The advertising, marketing and media industries as we know them are a thing of the past. Nowadays, the agencies who win will be those able to combine the best of people with the best of machines.
That said, it can be a scary proposition for those involved. Too often, discussions about technology in the industry remain in the realms of redundancies, time saved or efficiencies gained. Those who can make things better with technology — not simply faster or cheaper — will be those who survive.
We reckon this 10 (or, more accurately 11) below are as good as any.
This list is a revised and sharpened list from last year and looks at the chief product and/or technology officers (and other equivalent roles) from agencies and agency groups. We’ve another eagerly awaited list focused on tech vendors coming soon.
In the ranking, we’ve considered innovation displayed by the businesses they work for as it relates to advertising, marketing and media.
This list isn’t solely focused on AI, either. Though as it is perhaps the transformational technology of our time (save the Betamax, of course) it features heavily.
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10. Matt Plant, head of behavioural science and AI Thinker, Thinkerbell
We’re big fans of most things that Thinkerbell produces at B&T. But we’ve been truly intrigued by the way the agency has started to apply AI and other new technologies. Matt Plant is responsible for a lot of it.
Within the agency, Plant is a leading figure showing and guiding all on what can be done to make more interesting work. For instance, its AI-driven bin chicken diss track is one of the more interesting pieces of work we’ve seen recently, as is the giant cassowary it used to promo XXXX’s involvement in State of Origin.
But it isn’t just out-there creative that Plant has been busy working on. One industry insider told us that his work has provided “breakthrough” customer understanding for several of Thinkerbell’s largest clients, resulting in interventions beyond communications that deliver business results.
Plant also takes time to spread the good word of Thinkerbell’s AI experiments far and wide, including on podcasts and other publications — though none as celebrated or prestigious as us.
9. Vinne Schifferstein Vidal & Marie-Céline Merret Wirström, co-founders, MC&V
Vinne Schifferstein Vidal and Marie-Céline Merret Wirström, hailing from the Netherlands and Sweden, respectively, are two of the most well-known and thought-of technology leaders within Australia’s advertising industry.
Schifferstein Vidal and Merret Wirström founded MC&V in November last year after the MADE THIS production company, part of Clemenger BBDO, closed.
The pair’s experience is second to none: Schifferstein Vidal was the founding managing director of Monks in Sydney in July 2020, which followed senior roles at Pearson and Dutch academic publishing business Elsevier. Merret Wirström also served with Monks, as well as Vandal and Revolver.
It’s still relatively early days for MC&V. But the production company, which offers hybrid production, AI-assisted creative development and fully AI-native campaign execution has signed the likes of Canva and Canteen as clients, as well as adding Jodie Heenan, Josef “Seppi” Scholler and Jagger Waters as AI directors to its roster.
8. Jakub Otrząsek, SVP data and platforms, Monks
Jakub Otrząsek is Monks SVP of Data and Platform across the Asia-Pacific region. Hailing from Poland, Otrząsek moved to Sydney in 2016 taking on senior roles at Datalicious and MightyHive before becoming a cenobite and joining Monks.
His role with the S4 Capital-owned business is sprawling, encompassing customer data platforms, marketing mix modelling, optimisation and personalisation strategies and more.
Recently, the agency group launched Creative Intelligence, a new AI-powered solution designed to help brands better understand and measure creative performance.
It’s a fascinating piece of kit, with Otrząsek explaining that it can pull apart creative to drive significant performance: “We are moving from simply knowing an ad performed well to understanding that a specific moment… drove the conversion. With AI, we can now scale those insights into production instantly.”
7. David Gatt, managing director – marketing operations & ecosystem integration, Omnicom Oceania
David Gatt might have only recently joined Omnicom, but he comes with some significant pedigree and the “sought-after” leader was hand-picked by CEO Nick Garrett. Gatt’s role sees him work with CEOs, CMOs, CDOs and senior marketing leaders to redesign how marketing, media, data, technology and AI come together.
Having held senior roles in both Accenture Song and more recently Deloitte, ‘Gatty,’ as he’s known to his friends, has been leading the charge around AI, agentic workflows and marketing intelligence.
With Omnicom Oceania pursuing its strategy of moving upstream and creating more integrated, end-to-end marketing systems for enterprise-level brands, Gatt’s role is likely to only gain importance. He’s only been with the business since April, but we’re expecting much more to come.
6. Tim Matheson, president, Australia & New Zealand, WPP Enterprise Solutions
Tim Matheson’s experience within the industry takes some rivalling. He’s spent the past six years as WPP’s chief technology officer in Australia and New Zealand. Before that, he spent some 15 years with AKQA — including when it was known as DT — rising to become its executive operations director for APAC.
