B&T's WOMEN IN MEDIA AWARDS WINNERS 2026
A MESSAGE FROM OUR
PRESENTING PARTNER
At Are Media, we take pride in being Australia’s largest women’s lifestyle network, with a nearly century-long tradition of championing women’s voices and sharing their stories. Our commitment to supporting B&T’s Women in Media Awards—a partnership we’ve proudly maintained since their inception—remains as strong as ever.
Each year, these awards highlight the incredible depth of talent driving our industry forward. As I reflect on my own career, what I have learned is to lean into the wisdom of others—the “super women” who have surrounded me and provided encouragement and support.
These awards are a reminder of this, and as we look ahead, we’d like to invite you to do the same—to pay it forward or soak it up. None of us reach success alone. It is the solidarity of the “super women” around us that make the greatest difference.
Jane Huxley
CEO, ARE MEDIA
A LETTER FROM B&T
Once upon a time, women’s voices in media and advertising were confined to the margins. Today, women lead agencies, run publications, direct major networks and shape the national conversation.
But we still gather for B&T’s Women In Media Awards because while much progress has been made, equality remains an unfinished business.
At B&T, we look forward to the day when our Women in Media Awards are no longer needed. But until then, this night is essential. Women are still told to sit quietly, to wait to be invited, not to speak unless spoken to.
Women make up nearly half the media workforce, yet hold only 30 per cent of CEO and managing director roles. Pay gaps remain stubborn, with women in publishing earning 16.4 per cent less than men, and those in broadcasting 11.8 per cent less.
Women from diverse and Indigenous backgrounds face even greater barriers, while lower lifetime earnings and career interruptions leave many retiring with significantly less superannuation.
Recent reviews into major media organisations have uncovered systemic issues of bullying, sexual misconduct and abuses of power, while industry-wide upheavals have left hundreds of workers without jobs.
Too often, transparency is missing. And too often, businesses fail to provide the cultural and structural support women need to thrive.
These numbers paint a stark picture: public policy may be shifting, but workplace culture lags behind.
So, as we celebrate this year’s winners, we also issue a call to action.
To the leaders with the power to close the gaps, back your women and turn rhetoric into reform.
To the women of this industry: your talent and your tenacity are what make this industry shine. Don’t ever let anyone dim your light.
B&T’s Women in Media Awards exist because our industry is stronger, smarter and better when women lead. Let’s make sure the next generation isn’t left having to fight the same battles we are today.
Enjoy tonight, and leave with your head high and your voice louder than when you arrived.
Aimee Edwards
Senior Reporter, B&T
AWARD
CATEGORIES
CATEGORY
Woman of the Year
SPONSORED BY
Nat Taylor
Poppet
Nat Taylor has had an incredible year. Not only did she win the Creative Producer award but she was shortlisted for two further trophies, scoring very highly in each.
Her work with Poppet has seen her set the pace in the industry for inclusive production, focusing on flexible working arrangements, quiet spaces and time for staff’s mental health.
Poppet has also signed partnerships with the Shift 20 Initiative and Inclusively Made. Taylor has introduced proprietary systems for filming with children, focused on boosting self-worth based on effort not appearance.
In addition, Poppet has developed on-set protocols to support neurodivergent crew members, added sensory kits to set environments and led trauma-informed training initiatives.
Poppet’s financial performance has also been incredibly impressive during a general contraction in the market. It now has a full-time production team and has more than quadrupled in headcount over the last year.
Poppet has even launched Poppet Mini, a sub-brand for smaller briefs—that’s already kicking goals.
But beyond simply being a kick-ass businesswoman, Taylor’s work as a mentor and willingness to give back sets her apart.
She’s a mentor for The Trenches, The Aunties and also runs weekly open mentoring sessions via Poppet. In these roles, Taylor has supported the careers of countless women, many of whom have gone on to become award-winners and even Oscar nominees. She also sits on the board of Snehalaya, a charity rehoming vulnerable women who were trafficked as girls.
For all this work and more, Taylor is not only a leader in the industry; she’s the embodiment of everything B&T’s Women in Media Awards celebrates and champions. She creates brilliant work and runs a brilliant business. She makes the lives and careers of women and other disadvantaged groups better. As a result, the world around us all becomes brighter.
That’s why Nat Taylor is our Woman of the Year.
CATEGORY
Lifetime Achievement Award
SPONSORED BY
Kim Portrate
Portrate has more than two decades of experience in the packaged goods, telco, finance and tourism industries, and is one of Australia’s leading media and marketing minds.
She established her career as a brand manager at Unilever, before honing her skills at Pepsi, Optus and AMP.
Portrate headed up consumer marketing for Tourism Australia, before donning the CMO’s hat at Helloworld.
In 2016, she got called to lead the marketing body ThinkTV at a time when digital disruption was starting to take hold.
