large corporates and government deliver world leading digital solutions. Starting as a web developer, she helped to grow ATech from humble beginnings to million dollar revenues and an impressive list of high calibre clients including airlines, software companies, and all levels of government. She also sits on the ICT Advisory Board for CQUniversity and is currently in the final stages of completing an Executive MBA.
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christine gannon
Managing Partner - Clemenger BBDO
Christine started her career as an agency receptionist (while studying) and then joined a recruitment ad agency for a few years before landing at her first creative agency, Red Suit Advertising. Since then, she has worked for several agencies and various clients, including UQ, TEQ, RACQ and more! For the past year, she has been learning the leadership ropes, running the Clemenger Brisbane offices with her Creative Director partners.
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sarah kelly
Director of External Engagement and Associate Professor of Law & Marketing for UQ Business School
Sarah is an Associate Professor in Law and Marketing and the External Engagement Director and Marketing Discipline Leader in the University of Queensland Business School. She has interdisciplinary expertise in marketing, psychology and law and is globally known for her research and consulting in the sports field, and is also co-leading an interdisciplinary research team at UQ in Trust, Ethics and Governance.
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nicole hartley
MBA Director and Senior Lecturer/Researcher at UQ
Nicole Hartley is a service and digital media researcher and senior lecturer in the UQ Business School at the University of Queensland. She is also the Associate Director of the UQ Business School MBA program. Her extensive research and teaching expertise areas include services technology, virtualised services, marketing strategy, customer-brand relationships, new media, communication, consumer-making behaviour, and consumer psychology.
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georgia ball
General Manager, VIVO Group
Georgia is General Manager at Vivo, a local digital agency that builds custom digital products for clients like National Storage, Diabetes Australia, UQ, QUT, Poolwerx, Jetts Gyms and Spicers Retreats. She started her career in digital at a London based tech incubator and since then she's worked both agency side and within startups designing and implementing growth strategies. Georgia was also the first Brisbane Chapter Director for Interactive Minds.
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jessamy ross
Senior Copywriter & Creative Strategist, GrowthOps
Jessamy is a copywriter with 5+ years' experience creating big ideas, delivering exciting campaigns and crafting clever copy, long-form and short. First placed in Award School (2014) she also holds a Graduate Certificate in Creative Advertising (QUT), a Bachelor of Business Management and Bachelor of Arts (UQ). She has worked on major campaigns and social marketing initiatives for Griffith University, Ergon Energy, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services, Cobram Estate, Queensland Health, Emporium Melbourne, All Trades Queensland, BCU, Novion and Brisbane City Council.
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priscilla jeha
Founder at The Together Society
Priscilla has over 20 years experience in the industry with almost half of that spent in London leading integrated, multi-disciplined global teams. She believes in building exceptional client partner teams with a focus on collaboration, innovation and fostering a dynamic, inclusive culture.
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caroline starecky
Head of Strategy & Innovation, GrowthOps
As Head of Innovation & Strategy at GrowthOps, Caroline has cultivated brands and developed impactful strategies in North America and Australia for over two decades. Caroline spearheaded numerous behaviour change campaigns and programs in the healthcare industry, education, lottery, anti-smoking and women’s leadership initiatives and holds a Master’s degree in International Marketing and a Business Coaching certification from the Neuroleadership Institute in Sydney.
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claire bartels
Freelance Senior Creative
A lover and a writer who's spent the last half-lifetime working in Melbourne, the US and China with the best and brightest. Bringing home the mother lode of experience writing for brands like Kmart Australia, Nine West, Bulla, GAP, Walmart, Etsy, Fossil, BEHR paint, Kohl's, Sleep Number, Rooms to Go with Sofia Vergara, Crate & Barrel, Banana Republic, Sephora, Barbie, Cadillac and The Cosmopolitan Hotel of Last Vegas.
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kelly brightwell
Brand Manager of GIO
Kelly has been a marketer for nearly 15yrs for brands including Suncorp, Virgin, Lorna Jane and the Ekka. She has worked across a range of roles including partnerships, brand strategy, direct marketing, product design, loyalty, campaigns and brand management. Right now she manages Marketing Operations and Excellence at Suncorp. Regardless of the role, her passion for marketing is founded in the ability to combine creativity and insight to influence consumer behaviour.
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kelly newbery
Head of Marketing, IntelliHR
Kelly’s career spans 10 years driving results across the full gamut of strategic marketing, public relations and communications. Having spent the last 6 years working in the tech industry she is a big believer in using data to drive marketing decisions and the power of storytelling to build a brand. She’s passionate about building high performing teams that deliver tangible results and putting the customer at the forefront of everything we do.
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erin core
Head of Marketing - Artistic at Queensland Ballet
Erin Core is the Head of Marketing (Artistic) at Queensland Ballet. Until 2019 she was the Strategy Director at Clemenger Brisbane and strategist at Y&R (now VMLY&R).
In Sydney and Brisbane, she’s worked with clients like Arnott’s, PwC, Weis, DELL, RACQ, Tabcorp, Blue Care and now, Queensland Ballet. In 2019, her strategy won the National AMI Award for Public Sector Marketing for the Queensland Government campaign ‘Promise to Pause: 2018 Remembrance Day’. A ‘suit’ who successfully crossed over to strategy, Erin has 15 years’ experience in creative advertising. Erin’s passions are helping brands grow and adapt for the future and understanding human motivation and sociology.
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Kirsten Twigg
Senior Copywriter
In her 14 years in advertising, Kirsten (affectionately known as Twiggy) has worked across brands in nearly every sector – FMCG, tourism, government, gaming, retail, banking and insurance, education, fashion, sport, charity and media. During this time, she’s won international, national and local awards.
Twiggy has also been a co-head of AWARD School twice and regularly tutors copywriting at QUT and lectures at AWARD School. When she’s not crafting ad copy, she’s writing children’s books, with one book published so far and three more in the works.
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kylee ratz
Group General Manager, Cutting Edge
Kylee is a highly experienced leader in the film and television industry. With 24 years experience in the field, the last 15 as Group General Manager at Cutting Edge, Kylee is recognised for her focus on building trusted relationships with clients and her 110 strong team of creatives and administrative staff in Australia & Japan.
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Ready to be a part of Assisterhood as a Mentee?
We are the fastest growing mentorship program in Brisbane – and we’re only just getting started! Let’s shoot for the stars – together!