Judges 2026
For the 2026 MPA Inspiration Awards, we once again bring together a stellar judging panel with leaders from both industry bodies and national and regional businesses.
(N.B. A judge is not permitted to judge a category in which their competitors sit – they are excluded so there is no conflict of interest)
Select a judge to read their biography.
Vicky Monk
Vicky Monk
Marketing & Retail Operations Director at AO
Vicky Monk is Group Marketing & Retail Operations Director at online electricals retailer, AO, a role she has held since early 2022. She leads and oversees Brand & Marketing, Communications, Creative, CRM, E-Commerce and Supply Chain divisions for the group.
Vicky drives the development of the AO brand and marketing strategy as well as customer communications, improving the customer experience and on-site journey.
Joining AO pretty much straight out of university in 2009, Vicky has held multiple senior roles across the business during her journey, including Supply Chain, Business Development, & Customer Operations.
She has been instrumental in shaping and driving AO’s obsession with providing amazing customer experience, ensuring operational processes deliver and delight customers. Vicky brings this approach to brand development, which involves relentless focus and drive to achieve AO being recognised as the UK’s Most Trusted Electrical retailer and holding the UK’s highest score on Trustpilot based on volume of reviews.
Vicky has also represented AO in a number of industry forums including an ambassador of Retail Week’s Be Inspired diversity programme and leads a number of internal initiatives supporting women in business.
Sam Walker
Sam Walker
Customer-focused Marketing Director
Sam is a customer-obsessed marketing leader, with experience across the full funnel and a passion for creative that connects and moves customers. He’s led teams to build brands and deliver commercial results at Tesco, Co-op, and N Brown, and has recently returned to Co-op as Marketing Director.
Pavan Riyat-Ward
Pavan Riyat-Ward
CEO, We are the Allies and Manchester Publicity Association Hon. Secretary & Board Member
Pavan started her career in advertising agencies and then moved client side, working in Head of Marketing roles at Morrisons, Poundland and Coop.
Pavan has now returned to her agency roots as CEO and founder of We are The Allies, a network of over 500 creative freelancers, covering every creative discipline – helping Agencies and Production companies find the best freelance talent for their creative brief.
Marcus Hadfield
Marcus Hadfield
Chief Strategy Officer, Apadmi
With over 20 years experience in digital and brand marketing, Marcus has delivered award-winning campaigns across every discipline and most sectors. Most of his career has been spent in advertising agencies, most recently as a Managing Partner at McCann Manchester. In 2017, he jumped into the mobile world to help clients get more out the increasingly close relationships people have with their devices. His question stays the same – why will customers care? Clients have included Expedia, Argos, Costa, American Airlines, CrossCountry Trains, Which?, Homebase, Sony, Aldi, World Vision, Plan International and more.
Fergus McCallum
Fergus McCallum
Chief Executive, TBWAMCR
Fergus started his career in Marketing in the drinks industry at what is now Diageo. Chief Exec at TBWAMCR since 2009, he has now racked up over 25 years of leading award-winning agencies to success at Cannes, Hollis, the Marketing Society and of course the MPA.
Mark Kelly
Mark Kelly
Agency Growth Coach
Mark is an agency veteran and started his consultancy in 2012 to initially help creative and marketing agencies with their digital marketing offer (from strategy to project governance). This expanded a year later to cover developing their proposition, market profile, teams, services, business pipeline and profitable processes.
Matt Geeling
Matt Geeling
Head of Media, Fuzzy Duck
Having joined the studio as a Motion Designer in 2012, Matt quickly moved into a managerial role and now has overall responsibility for both film and animation. Not one to sit back and take it easy, he can often be found researching new techniques to add to his skillset. He’s also passionate about nurturing new talent, and regularly leads sessions at local universities to help students and graduates breaking into the industry.
Phil Cookson
Phil Cookson
Director, Creative Resource
For 19 years, Phil has been helping agencies and brands to find and retain talent as well as mentoring creative and marketing talent throughout their career journeys. Phil is also Co-Founder of School of Thought, the creative course and competition that has been running in Manchester and Leeds since 2016.
Vic Turnbull
Vic Turnbull
Founder MIC Media
Vic is obsessed with audio. She’s the founder of the award-winning podcast production and training agency MIC media.
MIC’s roster of good egg clients include Co-op, Plan UK, Amnesty, and Manchester City Council. She also founded MIC’s Podcast Club, an international podcaster community with over 1,500 members. Vic’s a judge for the British Podcast Awards, International Women’s Podcast Awards, and Independent Podcast Awards. She’s named as one of the Top 100 women in social enterprise by Natwest and The Pioneers Post.
Jo Whiteley
Jo Whiteley
Creative Director at if Agency
Jo’s enjoyed (& endured!) many years in the creative industry, starting out as an art director & working her way to CD. Fiercely competitive, Jo hops out of bed come rain or shine, with the same ambition & passion for concepts and innovation as she did on day one. With her infectious enthusiasm, she thrives on nurturing ideas & creative talent, so is honoured to be part of the panel & looks forward to celebrating in the Norths creative success.
Niki West
Niki West
Director of Agency & Client Services, Newsworks.
Niki joined Newsworks in May 2017 to oversee client services and strategy planning. Her core remit is to forge ever stronger relationships between Newsworks, advertisers and the agency community. Before Newsworks, Niki was a managing partner at Havas Media.
