B&T's Women in Media Awards
Winners 2026

A message from our presenting partner

As Australia’s largest content company for women, we have both the privilege and responsibility to champion, shape and share the stories of Australian women.

The stories celebrated tonight are every bit as important as those we share with millions of women each day. They reflect the talent, courage and leadership driving our industry forward, and the progress that becomes possible when women are seen, heard and supported.

That is why Are Media is proud to once again stand alongside B&T to present the 2026 Women in Media Awards.

Tonight is a celebration of individual achievement, but just as importantly, of the collective power behind it. Because when we move forward together, we move our families, communities and culture with us.

A Letter From B&T

Last year, I moved from New Zealand to Sydney. There were plenty of differences that stood out to me. But one striking similarity was the number of senior roles in publishing, agency and beyond being held by men.

It made me reflect on my own experience, and the women who have shaped my career.

When I joined the news industry five years ago, I was excited to step into a space where I expected the gender balance to be relatively equal. But it didn’t take long to notice that many senior positions were still held by men.

That’s why B&T’s Women in Media Awards is still so important. Through B&T’s Women in Media Superwomen series, interviews, panels and events, we are seeing women share their successes, but also challenges, setbacks and decisions that have shaped their careers. It’s made me realise just how many leaders we do have.

Having these conversations is essential — they show us where the gaps still exist and allow us to see the pathways already being created to close them.

One phrase I’ve heard repeatedly when interviewing women in the industry is “echo chamber”.

There is enormous value in women coming together, sharing experiences and supporting one another. But those conversations also need to reach the rooms where decisions are being made — particularly when those rooms have historically been dominated by men.

At B&T’s Women in Media Breakfast with QMS yesterday, we heard exactly that from a panel of our Lifetime Achievement Award winners.

Kim Portrate, the 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award winner, spoke about the importance of women making themselves visible in the rooms where relationships are built and business decisions are made.

Her comments really stuck with me.

Making change isn’t easy. It takes perseverance, resilience and as Portrate said, the willingness to walk into a room and make sure your voice is heard.

Tonight, we celebrate the women doing exactly that.

Thank you for making this industry a much better place. We can’t wait to celebrate with you tonight.

Woman of the Year

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

This year’s Woman of the Year is Vanessa Liell. She took home two awards tonight: Entrepreneur/Founder and Public Relations.

Liell has had an outsized impact on the Australian communications industry for some time — first as the co-founder of agency Herd (sold to Publicis Groupe in 2017) and more recently as the co-founder of Orizontas.

Many in the industry lament that the world is more complicated than ever. But Liell took that challenge and made it an opportunity to rethink the way communications is delivered for clients across a range of sectors.

To call Orizontas an agency would be to undersell its offering. Instead, it’s a strategic consultancy that has the executional capabilities of a traditional agency — it’s a model that is already winning significant pieces of business for organisations and companies of all stripes and sizes.

Over the past year, it has won important pieces of work for a variety of cross-industry bodies and the Federal Government. It has delivered back-to-back-to-back fully integrated government relations, corporate affairs and creative campaigns — something not many agencies could deliver. Its revenue has grown markedly, while maintaining a healthy profit margin, too.

But there’s more. Liell’s impact on other women within the sector is tangible.

She has mentored scores of women. She formed Global Women in PR Australia’s first Advisory Board. She drove professional development and networking opportunities for 300 women working in corporate affairs through the Trans Tasman Business Circle’s Dialogue, a platform she co-founded.

She sits on the University of NSW’s Media Industry Advisory Board and teaches communications at UTS.

She also teaches post-grad Communications students Sustainability, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility — a new course she co-designed.

She chairs the Arise Foundation’s Advisory Board, supporting women survivors of domestic violence and financial abuse.

We could, honestly, keep going. Considering we all have the same number of hours in a day, it’s a wonder she can fit it all in.

Our judges described Liell as displaying “high discipline whilst also delivering world-changing impact,” and said her contribution to the industry and female advancement is “market leading”.

We couldn’t agree more.

Lifetime Achievement

Belinda Rowe

Belinda Rowe is this year’s Lifetime Achievement winner. And, if we’re honest, she has achieved more in one lifetime (and shows no signs of stopping, either) than many could hope to achieve in two.

Rowe was a trailblazer for women in Australia’s agency world and was truly ahead of her time.

She was a founding member of Optimedia in 1998 and became one of only a few female agency CEOs at a time when the media industry was very male-dominated — in all senses of the term. Rowe, as one close friend told us, more than held her own. In fact, she thrived and showed women around the country what could be possible and fought to make the industry better for all. The business she built was formidable, winning big-spending clients such as Nestlé, Telstra, News Corp and Jetstar.

Rowe was also an executive leader and shareholder of iconic Aussie agency Mojo and was instrumental in the business’ success before it was sold to the Publicis Groupe.

In 2009, Rowe moved to the UK to serve as global managing partner of ZenithOptimedia. She would later become global managing partner of parent company Publicis Media.

Between 2003 and 2009, Rowe served as chair of the Australian Federation of Advertising. She was fundamental in its transformation and incorporating of other communications industry bodies into what became the Communications Council.

It wasn’t the first, and certainly not the last, time that Rowe would hold significant board roles. Currently, she serves on the boards of ARN, the Sydney Swans, Temple & Webster and Sky New Zealand. As we said, Rowe shows no signs of stopping at all. She was also inducted into the MFA Hall of Fame in 2023.

But Rowe’s greatest legacy is the impact she has left on others. She continues to mentor other women in the industry, passing on the knowledge she has gained through years of hard work delivered with an irrepressible spirit.

“I will always remember Belinda’s EQ as well as her brilliant IQ and impeccable style and grace,” one industry confidant told B&T.

“Belinda was not only incredibly warm and friendly but she had incredible leadership skills and vision. This she combined with real charisma. Outstanding.”

