Agenda

Vice President of Corporate Marketing 

Empire Company Limited

In her role as Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Empire Company Limited (Sobeys Inc.), one of the country’s largest grocery retailers, Erika leads core national consumer marketing functions and strategies across some of the most beloved Canadian grocery brands including Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo, Thrifty Foods, Foodland and IGA. Her primary focus is on fostering brand preference and deepening consumer connections and affinity across Canada. Erika oversees all creative and media strategy, digital performance marketing, content management, in-store visual experience, sponsorship, shopper marketing and corporate citizenship initiatives.

Executive Vice President, Strategy

UM

A huge fan and champion of advertising, Richard helps empower brands to ‘Stand Against Bland’ and achieve their full growth potential by helping them navigate the ever-changing media and cultural landscape and providing strategic leadership, audience-building insight, brand consulting, and media expertise. Richard has worked extensively across creative, media, digital, and product innovation - wearing both agency and advertiser hats - and brings a unique, cross-discipline approach to solving business challenges and helping teams transform insight into action.

VP, Strategy

UM

Katey brings a unique edge as a strategy leader, drawing on deep roots in media planning, paired with a keen eye on culture, to turn insights into strategies that deliver meaningful results. With 15 years of experience across categories such as CPG, finance, beer, and tourism, she brings with her a diverse and nuanced perspective, translating data and trends into clear strategic platforms that drive stronger outcomes for brands.

Senior Director, Advanced Solutions

UM

As UM's Advanced Solutions and Product Lead, Francesco Giacobbe deploys data, measurement, and testing solutions tailored to each client's business challenges. His broad range of expertise across advertising capabilities - from first-party data strategies to incrementality testing frameworks - enables him to design integrated solution stacks that deliver measurable impact, fueling growth through marketing and tech transformation.

Chief Marketing Officer

Index Exchange

Lori is the Chief Marketing Officer at Index Exchange, where she leads global marketing and Learning & Development, driving brand visibility, positioning, and go-to-market strategies that support product adoption and business growth. With more than 20 years in digital advertising, Lori has held senior leadership roles at Amazon Ads, Meta (formerly Facebook), and Microsoft. Lori is an active industry leader, whose contributions have been recognized with honors including She Runs It Working Mother of the Year (2024), CMO to Watch by CMO Alliance (2024), and Talent Champion from the ANA Educational Foundation (2025).

VP, Head of eCommerce

KINESSO

As VP, Head of eCommerce for KINESSO Canada, Emmanuel leverages extensive omni-channel expertise. He has spearheaded eCommerce business development for global CPG giants, including Philips and Nestlé. His mastery of integrating retail insights and performance marketing positions him as a pivotal resource for accelerating digital commercial growth. Bridging data and technology is his forte in today's digitally-driven business landscape.

Chief Data & Solutions Officer

KINESSO

Christy leads KINESSO Canada’s data solutions practice with a focus on developing and delivering market-leading services, including custom audiences, first-party data strategy, consumer insights, full-funnel modelling, unified retail media, and platforms and intelligence solutions.Her expertise in data, technology and business operations has allowed her to significantly impact digital ad processes and ensure our client solutions are performance-driven, future-forward, and growth-driven.

VP, Innovation & Intelligence

UM

Kelvin translates cultural, economic, and technological shifts into strategic decisions for brands, bridging the gap between macro trends - generational mindset shifts, evolving spending patterns, fragmenting media consumption - and specific choices around media investment, channel strategy, and audience engagement. His work helps steer clients through both temporary disruptions and permanent shifts, ensuring timely and impactful responses to the changing landscape.

Managing Director, Canada

Vistar Media

Scott is Managing Director for Canada at Vistar Media, the world’s first fully intelligent platform for buying and selling out-of-home media. Since 2017, he has built Vistar’s Canadian operations from the ground up, growing the team and forging key programmatic partnerships. Previously, Mitchell helped launch TubeMogul in Canada (now Adobe) and led the consumer packaged goods vertical at Yahoo! Canada.

Senior Lead of Ecommerce & Digital Engagement

McCain Foods

Louise is a transformational digital professional, leader, and business partner with over 20 years of experience working in various manufacturing and CPG organizations across North America and Europe. In her current role, she works to drive the ecommerce growth agenda and improve digital engagement across all media and retailer platforms. Louise is passionate about all things digital marketing, media, and ecommerce. Her specialities include digital transformation, omnichannel connected experiences and culture building.

SVP, Growth Analytics

IPG Mediabrands

As SVP, Growth Analytics, Juan leads analytics for IPG Mediabrands in Canada, responsible for both delivery and innovation. His teams support hundreds of millions in annual media investment, developing marketing mix models, incrementality frameworks, and attribution systems for Canada's largest advertisers. With 15 years in media measurement, he's focused on advancing what analytics means at IPG Mediabrands, moving from retrospective reporting to causal inference, from dashboards to decision engines, from measurement-as-service to measurement-as-product.

CEO, UM

UM

With over 18 years in the industry and significant client-side expertise, Ben has a deep understanding of what it takes to engage in meaningful connections with consumers; connections which ultimately drive business growth and objectives. A passionate marketer and dedicated leader, Ben infuses his clients and team with the drive to partner in extraordinary work. His talent has earned him and his team multiple awards, recognizing the exceptional work and results created in partnership with his clients.

SVP, Head of Search & Performance Strategy

KINESSO

Hailey is a highly accomplished digital marketing leader with over twelve years of experience partnering major Canadian brands. She has continuously evolved her deep expertise in SEM, spearheading advanced activations for industry-leading clients and shaping the network’s approach to Search as a member of the global Search Craft Council. As VP, Head of Search & Performance Strategy at KINESSO, Hailey leads channel expertise across SEM, Social, Programmatic, and Dynamic Content Optimization, ensuring teams are equipped to deliver best-in-class strategies.

Head of Account Management Canada

Amazon Ads

Margot is a dynamic digital advertising leader with 20 years of industry expertise, currently serving as Head of Account Management Canada at Amazon Ads. In this role, she leads a team of strategic Account Managers who leverage deep knowledge of Amazon's suite of full funnel advertising products, technology, and measurement solutions to drive client success and excellence. Prior to joining Amazon in 2017, Margot established her career in digital advertising during her decade-long tenure at Google, where she held key sales positions and developed a comprehensive expertise in digital advertising solutions.

Director of Innovation Partnerships

IPG Media Lab

As Director of Innovation Partnerships at IPG Media Lab, Tom Trudeau helps brands navigate consumer trends and emerging technology. A former dealmaker for both the NBA and MLB, his unique cross-discipline background includes being employee No. 1 at Marc Lore's startup Mojo. This entrepreneurial experience gives him a deep understanding of business models and consumer behavior from the ground up. As a parent, Tom also has a personal understanding of how technology influences modern family life across generations.