2026 Power List
A Letter From B&T
This year, we’ve changed up the B&T Women in Media Power List.
From this year forward, the list will no longer be ranked from 30 to 1.
Instead, we have curated a tighter list of 25 women who all individually deserve to be recognised for their power and how they use it.
Our industry is changing quickly. The way people consume media is shifting, AI is changing the way we work, and we are all navigating plenty of challenges and opportunities.
While we may compete with one another, this also feels like an important time to come together.
Each of the 25 women on this list is helping lead us towards a more equal, diverse and generally successful future — all in their own way.
Each has their own story to tell, some with unconventional career paths, others fighting doggedly against prejudice.
All, however, demonstrated a lot of guts and bravery.
We hope that you are inspired by the below 25 women.
We certainly are.
Rosie Oakshott
MANAGING DIRECTOR, B&T
Power list
Aimee Buchanan
CEO, WPP Media ANZ
Few names have become as synonymous with the Power List than WPP Media ANZ’s fearless leader Aimee Buchanan.
Buchanan has led WPP Media for the past five years, after spending a decade with OMD — and five years as the agency’s CEO.
All told, she brings more than two decades of media agency leadership to bear in her current role and has set about building WPP Media ANZ into one of the most formidable media agency businesses in the country — perhaps the world.
But that only tells part of the story.
Buchanan has also crafted one of the industry’s most impressive leadership benches, championed diversity and inclusion, and presided over some of the biggest structural shifts in Australian media.
Shortly after jumping ship to what was then known as GroupM, Buchanan head hunted two of the most influential agency bosses in the game.
First came Maria Grivas in 2022 followed by Pippa Berlcocher in 2023. Wavemaker boss Peter Vogel was already ensconced in the business.
Alongside fellow Power List-ers Grivas and Berlocher, Buchanan has helped steer some of the most significant transformations in Australia’s media landscape, including the oversight of EssenceMediacom and the transition from GroupM to WPP Media.
It was no small undertaking and has reshaped the working lives of thousands of staff and shifted the management of hundreds of millions of dollars in client investment. To navigate that scale of change, while continuing to lead one of the country’s largest media businesses, requires an exceptional level of conviction, authority and commercial nous.
Buchanan has repeatedly demonstrated she has all three in spades.
Power List
Amanda Laing
Managing Director, Streaming & Broadcast, Nine
Amanda Laing is one the most important media figures in all of Australia.
Last year, she was appointed the role of Nine’s managing director of streaming and broadcast, where she leads Nine’s Total TV evolution, driving growth across linear and digital platforms in response to shifting audience behaviours.
Across Channel 9, 9Now and Stan the buck stops with Laing.
She casts a keen eye over content curation, commissioning, and commercialisation in order to curate brand-safe environments for advertisers.
Under her leadership Stan has been a revenue juggernaut. Stan saw its revenue climb 16 per cent during FY26. This impressive, above-market growth was down to several things — all of which Laing had more than a hand in.
For instance, Nine introduced a new ads tier into Stan, broadening its revenue generating means beyond subscriptions. It also won the rights to the Premier League — which helped keep the grow its subscribers. And, with ultimate power for streaming and broadcast residing in one person, Nine was able extend its regular broadcast shows into Stan with the Married At First Sight spin-off — After the Dinner Party.
Recently, Laing and Nine won the bidding war for the NRL rights through to 2034. The NRL is a staple of Nine’s sporting content, and the broadcaster has broadcasted the sport since 1992.
Laing’s career history includes two stints with Nine and nearly six years with Foxtel. In addition, she has sat on a number of important boards.
The future of TV might seem unclear to those on the outside. But with Laing, Nine has one of the industry’s foremost leaders bringing real foresight to the role.
Power List
Barbara Humphries
Co-CCO, Droga5 ANZ
Since stepping up to co-chief creative officer at Droga5 ANZ, Humphries has taken the agency to new heights through the work she and her team have delivered on for brands including Qantas, UN Women, Nike and NRMA Insurance.
The agency continues to land on the right foot too, having recently won the highly-sought after Woolworths creative account.
The last twelve months have added weight to an already heavy trophy cabinet. Droga5, picked up the Entertainment Grand Prix at Spikes Asia 2026 for its work for SBS ‘The Ad That Can Only Be Seen On SBS’.
