Devon MacDonald

Chief Strategy Officer

Mindshare Canada

Devon MacDonald currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Mindshare in Canada. Overseeing the Communications Planning and Content teams, Devon helps shape the overall strategic direction across our clients, new business opportunities and the agency. It was recently announced that Devon will be taking over the CEO role for Mindshare Canada this August.

With an extensive background in the media, creative and technology worlds, Devon has worked on a number of high profile brands across virtually every category on a local, North American and Global Scale. He thrives on the challenge of change and loves to learn about new clients, problems and solutions.

Devon is active in the industry as a founding member of the Media Council at the Canadian Marketing Association, a jury member for the 2018 Young Lions competition and a visiting lecturer at the Schulich Marketing MBA program. A recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for his work in the community, Devon is also often called upon for press and speaking opportunities.

Stephanie Binette

Chief Marketing Officer

L'Oreal Canada

Stéphanie Binette became Chief Marketing Officer at L'Oréal Canada last August 1, 2017.
With a rich and successful career, Stéphanie has contributed significantly to L'Oréal Canada's success over the past 10 years.

After a 10-year career with multinational consumer goods companies in Montreal and Toronto, she began her career at L'Oréal Canada in 2006 as Group Leader for Garnier. Stéphanie subsequently made an impressive career in L'Oréal Canada's Consumer Products division. In 2008, she was named Director of Marketing, Colour & Hair Care for L'Oréal Paris, the flagship brand of the L'Oréal Group, for which her contribution was exceptional. In 2010, she became Brand Manager of Maybelline New York and accelerated the growth of the brand, making it the # 1 brand in cosmetics in Canada. Under her leadership, her team successfully launched the Essie brand in Canada in 2011, creating a unique brand image and achieving the most successful launch worldwide.

In 2013, Stéphanie was promoted General Manager for Garnier-Maybelline-Essie, and continued to gain market share and develop talent with a strategy based on innovation beyond products. In 2015, she was promoted to General Manager for L'Oréal Paris, where she revived the brand’s growth, increased market share in all major categories and accelerated the digital transformation of the brand. Over the past few years, she has played a key role in the growth of market share, in profit and in the development of talent in her teams. Stéphanie focuses on a consumer-oriented marketing approach and has been able to transform her teams in order to make them seize opportunities and consumer trends as well as become risk-takers, while focusing on the excellence and quality of strategy executions.

Stephanie graduated from Laval University and Stonehill College in communications. Engaged towards women in need, she sat the board of La Rue des femmes in Montreal and continues to support them. It was also under her leadership that her team launched the first major philanthropic program of L'Oréal Paris in Canada, Women of Worth, which honours extraordinary women who give their time to their community, throughout the country.

Michael Oliver

National Manager, Brand Communications

BMW Canada

A strong advocate for customer-first thinking, Michael brings a background in digital advertising and customer experience design to his current role, gained during 18 years spent in the advertising industry where he held senior creative, strategy, and management positions for some of Canada's leading agencies. While working for clients in the automotive, gaming, consumer packaged goods, and healthcare industries, one thing has remained consistent; a passion for collaborating with others and an optimism for the future.

During a visit to BMW headquarters in Munich in 2005, a deep-seeded fascination for the BMW Brand’s innovative approach to communication took shape, setting Michael on a path which ultimately lead to his arrival at BMW Group Canada in 2017. In his current role of National Manager, Brand Communications, he manages all aspects of how the BMW Brand is communicated across the country, ensuring consistency and alignment across all channels. His role provides fuel for a life-long passion for cars, started in his family by his great-grandfather, who ran car dealerships in southern Ontario in the 1950's. Doing his part to carry on the tradition, Michael is actively passing on this passion to his two sons, who when not playing some form of hockey can be found drawing, watching, or spotting cars in their downtown Toronto neighborhood.

Ari Elkouby

VP, Creative Director

J. Walter Thompson Worldwide

Ari currently serves as the VP of Creative Direction for J. Walter Thompson in Toronto. Working on forward-thinking and cutting edge projects, Ari has proven to be a great facilitator of creative execution and technological incorporation into strategic outputs for global brands. Described as a “unicorn” in the advertising industry for his ability to work across digital, social, mobile and traditional marketing channels, Ari has overseen multiple award winning campaigns. Some of the prestigious acknowledgements he has received for his creative work include Cannes Lions, One Show Pencils, as well as wins at the ADCC and CMAs. Prior to JWT, Ari spent three years with Zulu Alpha Kilo and held senior roles at Proximity Canada and Fallon in the U.S.

