Judges
Our esteemed judges bring expertise and integrity to the selection process of the CMO Awards, with more to be announced soon!
John Batistich
Proven Customer and Growth leader with cross sector experience across Research, Marketing, Digital and General Management with companies like Westfield/Scentre Group (Director of Marketing and Digital), Interbrand, Wrigley Company (Managing Director), PepsiCo Foods (Marketing Director), Kimberly Clark and Lion Nathan. Currently, John is a Non-Executive Director for Foodco Group and Versa CX, and Board Advisor to Ksubi. He’s also a former Non-Executive Director at Zip Co (ASX200), Stellar Group BPO, Heart Research Institute and Sunnyfield Disability Services.
John holds a Masters in Management, Bachelor of Business, ADMA Certificate in Digital Marketing and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Andrew Baxter
Chair, board director, business advisor and marketing thought leader, Andrew is the Chair of Australian Pork, and a non-executive director at Foresters Financial, GrowthOps, Commtract, OzHarvest and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He is also a senior advisor at BGH Capital and the Adjunct Professor of Marketing at the University of Sydney, and has been the Senior Advisor to KPMG’s Customer, Brand and Marketing business. ‘Billy’ Baxter also founded a management consulting firm called the 24HR Business Plan, specialising in simple and effective business plans that drive growth. Over 140 organisations have been through the program, ranging from well-funded start-ups through to $500m companies
Prior to this, Andrew was CEO of two of the country’s largest communications agencies, Publicis and Ogilvy, where he was a trusted counsel to many of Australia’s most iconic brands.
Jon Bradshaw
Jon Bradshaw is one of Australia’s leading voices driving the development and implementation of a more evidence-based approach to marketing. Jon has over 30 years of frontline sales, marketing, category, advertising and people development experience, gained with the Mars Group, Diageo PLC, Virgin Group, Lion and Droga5. Jon founded Brand Traction in 2014 with a mission to help create a more effective marketing profession in Australia. Brand Traction is a marketing effectiveness consultancy that focuses on building lasting marketing capability with its client partners.
From Sharp and Romaniuk to Binet and Field and all points in between, Jon’s work draws on decades of research across the entire discipline of marketing and distils them, into simple coherent principles and practices that any marketer can execute.
Kate Ferguson
Partner, Johnson Partners
Growth Initiative Judge
Kate is a recognised leader in executive search and talent advisory, specialising in the Consumer, Retail & CMO sectors. As a Partner at Johnson Partners, she works closely with boards and CEOs to identify and appoint transformational leaders across Consumer Products, Retail, Media & Entertainment, Sport, and Health & Life Sciences.
With over 14 years in executive search and 16 years in marketing at leading organisations such as Westfield and Volkswagen, Kate brings an acute understanding of the consumer landscape, shifting market dynamics, and the evolving demands of leadership. Her expertise in identifying and securing top-tier talent has helped shape the leadership teams of some of Australia’s most recognisable brands. Kate is known for her strategic mindset, commercial acumen, and ability to build long-term partnerships that drive sustainable business success.
She is passionate about the intersection of brand, customer, and technology, and works with clients to ensure they have the leadership needed to navigate disruption and capitalise on emerging opportunities. Kate holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Management and Marketing from the University of Tasmania and has studied Executive Coaching at The University of Sydney.
Ty Hayes
Growth Initiative Judge
Ty Hayes is an award-winning marketing leader and the Founder & Managing Director of Growth Generators. Ty has over 25 years of marketing experience across London, Sydney, and Perth, including as CMO of Curtin University. Twice recognised as one of Australia’s most innovative CMOs, he led a team to win Australian Marketing Team of the Year.
Through Growth Generators, Ty helps CMOs unlock growth by designing high-impact marketing teams, selecting the best agencies, optimising ways of working, and strategically leveraging AI. He’s passionate about building world-class marketing teams and empowering leaders to drive impact. A sought-after speaker, facilitator, and host of the CMO Leadership Podcast, Ty has worked with leading brands across technology, education, tourism, and financial services.
Bronwyn Heys
Bronwyn is the CEO of The Australian Marketing Institute (AMI), a CMO/senior marketer, board director and senior advisor, who is known for big brand reinvention. She has over 35 years’ experience transforming and positioning brands for growth, with a focus on global food brands across FMCG to Retail/Quick Service Restaurants (QSR). Heys has close to 10 years’ experience as Global Marketing Director and Chief Marketing Officer for YUM Brands – KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut – where she grew the brand globally from Canada to the Europe to Asia. Coupled with many years locally at McDonald’s Australia.
Her experience in strategy development and execution extends beyond transformation and growth to customer experience across all touchpoints including digital and AI. Her passions are brand purpose and innovation, and she loves breathing life back into brands and categories. Some of these include time at Kellogg, Mars, Tip Top and Smith’s Snackfoods.
Susan Massasso
Susan is a Non-Executive Director and Senior Advisor with a strong track record in scale-up growth and business transformation, strategy development and international market development. In addition, Susan has extensive contemporary customer and multi-channel retail experience including executing within digital ecosystems and marketplaces.
Susan has experience working with diverse management teams and boards (incl founders) across both established and early-stage high growth companies, in public (ASX, NZX) and private companies.
Susan currently is a Non-Executive Director for CAR Group Ltd (formerly carsales.com Ltd, ASX:CAR), TPG Capital-owned MADE Group, Strategy Advisor for SunRice Group (ASX:SGL) and Senior Advisor for TPG Capital (US-based Nasdaq listed PE firm).