Portrate promoted TV by using smart insights, great data and research, and was very successful. While TV networks overseas were in structural decline, Portrate’s work at ThinkTV helped keep the digital tide at bay.
Portrate’s passion, commitment, guts and determination, plus her unique ability to unite egos and competing agendas kept ThinkTV and its four stakeholders (Seven, Nine, Ten and Foxtel) united and on the front foot for much of Portrate’s tenure.
Portrate is admired for her great humour and flair. After setting the marketing world alight, she kept TV on the right path against unprecedented odds and market disruption, helping transition the medium from an era of analogue dominance to one of adaptation in a new digital world order.
Simply put, there are very few Australians that have had such a positive impact on the media and marketing than Kim Portrate.
CATEGORY
Agency sales / Account Management
Lauren Doherty
OMD
Lauren Doherty leads a team of 50 at OMD, and is a senior lead for one of Australia’s largest brands, Telstra.
She has played a pivotal role strengthening client relationships, driving award-winning campaigns and forging impactful media and client partnerships.
An account manager for 14 years, she has been described as an empathetic, passionate leader that constantly strives for excellence.
Doherty was a key figure in embedding the +61 integrated agency model for Telstra that combined OMD’s 19 years of media expertise with creative agencies TBWA and Bear Meets Eagle on Fire.
She has overseen more than 75 campaigns with a media investment well above nine-figures, including Telstra’s brand launch, its wildly successful Christmas campaigns and the telco’s Olympic Games sponsorship.
Doherty is also a mentor and inspiration to others. She personally mentors four account directors and has endorsed 12 female internal promotions at OMD.
Her impact within the OMD business and with Telstra makes her a standout.
CATEGORY
Best Ad Campaign
'Banner Ad Change Room'
Dentsu Creative, THE ICONIC
The ICONIC’s ‘Banner Ad Changeroom’ reimagined one of the most overlooked media formats into a stage for inclusivity, creativity and commerce.
At its core was a simple but powerful idea: let real Australians, of all sizes, ages, backgrounds and abilities, be the faces of fashion, not just models who fit the industry’s narrow mould.
By turning banner ads into live, shoppable fashion shows, the campaign directly responded to the client’s brief to put inclusivity at the heart of the ‘Got You Looking’ brand platform while driving both cultural cut-through and commercial returns.
Executed with precision, the campaign integrated live banners across out of home, social, PR and editorial.
Two custom-built mini studios in Sydney streamed normal, everyday customers into banners across major publishers, with top looks pushed to outdoor ads within hours. This created a seamless loop of participation, visibility and action.
The impact was undeniable: CTR on banners more than tripled and it notched more than 5 million impressions.
The work blurred the lines between content, commerce and community, and proved that inclusivity can do so much more than just tick a box—it gets more items in the shopping bag, too.
CATEGORY
Business Support
Hannah Mansur
Mamamia
As chief of staff at Mamamia, Hannah Mansur has been the driving force behind initiatives that elevate the business and the women who power it.
Working across content, commercial and product, she has transformed behind-the-scenes leadership into tangible impact.
One standout achievement is her revitalisation of Mamamia’s LinkedIn presence, turning it from a dormant account into a thriving B2B channel that showcases the brand’s influence, while also giving staff a platform to proudly highlight their work.
This shift has not only enhanced industry visibility but also encouraged women across the company to embrace self-promotion in a supportive and celebratory environment.
Equally transformative has been her leadership of Mamamia’s AI upskilling program, AI for Basic B*tches. By breaking down barriers of confidence and accessibility, she equipped every department with practical tools and training that have unlocked new efficiencies and sparked a culture of innovation.
Beyond internal impact, Mansur amplifies women’s voices externally through her work with the Women in Media NSW Committee, shaping programs and events that strengthen the industry at large.
Whether optimising workflows, coaching rising talent for awards success or embedding future-focused capabilities, Mansur ensures others can step forward and thrive.
Since our judging finished, she has since left her role at Mamamia for a similar position at Canva, but her impact on the business will not be soon forgotten.
CATEGORY
CHAMPION OF CHANGE
Jacquie Alley
The Media Store
Jacquie Alley has reshaped what leadership looks like in independent media by embedding equity, allyship and cultural change into the DNA of The Media Store (TMS) and the wider industry.
Within her agency, she has overseen a pay gap in favour of women, a gender-balanced senior leadership, and 100 per cent of promotions awarded to women during the judging period.
She has also championed personalised staff initiatives that ensure every individual feels seen and supported.
Her focus on visibility and opportunity has empowered other female leaders within the business to step forward, from sustainability champions reducing carbon emissions, to programmatic directors breaking ground in tech awards.