Humphries has two Cannes Lions Grands Prix on her CV for the Sydney Opera House’s ‘Play It Safe’ and Tuavalu’s ‘The First Digital Nation,’ both awarded in the past few years. It’s this sort of work that keeps clients coming back but, more importantly, moving the industry on.
Under her and Stapleton’s watchful eyes, Droga5 ANZ has grown its ranks, appointing Emma Robbins as executive creative director — bringing another woman into a senior creative position, something sorely needed in the industry.
Beyond her own name, reputation and accolades, Humphries has become one of the industry’s most sought-after mentors and speakers, lecturing at AWARD School, AWARD Craft and D&AD Shift.
She’s constantly championing the next generation of creatives, particularly women, coming up through an industry that still does not have enough senior female creative leaders.
It’s a role she’s taken on personally, not as a mandate, and it’s part of why her influence extends so far beyond the campaigns with her name on them.
Power List
Beverley McGarvey
President of Network 10, Head of Streaming, Paramount Australia & New Zealand
McGarvey has one of the most important jobs in the media. She leads Australia’s third-largest commercial TV business, Network 10, and serves as the regional lead for Paramount and its streaming platform Paramount+.
Paramount, of course, is in the midst of a global acquisition as the business’ parent company attempts to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery.
It is one of the largest media mergers in history and could reshape the market, well, markedly if and when it passes.
At the same time, the traditional TV advertising market is going through a period of change with consumption habits and investment levels in flux.
But in McGarvey, Paramount has a steady pair of hands who understands the TV content business better than most.
As the chair of the Asian Academy Creative Awards, she delivered a stirring address warning to the industry: that a great idea for a program is only as important as the economics of execution behind it.
McGarvey is also an advocate of industry-wide collaboration and says that consolidation and industry partnerships will be crucial for Australia’s commercial TV sector to thrive in the streaming era.
Hailing from a content background in Ireland and the UK, McGarvey joined Network 10 to lead programming in 2006.
She has launched hits including MasterChef Australia, Gogglebox Australia, Australian Survivor and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, as well as returning Big Brother to Ten and a new comedy Ghosts.
In a challenged TV advertising market and with production budgets being slashed, there are few leaders better placed to guide Paramount ANZ through a period of upheaval and rapid change.
Power list
Clare Pickens
CEO, Leo Australia
It’s been two years since Clare Pickens took the helm of Leo Australia, and since then, she’s built a reputation on delivering results, not just ambition.
She swapped fifteen years in Amsterdam — a decade of which was at Wieden+Kennedy working across Uber, Nike and Heineken — for Pyrmont in 2024.
Ever since, she’s spent her time turning a Leo into one of the most closely watched creative businesses in the market thanks to its genre-breaking work with a range that few creative agencies in the world would be able to manage.
Leo’s ‘Business of Reinvention’ positioning, the platform that Pickens has championed since day one, has become one of the most recognisable positionings in the market. But not through pitch decks, through actual work.
There is no better example of this than its work with Suncorp. This year, it won the Dan Wieden Titanium Lion at Cannes — the second time Leo has won the trophy in four years for Suncorp.
Pickens has played a crucial role in maintain Leo’s incredibly high standard of work in the two years she has been CEO of the agency, along with chief strategist Cath King and chief creative Andy Fergusson.
Pickens refers to creativity as a business lever rather than décor, and Leo’s recent work reflects just that.
Before Leo, she ran a HERC, a creative agency in Amsterdam and was global managing director of Red & Co.
Pickens once seriously considered swapping advertising for law; adland, Leo and B&T are glad she didn’t.
Power List
Dee Madigan
Executive Creative Director, Campaign Edge
Few in advertising can say they have have changed a country’s direction. But Dee Madigan can say she has done it twice, and 2025 was the year it mattered most.
That work has made Madigan a fixture on B&T’s Women in Media Power List over the years — especially so last year.
Since last year, Madigan has spent the months since talking openly about what power actually means once you’ve been handed that title.
She’s used her platform less for self-congratulation and more to make the case for well-argued, evidence -based persuasion over the outrage cycle she’s long been sceptical of.
That approach runs through Campaign Edge’s client work and her broader advocacy.