Key executive achievements included being the Chief Growth and Brand Officer for The a2 Milk Company (ASX:A2M) from 2013 to 2020. Susan was an integral member of a lean leadership team transforming A2M from a ~NZ$62MM innovative challenger (FY13) into a ~NZ$1.7BN ASX100 global nutritional business (FY20).
Susan’s 25+ year executive career also included long term brand and business building roles at: Arnott’s Group, Unilever and PwC.
Susan is a wife and mother to 3 spirited teenage boys and a super happy dog Harper.
Clare Pickens
Growth Initiative Judge
Clare Pickens is a creative agency leader with over 15 years’ experience building businesses through creativity. Having worked across multiple markets and client categories, she has a progressive view of creativity and what it takes to deliver innovative and effective work. She has led brand strategy and creative quality, delivering on business objectives for clients including Uber, Nike, Mondelez, Instagram, Heineken, P&G, Netflix, Diageo, Levi’s and Booking.com.
Prior to joining Leo Burnett Australia, Clare was Managing Director of HERC Amsterdam and worked for ten years at Wieden+Kennedy in Amsterdam and London.
Michele Phillips
Michele Phillips is the Managing Partner of Executive Search firm, 100 Percent Partners. She is one of the country’s pre-eminent executive search consultants, and was previously a Partner at Korn Ferry.
Michele partners with leading ASX-listed and foreign multinational companies along with private equity firms with an interest in growth and change, and has led the search for Chairs, Non-Executive Directors, CEO’s, Chief Marketing Officers and other senior C-suite leaders.
Michele was previously Vice-President, Electrolux Australia and Asia Pacific. Commencing her career at Procter & Gamble, Michele was one of the region’s leading chief marketing officers, holding leadership roles in Australia and overseas.
Michele holds an MBA from the AGSM, UNSW, a Bachelor of Business from UTS and is completing a Master of Technology. She is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Michael Rebelo
In his current role, Michael works with clients on their marketing and business transformation journey by bringing together the best of the Publicis Groupe capabilities and talent to help them solve their transformation challenges in fundamentally new ways by connecting creativity, media, technology and consulting.
Over the past 20 years Michael’s international agency leadership experience has spanned re-building, re-purposing, starting up, acquiring and integrating agencies to deliver growth through creativity. He has helped advise clients, grow businesses and shape agency cultures across the UK, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Michael sits on the Saatchi & Saatchi Global Leadership Team, he is deputy chair of the Advertising Council Australia, and a board member of the Media Federation of Australia. He is also a judge of AFR BOSS magazine’s annual Young Executive of the Year competition.
Publicis Groupe is a connected platform and ranks as the world’s third-largest communications company. It delivers world-class solutions for its clients through the alchemy of creativity, intelligence and technology. The Groupe’s unique position globally is built on data strategy and platforms, dynamic creativity and digital transformation.
In Australasia, the Groupe employs 1600 people and owns industry-leading creative, media and digital brands including Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Starcom, Zenith, Spark Foundry, Publicis Sapient, Digitas, Herd MSL, Razorfish, Arc, Publicis Worldwide, Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, Prodigious and Publicis Sport & Entertainment.
Nikki Warburton
Nikki has over 30 years’ experience in Senior Executive and Board roles with a strong track record of delivering tangible business results across a range of industries from automotive, advertising, financial services to subscription TV. Nikki has held Executive roles at Audi (Chief Customer and Marketing Officer), AUSTAR (Group Director – Product, Sales and Marketing), Astre Automotive distributor of Hyundai, Chrysler Jeep and Audi (CMO) and DDB (Management Supervisor).
Currently, Nikki is a Non-Executive Director at MA Financial Group (ASX), CarExpert, GWS Giants and CloudWerx. She is also a Board Director and Strategic Advisor at Automotive Superstore. Nikki is a mentor with The Marketing Academy.
Nikki holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Marketing and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Georgina Williams
Georgina Williams is a professional non-executive director on the boards of People’s Choice Credit Union, Australian Retirement Trust and is chairperson of UN Women Australia. She is also a council member at Deakin University.
Prior to stepping into boards, Georgie worked as CEO of Food and Wine Victoria, but spent the majority of her career in financial services. Roles have included serving as a Group Executive on the AustralianSuper executive team leading Marketing, Policy, Media and Corporate Relations, Communications, Analytics and Product Management. Prior to that, Georgina helped re-launch the Bank of Melbourne as Head of Brand and marketing.
Georgina built her career at National Australia Bank, working initially as a Strategy Advisor before rising up to head of Strategic Marketing then Managing Partner for the NAB business.
Mike Zeederberg
Mike Zeederberg is the Managing Director and Founder of Zuni. Mike has worked in digital marketing for 22 years, leading agencies in London, Singapore and Australia. His focus is helping clients ensure marketing channels deliver the best possible business outcomes and customer satisfaction, utilising the opportunities of digital technology.
Mike has extensive experience across a range of sectors, including retail, healthcare, financial services, entertainment, not for profit, motor industry and government utility providers. He works directly on, and oversees all of, Zuni’s customer journey mapping and digital transformation projects. Mike provides mentoring support to digital and marketing directors. He frequently judges industry and marketing awards, including the Top 50 CMO awards
Mike lectures at a Masters and MBA level on digital marketing and customer journey mapping at UNSW, USyd and in AGSM’s MBA Program. He developed and has delivered ADMA’s digital marketing certificate, customer journey mapping and digital strategy courses for 15 years.