Her influence extends well beyond TMS. As a driving force behind the IMAA’s Female Leaders of Tomorrow program, Alley has driven measurable outcomes, with mentees reporting life-changing impacts, leadership growth and career advancement.
Her governance and advocacy have set new benchmarks for inclusion across the indie sector, while her ongoing work on panels, taskforces and advisory boards tackles systemic barriers from ageism to parental support.
By lifting others, Alley has created pathways that didn’t exist before, ensuring the next generation of women in media rise with stronger voices, greater confidence and genuine equity.
CATEGORY
Client Services
Belinda Drew
Droga5
If client services is a team sport, Belinda Drew has had a premiership-winning season. Her leadership philosophy of ‘one team, one dream’ fosters an environment where talent is supported and feel inspired to deliver the best work of their careers.
Droga5’s client portfolio is vast and includes the likes of Amazon, Optus and Qantas. The agency has recently won the coveted Tourism Australia account, SBS and multiple Australian Government projects. As client chief for the most awarded agency in the ANZ region, Drew’s leadership skills play a critical role to its success.
In the past year, Drew led a landmark campaign for SBS, ‘The Uncensored Ad,’ that boldly reclaimed the broadcaster’s place in Aussie culture. This involved selling in a provocative idea, getting plenty of bang out of a tight budget, and crisis managing the launch process through a Federal Election.
Outside of Droga5, Drew has a long-term partnership with UN Women Australia and has led pro bono gender equality campaigns—most notably ‘When Will She Be Right?’. Drew also lectures at the Advertising Council’s AdSchool Account Leadership course and mentors for The Marketing Academy.
CATEGORY
Creative
Elle Bullen
Hellions
Elle Bullen’s last year proves that creativity is about more than just producing standout work, but about shaping an industry where women thrive and feel supported.
As co-founder of Hellions, she launched a new independent agency built around inclusivity and flexibility, and it has grown rapidly within its first six months.
She has created an open-door workspace for displaced creatives and partnered pro bono with Women in Super to rebrand a system working towards gender equity.
Her creative leadership has delivered work with both cultural and commercial weight. In her previous role at Bullfrog, for instance, she gave global hunger a confronting stage with Oxfam’s ‘Only Shampoo’, repositioned the Australian F1 Grand Prix, reframed convenience with Dineamic’s ‘Made Honest’ and injected entertainment into the arthritis category with Epijoint.
Beyond client work, Bullen has judged awards across the country, presided over D&AD New Bloods and mentored emerging leaders through tailored programs.
If all of this wasn’t impressive enough, she did so while navigating some serious health challenges.
Bullen models resilience and generosity, proving that building successful businesses and breakthrough creative can go hand-in-hand with elevating women and reshaping the face of leadership.
HIGHLY COMMENDED - Michelle Walsh
Leo Australia
Michelle Walsh’s career has spanned nearly three decades, and her latest chapter proves that creativity only sharpens with experience.
Highly commended by the judges in this category, Walsh has balanced hands-on craft with leadership, proving that age is no barrier to producing progressive, world-class work.
Over the past year she has led one of her most ambitious projects to date: Suncorp Haven, an AI-powered digital platform that helps Australians understand and address their home’s vulnerabilities to extreme weather.
Combining geospatial data, climate science and personalised storytelling, the project demanded tireless dedication and collaboration across continents, and has already been recognised with a Cannes Lion for Creative Business Transformation.
Just as impactful is her role as mentor and role model within Leo’s creative department. She has nurtured young female talent, provided confidence to peers navigating impostor syndrome, and embodied the mantra that “creativity never gets old”.
Affectionately known as “Mama Mich”, she is just as valued for her resilience, positivity and generosity as for her award-winning ideas.
CATEGORY
Creative Producer
Nat Taylor
Poppet
Nat Taylor is a force in the creative industries. She founded Poppet just over two years ago, making it one of only a handful of female-founded and led production companies in the country.
The company has produced a host of famous campaigns for national brands, including Jetstar’s ‘Take Off More’ with Thinkerbell, which saw her vault logistical and casting hurdles that other companies shied away from. This included moving a shoot to New Zealand, casting real travellers instead of actors and simplifying the production approach without sacrificing the creative.
Her commitment to diversity and inclusion is unmatched. Poppet has set standards for inclusive hiring, developed on-set protocols to support neurodivergent creatives, added sensory kits to sets, introduced trauma-informed training and consistently advocated for more inclusive industry practices.
Her stand out work from the past 12 months was for ‘Support Talk’, an initiative for Women’s Health Victoria. Created with The Aunties, which Taylor also co-founded, ‘Support Talk’ trains mentors to respond to disclosures of discrimination. It was produced pro bono, with a diverse and 95 per cent female crew. Since launch, ‘Support Talk’ has been adopted by mentors across Australia and praised for filling a real and urgent need in the industry.