She has remained outspoken on climate policy and electrification, made the trip to the French Riviera to the Cannes Lions in June and used that moment to spotlight other industry figures that she believes deserves greater recognition.
She remains perhaps Australia’s most recognisable advertising executive because of her regular place on the ABC’s Gruen. She also sits on the board of Australians for Mental Health and is one of Australia’s most sought-after voices whenever advertising and politics collide.
Over the past twelve months, Madigan hasn’t slowed down. If anything, she’s used her platform to push for a more evidence-led, disciplined industry, one that’s less interested in engagement for its own sake and more in changing minds.
Few in Australian media can claim that kind of influence and even fewer continue to use it in service of the same argument.
Power list
Georgia Woodward
Chief Operating Officer, The Post Lounge
Georgia Woodward joined The Post Lounge in 2024 after founding her own production company, Barking Mouse, in 2016 and spending three years at Southern Pictures, rising to the role of general manager.
As Australia’s largest independently owned full-service post-production company, The Post Lounge has more than a small hand in the media all of us consume.
Woodward oversees operations across both The Post Lounge and its production arm, Orange Entertainment Co.
It’s a broad remit that sees her work at a strategic level across financing, development, production, post-production and distribution.
The Post Lounge is renowned for its work on Academy Award, Golden Globe, Emmy, Critics’ Choice and AACTA-winning projects.
Originally founded in 1979, The Post Lounge produces films and campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the country, including recent work for the likes of Youi and Woolworths.
It also works with the likes of Stan, Amazon MGM Studios and more on original series and films.
It’s one helluva remit but Woodward, who ranks curiosity, empathy and boundaries as essential for success in the professional world, manages it with aplomb.
As she said “There is no replacement for actual delivery”. She has also recently given birth to her first child.
Power list
Imogen Hewitt
CEO, Spark Foundry & Chief Media Officer, Publicis Groupe ANZ
Imogen Hewitt is one of the most experienced and respected media agency leaders in the country. But that’s just one of the many reasons why she is a mainstay on the Women in Media Power List, having held down a spot every year since 2017.
She harnesses more than two decades of industry experience in both the media and creative landscapes. In that time she has built one of the most savvy media minds to help her in her roles.
As CEO of Publicis owned Spark Foundry she is responsible for the people, product, positioning and commercial success of the agency.
Much of Spark’s continued success can be attributed to her leadership. Instead of having a traditional hierarchy, she leads from the bottom. She does this in order “to hold the extraordinary people who she works with”.
As Publicis Groupe ANZ chief media officer, Hewitt plays a broader role across the group’s success, ensuring consistent media, strategy, data, analytics and investment outcomes. It’s one of the reasons that Zenith, for instance, is one of the hottest media shops in the country — not to diminish the roles of Jason Tonelli, Penny Shell, et al.
Hewitt wears multiple hats. As well as her day-to-day roles she juggles being a member of Publicis Media global team and serving as deputy chair of the MFA. In this position she helps shape industry standards, talent development and innovation.
That Hewitt has been on the Power List for nearly the past decade is not a surprise to us. Nor should it be to anyone else.
Power List
Jacquie Alley
COO, The Media Store
Jacquie Alley has cemented herself as one of the most respected leaders of any agency in the country — let alone independent media agencies. She also serves as a brilliant example of what can be achieved in the industry after starting at The Media Store in 1997 as a receptionist.
She quickly climbed the ranks becoming the agency’s strategy and insights manager and now eventually chief operating officer and a co-owner. A remarkable and inspirational career that demonstrates her fearless curiosity, operational rigour and strong commitment to people.
Once taking the reins in 2018, Alley has converted The Media Store into an agency to be reckoned with.
It is now one of the biggest indies across the country managing clients with billings ranging from $2-20 million. This growth has seen her team grow by 30 per cent over the last 12 months alone.
Outside of running The Media Store, Alley is also the IMAA Chair. It’s important to note she is the first female ever to hold this role — this is the definition of a trailblazer. In this role she has supported the growth and profile of the more than 170 agencies that the IMAA counts among its members.
Alley is one of the most selfless leaders amongst this great industry. As well as her agency hat and IMAA hat she also volunteers as a taskforce member of the Experience Advocacy Taskforce and an advisory board member of The Village.