Lara Skripitsky

Senior Director, Head of Digital

McDonald’s Canada

Lara is a digital storyteller and change agent with over 15 years experience leading organizational change and digital transformation at a number of Canada's leading companies including Rogers Communications, General Mills, Torstar and Johnson & Johnson. Currently Lara is Senior Director, Head of Digital at McDonald’s Canada, where she spearheads the digital transformation of the Canadian business. Her mandate covers the digital marketing space as well as the omni-channel restaurant and technology experience, encompassing everything from video strategy, social, content marketing, CRM, mobile, in-store kiosks and more. Lara holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours from Queens University as well as an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She is a self-professed digital nerd and pop culture junkie, and a recent Cross Fit convert.

Lara Skripitsky

Senior Director, Head of Digital

McDonald’s Canada

Lara is a digital storyteller and change agent with over 15 years experience leading organizational change and digital transformation at a number of Canada's leading companies including Rogers Communications, General Mills, Torstar and Johnson & Johnson. Currently Lara is Senior Director, Head of Digital at McDonald’s Canada, where she spearheads the digital transformation of the Canadian business. Her mandate covers the digital marketing space as well as the omni-channel restaurant and technology experience, encompassing everything from video strategy, social, content marketing, CRM, mobile, in-store kiosks and more. Lara holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours from Queens University as well as an MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business. She is a self-professed digital nerd and pop culture junkie, and a recent Cross Fit convert.

Andreas Soupliotis

Founder & CEO

Hivestack

Andreas Soupliotis is the Founder & CEO of Hivestack, a marketing technology company that drives business outcomes by helping digital marketers target custom audiences on location-based media. Andreas is also the Founder of Ayuda, a global ERP platform that automates the workflow of some the largest out-of-home advertising vendors. Prior to his career in marketing technology, Andreas worked at Microsoft Research as a Software Engineer in the field of computer vision.

Debbie Drutz

Founder &VP, Sales

Astral at Bell Media

Debbie Drutz currently leads the sales efforts for Astral – Bell Media’s billboard division in Canada. Prior to this role, she’s had several executive roles within Bell Media leading multi-platform and client driven teams as VP, Client Strategy and VP, Mix. Prior to joining Bell Media, Drutz held senior roles over the past 18 years within CHUM Radio, at Rogers in a digital capacity leading the launch of the first on-demand online platform and driving sales for both mobile & video platforms. She began her career as a media planner at Cossette working on brands like Nike and Petro-Canada.   Drutz will graduate in June 2018 with an MBA from Ivey’s Business School and holds a Statistical Science Degree from Western University and graduated with the Award of Excellence, at Humber College’s Media Sales Post Graduate Diploma Program. She also completed her Communications and Advertising Accredited Professional course in 2002 through the ICA and the Program on Negotiation Certificate from Harvard Law School in May 2016.   From hockey to dance, she spends weekends with her two children and enjoys early am workouts!

Barry Frey

DPAA

As President & CEO of the Digital Place Based Advertising Association (DPAA), Mr. Frey oversees all operations driving awareness, value and revenue to this fast growing space. The DPAA provides industry leadership to networks, technology, content and research companies. It fosters collaboration between the digital out-of-home community and ad agencies, providing research and best practices in areas such as mobile integration and programmatic.

During Mr. Frey's tenure, he has vastly grown the organization's membership base, opening the DPAA's doors to businesses in the location data, mobile and software sectors, in addition to international companies. He has brought the entire digital place-based (DPB)/digital-out-of-home (DOOH) industry to its highest level of recognition in large part through his creation of the “Video Everywhere” marketing campaign. This initiative has helped position DPB/DOOH networks as important players in the video advertising market seen by brands, agencies, the press and financial analysts.

The Video Everywhere campaign is also reflected in the DPAA's annual conference, now called the Video Everywhere Summit. Under Mr. Frey's leadership, the Summit has shattered all previous attendance records while firmly establishing itself as the premier conference dedicated to video neutral media planning, activation, programmatic buying and marketers' use of multi-screen strategies.