CATEGORY
Employer
WPP Media
WPP Media has been a beacon for women in Australia’s media industry for some time. Even back when it was GroupM.
WPP Media has set about putting its money where its mouth is—quite literally in some cases. Chief executive Aimee Buchanan is ably supported by agency CEOs Pippa Berlocher and Maria Grivas (and Peter Vogel, of course), as well as several female MDs and a 50 per cent female executive committee.
Over the past year, it has made significant strides in salary transparency. With less than half of media professionals feeling adequately remunerated, WPP Media offers unified salary bands across nearly all its roles, boosting employee trust and satisfaction.
Its tiered leadership development programs—Ascend, Illuminate and Spark—develop entry level talent into tomorrow’s bosses. Its CraftMasters and ThriveBites initiatives focus on future-ready capabilities and personal wellbeing. All include a focus on DE&I, psychosocial safety training, and cultural-learning initiatives.
After all that work, WPP Media’s attrition rate is below industry average and four-fifths of staff say they receive enough training and learning opportunities. WPP Media has promoted 278 staff in 2024 (with two-thirds of them women) and 56 per cent of its manager roles are held by women, well above industry average.
CATEGORY
Entrepreneur / Founder
Haley McDonald
3P Studio
Haley McDonald’s triumph with 3P Studio was born from adversity. She started the business nearly 10 years ago with no investment or outside support. Today, it’s one of Queensland’s largest artist-owned, independent content houses, with offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland.
Over the past year, 3P Studio has continued to live its value of inclusion and opportunity. It offers paid maternity leave, miscarriage leave and flexibility for the many working mothers at the studio.
McDonald mentors through QLD Assisterhood and Women in Digital, where she leads its social impact work with the Pink Elephants Foundation, producing Season 2 of the highly popular The Miscarriage Rebellion podcast.
McDonald has also led 3P to develop a new automation pipeline that will change the way brands and agencies produce high volume content. It’s another example of the smart decisions, focus on cash flow and consistent reinvention that have allowed the business to grow without external funding.
After being made redundant in 2016 and vowing never to let anyone else determine her worth, McDonald’s success with 3P Studio is not just admirable, it’s exceptional.
CATEGORY
Executive Leader
Lou Barrett
News Australia
They say that you are the company you keep and few in the country, let alone the media industry, keep more influential company than News Australia’s Lou Barrett.
These relationships allow her to deliver outsized success and leadership for News Australia. Over the past 12 months, Barrett has continued to demonstrate that she is one of the country’s most dynamic executive leaders, achieving double-digit year-on-year growth across key categories, despite challenging conditions across most of the advertising market.
Thanks to her clear and relentless strategy, innovation and focus on strong relationships, News Australia has grown commercially and culturally. She has championed campaigns such as NRMA Insurance’s ‘Help Our Highway’, which delivered tangible business results for the brand and life-changing results for Queenslanders. She also was a driving force behind Medibank’s ‘Can We Talk’, which addressed mental health issues in Australia.
Barratt is a powerful champion for women at News Australia and an insightful mentor, bringing others up to her high standards to help them succeed in their careers. Barrett talks the talk and walks the walk as one of the most important executive leaders in the country.
Highly Commended - Jo McAlister
Initiative
The last 12 months have been a defining chapter in Jo McAlister’s career, and she has been highly commended by the judges in this category.
Last year, Initiative’s three most senior leaders departed at once. It lost two of its biggest clients and then, in December, it was announced that Omnicom would acquire IPG Mediabrands, Initiative’s parent company. That’s a trifecta of challenges that would test any leader.
In response, McAlister was elevated from Initiative’s Sydney MD to its national CEO. To stabilise the situation at the agency, she embarked on a listening tour, visiting all three markets to engage directly with clients, SLTs and individual staffers.
McAlister drove its repositioning to ‘The Cultural Experience Agency’ and introduced initiatives such as Market Leadership Days, Quarterly Celebrations and Agency Wonder Walls, all designed to rebuild trust, foster connection, and inspire belief in the future.
And it worked. Initiative secured important new clients and exceeded its new business pipeline targets. Its client satisfaction metrics are back on track and its staff are happier. Initiative has an industry-leading gender pay gap and improved prospects for working parents. That’s the kind of turnaround few could ever hope for—and even fewer could achieve.
The past year was deeply emotional for McAlister, who cared for her mother through the final stages of pancreatic cancer. In her honour, McAlister and her daughter Saskia raised thousands of dollars for Pankind, a pancreatic cancer research foundation.
McAlister is not just an outstanding leader, she is genuinely a world class human.
CATEGORY
Glass Ceiling
Vanessa Liell
Orizontas and Rethink Everything
Vanessa Liell’s career is proof that breaking the glass ceiling isn’t just about finding a way through, it’s about clearing the path so others can rise more easily.
