Queensland continually punches well above its weight with these marketing, strategy, advertising, media, creative, tech, and production powerhouses. You might see some familiar faces, as well as a few extraordinary new recruits.
And remember – your mentor doesn’t have to work in your desired role. Some of our most successful pairings have come from shared vibes and values.
Georgia Ball
Director at SoPost
Georgia is Director for SoPost in Australia. She heads up SoPost's operation locally as they scale up in APAC, including building key relationships with brand partners like Aesop, Benefit Cosmetics, Parfums Christian Dior, Lancôme and Mecca Cosmetica, among others. Prior to starting at SoPost, Georgia was 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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Liz Ballantyne
General Manager at Media Mortar
Liz Ballantyne is a seasoned marketer with over a decade of experience in marketing and communications across diverse industries. Liz started her career as a digital marketer, working for a tech company that was (at the time) one of only six companies in Australia to partner closely with Google. After leading the brand marketing for that organisation, Liz has since worked both inhouse and agency, helping craft strategic solutions for renowned brands like Bundaberg Brewed Drinks, Tourism Queensland, and Guide Dogs. Liz is now the General Manager for the content marketing agency Media Mortar, where she focuses on supporting her team of clever creative marketing professionals to craft scroll stopping content for brands. Her journey, punctuated by the challenges of balancing career growth with motherhood, has instilled in her a profound commitment to empowering women in their careers. Liz is a big believer that you can do just about anything with support and the right attitude. Having navigated her career without a mentor for many years, Liz is now a passionate advocate for mentorship, firmly believing in the strength that comes from women supporting each other.
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Kelly Brightwell
Strategy Director at Khemistry
Kelly Brightwell is creative thinker, natural problem solver and a bit of a geek. After 16 years in Marketing roles across tourism, retail and finance, Kelly made the leap into advertising in 2022. As Khemistry's head of strategy, she's passionate about fusing creativity and behavioural science to solve some of society's biggest problems.
When she's not working, Kelly is Mum to two little humans who hate ads...
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Kell Darling
General Manager at Flip
Kell is General Manager at Flip, a full service creative agency in Brisbane. Her journey began in 2016 as a Digital Project Manager/ Scrum Master at Isobar, Melbourne where she discovered her passion for Agile methodologies and team leadership. With a teaching background and a talent for managing projects and people, Kell excelled in coaching and mentoring.
Throughout her career, she collaborated with clients like Jetstar, Holden, RACV, Mercedes, and NFPs. Recent partnerships include Queensland Ballet and Brisbane Powerhouse. As a queer female leader, parent, and individual with ADHD, Kell believes her diverse identity enriches her leadership style. She's committed to driving Flip to new heights while fostering an inclusive workplace culture.
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Isabelle Debnam
Head of Marketing (AU, NZ & US) at Tes
Belle is one of the senior leaders in a global marketing team at Tes, responsible for the overall engagement, nurturing, acquisition, and retention for marketing across Australia, New Zealand, and North America. With over a decade in the marketing industry, Belle’s passions and expertise span across marketing and brand strategy, video production, content creation, omni-channel campaigns and team management.
Belle has had a squiggly career path, from Destination Marketing to agency/startup life and is now in-house, working for one of the most renowned international providers of digital solutions in the EdTech space.
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Clare Dlugosz
Group Director - Technology and Transformation at EssenceMediacom
Clare is a seasoned marketing professional with over 15 years of experience in the industry. She currently works as the Group Director of Technology and Transformation at EssenceMediacom, an intrapreneurial role where she is responsible for delivering change projects, using technology to make the day to day of advertising simpler, cleaner, and clearer.
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Megan Henderson
Global Brand Experience Leader at Flight Centre
Megan drunk the Flight Centre Kool Aid 13+ years ago starting as an Advertising Executive in NZ. Megan said yes to every opportunity she could (some good, some bad), which has allowed her to work in 7x different roles, and 4x different brands over the 13x year period. She's now the Global Brand Experience Leader for Flight Centre brand looking after the end-to-end journey across all channels for the brand. If someone told her 13 years ago the experiences and opportunities she's had along with the friends she's met, it would have been a big "NO F*CKEN WAY" moment.