It’s no wonder her peers describe her as “inspirational”.
Power List
Jasmin Bedir
CEO, Innocean
Under Bedir’s leadership, Innocean has undergone a significant transformation, with the agency expanding beyond its traditional creative roots to bring creative, media, technology and data together under one roof.
But it is Bedir’s influence beyond the agency that has made her a particularly powerful voice for women.
Her Fck The Cupcakes initiative has grown into an industry-wide movement, with agencies, publishers, broadcasters, not-for-profits and brands getting behind its push for greater gender equality.
Bedir has continued to use her profile to keep women’s issues firmly on the industry agenda, particularly at a time when diversity and inclusion initiatives are facing increasing pressure.
This year, she launched The Fck It List podcast alongside Carly Pelham and Jen Dobbie, creating a platform for candid conversations around invisible labour, ageism, the female health gap, impossible standards and the pressure on women to “have it all”.
Her influence is also evident within Innocean, where the leadership team is now 55 per cent female, alongside policies including menopause leave, gender affirmation support and fully funded gender-neutral parental leave.
Bedir has also used her position to broaden the gender equality conversation, backing The Invisible Man research into modern masculinity and the pressures facing young men.
Her willingness to tackle difficult subjects — and to keep doing so when it would be easier to stay quiet — has made Bedir an increasingly influential voice for women in advertising.
Power list
Kimberlee Wells
CEO, TBWA\Australia
Kimberlee Wells is one of the country’s most widely respected creative agency leaders — even before she got the nod to lead TBWA across Australia in September last year.
It capped nearly a decade at the helm of TBWA\Melbourne, where she built enduring partnerships with clients including NAB and Australian Defence Force Recruiting and steered the office to results its network acknowledges as some of its strongest on commercial performance and customer satisfaction.
The elevation landed at a pivotal moment. Wells’ appointment came as Omnicom rolled out its new Oceania operating model across Australia and New Zealand, ushering in significant changes to the way each of its agencies operates.
She stepped into national leadership having spend the two years prior helping TBWA buck the wider downturn facing agencies, with the business investing heavily in strategic and creative talent, all whilst its rivals shrank.
Wells doubles as global practice lead of Sustain by TBWA, the network’s sustainability offer, work that has seen campaigns tackle causes from women’s financial inequality to LGBTQ+ rights.
Since taking the top job, she’s kept a visible public profile, appearing at industry forums including the Australian Retail Council’s CEO lunch and writing on AI governance and the risks of leadership retreating into cost-cutting during periods of uncertainty.
Nearly twelve months on from the promotion, Wells is now responsible for defining TBWA\Australia’s national direction, at a time when agency leadership is in flux.
Her task is to keep TBWA’s growth story going while proving holdco agencies can still out-manoeuvure the indies nipping at its heels.
Power list
Kirsty Muddle
CEO, Ogilvy
Kirsty Muddle officially took the reins as CEO of Ogilvy Network Australia and New Zealand in February 2026, stepping into one of the industry’s biggest agency leadership roles.
Within her first few months, Muddle joined forces with chief strategy officer Fran Clayton to develop ‘Wake the Giant’, a regional vision designed to reappraise the agency by combining its creative heritage with modern data and technology capabilities.
Muddle has responsibility for Ogilvy’s full suite of capabilities across Australia and New Zealand, a role which encompasses advertising and customer engagement, PR, social and influencer marketing, consulting and Ogilvy Health.
She has inherited an agency with significant creative firepower,. It recently produced work including the celebrated Coca-Cola’s ‘Meet Me at the Coke Sign’, and ‘Young and Alone’ for Yfoundations, which played a part in prompting the Federal Government to appoint Australia’s first Special Envoy for Youth Homelessness.
Ogilvy also picked up 81 pieces of new business during 2025, including Tourism NZ, Specsavers PR and TAL.
Muddle’s influence extends beyond Ogilvy. A prominent industry mentor, she served as co-chair of the Advertising Council Australia’s Business & Agency Leadership course, helping senior agency leaders develop broader commercial judgement and navigate AI integration.
With the reins now firmly in her hands, Muddle is bringing a new generation of leadership to one of Australia’s most established agency brands.
