Advanced Marketing
Leadership 2026

About Caroline

Caroline assumed the role of Country Director for Google New Zealand in 2017, and in this role she is responsible for driving Google’s overall business operation and is focussed on helping NZ businesses grow and transform in the digital age.

Prior to joining Google, Caroline served as Marketing and Product Director for Latitude NZ (previously GE Capital) as well as Brand Director for their broader AU/NZ region. Before her return to New Zealand in 2013, Caroline worked as the Regional Marketing Director for Philips Royal Electronics across the Middle East, Turkey and Africa.

When she's not helping customers, Caroline spends her time chasing two young children around the parks and beaches of Auckland. She also loves tennis and is an enthusiastic skier.

About Jim

Professor Jim Lecinski is a Clinical Professor of Marketing at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management--the top ranked MBA program for Marketing--where he teaches popular courses on Marketing Strategy, Omnichannel Marketing, and AI in Marketing. He has won multiple prestigious teaching awards including Kellogg Professor of the Year.

Jim is a recognized expert, in-demand consultant and keynote speaker with over 30+ years of marketing industry experience, including a notable twelve year career at Google, where he was Vice President of Customer Solutions for the Americas.

Jim's seminal book about the new marketing model, “Winning the Zero Moment of Truth” known as “ZMOT” [pronounced Zee-Maht] has been read by over 300,000 marketers worldwide and his ZMOT concept is included in many marketing textbooks.

His latest project, “The AI Marketing Canvas: A Five Stage Roadmap to Implementing Artificial Intelligence in Marketing” was published by Stanford University Press and has been named both a top AI book and a top business book.

About Clive

Clive has had a Global career in Sales, Marketing and Management, now having worked across multiple industries globally. As innovators and visionaries in the Training category, not many know the category better, and with ambitions bigger than ever, Les Mills helps athletes (the customer that sweats) be their mental, emotional and physical best.

Clive is a strong business leader, with a proven track record in delivering people, brand and commercial results across international businesses, and building high-performing teams. Bringing his high energy and leadership expertise to this role as CEO.

About Rob

Rob has led transformational growth of dentsu in New Zealand since taking the helm 2013. Under Rob’s leadership revenue has more than tripled, the group has won significant new clients, and welcomed new businesses BC&F Dentsu, Isobar, and Davanti via acquisition. With nearly 20 years of experience across Media and Creative businesses, Rob has worked on some of New Zealand’s most iconic brands and campaigns, been awarded in local and international awards shows, and led agencies including Zenith and Publicis Mojo.

Rob has been recognised on Campaign Asia’s 40 Under 40 list, won People’s Choice for ‘Human of the Year’ at the StopPress Awards, and in 2018 won the Sandy Smith Inspiring Individual Award. Rob currently sits on the Commercial Communications Council Executive Board as President, and is on the Media Committee, and Beacons Sub Committee.

Rob is focused on building a strong people first culture within DAN and is proud to represent the over 300 people that make up the group in New Zealand.

Outside of work Rob’s priority is spending time with his two beautiful young girls and wonderful wife.

About Shane

20+ years leading brand, data, and digital transformation strategies in the UK, Australia and NZ. My passion lies in creating strategic brand platforms to drive growth and innovation. 

My career began in Melbourne, where I joined the Australia Post grad programme from Otago University. After a stint travelling and working on construction sites, I spent three years freelancing in creative agencies in London. This led to a great role on the global rebrand of Aviva before heading home to NZ to lead the marketing for ASB. 

I've been fortunate to receive 150+ creative awards for the work I have been involved with and was recognised as NZ's Marketer of the Year in 2021. 

About Chris

Chris Lamers is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He is skilled in Digital Strategy, Marketing Management, Customer Acquisition, Retail, and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). He is a strong business development professional with a Graduate Diploma focused on Journalism from University of Canterbury. Chris was previously the Deputy Group CEO and Chief Customer Growth Officer at hummgroup, a finance company that operates across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Canada.

He has extensive experience delivering a diversified and innovative range of financial consumer finance products. Chris previously held the role of Chief Officer Brand, Innovation and Marketing at New Zealand's largest life insurer, Sovereign.

Chris has been tapping into the potential of MTF Finance as the CEO for the last 2 years. Chris is also a member of the Financial Services Federation Executive Committee.

About Mike

Mike is an experienced finance professional with a proven track record in leading teams, implementing financial systems and processes. Mike has 20 years of experience working in senior roles in New Zealand and internationally including at Westpac, Vodafone, ANZ in Singapore, Deutsche Bank in London and Singapore, and now MediaWorks.

At MediaWorks, Mike has played a critical role in driving the company's financial transformation and growth, initially joining as the Head of Finance Business Partnering in 2019, before serving as interim Finance Director and most recently as GM Finance and Transformation.

Sophie is an experienced business leader, entrepreneur, marketer, and bestselling author.