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Christine Gannon
Managing Partner at CHEP
Christine is the Managing Partner of CHEP in Brisbane, one of Australia’s most successful and awarded creative, cx, data and tech agencies. Brisbane born and bred, she has worked in the industry for over 25 years across a range of agencies and clients including RACQ, TAFE Qld, Michael Hill Jeweller, UQ, TEQ and more. She is a hands-on strategic leader who brings enthusiasm and a problem solving attitude to everything she does.
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Jennifer Garner
Senior Vice President, Sales Operations (APJ) at CitrusAd
I have a Bachelor Degree in Business, Majoring in Events Management and Marketing and a passion for all things data, consumer experience and brand efficiency.
Currently working as a SVP Sales Operations APJ for Citrus Ad, a company reimagining the digital advertising space for the retail industry. Helping unlock the potential of e-commerce websites for retailers, suppliers and customers. Welcome to the age of high performing digital shelf space.
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Ash Ivory
Chief Product Officer at Ivory Common
Hey 👋 I'm Ash, quietly causing a stir in the product world, and by 'product world' I mean Meanjin. My journey from a fresh Business Development Manager with Outfit.io to Head of Product roles at various scale ups was less like a meteoric rise and more like a really determined hike – with a few coffee breaks along the way. As an aside, I love coffee and hikes.
At my core though, I'm just someone who loves blending all of the things I know and the things that I'll come to know into an elegant way forward no matter the challenge. When I'm not shuffling product ideas into reality, I can't really say what you'll find me doing, but it'll probably be interesting.
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Carissa Jackson
Associate Creative Director at Publicis
Carissa is an Associate Creative Director at Publicis. With over a decade of experience in the advertising industry, she has gone from building independents to working the networks of global agencies, gathering awards for her craft along the way. She’s worked with major brands like KFC, Subway and BP, non-for-profits and everything in between, lifting their profiles with her conceptual style. Inside and outside of Publicis, Carissa is dedicated to educating the next generation of creative thinkers with AWARD and now here! As a woman, mother and person of colour, she advocates for diversity, equality and inclusion, and has raised awareness in industry through initiatives with Marie Claire and Fck the Cupcakes. As a creative, you’ll find her swooning over all things art, design and fashion.
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Laura Jiew
Marketing Communications Manager, ON Innovation Program at CSIRO
Laura's career has taken her through education, non-profits, STEM, and cyber/information security. With a bachelor's degree in Science and postgrad qualifications in Marketing and Event Management, she's quite the versatile professional. Laura sees herself as someone who's people-oriented, tech-savvy, and a great communicator. She thrives on making genuine connections and helping stakeholders succeed. She's all about building stronger, more connected STEM communities, and her current gig at CSIRO fits like a glove!
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Keisha Leon
Director at Cause/Affect
Keisha Leon is a proud Waanyi and Kalkadoon woman and the director of Cause/Affect, a social impact creative agency, delivering meaningful and relevant communication solutions through a diverse lens, that we know has the chance of driving real change.
Keisha has had a successful career in design and creative direction in both agency and client-side environments, combining her proven professional knowledge with a strong sense of social responsibility. Her next step is to better model projects and work spaces for diverse voices to better approach social impact communications.
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Kate Lippett
Chief Client Officer at Publicis Groupe
Kate has been in the media industry since 2003, working across most categories. Currently, Kate leads a team of 35 people on a global brand, with her core focus to inspire creativity and innovation in bringing world-class thinking alive. She's very happy in this role and wants to ensure that she can inspire her team to be the best versions of themselves. She also wants to be able to share the things she's learnt throughout her career with others.
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Bel Lloyd
WID Award Winner, Founder Marketing Consultancy, SheCodes Mentor
Bel, honoured as Digital Marketer of the Year 2023 by Women In Digital, enjoys leveraging and innovating with technology in marketing. Bel’s embraced a deep passion for people and technology with a commitment to mastering the intricacies of marketing to deliver impactful growth and customer delight.
Her journey is a deliberate pursuit of understanding what makes human journeys worthwhile as well as how technology will illuminate our future. As a Lead Mentor at She Codes Australia and Entrepreneur In Residence at Plus Eight, Bel champions diversity, guiding women in software development, entrepreneurship and now a topic she could talk about non-stop - marketing.
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Camilla Marshall
General Manager, Marketing at Endeavour Foundation
As the General Manager, Marketing for Endeavour foundation Endeavour Foundation, Camilla is well versed in high pressure and data-driven marketing environments. In fact, that’s where she thrives.