Over three decades in PR, she has combined business success with a relentless commitment to dismantling structural barriers that once held women back. As CEO of N2N Communications, she transformed the agency from a small independent into financially booming, award-winning business that was acquired by Publicis Groupe, all while raising three children with little workplace support.
Her proudest legacy is cultural change: introducing 18 weeks paid parental leave, pioneering flexible and remote work long before it was the norm. She also built a leadership pipeline that elevated dozens of women into senior roles.
Beyond her own agencies, Liell has mentored hundreds of women across the industry, from graduates to CEOs, including formally guiding leaders at Bluechip Communications, Fifty Acres and Agent 99.
As co-founder of Orizontas Group and Rethink Everything, she continues to advise in complex industries while embedding inclusion at the core.
Her impact has been recognised not only through agency growth and accolades, but through the generations of women she has lifted.
HIGHLY COMMENDED - THE AUNTIES
In an industry where progress for women has too often stalled, The Aunties have built a movement that chips away at systemic barriers with collective force.
Highly commended in this category, the 4,500-strong volunteer-led community exists to dismantle inequality in advertising, production, tech and design, pairing lived experience with practical tools that create real, measurable change.
Its mentoring programs have supported more than 500 women, non-binary and gender-diverse creatives, deliberately matching them with mentors based on identity, ambition and needs rather than job titles.
Its Junior Mentor Program helped 88 early-career women find their voice while simultaneously creating leadership opportunities for mid-career women. At the same time, its Senior Mentor Program took over the historically male-dominated State Library of Victoria, symbolically, and literally, claiming space for women.
The Aunties’ impact extends beyond mentoring. It partnered with Women’s Health Victoria to launch Support Talk, the first industry-wide training resource equipping leaders to respond to disclosures of harassment or violence.
The Aunties has launched podcasts, anonymous reporting tools and even its own tongue-in-cheek award, The Mummies, to recognise mums in media.
By mobilising thousands and creating structures the industry never had, The Aunties have built the scaffolding to hold open the glass ceiling for the next generation.
CATEGORY
Innovator
SPONSORED BY
Sarah Minassian
Metcash
Sarah Minassian possesses a rare blend of strategic depth, commercial acumen and fearless creativity.
Over the past year, she has played a leading role in the development and roll-out of the Metcash Digital Screen Network. This ambitious initiative reimagined in-store advertising for Metcash’s independent retailers: IGA, Mitre10, Total Tools, Cellarbrations, Thirsty Camel and Bottle-O stores.
Metcash stores previously operated print point of sale materials, but faced challenges upgrading to digital due to the complexity of operating a sprawling network of 6,500 independent stores.
Minassian worked closely with internal stakeholders and external partners, designing and getting approval for investment in a digital screen pilot to validate the concept. Once proof of concept was achieved, she led the operational rollout, co-ordinated across multiple stakeholders in legal, marketing, operations and technology teams.
As of May, 133 screens are live, with 750 planned across the group by FY26. It will be the first time Metcash has a national in-store digital advertising network.
The result has been a surge in retail media revenue, with plenty more to come. As one partner puts it: “Sarah is not just navigating this space—she is leading it”.
CATEGORY
Journalist / Producer
Michelle Escobar
Optus Sport
Michelle Escobar has become one of the most influential voices in Australian sports media, redefining how women’s football is covered and celebrated.
As host and co-producer of The Women’s Football Wrap, the country’s only dedicated women’s football magazine show, she has provided athletes with a platform to share their stories while tackling broader issues such as pay equity, diversity and inclusion in sport.
She has interviewed the likes of Mary Fowler, Alanna Kennedy, Bunny Shaw and Vivianne Miedema, and deepened Australians’ understanding of women’s football locally and globally.
Her impact reaches far beyond the screen. She has championed internal culture at Optus Sport by mentoring interns and early-career producers, ensuring the next generation of women in media have the support she did not always receive.
Escobar has also driven corporate and community engagement, hosting internal events to highlight women’s sport and supporting grassroots initiatives such as Fiona Crawford’s Rise of the Matildas book launch for young players and their families.
Escobar’s influence is also recognised externally through her judging role at Women in Sport Photo Action Awards (WISPAA) and her work with the Sydney Community Foundation, where she advocates for disadvantaged women.
The old saying goes that you can’t be what you can’t see so, whether producing, presenting or mentoring. Escobar leverages her platform to make women’s voices in sport louder, stronger and impossible to ignore. While Optus Sport is no more, Escobar’s efforts helped make it an incredible platform.
CATEGORY
Marketing
SPONSORED BY
Sasha Mackie
Warner Bros. Discovery
As Warner Bros. Discovery’s senior director of marketing, streaming, studios and networks, Sasha Mackie was tasked with leading the Australian launch of HBO Max, which even she describes as a moment “that redefined her trajectory”.