We are all better for her contribution to our industry.

Agency Sales / Account Management

Stephanie Theonas

WPP Beauty Tech Labs

Stephanie Theonas is not only a rising star at WPP Beauty Tech Labs, but is also taking a leading role in nurturing the next generation of female talent.

She leads influencer marketing across 16 luxury brands within the L’Oréal LUXE portfolio, including YSL Beauty, Armani Beauty, Prada Beauty, Aesop and Miu Miu Beauty.

For YSL Beauty, Theonas developed a creator strategy that would allow it to authentically participate in festival culture without compromising its luxury positioning.

The aim of the influencer campaign was to strengthen YSL Beauty’s relevance with a Gen Z audience. She oversaw the selection and management of 60 creators, negotiated talent partnerships and directed campaign execution across ANZ.

In collaboration with PR and media, the campaign generated tens of millions of views and almost 1 million engagements, transforming YSL Beauty from a festival sponsor into a genuine cultural participant.

Theonas also played a key role in launching Miu Miu’s first creator campaign in Australia and New Zealand.

She developed a Creative Excellence System that streamlined approvals, created stronger stakeholder relationships and higher-quality content output, driving huge lifts in engagement, influence share and video views.

Theonas manages and mentor two women, Cheska and Kavitraa, who are both new to the ANZ influencer landscape.

She provides structured coaching and hands-on campaign experience, and has supported colleagues’ growth across strategy, client management and commercial capability.

She also supports women through Prosple, a program where she provides career guidance to graduates and junior talent pursuing careers in marketing and social media.

Theonas holds mentoring sessions with female creators, providing guidance on content strategy and long-term partnership development. This helps creators strengthen their content proposition and commercial value, creating a healthier and more sustainable creator economy for women.

Best Ad Campaign - Championing the Equality Cause

‘What Kind of Man’

Respect Victoria & The Open Arms

What kind of man do you want to be? That’s the question at the heart of Respect Victoria’s ‘What Kind of Man’ campaign. It put Victorian men, not women, at the centre of the conversation on family and gender violence.

Opening on the scale of the problem as a ‘national crisis’, the campaign turned the lens onto real Victorian men, asking them, unscripted and on camera, what kind of man they wanted to be.

Their answers played out across social, digital, cinema and out-of-home. It tackled the stigma surrounding masculinity head-on and created space for men to reflect on their own behaviour and the kind of change they could be a part of.

It’s the kind of work Amy Hollier and Jess Lilley have built The Open Arms to deliver, similar to its anti-bullying campaign for Dolly’s Dream.

This approach is borne out in what The Open Arms calls its “Empathy Model”, which puts lived experience ahead of all else.

Getting men to publicly grapple with their own capacity for harm is one of the most difficult briefs in the prevention space.

Most campaigns flinch at the thought and point inwards instead. The Open Arms and Respect Victoria didn’t.

Together, they created an environment for men to sit in that discomfort, on camera and trusted that their honesty would do more work than any script could.

Business Support

Sarah George

Foxtel Media

It’s a combination of strong mentorship, community, and a willingness to share her knowledge that explains why Sarah George won the Business Support award tonight.

Based in Melbourne, George has been with Foxtel Media for seven years and, over that time, has grown tremendously in her role and in the impact she has on those around her.

In particular, she closely mentored one of her colleagues, Emma Fisher, who has personally experienced the impact of George’s guidance. When Fisher joined as an executive assistant during DAZN’s acquisition of the Foxtel Group in mid-2025, she was navigating a new role, an unfamiliar industry and a wave of new systems simultaneously. George stepped in immediately to guide and mentor Fisher.

As CEO of Foxtel Media Mark Frain said, George “is one of those rare people who makes everything around her work better”.

And by better, it’s not just the mentorship element. According to him, it’s a combination of being “dependable, fiercely organised and genuinely invested in the success of the business and the people within it”.

Frain said George has “kept the wheels turning when it mattered most” for the Foxtel Media family, with her ambition, willingness and consideration helping several people within the business.

She has also stepped well beyond the traditional remit of an EA. With no dedicated marketing resource on the ground in Melbourne, George took on event logistics and design coordination, leading more than four separate events for the Victorian market in the past year.

George has also made a significant impact through her work with the Starlight Children’s Foundation, helping organise the Foxtel Golf Day. This year’s event marked a record result, supporting 7,568 seriously ill children and young people across Australia and raising more than $300,000.

George was “central to the event’s success”, according to the foundation’s CEO, due to the way she worked across multiple brands and organisations and helped ensure a positive experience for all 90 players and volunteers on the day.

Champion of Change

Andie Tickner

Lion

Andie Tickner is the definition of a trailblazer in a traditionally male dominated field.

She does not bear the responsibility of being the cultural collaborations leader of one of the biggest alcohol distributors lightly. Creating paths for women during and after her to excel in the business.

This year Tickner co-led Lion’s highest-attended International Women’s Day event to date. Featuring Lion’s first female CEO, Anubha Sahasrabuddhe, and chief operating officer, Craig Baldie, the event was delivered virtually across ANZ and supported through watch parties at Lion sites, breweries and offices.

As a result of Tickner’s hard work, there was an increase in the visibility of female leadership at the highest levels of the organisation. After all, if you can’t see you can’t be it.

Through honest conversations about leadership, career progression and balancing personal and professional responsibilities, the event inspired employees across ANZ and reinforced Lion’s commitment to creating an environment where women can thrive.

She has been so impactful at Lion that her peers have even labelled her a “life saver”

The creation and leadership of Lion’s Domestic Abuse Support Network (DASN) plays a large role in this description.