Her ability to deliver effective campaigns and create stronger brands is underpinned by extensive experience in senior marketing and communications roles within B2B and B2C global organisations across industries including aviation, tourism, insurance, assistance, and government.
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Natalie Mitchell
Senior Broadcast & Content Producer at Publicis
With a unique ability to successfully and efficiently manage both agency and production elements of producing, Nat has established herself as an asset to one of the biggest production companies and advertising agencies in Australia, and worked on leading US Television Dramas in Los Angeles. This set of skills, along with a long-standing passion for entertainment, has driven Nat to expand her repertoire of producing as far as it can go within the film and television industry.
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Pam Okada
Supporter Engagement - Retention Coordinator at Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS)
Pam is a highly focused deadline-driven natural planner. She loves nothing more than managing projects and campaigns from ideation to execution. She thrives in high pressure environment and is results oriented.
Pam started her not-for-profit journey 11 years ago as a Campaign Advisor for yourtown/Kids Helpline in the charitable lotteries team. She was responsible in developing and implementing supporter acquisition and retention strategies to achieve growth targets. After 11 years of selling lottery tickets and making dreams come true, it was time for a new chapter.
Pam is now in the Supporter Engagement team at Royal Flying Doctor Service, fundraising to ensure all Queenslanders have access to medical aid, emergency services and other vital health care services, whenever wherever.
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Kylee Ratz
Group General Manager at Cutting Edge
Kylee Ratz' career spans more than 29 years and includes an impressive 15 years as Cutting Edge's Group General Manager in which she leads a team of over 100 people. Kylee thrives on rapport building and delivering high-quality products that not only meet but exceed client expectations. Her passion for the industry, aptitude for client service and high-quality output has cultivated a highly-regarded reputation and she looks forward to sharing her knowledge with the Assisterhood for the fifth year in a row!
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Jessamy Ross
Senior Copywriter at VMLY&R & QLD AWARD SCHOOL Head
Jessamy is a Senior Copywriter at VMLY&R. Over the past 10 years, she's earned her creative stripes working on campaigns big and small for some of Australia's most interesting clients (and others she's had to work to make interesting along the way).
As a past Award School winner (2014) big, bold ideas get her out of bed in the morning. But, as a Masters-degree-qualified nerd, she also thrives on finding her way out of a strategic quagmire or behaviour change puzzle. Outside of advertising, her writing has been published in The Age, Sydney Morning Herald and Wellbeing Magazine.
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Emmagness Ruzvidzo
Marketing Strategist, Coach and Trainer | Podcaster
Emmagness (Em), is the Co-Founder of VAKA Consulting, a Marketing, Coaching and Training Consultancy. She helps businesses establish solid foundations in marketing through research based, customer-centric strategies and marketing programs.
She is a Coach and Speaker focusing on helping people develop an empowered personal brand. Em is the Chief Strategist for Skilled Migrant Professionals Magazine and the Co-host of Empowered Voices Amplified podcast. Both these publications are dedicated to amplifying and elevating the stories of underrepresented groups in our communities.
In 2023, she was named one of Queensland’s 40 Under 40, an award that celebrates young entrepreneurs who have demonstrated outstanding success and community engagement.
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Samantha Shah
CMO at Raging Bull Consulting
My very first corporate gig at 17 was a placement in the marketing team. #winning. They were the only team having fun it seemed - laughing and talking while they worked. But the campaign I worked on was set to encourage kids to adopt a sustainable approach to hot water usage and it lasted all summer. The opportunity to influence people's thoughts and to persuade them to change their behaviour had me hooked for life. And the rest is history.
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Amber Snow
Managing Director at Rehaula
Amber is the Managing Director and Founder of Rehaula, a brand management firm. After achieving GM of a multi-award winning agency by 30, Amber has set her focus on building an award winning agency of her own. She sincerely thrives off giving back to the brand and marketing community, and having just returned from 3 months in South America, she's ready to share valuable knowledge on the balance of chasing your career and business goals, whilst taking the time to live a little too. Over her decade-long career Amber has applied her business skills to coach people, transform businesses and enjoy a career that spans from radio, to corporate branding and agency management.
