For the 2025 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 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 is Group Marketing and Creative Director at N Brown. He started his career at Tesco as a researcher before making the switch to marketing. A stint at Co-op followed, before the move to fashion for a new challenge. Sam is a great believer in the role of insight, creative consistency and the importance of remembering that our marketing is more important to us than our customers!
Jonny is the Founder & Creative Director of Mighty Giant, a Motion Design and Animation Studio in Manchester.
With 20 years experience as a motion designer and creative director, before setting up Mighty Giant in 2010, Jonny worked for several years within the BBC before moving into the Agency world in London, moving back to his native Manchester in 2012.
Jonny also runs the industry event Motion North, where animators and designers meet to learn and inspire one another.
After a diverse career in corporate finance, local government and elite sports, Lee launched Essentialise in 2020. With a desire to make wellbeing inclusive the venture featured on this year’s Startups 100 Index for their work. Lee is also the Director of Male Allies UK and is on the board of CMI Women, and is the author of the upcoming book, Momentum.
Lee is driven by his own journey, learning to walk again after illness in 2014, and the mental impact of scaling a videogame company across Europe.He has been recognised for his work on male allyship and gender equity by the UN and the National Academy of Sciences, and has spoken at the Bloomberg Global Equality Summit and One Young World.
Fliss graduated from her MSc at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2021 and embarked on her journey at Mobsta starting as an account executive and steadily ascending to the role of account manager. She is actively engaged within the Manchester media community and serves as a dedicated board member on the MPA Next Gen and Young Bloomers committee. Her commitment was recognised in 2023 when she proudly received the MPA Rising Star of the Year award.
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.
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 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.
Scott has substantial experience in the Out-of-Home (OOH) sector working for various media owners including six years heading up Ocean Outdoor’s northern team. As the regional Account Director at 75 Media, Scott reps all major agencies in the regions and has a broad commercial skillset and professional network. An Out-of-Home specialist, Scott champions advertising in the physical space. Scott is also a trustee of the charity We Are Survivors who support male survivors of sexual abuse and rape in the region.
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.
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.
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 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.
As Head of Brand Partnerships and Corporate Sponsorships at Factory International, Jane Hector-Jones oversees the delivery of authentic, meaningful brand partnerships from its landmark arts and culture venue – Aviva Studios – in Manchester. Jane is recognised in the industry for her innovative approach to partnering with notable brands to deliver dynamic and impactful campaigns.
Previously at Channel 4, Jane is also regarded for developing the Partnership and Content team for Channel 4 Nations and Regions, overseeing the development and delivery of notable national campaigns such as Hillarys sponsorship of Homes on 4, Aldis sponsorship of the Great British Bake Off and winning the Campaign awards Grand Prix with the the “Black to Front” team. Jane’s recent successes include managing the Factory International partnerships team to deliver some of the UKs largest Arts partnerships at Aviva studios, and brokering the Future Modern exhibition partnering Chaos 69 Chan featuring Chanel, as part of Chanel’s Metiers D’Arts in Manchester.
Ani is a charismatic polymath leader and an executive coach recognised for creativity, with 30+ years of global career and rich experience in diverse sectors. Ani leads exciting public initiatives in Tech, Entrepreneurship and Performing Arts as a founder & brand ambassador. Formally trained in theatre & film-craft, Ani blends his creative skills and business acumen to create impactful success stories. Ani is also a social media storyteller followed by more than a million+ people across the world on Facebook.
Danny has spent a lifetime in the agency world (well 30 years) and half of this, running large agencies in the UK and Europe.
After early stints in B2B, B2C and medcomms, he joined Cicero and led the agency through its acquisition and integration into gyro, the world’s largest and most awarded B2B network, sitting on the global leadership team and leading the Manchester business (£6m TO, 55 people) for 12 years taking it through its acquisition into Dentsu Aegis Network.
Following spells at Stein IAS leading their EMEA business in Manchester, London and Paris, then most recently was MD/Director of Agency Services at APS Group, Danny now works as a Non Exec Director (NXD), Consultant and Mentor for a number of agencies of different shapes and sizes across the UK.
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.
5xs award-winning blogger with runeatrepeat.co.uk as well as a prize-winning author, Jeff is a board member of the MPA and sits on the DMA North Council Talent Hub. His key focus is driving student employability, nurturing and retaining talent, particularly in the digital and creative sector. His work as a digital marketing specialist since 1996 has seen him work with major retailers, online brands, charities and over 35 football clubs.
After launching a travel blog in 2010, Asma was able to shift from a career in business operations to specialise in Marketing and now holds a Senior Marketing role for PwC as head of Tech, Media and Telecoms Marketing in the UK. She also co-founded islamicartprints.com, a curated, artist-driven global platform for affordable Islamic Art. Her spare time is spent as a radio presenter on BBC Radio Manchester. Passionate about diversity and inclusion, Asma is also a trustee for a new Manchester based charity, Pave the Way.
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.
Rick has more than a decade of experience in PR and communications agencies. He specialises in raising the awareness and reputations of brands and businesses to achieve their communications and organisational objectives.
He leads the Consumer PR practice at Refresh and works with clients across the technology, financial services, lifestyle, FMCG, and home interest sectors.
Rick has worked with a diverse range of clients, from owner-managed businesses to established corporations across a number of different sectors helping them become household, or ‘boardroom’, names. As a creative and solutions-focused PR professional, Rick is credited for his ‘nose for news’ and journalistic instinct. He thrives on putting his clients at the heart of the news agenda.
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
Rob has been at the heart of sector industries all his professional career having lived and breathed creative direction in advertising and design for over 30 years. Also a multiple SME owner over that period, he now spends his time as a Digital, Creative and Tech Growth Leader at GC Business Growth Hub, helping businesses in the sector thrive using his extensive agency and commercial experience.
Epidemic Sound is the second music tech unicorn to emerge from Sweden after Spotify and boasts the most fit-for-purpose music library, featuring best-in-class artists and a state-of-the-art player. The company is on a mission to soundtrack the world by democratizing access to music for storytellers. Its innovative digital rights model allows creators—from YouTubers to global brands—to use restriction-free music, enhancing their content while supporting musicians financially and creatively. Sean previously served as a board member of the MPA during his time leading Twitter Manchester.
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 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.
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, 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.
