Victoria comes to the party with mentors leading strategy, marketing, production, tech, business, research, creative, media, and more.
With VIC now in its third year, we’re excited to welcome back some amazing mentors from travel and mat leave, plus a handful of new mentors who are bound to leave an impression!
Think of your mentor as someone who’s there to offer you the best advice for you. Are you a fan of their work? What shared values can you see?
Mirella Arapian
Founder and Creative Director at MEK STUDIO
Mirella Arapian (she/her) is an Armenian-Australian creative director and mentor based in Naarm (Melbourne). She’s the founder and creative director at MEK STUDIO®, a purpose-led design studio building brands of the future with social and environmental impact, and founder of Womentor, a global mentorship program for women in design committed to improving gender equality in the design industry.
With over 20 years’ experience both nationally and internationally, Mirella has worked with the world’s leading change makers including WWF, PETA, Sea Shepherd, RMIT University, Environmental Film Festival, Revival Projects and World Animal Protection. She specialises in impact-led branding, strategic design and creative innovation to help ambitious companies, brands and leaders communicate their vision for a better future.
Mirella is an activist and volunteers for various organisations across animal liberation, social justice and human rights. As a woman in design leadership, descendant of genocide survivors and child of immigrants, she’s an advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, and uses her business as a platform for activism and positive change.
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Amber Bonney
Founder, Executive Director - Creative & Strategy at Edison
Amber has established herself as a trailblazing and influential figure as one of Australia's leading brand experts. With over 25 years experience both locally and internationally, she has collaborated with working with some of the most influential brand owners in the world like Nestle, Bega, Asahi, Subaru, Volkswagen, Uber, Simplot, Lion and Lend Lease.
Amber specialises in high-level strategic branding, positioning and complex portfolio architecture systems with her unique ability to connect dots and create strategic pathways that lead to positive change and transformation. She has a multi-faceted approach to her career, encompassing design innovation, gender equity advocacy, mentoring, public speaking, podcast host and educator.
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Nancy Bugeja
Managing Director at HM
Nancy Bugeja is a multidisciplinary strategic designer, brand strategist and marketing professional. Director and co-owner of HM with a passion for design culture.
Nancy believes that bold creative ideas can be universal and have the power to transcend cultures, audiences and technologies. She is globally regarded and awarded for her communication design, brand strategy, intuition, creative idealisation, facilitation and leadership. Nancy is much sought after by bold businesses, industry professionals and students of design.
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Yasha Chandra
Client Partner at iProspect
Over 13 years of experience in media across India, China, Vietnam and Australia gives Yasha a unique understanding of the cultural context across these nations. While people and their motivations are similar, the way of achieving it differs.
Yasha believes that the ability to harness this human capital through shared purpose is the key to sustained growth. This is what Yasha would love to continue doing - raise future leaders who are empathetic, authentic and driven.
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Danielle Chapman
Managing Partner at Ogilvy Melbourne
Danielle’s career spans more than two decades across national and multi-national advertising agencies, including CHE, Publicis Mojo, GPY&R and Y&R Adelaide. She joined Ogilvy in May 2016 as Group Account Director to lead the BMW and MINI automotive accounts.
Her client experience covers Automotive, Tourism, Financial Services, Media, Telecommunications & IT as well as some of Australia’s most loved FMCG brands such as Peters ice-creams, Cadbury, OREO, Cussons, Garnier and Freedom Foods. Danielle was promoted to Managing Partner in 2019. She is creatively driven, but also commercially minded.
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Rebecca den Braber
General Manager at Hatched Media
Rebecca is the General Manager of Hatched, a full-service media agency whose purpose is to be agents of positive change in the industry.
She has had an extensive 18+ year career in digital media here in Melbourne and San Francisco, working on brands like BMW, Disney, Red Bull, Victorian, and Federal Government. Rebecca thrives on leading agencies where women can grow, flourish, and achieve their full potential and ambition.
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Sheridan Devereux
General Manager at HBK Agency
Sheridan has spent the last 15 years developing and managing integrated communications campaigns for some of Australia’s most loved and respected brands including Target, Specsavers, A2 Milk, Sorbent, Dulux and Cabot’s.