Tickner, who serves as its co-chair understood how isolating and invisible the experience can be. She recognised the need for a safe, supportive environment where employees could seek help without fear, shame or judgement. She shared her story, helping challenge stereotypes and demonstrate that domestic abuse can impact anyone, regardless of confidence or professional standing.

The network launch attracted more than 210 employees across ANZ and achieved a participant satisfaction score of 4.85 out of 5. More importantly, employees subsequently sought support through the network, demonstrating its immediate impact. Feedback included comments such as, “This could well and truly save people’s lives” and “From the bottom of my heart, thank you”, reflecting the initiative’s impact.

Client Services

Kate Smailes

Havas Red

Kate Smailes has spent nearly a decade with Havas Red and has been instrumental in maintaining its status as one of the country’s most important public relations agencies.

Her work with Toyota — an account she has worked for nearly two decades — she leads an integrated remit spanning Toyota, Lexus, Toyota Finance, Toyota Material Handling and Hino, with responsibility across PR, social, content, brand experience, digital, crisis management, corporate affairs and production.

But Toyota, long one of the country’s dominant automotive players, was facing the kind of disruption that Australia’s automotive market hasn’t seen since Korean marques started to gain traction (if you’ll pardon the pun) in the mid-90s.

Smailes led Havas’ servicing of Toyota, creating a more integrated model, elevating senior counsel and driving faster alignment across disciplines. This resulted in the evolution of the ‘Choose Toyota’ platform into a more emotionally resonant, customer-led approach, placing real owners and authentic stories of trust and loyalty at the centre in a social-first ecosystem.

The numbers speak for themselves with client satisfaction up more than 15 per cent, Toyota fending off challenges from other marques and remaining the most trusted car brand.

She has also ensured women lead strategic workstreams for Toyota, mentors seven women, launched the Havas Families network for working parents and caregivers and has been publicly vocal about her four-year fertility journey in the trade press and The Village Podcast.

Smailes is the kind of client lead that we could all learn a great deal from.

Creative

Charlotte Berry

Howatson+Company

Charlotte Berry has spent her career refusing to accept the gap between advertising’s talent pool and its leadership team.

This year, her creative output proved exactly why that gap needs closing.

At Howatson+Company, Berry has translated brand briefs into work with real cultural weight. She was the driving force behind Allianz’s ‘Adrift’, a sponsorship platform that elevated women’s sport onto one of Australia’s biggest stages.

She also led the Australian Museum’s ‘Spokespecimens’ campaign, which turned a modest Giving Day budget into over $1 million in value.

Within a 24-hour turnaround, she delivered the museum’s SBS sustainability challenge entry, unlocking $100,000 in media and fronted ‘bloodsuckers’ the museum’s first major exhibition campaign of its kind.

Berry’s instinct for systemic change is what sets her apart.

She is the creative force behind Fair Treatment, the world’s first blind bid for commercial director selection model she launched tonight at B&T’s Women in Media Awards.

Built alongside director Madeleine Purdy and creative partner Tom Macphail, the initiative strips names, house styles and production companies before they‘re judged, so that work is chosen on merit alone. She already has 22 female directors along with major production houses including Revolver, Good Oil and Collider on board.

Colleagues describe her as someone who “unites exceptional creativity ability” with “the kind of quiet authority that defines a great leader”.

It’s rare for a creative to be this good at the brief whilst also being so determined to rewrite the industry producing it.

Creative Producer

Tash Johnson

Special

Tash Johnson is a force in the production world. As national head of production at Special, she has spent her first year in the role, redefining what a modern production offering looks like, not as a set of operational constraints, but as a strategic opportunity to protect the integrity of an idea.

Johnson has transformed the agency’s in-house studio, Special Made, into a hybrid powerhouse, upskilling editors into advanced animation and building a robust AI offering through Special Scale, its adaption tool that automates resource-heavy versioning and funnels the savings straight back into high-end craft filmmaking.

That very hybrid model helped secure major national business wins across clients including KFC, Honda and Google.

Take Uber’s ‘Get Almost Almost Anything’ campaign featuring The Kid LAROI. A tight schedule and complex prosthetics threatened to to gut the project’s ambition. Instead Johnson went directly to the client and negotiated more time rather than let the work absorb the compromise.

A separate Uber campaign titled ‘Can’t Do That If You’re Driving,’ starring Tom Cardy and Shania Twain, called for night-time driving sequences that would have required a punishing all-night location shoot, so she instead built an entire sound stage using virtual production.

When KFC’s ‘Go Full Chicken’ production timeline was accelerated, the first draft arrived tangled up in CGI and ice-skating choreography, she merged Special’s Sydney and Melbourne teams and had them run it at one.

She leads a team of 20, 14 of whom are women, and she’s been deliberate about backing mothers and pushing women into opportunities the industry doesn’t always offer.

Special MD Sasha Firth lauded her “uncommon” ability to make complex feel manageable.

Revolver’s Michael Ritchie described Johnson as “a velvet sledgehammer” who always manages to get things done.

Either way, the pattern holds. She won’t choose between pressure and craft. She’ll find a place where they meet.

Education / Research

Amelia Johns

UTS

Amelia Johns is one of the region’s foremost researchers and academics in digital media. She is the author of two research monographs — Battle for the Flag (2015, MUP) and WhatsApp: From a one-to-one communication app to a global communications platform (2024, Polity) and an edited collection. Her fourth book, Handbook of Digital Citizenship, is scheduled for publication in 2027.

She has won more than $1 million in competitive funding via tenders, grants and awards. With this funding, she has led interdisciplinary and international teams of scholars to address intersecting challenges, including digital literacy and digital safety capabilities and needs of marginalised youth in Australia and the Asia Pacific. She has also led teams to investigate ; the growing challenge of mis- and disinformation and related inquiries focused on platform governance and regulation.