Across her career she has worked in and with multinational companies (including Procter & Gamble and CocaCola) as well as high-growth start-ups and agencies (Leo Burnett in the Middle East and Interbrand, London). She also has personal experience of being a successful entrepreneur, setting up her own award-winning e-commerce business which she sold, before running a luxury gifts business and then moving onto become CEO of The Caffeine Partnership, an award-winning business consultancy. In June 2020, she was appointed CEO of The Marketing Society, the global network of marketing leaders.

Sophie is passionate about connecting ideas and people and works to help inspire leaders make a difference to the future of business. An impatient accelerator, she specialises in understanding questions of pace and purpose in business. Her book Superfast: Lead at Speed reached no.1 in the Amazon charts and was shortlisted for Business Book of the Year. At the end of 2021 Sophie published a second book, written with international leadership expert Ben Renshaw: ‘Lovework’ which is designed to help people discover a better relationship with work. She is a popular and energising keynote speaker on a variety of business topics including 21st century leadership, pacesetting, marketing and new models of positive business leadership.

About Tony

Tony works with private and public organisations to grow their leaders and teams. He develops leaders by growing their leadership skills and their ability to lead people in authentic, influential ways. He coaches teams to high-performance by developing their collective skills, behaviours, and processes.

Tony draws on global research, proven processes, tools and skills, and over 20 years personal senior leadership experience in New Zealand and APAC including General Manager, Chief Executive and governance roles.

About Jason

Jason is the CEO of One New Zealand, formerly known as Vodafone New Zealand.

He is a proud New Zealander, family man, and One NZ Warriors supporter with terrible dress sense.  He says his love of technology has helped shape his career.

Jason is passionate about enabling a better future for New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses.

About Carl

Carl is one of New Zealand’s best-known social scientists. His long and distinguished career in research stretches over 30 years and includes stints as an academic, practitioner, and author. He has crafted an enviable reputation for his expertise in consumer psychology, research design and behavioural change. Carl is the author or editor of ten books about research practise in New Zealand and he is the past Chief Commissioner for the Families Commission. These days Carl is the Head of Insight at Research First and he is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury.

About Astrud

Astrud is responsible for the continued growth and development of New Zealand's leading financial services brand. Her portfolio includes all brand, advertising, marketing and sponsorship activities across ANZ New Zealand's business. She is also responsible for creating strategic competitive advantage from data through the development and deployment of customer insights, delivering better decisions through analytics and ensuring data is well governed.

Astrud has held various marketing and data roles at ANZ. Prior to her time at ANZ she worked in a variety of roles in financial services and advertising in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

She has a Masters in Marketing Management from Otago University.

About Craig

Craig was appointed to the role of Country Director for Lion New Zealand in February 2021. Prior to this appointment, he was the Marketing Director for Lion Australia and New Zealand.

Craig joined Lion in 1994 as a sales representative in Lion’s Wine & Spirits division before transferring to the Brewery division in 1999. During his career at Lion, Craig has held a number of leadership roles across both sales and marketing.

Craig has extensive experience working across the beer, wine, spirits and RTD categories in Australia, New Zealand and global markets. He has a deep passion for people and brands and has been recognised internally and externally for his leadership and brand building capabilities. Craig has been awarded the title of New Zealand’s most effective marketer twice by the NZ Commercial Communication Council – the only person to have received this honour on two occasions.

About Frankie

Frankie Coulter serves as the Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Growth Marketing & Category for Goodman Fielder in New Zealand. Recognised for his impactful leadership in marketing, Frankie was awarded the 2024 Marketer of the Year at the NZ Marketing Awards, highlighting his success in upskilling his team and fostering innovative campaigns that have significantly boosted brand engagement and growth. His work with Goodman Fielder, a leader in food manufacturing with iconic brands like Meadow Fresh and Vogel's, underscores his role in enhancing the company's market presence and strategic growth initiatives

About Jodi

Jodi O’Donnell is TVNZ’s Chief Executive Officer.  She has over 25 years’ experience in the media industry across a range of senior marketing, communications and commercial roles, including most recently as Commercial Director and Chief Revenue Officer for TVNZ.

Jodi is an accomplished leader with a strong track record of driving transformational change, digital innovation and commercial sustainability in the local media sector.  A passionate advocate for storytelling and the power of video, Jodi is focused on the transformation of audiences and revenue for a digital-first streaming organisation.

TVNZ is New Zealand’s state-owned, commercially funded broadcaster and streaming business. Each day, TVNZ reaches two million Kiwis through online streaming platform TVNZ+, and broadcast channels TVNZ 1, 2, DUKE. Leading news site 1news.co.nz and socially driven online news brand Re: connect audiences to the important issues throughout the day, however they choose to engage.

About Colleen

It’s been a tough few years, and it’s not over yet. Is being playful or humorous a risky strategy? Should brands stand back? Yet, to be memorable, brands need to tap into our emotions.