Whilst in her last semester of her Management and Marketing Communications degree at Monash, Sheridan scored a job as an Account Coordinator at HBK. There was no question that she wanted to forge a career in Advertising from that point on.
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Stefanie DiGianvincenzo
Creative Strategist at Meta
A copywriter by trade, Stefanie has worked across most of Melbourne’s top advertising agencies, including Clemenger BBDO and DDB. Her entrepreneurial spirit has driven her to found businesses, like Melbourne’s first copywriting agency, Apostrophe.
Her love of travel has led her to work abroad – most notably, as Global Creative Lead on Nike Women, out of AKQA London. And her impatience for equality saw her co-found Rare – a side-hustle that grew into Google’s global diversity and inclusion platform. Her work has been recognized at every major international award show. She’s sat on a number of award juries, including D&AD and ADC. and she speaks regularly at global conferences, from Semi Permanent to Cannes.
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Shyaire Ganglani
Associate Creative Director (Copywriter) at Ogilvy
Shyaire isn’t just a writer; she’s a poet, spoken word artist, and stand-up comic. Shy’s journey in slam poetry and comedy has taken her to the stages of Dubai, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and Melbourne. Her critically-acclaimed piece ‘In Defiance of Darls’ calling out racist and sexist cliches in advertising can be found in Mavens Mag Vol 2.
She has also featured on a few panels to champion diversity and inclusion in workplaces, including a pre-panel performance for Women of Colour Melbourne Gathering 2023 and key panelist at Mavens Magazine Launch Event. A keen activist in anti-racism, she has written for leading industry magazines and her work for climate change has been featured on the today show. Shy is working on her memoir and first poetry anthology this year.
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Olivia Gatt
Associate Creative Director at Scooter
Olivia Gatt is an award-winning creative leader and visual problem solver, specialising in creative direction, art direction, and design. With a strong creative background, Olivia creates from a base of art and design principles and a refined intuition (not just opinion). These philosophies guide and define her approach to design, advertising, and creative strategy.
Olivia’s in-depth understanding of creative principles helps deliver the best solutions and strategies to a wide range of clients, such as Amazon, NAB, Victoria State Government, and Myer. Through visual narratives, attention to detail, and her ability to bring passion and excitement to a project, Olivia is adept at actualising innovative ideas.
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Ella Keddie
Senior Client Partner at Snapchat ANZ
Ella, a Senior Client Partner at Snapchat ANZ, boasts a diverse career spanning film production and media agencies. After contributing to notable films like "Oddball," she transitioned to leading social media for Coles Group before joining Meta, where she focused on digital marketing for government and finance clients.
Her passion lies in engaging Gen Z and Millennials, which led her to specialize in helping brands connect with these demographics through Snapchat. Recognized for her industry leadership, Ella heads Snap Women for APAC and received nominations for Women in Media and Media Sales Person of the Year for VIC in 2023. With a commitment to driving tangible results and bridging the gap between brands and consumers, she continues to shape the landscape of digital marketing and media.
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Katrina Khao
Head Brand Thinker, Thinkerbell
Katrina (she/her) has had a colourful journey in the world of marketing comms, having held roles in almost every discipline, which has made her an extremely considered but curious strategist. Over the last few years, Katrina has been helping brands find their own path at Thinkerbell where she heads up strategy for some of the largest accounts in the agency.
Katrina is a quiet but powerful force who quietly bends the world to be more open, both strategically and intellectually, but also to help people embrace diversity more and others to overcome whatever adversity they may find.
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Michila Macleod
Commercial & Executive Leader
With over two decades of experience in the media industry Michila has demonstrated her ability to lead high performing, revenue generating teams, resulting in growth and commercial success.
Michila's approach to creating lasting impact has been anchored in
authenticity and a client centric approach, with a focus on building genuine relationships to create meaningful and impactful
partnerships. Michila has worked in high pressure leadership roles across many publishers, developing strong stakeholder management skills that helped nurture relationships both internally and externally.
Michila's career has been defined by her commitment to innovation, strategic thinking and constant dedication to achieving excellence for herself, her clients and the people she leads.