This work has led to impactful research outcomes including new means of ‘decolonising’ funding models, creating digital literacy resources with Malaysian LGBTQ+ community organisations and practical guidance to assist Australian educators and youth stakeholders designing digital citizenship programs for diverse audiences.

Her work with these projects also gave her course to mentor the next generation of female digital media scholars, including two women who have subsequently secured research and lecturing positions.

Johns’ expertise is sought-after at the highest levels of government. She consulted to the eSafety Commissioner on Australia’s teen social media ban legislation and advised the Covid taskforce to counter misinformation.

Her impact on Australia and the broader Asia-Pacific region is tangible with her zeal to ensure the digital media world we all inhabit becomes a little bit better for everyone, every single day.

Employer

The Digital Picnic

There are few that take the responsibility of supporting, uplifting and celebrating women more seriously than Cherie Clonan (a former Woman of the Year) and The Digital Picnic, the agency that she founded.

It is not only led by women, but 83 per cent of staff are women, including 10 out of 14 new hires across the judging period.

Last September, The Digital Picnic launched an internship program to open doors for people from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The majority of these internships were women.

It’s the latest example of how The Digital Picnic’s recruitment, onboarding, retention, advancement and women’s wellbeing are supported by policies that drive systemic change.

Another is a new endometriosis policy, informed by Clonan’s lifelong experience with the condition, provides women with paid annual leave and $500 in medical support, as well as various workplace adjustments to help those with the condition cope.

The Digital Picnic has some of the most generous flexible working practices in the industry while staff are only required to work from the office six days per month.

Primary and secondary carers can access six weeks of full paid parental leave or 12 weeks at half pay, while a pregnancy loss or miscarriage policy provides support for women and families during devastating times.

The Digital Picnic also provides women with an additional 3 per cent of super in their first three years, which has helped the agency attract senior female talent in an industry that sheds jobs at nearly double the normal rate.

It’s another example of how Clonan and The Digital Picnic are tackling several facets of gender inequality and the gender pay gap.

“What TDP gave me wasn’t just a job. It was permission to be a full person,” said one employee. “TDP recognises women earn less, and retire with less. They’re doing something about it.”

Entrepreneur / Founder

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

Vanessa Liell has been at the leading change for women in the communications and public relations space for decades. That did not change during the past year — rather, she found new ways to contribute to the sector.

Orizontas, the communications consultancy she co-founded three years ago, has taken a different approach to solving client problems in a world rapidly growing in complexity. Rather than focusing solely on communications expertise, it combined deep technical and policy expertise across a range of sectors to solve seriously meaty problems and challenges for clients. As she said, “Fully Integrated is the new black”.

In the past year, it won and delivered back-to-back-to-back fully integrated government relations, corporate affairs and creative campaigns that combined all of its expertise. This work saw the business’ revenue climb significantly — with a very healthy profit margin, to boot. It’s not the first time that Liell has grown a communications business to significance in the market, having been the co-founder of Herd, which was later sold to Publicis Groupe.

During the year, Liell formed Global Women in PR Australia’s first Advisory Board to strengthen advocacy, amplify impact, deepen partnerships to challenge outdated norms in the industry. It also expanded leadership opportunities to build a more equitable future for women in PR and communications.

She formally mentored three PR agency CEOs and informally mentored another 20 or so, including six agency heads, academics, and Indigenous women. She also serves as chair of the Arise Foundation’s advisory board to support survivors of domestic violence and financial abuse. And there’s so much more. Frankly, it’s a wonder how she fits it all in.

As one CEO put it: “Vanessa’s remarkable contributions to the field, her unwavering commitment to nurturing talent, and inspiring leadership have left an indelible impact on the industry.”

Executive Leader

Jasmin Bedir

Innocean Australia

Bedir has led a significant transformation of Innocean over the past year, turning it from a traditional creative agency into an integrated end-to-end business spanning creative, media, technology and data.

The centrepiece of that transformation was bringing media planning and buying fully in-house — a capability Innocean did not have 12 months earlier. The new division now accounts for a quarter of the agency’s business, manages more than $40 million in media billings and employs more than 20 people.

The transformation has delivered clear commercial growth. Revenue increased 25 per cent year on year, while headcount grew almost 40 per cent, from around 60 to 85 people.

The agency also added Carnival Cruise Line and Teachers Health Group to its roster, taking its total client base to 10 and reducing its historic reliance on automotive accounts.

Bedir has also prioritised the development of an integrated culture, removing the traditional P&L divide between creative and media. In its first six months, the new model delivered campaigns costing 24 per cent less while achieving 15 per cent greater business outcomes, demonstrating the commercial value of the integration.

Her leadership extends beyond commercial performance. Through Fck The Cupcakes, Bedir has built an industry-wide gender equality movement, while new policies at Innocean include menopause leave, gender affirmation support and fully funded gender-neutral parental leave. The agency’s leadership team is now 55 per cent female.

She has also launched The Fck It List podcast alongside Carly Pelham and Jen Dobbie via the Nova Entertainment podcast network, to put difficult conversations around women’s experiences firmly on the record.

Finance & Accounting

Justine Jones

Zenith Media

Justine Jones is proof that finance is about far more than keeping the books balanced. As finance director at Zenith Australia, she leveraged the numbers to spot opportunities, back bold ideas and help turn an already successful agency into an even stronger business.

During her four-year tenure, Zenith’s success has been independently recognised across the industry, seeing rapid growth in billings and slew of new client wins — as well as a host of awards.

These achievements were made possible by disciplined financial leadership, strategic investment decisions and a relentless focus on sustainable profitability.

She has also helped reshape Zenith’s offshore operating model, delivering strong cost savings this year while maintaining service quality and creating new opportunities for offshore talent.

Beyond her everyday role, Jones — as the superstar she is — has championed women all over the agency by embedding progression, equity and leadership development into the core of Zenith Media’s commercial model.