Power List
Laura Nice
CEO, PHD
Laura Nice has wasted little time making her mark as CEO of PHD Group Australia, taking the reins 10 months ago after more than six years at OMD Australia, with four as co-CEO.
Since stepping into the role, Nice has quickly established herself among the country’s leading media agency bosses, recognised in May in B&T’s Best of the Best Media Agency Leaders.
Her influence extends beyond the agency itself, with Nice committed to developing the next generation of industry leaders through her role as a Marketing Academy Scholar and MFA 5+ mentor.
She is also continuing her own leadership development through Harvard Business School Executive Education, reflecting a focus on building the skills needed to lead in an increasingly complex media landscape.
In just 10 months, she has moved from being a senior agency leader to one of the industry’s most visible female decision-makers, with responsibility for shaping the direction of PHD Group and the people within it.
Her commitment to mentorship and leadership development also means her influence is extending beyond those she directly manages, helping to shape the next generation of talent across Australia’s media industry.
For Nice, power appears to be as much about creating future leaders as it is about holding one of the industry’s biggest leadership positions.
Power list
Lee Leggett
Chief Customer Officer, Omnicom Oceania
Lee Leggett is among the most respected and well-liked women in Australia’s agency world — a standing which goes hand-in-glove with her role as Omnicom Oceania’s new chief customer officer.
Leggett brings her impressive experience to the role, with more than 20 years across the media and creative industries in both the UK and Australia.
She has worked at a who’s who of agencies including Initiative, Wunderman Thompson, Dare and most recently as CEO of Clemenger BBDO.
Following Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG, DDB Australia was merged with Clemenger BBDO Australia. Sheryl Marjoram (also a Power List-er) and Mike Napolitano were appointed co-CEOs of the new Clemenger. Leggett transitioned into a newly created chief customer officer role.
Now, she is responsible for supporting client experience and integration across the two markets, while keeping a close focus on growth and the evolving needs of customers.
With her astute understanding of the advertising industry, Leggett is well placed to navigate the complexities of the newly formed Omnicom Oceania business and the rapidly changing market in which it operates.
Before stepping into the role, she demonstrated her advertising acumen by steering Clemenger BBDO through one of the most significant transformations in its history, bringing CHEP Network and Traffik into the fold under a single, full-service offering.
Her experience across creative, media and leadership gives her a broad understanding of the industry and the ability to work across different disciplines, markets and business challenges.
Power List
Lindsey Evans
Global Partner & CEO, Special Australia
Lindsey Evans leads one of the finest creative agencies not just in Australia, but in the world.
As global partner and chief executive of Special Australia, Evans has grown the agency’s early promise into one of the most formidable creative businesses around.
It regularly leads the way with exceptional work across a myriad of industry categories and verticals — from vast Super Bowl ads for Uber to incisive, sharp direct work for the likes of Chemist Warehouse. Few agencies demonstrate such breadth with such consistency.
The agency’s trophy cabinet is groaning under the weight of all its metal — not least the eight B&T Awards trophies it picked up last November, including the Grand Prix. We’ve also been assured it has some lesser-known awards like Cannes Lions in the mix.
With her sizeable platform, Evans has argued that the changes the creative landscape is currently undergoing are not the end of agencies. Instead, she argued that they reassert the fundamentals of value creation and brand growth.
Special is renowned for its creativity-first culture and Evans has assembled an exceptional team of staff who bleed that ethos. It’s the talent and the environment around Special that set it apart from the crowd — and that’s due to Evans.
She continues to split her time across Special’s global network in her partner capacity also whilst running the Australian business day to day, a dual role that’s kept her one of the most influential voices in the indie creative sector.
She’s also co-deputy chair of the Advertising Council Australia, giving her hand in shaping industry standards beyond her own agency walls.
Few women in the industry have as much power as Evans. Fewer still wield it so expertly.
Power List
Lou Barrett
News Australia Chief Revenue Officer, News Australia
With more than three decades of experience in media, Lou Barrett has built a truly remarkable career around driving growth through strategic marketing communications and strong client relationships.
As managing director, client partnerships at News Australia, she leads initiatives focused on strengthening the company’s digital media presence while fostering long-term partnerships across the industry.