Before joining DPAA in May 2013, Mr. Frey was widely recognized as a digital and advanced advertising leader and revenue generator. As architect, marketer and chief revenue officer for Cablevision's digital and advanced advertising business, he oversaw the ad sales transition to the digital model. As Executive V.P. Advanced Platform Sales, he built the mobile and web advertising businesses, and the industry’s leading advanced TV operation, all driving creation of new revenue streams.

Earlier, as Managing Director International Sales and Business Development, USA Networks, Mr. Frey created some of the first multimedia advertiser agreements in U.S. advertising. In his international role, Mr. Frey built and oversaw the global sales and marketing infrastructure for the networks.

Samantha Miller

Sr. Media Planner

Havas Media

Samantha Miller is a Senior Media Planner who currently manages part of the LVMH media business, with a focus on Sephora, Watch, and Spirit brands in addition to Swarovski Canada. After spending 5 years exclusively working on luxury retail and brands, including opening over 25+ retail stores; Samantha understands what drives crowds to store openings, increases consideration, and how critical technology is in the media space. Samantha's most invaluable experience was managing a team for the launch of Nordstrom in Toronto. Enabling her to fully explore her passion for retail, media creativity, strategy, and measurement planning. She was honored to receive the multi-platform execution award at OOH Day 2017 celebrating some of the work accomplished through Nordstrom's launch.

Amanda Dorenberg

Vice President, Marketing & Technology

OUTFRONT Media

Amanda is known as a disrupter in the DOOH space with over 10 years of experience uniquely encompassing branded marketing, emerging platforms/technology & media amplification to enhance business infrastructure and leverage those enhancements for increased market share. An expert in the programmatic advertising landscape, SaaS applications and IT infrastructure allows Amanda to combine these unique skillsets with her keen eye for branded marketing and communications. Both a senior marketing and emerging platforms executive, Amanda develops innovative solutions for OUTFRONT Media Canada and its clients. Amanda holds a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Media & Communications and a Graduate degree in Computer Programming & Systems Analysis, she is a member of the Forbes Tech Council, the Research Committee of COMMB and the Programmatic Trading Committee, Research Committee and DOOH Committees of the IAB Canada.

Danielle Graham

Anchor

CTV’s ETALK

As Anchor of CTV’s ETALK – Canada’s most-watched entertainment news program, Danielle Graham’s role and charming personality has put her face-to-face with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars and covering high-profile events both here at home and around the world. In recent years, Graham has interviewed the likes of Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Ben Affleck, Channing Tatum, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Jennifer Aniston, Mark Wahlberg, Tom Hanks, Beyoncé, Adele, Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, and many more. Graham has made her mark on some of the most high profile red carpets around the world including THE OSCARS® (where she co-hosts the annual red carpet special ETALK AT THE OSCARS), THE GOLDEN GLOBE AWARDS®, THE PRIMETIME EMMY® AWARDS, The SAG AWARDS®, the Cannes Film Festival, and Toronto International Film Festival® (TIFF). As an accomplished entertainment journalist, Graham has been recognized by The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, where she earned nominations for her work including Best Host in a Lifestyle Talk or Entertainment News Program or Series for ETALK PRESENTS: ADELE and Best Host in a Live Program or Series for ETALK AT THE OSCARS. Her work on ETALK AT THE OSCARS and ETALK’S ULTIMATE OSCAR GUIDE has also earned ETALK additional nominations for Best Live Entertainment Special (2017) and Best Talk Program or Series (2017) respectively. Danielle got her start in broadcasting in 2001 as an intern in the CityTV Toronto newsroom, before being hired as a floor director for the weekend news. Graham hosted YTV’s weekly music countdown THE HIT LIST for four years before joining Star! (now E! Canada) in 2005, acting as an entertainment reporter for STAR! DAILY, where she covered red carpet events for the next two years on the daily entertainment show. Graham officially joined the ETALK team in 2007 as a reporter, before she was promoted to Senior Reporter in 2013. Graham became the Co-Anchor of ETALK in January 2015, before officially promoted to Anchor in May 2017. Born and raised in Guelph, Ontario, Graham graduated from Seneca College with a diploma in Radio and Television Broadcasting. When not tracking down the latest entertainment stories or hitting the hottest red carpet premieres, Graham spends her time with her two-year-old daughter, Beatrix. She loves spending time with her family at home or lakeside at her cottage, being outdoors, cooking, reading, and entertaining friends. Follow Danielle Graham on Twitter, @DanielleGraham and on Instagram, @mrsdaniellegraham