At Zenith, she has built and developed a high-performing finance team with strong female representation, with six of her eight direct reports being women. Her focus has extended beyond representation to capability.

She has supported this group to broaden their commercial and media expertise, and increasingly step into strategic business partnering roles that position them for future leadership within Publicis Media.

Jones is an absolute superstar and there is no one more deservant of the inaugural Finance & Accounting role than her!

Glass Ceiling Award

Erin Ferreira

Fox Sports

In the male-dominated sports media industry, Erin Ferreira hasn’t just broken through the glass ceiling, she is blazing an inclusive pathway for others.

After working as a producer at South African broadcaster Super Sport, Ferreira joined Fox Sports in 2019 and swiftly became its first-ever female executive producer.

She then led Fox Netball, building a suite of programming that gave netball the same editorial weight, production quality and cultural presence as any major football code.

This transformed Suncorp Super Netball from a sport with limited broadcast presence into a culturally relevant, commercially powerful and globally distributed property that now reaches more than 120 countries.

Under her watch, netball attendances grew by 21 per cent, and advertising and sponsorship revenue soared, turning netball into Australia’s most professional and inclusive woman’s sport.

She embedded inclusion not as a policy, but as a production philosophy.

Fox Netball pioneered all-female control room crews — a first in Australian sports broadcasting — alongside innovations including live team access, coach cams and unprecedented behind-the-scenes content. These structural decisions normalised female leadership at every level of production and set a new industry standard.

Ferreira’s subsequent elevation to general manager in 2025 — with an expanded remit encompassing all financial production decisions, stats and studio operations — makes her one of the most senior leaders in Australian sports broadcasting today.

Aside from championing elite athletes, such as Cath Cox and Bianca Chatfield into lead commentary roles usually occupied by men, she has mentored several women who have gone on to prominent roles in the media industry.
This has helped women break new ground in roles that were historically inaccessible.

Ferreira is not just deserving of the Glass Ceiling Award, she is the embodiment of it.

Innovator

Katy Eng

Omnicom

Katy Eng didn’t just spot a gap in the industry, she proved it existed, then rebuilt the infrastructure around it.

That’s the difference between advocacy and innovation and it’s also why Eng won this year’s Innovator award.

As Omnicom’s head of diverse, one of the largest multicultural media divisions in a holding company in Australia, Eng set out to make multicultural Australians impossible to ignore, in a market that has spent decades planning around them.

The most consequential shift came in April of last year, when Roy Morgan overhauled its survey methodology, introduced questions on cultural background, language-media preferences and neurodivergent experience. It was the culmination of a year Eng had spent steering the proposal through the MFA DE&I Council alongside collaborators Elena Gianni and Luisa Dalli. Nielsen followed suit shortly after.

Realigning the industry’s core measurement instruments within a single judging period is a rare achievement.

She was equally deliberate in ensuring the reform registered emotionally, not just statistically. In an MFA Ex first, Eng wrote and directed ‘The Case of the Missing Millions,’ a live dramatic retelling of the campaign staged before more than 2,5000 industry leaders across Sydney and Melbourne, evidence that structural reform can command a room as readily as a balance sheet.

Her Mandarin speaking division, Australia’s only national team of its kind within a holdco, recorded zero staff turnover, with 73 per cent of members promoted or granted a salary increase.

What distinguishes Eng is not any single achievement but the range of registers across which it played out: in a boardroom, on a national survey instrument, on a stage and within her own team’s progression.

Few innovators can claim to have moved all four at once.

Journalist / Producer

Nicole Madigan

Nicole Madigan has used her journalism to meaningfully break the silence around domestic and family violence, bringing greater public attention to forms of abuse that are often misunderstood, under-reported or invisible.

During the judging period, her significant contribution to Mamamia’s coercive control series, alongside feature articles and opinion pieces, explored coercive control, financial abuse, technology-facilitated abuse, stalking, post-separation abuse, legal systems abuse and the unique challenges faced by older women experiencing violence.

A standout element of Madigan’s work has been her ability to earn the trust of victim-survivors willing to share deeply sensitive, highly personal and often traumatic experiences that had never previously been made public. Through exclusive interviews and survivor-led stories, she has brought these experiences to audiences for the first time, while maintaining a trauma-informed approach that prioritises dignity, safety and agency.

Her reporting combines powerful lived experience with expert evidence from researchers, legal professionals, psychologists, advocates and frontline services, helping audiences understand the complex realities and long-term consequences of abuse.

Professor Silke Meyer of Griffith University, who has worked with Madigan since 2023, describes her as a journalist who “approaches difficult questions around victim-survivor experiences with a critical and nuanced perspective, while writing with clarity, empathy and a commitment to under-reported issues affecting women”.

In addition to her core journalism, Madigan has extended her advocacy through public speaking, podcasts, radio and her role as a board member of Friends with Dignity, supporting women and children impacted by domestic and family violence.

Marketing

Emily Meier-Murren

Carma

It’s hard to argue that Emily Meier-Murren isn’t making marketing magic happen, when she built Carma’s marketing function from the ground up.

She recruited a team of eight specialists, including two women to head up the most senior roles within the team.

To help the team flourish she created and grew an environment where curiosity, learning and bold thinking were and still are the norm.

This team themself — led by Meier-Murren — have continued making marketing brilliance by delivering high-impact campaigns in weeks, not months.

The ‘Decoding Dealerships’ campaign is one such example. It was driven by a simple premise: help Australians understand the red and green flags of used car buying.

Carma and Meier-Murren took that message directly to the heart of traditional car retailing, placing out-of-home across Parramatta Road’s Auto Alley alongside buses, street furniture, radio, creator partnerships and NRMA member channels.

To help boost brand awareness she has also led sponsorships with Sydney FC, the Sydney Kings and the Sydney Flames, driving significant boosts to familiarity and consideration.