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Caroline Starecky
Founder at Caroline Starecky
Caroline, an innovative leader with a track record of success, recently transitioned from her role as Director of Strategy & Innovation at Deloitte to pursue a new entrepreneurial venture. With her extensive experience spanning strategic advisory, leadership coaching, and fractional leadership, she's now dedicated to empowering founders and small-medium businesses.
Previously, as Chief Experience Officer at Glass Management Consulting, she contributed to its success & acquisition by Deloitte. Caroline's diverse background includes roles such as Head of Strategy at Khemistry agency and founder of Coaching & Co., an innovation coaching firm in Canada. She holds her Master's degree & brings over 15 years of experience in integrated agencies, driving impactful strategies and behaviour change.
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Hannah Statham
CEO at Media Mortar
Currently, I'm the CEO and Founder of a content marketing agency, but really, like everyone else, I'm taking client problems, decoding them and finding strategic solutions. I've worked across many facets of marketing but most prominently social media, copywriting and campaign development and execution. I've spent the last fifteen years working in tourism marketing and while I'm always trying to diversify industries, I find myself lured back. What do next steps look like for me? Leading my team to the next level of growth. We have some big hairy audacious goals to kick this year, and it's my job to lead the team towards them.
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Lisa Summer-Hayes
Director, Audiences and Visitor Experience at Queensland Ballet
Currently steering the ship as Director of Audiences and Visitor Experience at Queensland Ballet, Lisa's journey has taken her to the UK and back, etching a career spanning the higher education sector, government, an early childhood not-for-profit, to the Arts.
She’s launched products with Australia Post; reduced school absenteeism across one of London’s most diverse boroughs; reimagined university student experiences; led the rollout of the biggest shift in childcare funding in over a decade; and grown ballet audiences whilst the world was in recovery mode from the global pandemic.
A master of multi-tasking and squeezing every inch out of her day, Lisa wrangles a young family, whilst working full-time in a demanding but highly rewarding role. She thrives on fostering great relationships in and outside of the workplace and is always up for thrashing out ideas over lunch.
Lisa believes that mentorship isn't just about imparting knowledge; it's about listening and learning, nurturing talent, fostering growth, and making the journey as fun as it is
rewarding.
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Lieve Torbeyns
Founder/Creative Director at Sgt Purple
Since graduating in 1998 with a Masters in Advertising & Design in Belgium, Lieve has worked in some of the leading communication agencies in Belgium and Australia. Her passion has always been to create concept-driven dynamic brand identities that are engaging, memorable, and connect with their customers. Lieve's expertise is branding, brand development, logo design, conceptual thinking, art direction, visual digital design, and illustration. She started her own design studio, Sgt Purple in 2013 where she helps customers with bespoke branding that successfully communicates, visually attracts, and connects with their target audience.
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Ashton Tuckerman
CMO | Marketing Leader | UQ MBA Candidate
I love building brands through powerful storytelling. I’ve loaded up my plate studying my MBA at UQ, with a side helping of brand consulting.
Before this, I was the CMO + Australia GM at Gathar, where I helped elevate their private chef marketplace to a global stage with the support of US Co-founder, Curtis Stone.
My professional background includes roles with influential players (Flight Centre), disruptors (Youfoodz) and top-tier agencies (Havas). Having spent much of my career in start-ups has shaped me into both a high-level thinker and a curious deep diver.
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Sara Tweedly
Chief Marketing Officer at Canstar
Sara has almost 20 years of experience in the finance, marketing, digital, and communications industries with practical and demonstrated success across paid, earned, and owned media locally and internationally.
In her role as Chief Marketing Officer at Canstar, Sara is responsible for developing and leading the implementation of Canstar’s marketing strategy to drive traffic and brand awareness, improve customer experiences and generate revenue streams. Sara leads one of the largest and fastest-growing teams at Canstar spanning marketing, PR, SEO, and editorial.
Having spent the majority of her career working in financial services across a range of very different organisations, Sara empowers her team to make the complex simple and is passionate about delivering on the brand’s goal of helping consumers to get financially healthy.
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Alicent Wong
Account Director at Excite Media
I'm Alicent (Ali), a seasoned Marketing Specialist with over 20+ years of experience spanning over two decades and continents. I've had the privilege of shaping successful marketing strategies for some of the world's most beloved brands such as Apple, Microsoft, IBM, American Express, and DHL to name a few in Singapore, ANZ and APAC.
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