She also serves as a board member at Herald and Weekly Times, where she draws on her expertise in new media and social media marketing to help shape the organisation’s future.
Across both roles, Barrett has demonstrated a commitment to innovation, collaboration and delivering meaningful impact in an ever-evolving media landscape.
Barrett — one of the most powerful figures among the media landscape — worked in the TV industry with Nine and Seven for nearly 15 years. She has taken this knowledge and had an incredible 12 months.
In this timeframe she has launched new initiatives and partnerships designed to help marketers navigate a rapidly changing media landscape.
Most recently, she launched The Prompt, an AI advisory designed to help CMOs understand how brands are discovered and recommended in an AI-first world.
Barrett also appointed former Initiative boss Jo McAlister to launch STORYx, a new content integration and strategy function designed to help commercial partners tell stories across the News Australia network. She played a key role in Back Australia, a national campaign encouraging consumers to support Australian businesses, while also helping drive Tubi’s first year as News Australia’s streaming partner.
Her focus on sector-led growth has seen Barrett expand the Industry Lead model into Finance, Insurance, Sport and Entertainment, building on existing leads across Travel, Health and Beauty, and Retail. Through the SMB-focused All Access series, she has also brought News Australia’s broader offering directly to growing businesses across the country.
Power List
Mandie van der Merwe
Chief Creative Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi
Mandie van der Merwe is one of precious few C-suite level female creative leaders in Australia. For many, that would make her a very worthy inductee to B&T’s Women in Media Power List alone.
But there’s so much more.
In late 2025, D&AD named her a 2026 Jury President for Radio & Audio. She has also judged Spikes, AWARD and more, cementing her status as one of the region’s most in-demand creative arbiters.
Back at base, van der Merwe’s creative flair played a role in landing the agency 10 new clients over the course of 2025 and some more in 2026.
It also continued to produce exceptional work for some of the largest clients in town, including Arnott’s Nestlé and Toyota.
That work proved effective, too. Its ‘In A Pickle’ for Toyota won at the B&T Awards, Cairns Crocodiles, was shortlisted twice in Cannes and landed three Effies.
That’s some haul from just the one campaign.
Beyond the trophy cabinet, van der Merwe has become one of adland’s most thoughtful voices. It’s why, for instance, she is Chair of AWARD — a role she has held for nearly three years — and launched B&T’s Superwomen Series with Are Media alongside her Publicis colleague Jessica Brackstone.
With van der Merwe at the helm, Saatchi & Saatchi looks set to continue as one of the most important and potent creative forces in the land.
Power list
Margie Reid
CEO, Thinkerbell
Margie Reid is one of the most important figures in the Antipodean advertising and marketing industry.
She is the steady hand on the tiller of the distinctive and always eye-catching and thought-provoking Thinkerbell.
Over the past year, the agency has had a strong new business run winning seven new clients including Unilever, BCF, the Super Members Council of Australia, Insignia Financial and the Leukaemia Foundation.
Under Reid’s leadership, Thinkerbell also completed the full integration of CX agency Hardhat which it acquired in late 2024. This added another string to the bow of its well known ‘Alchemy’ model which fuses strategy, media, creative, PR, production, CX, design and technology without a bloated structure by pairing ‘Thinkers’ and ‘Tinkers’ together to service clients.
It’s a model that consistently delivers impressive results for clients. Stand-outs include its ‘Australia’s Deadliest Predator’ for the TAC and the category-flipping ‘Creatures’ for Vodafone. Meanwhile, ‘The Last Order’ for Menulog served as a fittingly inventive send-off before the food delivery app’s exit from Australia.
Reid’s influence now extends well beyond her own agency walls.
In February, she was appointed to the board of Independent Media Agencies Australia (IMAA), joining chair (and fellow Power List-er) Jacquie Alley in advocating for the independent sector’s future and backing Australian-owned businesses.
She sat on the board of Support the Girls and was an advisory board member of Inclusively Made. She currently serves as a director of Decade of Action, too, reflecting a career-long commitment to inclusion that runs through everything from Thinkerbell’s near-gender-equal leadership to its hiring practices.
Power List
Maria Grivas
CEO, Mindshare
Maria Grivas has turned Mindshare into the media agency the rest of the market is watching.