The impact of the campaign paired with the sponsorships is impossible to ignore. Brand awareness grew to 54 per cent in NSW and the media placements reached 15.5 million monthly visitors.

Beyond her day-to-day, she has also helped shape Carma’s first parental leave policy. She was also the first person in the business to go on maternity leave. The definition of a true trailblazer.

As a working mother navigating a demanding senior role in a fast-moving startup, she is intentionally visible about that reality.

In an industry where returning after parental leave can feel like starting over, she has modelled a different narrative — one where ambition and family coexist, where maternity leave doesn’t mean a career pause, and where the women watching from earlier in their careers can see what’s possible.

Media Planner / Buyer

Katherine Pochroj

EssenceMediacom

Katherine ‘KP’ Pochroj is a force to be reckoned with in the media planning and buying space.

As her boss, WPP Media chief investment officer Melissa Hey, puts it: “KP exemplifies best-in-class media planning and buying, combining curiosity, rigour and a constant focus on improving outcomes without settling for the status quo”.

As EssenceMediacom’s Sydney investment chief, Pochroj leads a team of 121 media buyers that handle billings for accounts including Coca-Cola, Uber, Lion, HBO Max, AirBnb and KFC.

During the judging period, WPP Media won BYD in a price driven pitch where she developed a bespoke investment strategy that was critical to the win.

She also helped onboard Lion and developed playbooks to accelerate Lion’s OOH and screens strategy to new heights. Her work with Lion was described by its head of media Clare Tsubono as “exceptionally well executed and a highly engaging and valuable experience for the wider team”.

Under KP’s watch, EssenceMediacom met all of its trading objectives with a +8 TRR of Sydney clients.
She contributed to modules for the WPP Media’s ‘Craft Masters’ training program and became the co-chair of the MFA 5+ committee.

Pochroj is a founding member of EssenceMediacom’s mentorship program and has mentored six woman, while also leading the agency’s partnership with Dolly’s Dream, a foundation dedicated to ending childhood bullying.

In 2025, for example, she collaborated with 32 media partners to secure over $10 million in free media for the ‘Do It For Dolly Day’ campaign, enhancing the visibility and impact of this important initiative.

EssenceMediacom’s CEO Pippa Berlocher describes KP as a future leader of the industry whose craft knowledge, passion and commitment to excellence not only makes a profound impact on EssenceMediacom, but across the entire media industry.

Media Sales/Account Management

Susan Dickens

ARN

ARN’s senior client partner Susan Dickens is the definition of an expert in client relationship management — going well beyond just generating revenue for the broadcaster.

Her best work can be spotlighted in the ‘Everyday Rewards Boost’ campaign, developed in partnership with Carat and Woolworths. The objective was to drive app engagement and improve consumer understanding of the Everyday Rewards “Boost” functionality, encouraging members to activate offers and accelerate points accumulation.

Through consumer research, Dickens understood a significant education gap, with 42 per cent of consumers either unaware of Boosting or not understanding how it worked, and only 13 per cent recognised that offers needed to be activated to maximise rewards.

Working closely with Carat, the Everyday Rewards team and internal ARN stakeholders, Dickens helped shape a campaign that leveraged the strength of the ARN EntertainmentSphere ecosystem.

The team utilised Amanda Keller and Amy Gerard to bring the concept of “Finding Joy in the Little Wins” to life through talent-led creative, contextual messaging and promotional activity.

The campaign was executed nationally across KIIS, GOLD and regional markets through a three-phase strategy.

The campaign generated 2,555 competition entries nationally.

From a commercial perspective, the campaign achieved 109 per cent ROI, it reached 2.65 million Australians, generated an average frequency of 5.75, and included 2,394 spots nationally.

When she isn’t generating revenue for ARN, she is looking after her fellow women in the industry.
She has actively championed greater awareness, education and support for women’s health within the media. Through a Carat Meets & Eats Mother’s Day event, she invited leading nutritionist Susie Burrell to participate in an interactive Q&A session focused on optimising women’s health during the perimenopausal and menopausal years.

The session provided agency attendees with practical, evidence-based advice on nutrition, exercise, supplementation and lifestyle strategies to support wellbeing during this life stage.

Most importantly, it also created an open forum for discussion, enabling participants, both men and women, to better understand how they can support colleagues, mothers, sisters, partners and friends experiencing menopause.

Mentor

Philippa Moig

UnLtd & MOOD

Philippa Moig has been CEO of UnLtd for just over a year but has already left an indelible mark on the careers of many.

She launched UnLtd’s first mentoring program in 21 years, with 25 mentoring sessions taking place with 15 genuinely industry leaders as mentors. One mentee said it “made development a priority, not an afterthought” which gave her “the confidence, perspective and support to grow both personally and professionally”.

Over the past year, Moig herself has mentored 14 women across agencies, publishers, technology, corporate and the NFP sector. Four of those women have been promoted, three moved into new roles, two received salary increases. That’s not to say that the remaining five women’s mentorship was unsuccessful, it’s merely an example of the vast time Moig surrenders to help others.

But there’s more. She’s part of the IMAA Female Leaders of Tomorrow Program which takes place over six months, Joy Media’s Accelerate Her Mentor Program which runs for four months. She’s also a mentor for The Marketing Academy across two streams and gets involved at our very own Cairns Crocodiles speed mentoring.

But that’s not all. Moig has also taken UnLtd to new heights — some going considering the strong wicket it was already on. Its fundraising for social impact causes climbed 11 per cent year-on-year, team satisfaction increased markedly, has welcomed three new charity partners (all led by women, to boot) and has recruited 17 more volunteers (12 women) expanding the community of leaders and changemakers contributing their time and expertise for good.

As one referee said: “Watching Phil become the first female CEO of UnLtd changed what I believed was possible for my own career”.