As of this month, however, he is now the Australian and New Zealand president of WPP’s new Enterprise Solutions arm. For the uninitiated, WPP Enterprise Solutions is its new business unit offering clients proprietary solutions spanning AI, intelligence, loyalty, commerce and content. Earlier this year, Salesforce lauded WPP for its leading work on customer experience for clients.
5. Lucio Ribeiro, chief AI and innovation officer, TBWA
There are few in the industry more well-known and well-liked than TBWA’s chief AI and innovation officer, Lucio Ribeiro.
He’s been with the Omnicom agency for a touch more than a year and has set about positioning TBWA, as well as Omnicom Oceania more generally, as a true leader in the space. He’s done so through its RISE AI visibility strategy — many agencies have subsequently launched similar tools — and DISRUPT, the country’s first dedicated AI film festival.
Prior to his time at TBWA, Ribeiro built three businesses, led innovation and technology for corporates including Optus, Seven West Media, and Nine, and consulted to global brands from Mercedes-Benz and BMW to Mondelez and Goldman Sachs. During his time with Optus, in particular, he helped to drive the adoption of 5G technologies and formed strategic partnerships with AWS, Nvidia and SpaceX.
4. Josh Lamont, head of tech and ecosystems, Accenture Song
Josh Lamont has been Accenture Song’s head of tech and ecosystems for the past two years and plays a significant role across the business.
Currently, he leads a team of 400(!) Accenture’s marketing, digital products, commerce,
sales and service functions across Australia and New Zealand. That role means he’s on the front line delivering results for clients including NRMA Insurance, Qantas, AGL and more.
As Accenture Song agency Droga5 told us as part of its recent Agency Scorecard (8.8/10), it is starting to move from “shorter-term, campaign-only engagements” to “deeper, more integrated partnerships spanning creativity, media, customer experience, data and technology”. Clearly, Lamont has a lot on his hands but we reckon he’s the man for the job.
3. Poorani Adewole, chief data, tech and analytics officer, EssenceMediacom
Poorani Adewole has part of the GroupM and later WPP Media stable for nearly 15 years, the last two-and-a-bit have been spent as EssenceMediacom’s chief data, tech and analytics officer.
She was described to B&T as a “transformative” leader who takes time to mentors other women navigating career changes and aiding them in their professional development.
The results she’s produced for clients recently have been very impressive, too. For instance, she spearheaded the development of transformation consulting services focused on digital maturity, data strategy and operational integration. This work led to clients included Bankwest, Myer, Deakin and Australian Retirement Trust increasing their media efficiency and return. She also sits on the IAB Data and WPP Media Data & Tech Councils.
Its ‘For You Who Did That Thing You Did’ campaign for Mars, in partnership with Amazon, proved a hit too. The campaign used trillions of behavioural signals to reward everyday achievements, increasing sales by 4.3 per cent and snapping up plenty of silverware at the Cairns Crocodiles, Festival of Media Awards and MFAs.
2. Kellyn Coetzee, Sydney head of digital, Zenith
Kellyn Coetzee came very highly recommended to B&T. The Publicis-owned media agency is on one helluva hot streak and with Coetzee leading digital media, AI adoption and innovation across the business, it isn’t hard to see why.
Coetzee is the co-chair of the IAB AI Working Group and has been putting that industry knowledge to good use in leading Zenith’s AI adoption, training and enablement strategy, embedding AI into day-to-day ways of working. This work saw Coetzee recognised as Zenith’s MVP in its recent Agency Scorecard (8.2/10).
She also played an important role in Publicis Groupe’s PL.AI Ground hands-on learning program, training employees in the responsible use, development and deployment of AI through practical workshops, one-on-one coaching, gamified learning experiences, prompt-engineering playbooks and hands-on agent-building programs.
1. Hoang Nguyen, co-founder, Plus Also Studios & chief data & technology officer, Howatson+Company
Last year’s number one, Hoang Nguyen retains his place atop this revised list. Nguyen is the chief data and technology officer of Howatson+Company, as well as being the co-founder of its spin-off business Plus Also Studio.
Described as a “tech genius” to B&T recently, Nguyen has been the instrumental figure in getting Plus Also Studios’ technology, which we understand to have come on leaps and bounds recently, into the hands of customers. Those clients are significant too and the business has signed deals with News Corp, oOh!media, the ABC, Snooze and Myer over the past 12 months.
Plus Also was named in the AFR BOSS Most Innovative Companies list in 2025. Its creative director Effie Anthanassiou would win the Martech Award at the 2026 Women Leading Tech Awards.
We understand Nguyen isn’t sitting still, either and is continuing to create new tools to help Howatson+Company and Plus Also stay on the front line of the creative industry’s transformation.