The WPP Media agency has been among the most prolific and consistent winners of business in the past 18 months. Grivas and Mindshare took the lead on winning the single largest media pitch of 2025, Suncorp’s consolidated account, which is managed by the bespoke Open Era agency. It recently won Asahi, too, adding even more momentum to the business.
Grivas is not only a master at winning business, she’s a dab hand at keeping it, too. Its client satisfaction has hit record levels and it was the fastest climber in RECMA’s qualitative rankings, climbing from ninth to third nationally, while retaining long-standing clients including uBank, Blackmores and EA.
Grivas has also made strides to ensure Mindshare creates ‘Good Growth’ not just for clients but for staff as well. And has promoted women into leadership roles within the agency and mentoring emerging and senior leaders from across the WPP Media group.
Described by one client as creating “clarity at the top while unlocking pace and progress across the organisation,” it’s clear to us, at least, that Grivas is an exemplar to the rest of the industry.
Power list
Melissa Fein
Managing Director, Media, Accenture Song
Few executives have reshaped Australia’s media agency landscape as decisively as Melissa Fein in recent years.
After eight years as CEO of Initiative Australia, Fein took a bold step to build the media capability at Accenture Song alongside Sam Geer and Chris Colter.
She has been central to turning Accenture Song into a competitive force. In the past year, Accenture Song has won the highly coveted Optus pitch, picked up Airwallex and stamped Australia Post to its client book. Accenture Song won a Cairns Crocodile for its work on Airwallex.
The Accenture Song ANZ media team, which now numbers around 40 staff, is providing a blueprint for how the consultancy can build media planning, buying, data, creative and tech across key markets around the world. And Fein is the driving seat.
Fein has served on the Media Federation of Australia board and Swimming Australia board, while championing diversity, inclusion and industry change. In the past year she has spoken about women in leadership at the Cannes Lions, candidly about the impostor syndrome she experienced early in her career and the pressures women faced entering advertising decades ago.
Among her most notable achievements, Fein provided vital leadership through the Bondi Beach terror attack as a prominent member of the Jewish and business communities. She used her profile to raise money and lobby the government for change.
Fein has been described as the “ultimate connector”, a mentor and champion of people’s careers. She combines incredible client service, ambition, motivation, and great leadership to Accenture Song and the broader industry.
Power List
Pippa Berlocher
CEO, EssenceMediacom
Pippa Berlocher’s leadership of EssenceMediacom continues to go from strength to strength.
In 2025, the agency scored a market-leading 9.2 in this year’s B&T Agency Scorecards.
Under Berlocher’s watch, EssenceMeddiacom is the only Australian agency to be classified ‘Dominant’ and receive an A+ in RECMA’s influential classifications, while its client TRR score surged to 8.03 — well above the global benchmark.
The agency won several high profile accounts, including Lion, Australian Retirement Trust, Mastercard and Max (formerly HBO Max), adding north of $110 million in new business billings.
Berlocher leads a team of more than 550 staff Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns.
Her nurturing of woman in the industry is certainly getting noticed.
Jazmaree Dawson won B&T’s 30 Under 30 Media Buyer/Planner category in 2025, while Katherine Pochroj won the media planner/buyer category at this year’s B&T Women In Media Awards.
Berlocher’s virtues of authenticity, honesty, transparency and accountability are not just nurturing the next generation of talent, but proving a real hit with clients and industry peers alike.
Power list
Rose Herceg
CEO, WPP Australia & New Zealand
Rose Herceg has been at the apex of the Australian and New Zealand agency market for nearly three decades.
Now, she sits atop WPP across the Antipodes as the CEO of WPP. It’s a role that has significant power over the careers of thousands in the market. In April this year, Herceg received a job title change — becoming CEO, rather than president of WPP Australia and New Zealand.
Regardless of the title change, Herceg has been a shining light within the market — ferociously and irrepressibly advocating for women in the industry. Under her tutelage, WPP has been named an Inclusive Employer by Diversity Council Australia. But that, for Herceg, is more than a pat on the back, it’s a business imperative. Encouragement of diversity allows the holding company’s agencies to deliver greater value for clients and stay ahead in the market, too.
“We are dedicated to building workplaces where everyone feels they belong,” she previously told B&T.