Chris Mawdsley
Chris Mawdsley
Head of Media Strategy, BBC
Chris began his media planning career in the lovely surroundings of McCanns in Prestbury in 1997 before moving to Feather Brooksbank just before the millennium bug ruined all our lives. A move to MediaVest Manchester 8 years later was followed by a move to MediaCity and the BBC in 2011. Now Head of Media Strategy, Chris is responsible for the planning and execution of a huge variety of campaigns for the Corporation, from recent smash hits like Doctor Who, and The Traitors through to sporting events such as the Euros and Olympics
Dorina D’Ambrosio
Dorina D’Ambrosio
Founder & Creative Director, The Behaviours Agency
For over 18 years, I’ve led The Behaviours Agency as Founder and Creative Director, inspiring our team to transform brands, marketing, and growth for our partners.
Our work is grounded in three core principles: behaviour-first thinking, the power of memorable brands, and a commitment to doing business for good.. I’m passionate about creative strategy, branding, and advertising, and I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible brands, including Coca-Cola, Jamie Oliver, MTV, Sharp, to name a few.
Tim Ainsworth
Tim Ainsworth
Executive Director of Brand Experience, McCann
Tim has over 20 years’ experience in digital transformation, brand development, performance marketing and media; highly-skilled in comms planning, direct marketing, brand experience design and associated data, digital, production and technology-driven marketing practices and platforms, including extensive knowledge of effectiveness analytics.
Grace Sharp
Grace Sharp
Planning and Partnerships Manager, Wavemaker North
Starting as a TV buyer at Dentsu at just 19, Grace entered the industry via the non-traditional route of skipping university.
Now working at Wavemaker North, Grace is a founding member of MPA Next Gen and also has a role on the Young Bloomers committee.
Grace was named MPA Awards 2024 Rising Star.
Richard Roycroft
Richard Roycroft
Senior Programmatic Manager, Stackadapt
Richard, a former Chair of the MPA, is a Senior Programmatic Manager at Stackadapt, the world’s No 1 DSP according to G2.
Richard has worked in the region’s media sector for over 30 years, leading the commercial and digital teams at Reach PLC,in Manchester before moving full time into programmatics where he now works with some of the best independent agencies and brands in the region providing expertise across all programmatic channels.
Ani Kaprekar
Ani Kaprekar
Co-founder – Tech India Advocates | Board Member – Opera North and Rifco Theatre Company
A Manchester-based, Mumbai-born polymath whose career spans technology, entrepreneurship, and the performing arts.
Ani is Co-founder of Tech India Advocates and serves on the boards of Opera North and Rifco Theatre Company. He also advises the Diversity Economics Institute, an AI-powered think tank.
A recognised voice in the UK–India corridor, he works at the intersection of tech, culture, and creativity to spark meaningful, cross-sector change.
Jeff McCarthy
Jeff McCarthy
Reader in Digital Capability and Employability, Manchester Metropolitan University
Jeff has over 20 years digital marketing industry experience before making the career switch to Higher Education in 2009. He’s now a Reader at Manchester Metropolitan University and specialises in teaching digital marketing at final year and post-graduate. Jeff is also extremely active in graduate employability, being on the MPA Board, 2x BIMA Councils and a DMA North Council.
Jodie Howe
Jodie Howe
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Edison Media
With a finance background, she brings rigour to planning, budget control, and performance tracking. Her 18 years of experience span complex multi-channel campaigns for clients such as JD Sports, Adidas, NHS partners, and the University of Lincoln.
Richard Aldiss
Richard Aldiss
SVP, THG Studios
Richard Aldiss is SVP at THG Studios, leading clients and growth across one of Europe’s largest creative studio operations. Previously Managing Director of McCann Manchester, he brings over 30 years’ advertising experience across multiple sectors and has served as an IPA Council member and Chair for England and Wales.
Claire Garner
Claire Garner
Founder, Untangled Insight
Claire began her career at MediaCom, moving from media planning and buying to find her passion in audience understanding and strategic insight. After leading the insight function at a SaaS scale‑up with global clients, she founded Untangled Insight, partnering with brands and agencies to deliver clear, human‑centred audience and brand insight and to develop effective campaign measurement solutions.
Laura Sanderson
Laura Sanderson
Head of Regional Sales, Captify
Laura Sanderson is Head of Regional Sales at Captify, leading regional growth across the North. With 15 years’ experience across agencies, publishers and ad-tech, she brings a strong commercial perspective across data, programmatic and creative. A former MPA board member and proud Rising Star winner, she champions emerging talent and women in media.
James Crawford
James Crawford
Managing Director, PR Agency One
James Crawford is managing director of PR Agency One, an award-winning consultancy based in Manchester and London. He specialises in creative effectiveness, PR measurement and evaluation, and international campaign delivery. James is a board director at AMEC and a Fellow of the PRCA, with over 20 years’ industry experience.
Izzy Turner
Izzy Turner
Senior Commercial Insight Executive, Channel 4
Izzy entered the industry as an apprentice and is now a Senior Commercial Insight Executive at Channel 4. Specialising in campaign effectiveness measurement and creative optimisation, translating audience and cultural insight into commercially impactful narratives.
Winner of the 2025 MPA Rising Star award.
Sharlene Hanley
Sharlene Hanley
Planning Director, Refinery
Sharlene has worked in the advertising industry for 20 years, across a variety of disciplines and brands. Having studied Advertising and Marketing at University, she landed her first role at Feather Brookbank as a Communications Planning Executive as part of their graduate recruitment programme. She remains committed to developing new talent as a mentor, and working with apprentices in the creative industries.
Sharlene’s experience spans across multiple disciplines across agency, media owner and client side roles. Currently heading up the Strategy department at Refinery, she works closely with clients to build their brands effectively and consistently across all channels.