Leveraging more than two decades of experience in the media industry, she guided HBO Max to become the fastest-growing streaming service in Australia. In fact, the launch exceeded expectations from day dot, surpassing targets by more than 350 per cent.
Prior to joining Warner Bros. Discovery, she worked at the likes of News Australia, Foxtel, Seven and Network 10. Harnessing all that experience, it was no wonder she smashed the launch of HBO Max out of the park.
Mackie’s impact on the industry doesn’t stop there, she also champions more than 300 female staff across Australia and New Zealand in her role as chair of Women of Warner Bros. Discovery, a position she’s held for two years. This is a platform for female colleagues to connect, collaborate and support each other during a huge time for the business.
CATEGORY
Media Planner / Buyer
SPONSORED BY
Elizabeth Baker
Zenith
In a career spanning nearly three decades, Elizabeth Baker has been a driving force for Zenith’s client success and growth.
Baker is not only a role model for high performing female leaders, she is a true champion of diversity in all forms, including gender, cognitive, older professionals, returners and career-break re-entrants.
In 2023, Baker co-launched ZenAcademy, an initiative to futureproof talent in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
She has also taken a leadership role in enabling traditional buyers to develop digital capabilities under Zenith’s new Marketplace structure. This has led to 37 women being promoted, 52 receiving merit increases, 16 receiving junior star bonuses and an agency gender pay gap that has closed to 2.7 per cent.
Baker is an important mentor; two of her mentees who had experienced hardship now serve as heads of investment, while she tackles age bias by hiring senior female professionals struggling to re-enter the industry.
In 2024, Baker’s team achieved 100 per cent of its buying KPIs, she launched an opt-in investment product that redirects trading savings to media supporting DEI charities, and delivered $7.7 million in pro-bono media for charity partners. She is truly leading the sector.
CATEGORY
Media Sales / Account Management
Marie Joyce
Mamamia
Marie Joyce has led Mamamia’s Victorian business to its most successful year on record, lifting revenue by 66 per cent and tripling its client base.
A highlight of the year was the launch of Encore, a new post-upfront strategy that increased post event meetings by 60 per cent and lifted incremental revenue dramatically.
She also played a critical role in securing Mamamia’s first branded vodcast, Medibank’s Big Little Chats, and the platform I Never Told You that encourages families to open up about their mental health.
Under her watch, briefs volume is up 65 per cent, and churn noticeably down. Net promoter scores have also soared as the Mamamia Victorian team grew by 45 per cent.
Aside from developing high performance teams led by women, Joyce has hosted industry dinners and launched initiatives such as Locker Room and No Filter, which help women in media and marketing connect and share insights on leadership, work-life balance and other challenges.
A former Nova agency lead and Bauer group business director, Joyce has been described as the kind of leader every business hopes for, “commercially sharp, people-focused, and future-ready”.
CATEGORY
Mentor
SPONSORED BY
Dr Sameera Durrani
UTS
Born and raised in Lahore, Dr Sameera Durrani is an award-winning educator, researcher and consumer insights consultant.
She was instrumental in launching Australia’s first Strategic Communication program at UTS and her industry-focused subjects earned her a Golden Target Award from the Public Relations Institute of Australia.
Durrani brings plenty of real-world professional experiences having worked with organisations including Accenture Song, Sign Salad and Visual Signio on accounts including Austrade, Tourism Australia, Johnson & Johnson, Blackmores and Kellogg’s.
Durrani has taught hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students at UTS for six years, with at least 80 per cent of her students being women.
Her student approval ratings are close to 100 per cent and the young professionals she has taught and still actively mentors now work with organisations including Archetype, The Monkeys, HerdMSL, Deloitte, Amazon, Optus and Qantas.
Durrani is much more than an educator, she knows how to spot potential and nurture it with the care, clarity and encouragement needed to turn rough diamonds into rising and shining stars.
She creates environments where trust and empowerment enable staff to flourish, with mentoring, peer mentoring and reverse mentoring built into team culture.
One postgraduate student said of Durrani: “As a mentor, Sameera shapes more than skills—she shapes futures.”
CATEGORY
People & Culture
Jodi Paton
HOYTS Group
Jodi Paton spearheads The HOYTS Group’s People, Performance and Culture function. She is responsible for attracting, retaining and nurturing more than 3,000 people in the workforce across HOYTS, Val Morgan and Val Morgan Outdoor in both Australia and New Zealand.
Described as an “inspirational leader”, Paton has instigated and led an impressive suite of programs to support, empower and upskill female team members to create a sustainable pipeline of leaders.