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Nomfundo Msomi
Executive Strategy Director at CHEP Network
Raised in South Africa but at home all over the world, Nomfundo is a Melbourne based brand strategist and mom of two. Her international career spans client and agency-side roles as Global Head of Brand at Etihad Airways in Abi Dhabi and strategy stints at Landor & FITCH and Isobar in Hong Kong.
Nomfundo is an alum of the WPP Fellowship, a prestigious programme that develops talent through multidisciplinary experience at WPP operating companies across the world. Her Fellowship experience took her from London to Bangalore, New York City, and Hong Kong. Nomfundo has spent the past decade in agencies driving brand strategy for clients including LVMH, Marriott International, AirAsia, Unilever, BMW, Nissan, and Mazda.
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Naomi Mulholland
Independent Producer at Cloudberry Films
Naomi Mulholland is an independent producer, with a long track record of line producing Australian drama. She is currently line producing the Disney Plus period drama “The Artful Dodger” in Sydney and recently produced the Screen Australia funded web series Sonia & Cherry and co produced feature film, Run Rabbit Run.
Other credits include the Apple TV series Shantaram, the Netflix drama Clickbait, Ten’s Playing for Keeps, Nine’s Bad Mothers, acclaimed prison drama, Wentworth, Seven Network’s Winners & Losers, ABC’s The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Lowdown and Twentysomething, BAFTA nominated UK-Australian co-production, Mrs Biggs, and Ten's AFI award-winning police drama, Rush.
Naomi also produced the ABC3 young adult sketch comedy series, You’re Skitting Me, and worked on the following feature films: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Red Hill, The Wedding Party, Rush Hour 3 and Ghost Rider, as well as locally made HBO production, The Pacific.
Jasmine Parasram
Design Superwoman | Pricing Queen
For the last 15 years, Jaz has been serving Michelin-star designs on a gold platter, solving her clients’ problems and helping them grow their businesses. She’s the graphic designer, muralist, lettering-artist, website genius, and all-round business guru who’s helped hundreds of clients achieve their business goals. While she’s still a design superwoman to her clients, Jaz is now sharing her wisdom with her fellow freelancers with another title: Your Pricing Queen.
For the last 4 years, Jaz has been mentoring her freelance students in all things pricing, giving them the tools they need to confidently calculate and charge what they’re worth, create a never-ending list of clients who happily pay up, and, ultimately, never go hungry again.
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Dr Marion Piper
Creativity Coach at Marion Piper Creative
If you’re looking for practical creativity for big ideas, then Dr Marion Piper is your go-to gal. As a creativity coach and copywriter, she supports creative entrepreneurs to become their most creative selves so they can communicate their world-changing ideas with confidence and passion.
Marion believes that everyone is creative (yes, even you) and in a world where everyone sounds the same, choosing the right words is the best way to stay out. Having traveled the world, working in creative agencies, summer camps and universities, as well as completing a swag of degrees (including a PhD), Marion is here to inspire you to stop imitating everyone else and start using your own voice FOR REAL.
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Virginia Scully
Executive leader | People and Culture Consultant
Founder of Human Kind Collective (April launch), Virginia is a people, talent, and culture expert with nearly 30 years of experience in the creative and media industry. She is a passionate advocate for gender equity and empowering women, as well as a mentally healthy change expert and mental health first aid instructor.
Virginia recently left her role as managing partner to dedicate her work to helping protect people for prosperity, a commitment to social impact beyond financial gain.
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Jordan Smith
Group Business Director at PHD
Jordan has almost 20 years' experience in media agencies, crafting clients' audience-led media strategies, and is now a core member of PHD's leadership team. She has worked across a variety of client categories, with particular expertise in the Financial Services sector, joining PHD as Group Business Director to lead the ANZ Bank account in 2017.
She is drawn to roles that have a strong people focus, with an enthusiasm for developing emerging talent within the agency to unlock their full potential, as well as building meaningful relationships with clients and key partners. Outside of work, Jordan's passions are for Eurovision, craft beer, F1 and she's a long-suffering St Kilda supporter.
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Ready to become a VIC mentee?
Now you’ve read about all of our amazing VIC mentors, it’s time to put yourself out there and apply. You’ve got this.