Herceg’s championing of creativity, too, is something that many holding company leaders should aspire to. Not that it should come as a surprise, given her founding of the pioneering agency Pophouse in 1998. It would later sell to STW before its merger with WPP to create WPP AUNZ.
Few women exert such power over the market as Herceg. We are all greater for her continued contribution.
Power list
Sally Eagle
CEO, ARE Media
Sally Eagle’s ascension to the top job at Are Media in April capped a 16-year journey through the business. She started at Are Media back in 2010, when it was known as Bauer, and has steadily, inexorably risen through its ranks to become CEO.
She wasted little time in making her mark on the largest women-focused publisher in the country. In May, she flipped the script and unveiled a new direct-to-consumer push, debuting with a new paid membership tier for the 90-year-old Australian Women’s Weekly. In return, readers gained access to exclusive content, seasonal recipe plans drawn from more than 27,000 tried-and-tested recipes, digital masterclasses and dining events.
Eagle has bet big that the deep, trusted relationships Are Media’s titles have with its readers will prove to be a winner at a time when generative AI and new means of content discovery are flipping the publishing landscape upside down.
She has also made strides to digitise Are Media’s vast back catalogue of content, no mean feat at all for a business with titles nearly a century old. To that end, Eagle has also promoted Jocelin Abbey to become Are’s director of content and consumer growth — further backing female talent within the business.
It isn’t easy running a publishing business in 2026. But Eagle’s boldness in the market has breathed new life into the business and it would take a brave person to bet against her — even in an incredibly competitive market.
Power list
Sian Whitnall
CEO, OMD
Sian Whitnall has been at the helm of OMD Australia as sole CEO since November 2025, taking on the leadership of the country’s largest media agency after previously serving as Co-CEO alongside Laura Nice.
Whitnall’s influence is reflected in the scale of the business she now leads, but also in the culture she is building around it.
Her leadership is underpinned by a strong focus on collaboration, creativity and effectiveness, with a clear emphasis on bringing people together to deliver stronger outcomes for both clients and the agency.
Since stepping into the sole CEO role, Whitnall has continued to shape OMD’s direction at a significant point for the media industry, as agencies navigate rapidly changing technology, evolving client expectations and an increasingly complex media landscape.
Her leadership has also earned industry recognition, with Whitnall shortlisted for Executive Leader at this year’s B&T Women in Media Awards.
At the heart of Whitnall’s influence is her ability to combine the commercial responsibility of leading Australia’s largest media agency with a people-first approach to leadership.
Her impact is not simply measured by the size of the agency she runs, but by the culture, collaboration and ambition she is helping drive within it.
As OMD continues to look towards what comes next, Whitnall is now one of the most influential women shaping the direction of Australia’s media agency landscape.
Power list
Sheryl Marjoram
Co-CEO, Clemenger BBDO
Sheryl Marjoram has spent nearly 30 years in advertising. Now, she’s in the hot seat at one of the most important agencies in the country. Though it isn’t Marjoram’s first time in a similar role.
When Omnicom folded DDB into Clemenger BBDO in late 2025, retiring the DDB name, Marjoram (along with fellow co-CEO Mike Napolitano) got the top job in the new agency.
In a time of change, Marjoram has led the agency with aplomb. It has been shortlisted for 15 Australian Effies, for instance, showing that Marjoram has not allowed outside noise to filter through into the work. It has also recently launched impressive work for the Design Institute and Steggles, as part of a new Omnicom bespoke agency model.
Before that Marjoram spent years building her career at the agency, and before that led McCann in London. That path, through two of the world’s biggest network names, is what she now brings to bear every day at Clemenger.
Since the merger, Marjoram has kept Clemenger BBDO winning, landing the Stan account this year after a closely contested pitch process. It added one of Australia’s leading streaming services to a roaster already built on household names. It’s a clear signal the newly combined agency is operating at full strength.
Marjoram now sits at the top of the country’s largest creative agency having earned that position building winning teams at three of advertising largest names.
She is one of only a handful of women in the country handed command of a business this size in a structure this new. It’s not a job handed out lightly. Her decisions will impact the rest of the industry — there are few who we’d sooner place that trust in.
Few in the industry have climbed this ladder and even fewer have done it while the ground was shifting beneath them.