How’s that for impact?

People & Culture

Nicolle Stuart

Mamamia

Serving as head of people and culture at Mamamia, Stuart has been described as being “significantly more impactful than she would ever claim to be herself”, according to outgoing CEO Nat Harvey.

When describing Stuart’s impact, Harvey said she “builds real outcomes for women, treats technology as an opportunity rather than a threat, and does it all without losing the human at the centre of the work”.

Every decision she makes is anchored in the long-term success of the business, including lifting parental leave by 50 per cent from eight to 12 weeks, extending to 18 weeks at five years, with superannuation paid throughout.

Her ability to read people with precision, maintain an extraordinarily strong work ethic and remain comfortable raising hard truths has been highly commended across the industry.

In July 2025, Stuart was named one of B&T’s Top 10 People Leaders in Australia, highlighting her standing within the country’s HR industry.

Stuart is passionate about building real pathways for women, including as a founding partner of the Encoreship, a return-to-work program for women re-entering the workforce after extended career breaks.

In its first year, the program placed two women in a job share — one who had been out of the workforce for 17 years and another for eight. Both retrained across social, podcasting and written editorial, went on to secure permanent roles and now host a podcast together. Stuart also hired a senior marketer who had been out of work for five years.

She has also invested heavily in women’s progression at Mamamia, building its learning and development ecosystem and People Manager Capability Program, while driving AI literacy and ensuring women returning from parental leave are not left behind.

Across her work, Stuart has consistently built tangible outcomes for women while embracing technology as an opportunity rather than a threat, without losing the human at the centre of people and culture.

People's Choice

Simran Kaur

Pounce Agency

This year’s People’s Choice award was hotly contested. But it was Pounce Agency’s Simran Kaur who came storming home to collect the prestigious award.

She is very well-liked and respected amongst her peers and the broader media industry, taking nearly 12 per cent of all votes cast.

The CEO of the full-service marketing agency leaves her mark on everyone she comes across—and even more so if you work with her. So much so that her colleagues have explained that she “genuinely lifts up the people around her”.

Kaur has had a whirlwind 12 months, doing everything she can to transform the agency into a powerhouse. One of these examples is repositioning the agency to a Creative Transformation Agency, after recognising her clients did not need separate providers for strategy, creative, technology and AI. Under Simran’s leadership, the business rebuilt its service model, creating a more scalable and sustainable business designed for the future. This transformation touched every aspect of the agency, from positioning and services through to team structure, capability development and growth strategy.

Her dedication can not be questioned. This year she made a significant investment in the future growth of the business by temporarily relocating to Malaysia with her young daughter. She did this in order to establish and accelerate Pounce’s Southeast Asian operations. Whilst trying to achieve this she continued to lead and grow the Australian business, travelling regularly between both markets.

But what really separates Kaur is that her talk isn’t cheap. She doesn’t just talk about how she uplifts women in and around the business, “she shows up and advocates for them.”

Project Manager

Tara O'Keefe

QMS

Tara O’Keefe has demonstrated the kind of leadership that goes well beyond her title, combining commercial impact, operational transformation and exceptional project delivery to become a key driver of change at QMS.

Her work was crucial in helping secure and deliver major partnerships with Allianz, Samsung, Visa, Griffith University, Toyota, Westpac, Amazon and Adelaide University through QMS’ Milano Cortina Winter Games program.

Her work on the Olympics program was described as being “second to none” by QMS COO Sara Lappage, who said O’Keefe “galvanised the teams across the business” and took on an “extraordinary workload” while remaining calm, considerate and professional.

The program is a clear example of why O’Keefe stands out. She managed the full client engagement and implementation process, bringing together sales, creative, campaign delivery and national teams to ensure every partnership was delivered successfully.

The resulting Winter Games Network reached more than 10 million Australians, delivered 278 million impressions across 1,108 panels and generated significant lifts in sponsorship awareness, consideration, affinity and preference.

But O’Keefe’s impact extends beyond one major project. She has been instrumental in transforming QMS’ sales platforms and processes, leading the migration to a specialist OOH CRM, rolling out industry-aligned sales processes and championing dynamic creative across the organisation.

She also established a National Campaign Delivery Team and campaign management tool to improve efficiency and give sales teams more time to focus on clients and new revenue opportunities.

Her leadership has been formally recognised through QMS’ Leadership Award, where she was celebrated as an “incredible role model”, particularly for young women.

As Lappage put it, “A person does not need to have a team of direct reports to be considered an exceptional leader.”

O’Keefe has demonstrated that leadership through the scale of what she delivers, the people she brings with her and the lasting change she is creating across QMS.

Public Relations

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

The Public Relations award was the second trophy Liell collected on awards night. And, frankly, it’s hardly a surprise at all.

She co-founded Orizontas three years ago, promising clients a new, more integrated offering that could solve more complex challenges. It’s a radically different way of organising a communications consultancy with deep expertise in policy and more technical matters.

The model truly hit its stride in the past year, with Orizontas picking up multiple pieces of end-to-end communications and creative work on a variety of topics. One standout was its response to the Federal Government’s gas market review for client Manufacturing Australia.

The ‘Fair Gas Prices’ campaign was blended targeted government relations, unbranded earned media campaign, branded creative and a campaign website.

The government relations and media strategy was fronted by industry and manufacturing CEOs and targeted Federal and State Leaders, key ministers and bureaucrats. Their opinion pieces appeared in some of the country’s most influential media outlets, including AFR.

It put pressure on policymakers by putting the issue in front of the public. Creative made the policy’s economic consequences human and visible

It reframed the debate from a polarising climate issue into a pragmatic national conversation focusing on what was at stake — manufacturing, jobs, communities. Polls showing overwhelming public support for reform gave decision-makers the reason to act they needed. The campaign unlocked ‘political permission’ for reform.