This includes introducing the eight-month Elevate Emerging Leaders strategic leadership program, a graduate program, and expanding business-wide mentoring programs. She has also led the revision of hiring practices to avoid gender bias, with her efforts resulting in an improvement in female representation in shortlists for senior roles.
Motivating Patson’s success is the progression and development of women within an organisation that is in a traditionally male-dominated industry.
Since joining The HOYTS Group in 2013, Paton has been instrumental in shaping a high-performance, inclusive and people-first culture. Her leadership has driven innovation across employee experience, wellbeing, technology systems, leadership capability and community impact.
CATEGORY
People's Choice
Caoimhe O'Connor
Starcom
Starcom’s Caoimhe O’Connor has been voted by her peers as the People’s Choice winner for this year’s B&T Women in Media Awards.
O’Connor, a relative newcomer to Australia, credited her move with giving her “an edge, fresh eyes and a fearless energy” that has made her a vital part of the Starcom team and our industry.
Within a month of joining Starcom, she was leading multi-million dollar briefs for huge global clients, operating with strategic vision and even mentoring the next generation of media agency staffers. She has also been transformative for clients, shifting the trust, collaboration and quality of work.
It’s little wonder that colleagues have described her as having made an “extraordinary impact in elevating our work and empowering the team”.
CATEGORY
Project Manager
Melanie Aslanidis
MFA
Melanie Aslanidis, head of NGEN at the Media Federation of Australia (MFA), is a driving force behind one of the most influential programs, shaping more than 3,000 media professionals from all over the world.
Since its inception in 2008, NGEN has empowered some 15,000 professionals—or as much as 70 per cent of today’s media workforce.
Over the past year, she has delivered more than 50 workshops across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, including three intensive bootcamps, providing early-career talent with critical training, connections and confidence.
Aslanidis also oversees NGEN’s extremely busy social calendar, including committee-led events across three cities. This includes managing the program’s largest annual activation—the spectacular NGEN Halloween parties. This mammoth task has Aslanidis tasked with hosting more than 600 attendees across three states on a single night.
This is no easy feat, and for the event to run smoothly demands complex co-ordination, budgeting and creative execution—all of which Aslanidis manages with poise and precision.
CATEGORY
Public Relations
Simone Gupta
Supermassive
As co-founder of Supermassive, Simone Gupta has helped lead the independent creative studio through its second year and the most defining phase of its journey so far—doubling revenue while maintaining a 30 per cent EBITDA.
In the past year, she has led the ground-breaking ’36 Months’ campaign that led to an unprecedented legislative change. It was also shortlisted for the Titanium Lion in Cannes and won a silver Lion for PR Effectiveness.
As the campaign strategist for ’36 Months’, Gupta was responsible for shaping the communications and political engagement plan. She defined the position, built the message framework and designed a strategy to turn public concern into policy change. But equally, she was the inspiring leader of a small, passionate PR team who worked with relentless commitment and energy to keep the issue on the national agenda.
If that wasn’t enough, she launched FUTURES, the world’s first 24/7 rehabilitation radio station for young people in detention.
Internally at Supermassive, Gupta has shaped one of the country’s most exciting agencies with gender pay parity, and a culture grounded in fairness, flexibility and creative excellence.
CATEGORY
Rising Star
SPONSORED BY
Jessica Brackstone
Leo
At Leo, Jessica Brackstone has forged her own path, aided by her obsession with advertising history—something which has led her to be regarded as the most curious staffer in Leo’s offices.
As senior strategist, she’s led and supported successful pitches across the agency over the past 12 months. She has also contributed sharp research, strategic rigour, comms planning, creative inspiration and, most notably, played a pivotal role in shaping the next iteration of Suncorp’s ‘Resilience’ platform, helping define the business’s direction for the next three years.
This marked a major milestone in her career and shows younger women in the industry that you don’t have to wait to become a senior leader to drive real impact.
After navigating plenty of setbacks and even more successes over the past year, Brackstone is fired up to push even further in the years ahead. Beyond leading key learning and development projects for junior to mid-weight employees, she’s climbed the ranks so quickly that she is staring down the barrel of a promotion to strategy director.
Brackstone is the definition of a ‘Rising Star’, and an industry leader of tomorrow.
CATEGORY
Social Media
Shivani Maharaj
WPP Media
Shivani Maharaj has redefined what social media leadership looks like in Australia. As Australia’s first chief creator officer, she has built a new operating model that embeds creators, communities and culture at the centre of brand storytelling.
This year, she led one of the most significant influencer transformations in the market: winning and onboarding the L’Oréal ANZ influencer portfolio across 32 brands, scaling a 30-strong team and delivering the company’s highest-ever engagement results in less than six months.
Her philosophy, that creators are collaborators, not channels, has set a new benchmark for influencer marketing that is both strategic and culturally resonant.