The current narrative is that humour is a powerful emotional device. When a punchline is the difference between being cringeworthy or a crack-up, getting it wrong can be costly. But being playful, however, is de-stressing and lightens the load – if your audience is in the mood for it.

With so much at stake, we sent our finest research minds into the field to find out. They chatted with a couple of thousand New Zealanders and Australians and mulled it over with comedians, brand owners and creative types. Then they spent hours analysing this research to uncover the uncommon truth.

Join Colleen Ryan and special guests, comedians Tom Sainsbury and Brynley Stent, stars of Silo’s upcoming show Camping, for a barrel of humorous insights into the findings.

About Colleen

Colleen Ryan is recognised in the international research industry for her notable contributions to innovation in research. Together with Wendy Gordon, she co-founded The Research Business International (TRBI), lauded for its pioneering role in the methodologies of insight gathering and application, and creating the boutique research category in the UK.

Over the last decade, Colleen has played a pivotal role at TRA as a partner, steering thought leadership and innovation strategies within TRA's operations across Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland.

Her expertise is extensive and multifaceted, encompassing brand strategy, cultural sociology, cognitive psychology, behavioural science, applying these disciplines to continuous innovation in research and its application to marketing.

About Mike

Mike Felix is the joint Chief Creative Officer of dentsu Aotearoa. He has been ranked in the top 30 Creative Directors in the world by the Big Won Report(2019) and D&AD (2022). Notable work includes four of New Zealand Lotto’s popular Imagine commercials as well as digital projects like Steinlager’s Fight For Territory, Re:scam for Netsafe and Samsung iTest – which was presented at DDO 2022 after winning New Zealand’s second only D&AD Black Pencil and evolving into Try Galaxy, Samsung’s global switching platform.

About Suzi

Founder Suzi McAlpine is a leadership development specialist and author of the bestselling book Beyond Burnout and the award-winning leadership blog, The Leader’s Digest.

She studies, writes and teaches about accomplished leadership, what magic emerges when it’s present and how to ignite better leadership in individuals, teams and organisations.

Suzi graduated from Massey University with a Bachelor of Business Studies (First Class Hons) in Management and spent 10 years as an Associate Director and shareholder at OCG Consulting where she was part of the management team who led the business through double digit growth before selling the business to a multinational.

She then spent four years as a Managing Consultant at Futurestep, a division of Korn Ferry, partner to over 93% of Fortune 100 companies, before starting the business that would become Suzi McAlpine Leadership in 2011.

About Luke

Luke Rive, Marketing Director at McDonald's New Zealand, is known for his innovative, creative campaigns that engage audiences across generations. Notable projects include the “Driver Tax” campaign, which leveraged relatable humor by allowing users to calculate a “driver tax” for food orders on summer road trips, creating a strong seasonal association with McDonald's. His recent work also introduced the viral Grimace Shake to New Zealand, adapted with a local twist in a nationwide road trip campaign featuring Kiwi landmarks. Luke’s approach emphasizes brand resonance through playful, authentic storytelling, aiming to make McDonald's a staple in Kiwi culture and drive engagement through relatable, “earned-led” content.

About Andy

Andy Lark is a globally awarded marketer and leader in social and digital technologies. He is the CEO of Group Lark and former Chief Marketing and Online Officer for Australia’s leading financial institution, the Commonwealth Bank. Previous career employment includes senior positions at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Dell, LogLogic, Sun Microsystems, Nortel Networks and Fleishman-Hillard International. He is also a partner at Number 8 Ventures – New Zealand’s leading technology venture capital firm and is on the advisory boards of Xero, Xsigo and Prof Gary Hamel’s Management Innovation Exchange.

Andy has 25 years of experience across business-to-business and consumer sectors building successful businesses and leading award-winning marketing programs and teams for Fortune and Times 100 companies, global technology brands, start-ups and the world’s hottest advertising and communications agencies. Andy was at the helm of executing the marketing strategies for Commonwealth Bank, Dell, and Emirates Team New Zealand during his tenure. For Commonwealth Bank, he and his team were responsible for the eWallet for smartphones and Facebook as well as the ‘Can’ Campaign - one of Australia’s largest brand campaigns.

Andy has won over 100 awards for work in building brands and creating online capabilities, most notably the Flying Kiwi Award for outstanding contribution to technology and the Facebook Studio Award for the Commbank Community seeds. Today he leads Group Lark – a global consultancy driving brand and digital transformations for the world’s leading countries and enterprises. Group Lark helps great ideas flourish in a digital world – and great brands design their future there.

A native of Auckland, New Zealand, Andrew holds a bachelor’s degree from Auckland University. When he is not immersed in work, he is a competitive sailor, a very non-competitive cyclist and writer. His Blog, the daily lark, is in the Top 100 ranked marketing blogs globally and his book, The Connected Customer, will be published shortly worldwide.