The Government announced a gas reservation scheme mandating 20 per cent allocation for domestic customers. ‘Fair Gas Prices’ was instrumental in changing that policy.

There’s so much more, too. Liell mentors scores of women in the industry and actively participates in the success of other businesses through boards and more. We could, quite honestly, write something akin to War & Peace about her tireless energy and generosity.

Rising Star

Pawena Kaniah

Initiative

Pawena Kaniah, relatively new to the industry is already excelling and is destined for greatness — if she isn’t already there.

If you want to know just how quickly Kaniah advances in her field, you don’t have to read too much further than this case study.

In July of 2025, Kaniah, already a senior strategist, inherited Ferrara’s NERDS account. When she took over this client she quickly learnt that the US-based client knew nothing about the Aussie media landscape. So, through competitive category spend modelling, she transformed a $50,000 pilot into a $1 million annual investment.

In order to achieve this spend, she had to present to the South Korean APAC HQ and the CMO who flew in from Chicago just to hear her case.

She blew everybody away and in just four months of looking after NERDS, Kaniah was entrusted with Ferrero’s 9 sub-brand portfolio. This entailed a double-digit-million-dollar account — which was iProspect’s largest client.

This Rising Star trophy will look great next to her B&T 30 Under 30 Strategy trophy.

Strategy

Celia Garforth

Special

Celia Garforth has spent nine years leading strategy on Special’s cornerstone account, Uber, and the past twelve months have arguably been her biggest.

As chief strategy officer of Special’s Asia-focused offering, Garforth now oversees the Special x Uber partnership across ANZ, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India and Korea, running a hybrid model she helped to design. It includes a core Sydney team working alongside local partners and an eight-person satellite team in Tokyo.

Over the past year, that model has expanded Uber Japan from delivery into mobility, secured the KFC North Asia account and won regional brand projects for Grab across seven Southeast Asian markets. All of which delivered close to $4 million in incremental revenue.

The strategic thinking behind that growth was market-specific and, in several cases, genuinely bold.

In Japan, Garforth positioned Uber around kodawari, the pursuit of mastery.

In South Korea she staged a public intervention with K-pop star Taeyeon to combat a homebody epidemic.

In Taiwan, it was a fictional near-miss for actress Cheryl Yang that predicted a real award win just days later, a moment referred to internally as the Uber Eats prophecy.

She leads a team of seven strategists across the region and has been instrumental in building a leadership team that is 55 per cent in Australia, rising to 75 per cent across the Asia business.

She’s been described by her colleagues as a “born strategist” and an “empathetic magician that has a transformative impact on everything she touches” — word rarely volunteered so freely at that level.

Nine years into the account, Garforth continues to find new markets to prove her model in.

Tech

Kym Treasure

Audacia Audio

Kym Treasure combines commercial ambition with a genuine commitment to creating opportunities for others.

“What distinguishes Kym further is her unwavering commitment to lifting others as she rises,” said Stephanie Famolaro, general manager at The Trade Desk.

And she’s not wrong. That commitment has looked like deliberately building a female-majority team at Audacia Audio, where seven of its 10 team members are women, including across finance, sales, ad operations and technical roles.

As founder and CEO of Audacia Audio, Treasure is also building the world’s first AI-driven programmatic audio advertising platform, using large language models, reinforcement learning and generative AI to automate campaign delivery and generate multilingual creative.

During the judging period, Audacia delivered rampant commercial growth and expanded into more than 13 markets globally, with clients including Volvo, Optus, Wise, CMC Markets and the Australian Federal Government.

The company has also delivered 400 per cent year-on-year revenue growth, securing partnerships with brands including KFC, Emirates, New Balance, McDonald’s, Oppo, Porsche, Cancer Council and Mastercard.

But Treasure’s impact extends beyond commercial and technological innovation.

She has been a long-standing champion of women in media, including founding Women in Media Singapore, remaining active in the global Women in Programmatic Network and mentoring the next generation of female talent.

She has also used her industry profile to advocate for women in technology, including speaking at The Podcast Show in London.

Perhaps most importantly, Treasure is building a business where women are not simply represented, but are given genuine ownership of technical strategy, finance and product development.

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B&T's Women in Media Awards Winners 2026

A message from our presenting partner

A Letter From B&T

Awards

Job Role Categories:

Changemaker Categories:

Woman of the Year

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

Lifetime Achievement

Belinda Rowe

Agency Sales / Account Management

Stephanie Theonas

WPP Beauty Tech Labs

Best Ad Campaign - Championing the Equality Cause

‘What Kind of Man’

Respect Victoria & The Open Arms

Business Support

Sarah George

Foxtel Media

Champion of Change

Andie Tickner

Lion

Client Services

Kate Smailes

Havas Red

Creative

Charlotte Berry

Howatson+Company

Creative Producer

Tash Johnson

Special

Education / Research

Amelia Johns

UTS

Employer

The Digital Picnic

Entrepreneur / Founder

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

Executive Leader

Jasmin Bedir

Innocean Australia

Finance & Accounting

Justine Jones

Zenith Media

Glass Ceiling Award

Erin Ferreira

Fox Sports

Innovator

Katy Eng

Omnicom

Journalist / Producer

Nicole Madigan

Marketing

Emily Meier-Murren

Carma

Media Planner / Buyer

Katherine Pochroj

EssenceMediacom

Media Sales/Account Management

Susan Dickens

ARN

Mentor

Philippa Moig

UnLtd & MOOD

People & Culture

Nicolle Stuart

Mamamia

People's Choice

Simran Kaur

Pounce Agency

Project Manager

Tara O'Keefe

QMS

Public Relations

Vanessa Liell

Orizontas

Rising Star

B&T's Women in Media Awards
Winners 2026