Beyond client work, Maharaj has played a critical role in shaping the wider industry. As a founding committee member and council leader of AiMCO, she has helped create ethical frameworks, co-authored national accreditation programs, and mentored future leaders, three of whom were shortlisted for the AiMCO Trailblazers.
She regularly shares her expertise on global stages from Cannes to the Meta Festival and has partnered with Amazon to launch its influencer program in Australia.
Through innovation, mentorship and thought leadership, Maharaj has advanced social media from tactical execution to transformative influence.
CATEGORY
Strategy
Summer Treseder
Wavemaker
Wavemaker’s Summer Treseder prides herself on being a “peli-can, not a peli-can’t”. Those are her words, not ours, but it’s an attitude that has seen herself very quickly become one of the industry’s fastest-rising strategists.
Her work on Cancer Chicks’ first above-the-line campaign was a triumph across all metrics. Through her combination of strategic vision, sheer hard work and channelling her inner “peli-can”, she secured significantly more pro bono media than her target and doubled the target for sign ups to Cancer Chicks.
She is also a burgeoning thought leader in the industry. And on top of all of this, her regular ‘Psyched’ column for B&T is always a hoot (and we’re harsh markers).
She’s even won a Gold Young Spikes trophy, the Strategy category at B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards and served as an NGEN Bootcamp mentor and judges.
Treseder might be focused on being a “peli-can” and we think she’s got more than enough to become a true industry high-flyer.
CATEGORY
Sustainability Champion
Charlotte Berry
Howatson+Company
Charlotte Berry has proven that creativity and science can be powerful allies in the fight against climate change.
As a senior creative at Howatson+Company, she has embedded sustainability into the work of global brands while simultaneously spearheading industry-first initiatives that influence public policy, corporate practice and community behaviour.
Over the past year, her standout projects have included ‘Voice of the Sea’, which transformed marine biology into music and lessons for schools, winning an ARIA with a John Williamson classic and driving policy change to protect endangered species.
She also helped to rebrand a vulnerable shark species to ‘Fantastical Sharks’, a piece of work that mobilised 110,000 museum visitors and led directly to new laws restricting commercial fishing and enhancing monitoring.
Her most ambitious project, ‘mAd Science’, brings together scientists and creatives to translate critical climate research into campaigns capable of shifting public and corporate behaviour. Partnering with the University of Sydney’s Net Zero Institute and production house Finch, the program is already working to commercialise innovations such as natural acid-eating microbes for mineral recovery.
Berry’s vision is clear: sustainable profit must come from innovation, not destruction.
By connecting science with storytelling, Berry is building a blueprint for the industry to accelerate climate solutions and create systemic change. In doing so, she has proven that communications can be as critical to the planet’s survival as science itself.
CATEGORY
Tech
SPONSORED BY
Vicki Chen
Foxtel Media
As head of intelligence, trading and digital operations, Vicki Chen is responsible for how Foxtel Media’s advertising inventory is forecasted, packaged, traded and optimised across platforms.
Over the past year, Chen contributed to forecasting sellable ad inventory for live sport, drove multiple backend system enhancements that streamlined campaign setup, quality assurance and delivery, and reshaped Foxtel Media’s programmatic strategy, converting it from a low focus revenue stream into a core digital engine.
Beyond systems and strategy, Chen is a committed advocate for women in the tech industry. She leads a team of 21 people, with an equal headcount and leadership representation. She has also fostered a culture of inclusion by establishing clear career pathways and prioritising development.
Outside of her team of 21, Chen mentors two women in tech, both of whom she’s helped develop from junior operational roles into leadership positions at major Australian media organisations.
Her work has become foundational to how Foxtel Media forecasts, trades, and optimises inventory, and her influence continues to shape the systems, people and the future of media technology in Australia.
CATEGORY
Social Change Maker
SPONSORED BY
Rochelle Courtenay
Share the Dignity
As the founder and driving force behind Share the Dignity, Rochelle Courtenay has transformed the conversation on period poverty in Australia.
Share the Dignity is a not-for-profit organisation that works to make a real difference to the lives of women, girls and those who menstruate who either experience or at risk of homelessness, domestic violence and poverty. It distributes period products to those in need and works to achieve menstrual equity in Australia.
In 2024, the campaign hit a wall. Responses stalled and the media seemed no longer be interested. Courtenay didn’t panic, however. She connected to Australians via a personal, raw honest video asking for help that was distributed across social media. Those stalled responses nearly tripled in just two days.
She didn’t stop there, however, wearing a dress made of sanitary pads for 30 days straight to make a statement. She wore it to meetings, community events, and even while paddleboarding. It was uncomfortable, and that’s the point. Periods are uncomfortable for many.
Courtenay made sure people couldn’t ignore the issue. The campaign attracted another 100,000 survey responses and was covered in 379 media stories, reaching more than 2 million people.