B&T's 30 Under 30 Awards Winners,
presented by Vevo
EDITOR'S LETTER
As sure as night follows day, B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards, presented by our longstanding partners Vevo, are here again. And, as sure as night follows day, this year’s Awards is even bigger and better, and our winners are even more accomplished.
Last year, I wrote that we’re looking at future leaders of the industry—the next big names. This year, I believe we’re celebrating a cast of extant leaders, such is the breadth and depth of their talent, the charisma and creativity of their entries, the broadness of their horizons and the boundless energy they possess. The names below are not just the precocious over-achievers, they’re setting the pace already and leading by example.
As part of the submission process, we ask our entrants what needs to be improved in our industry. We would do well to heed the advice they have for us. This year, a large portion of our winners spoke about their desire to make advertising, marketing and media a more accommodating industry of neurodiversity. When we’re facing stressors from all sides—declining budgets, struggling clients, fragmented media, declining consumer confidence and, god knows, perhaps even a new major war—empathy for our colleagues will be more important than ever before. We trust that this coterie of winners will deliver us, as with last year’s winners, and those before them, into a brighter, better industry.
But that’s for tomorrow. Tonight is all about celebrating their achievements.
On behalf of everyone at B&T, I’d like to congratulate the finalists and winners. I’d also like to thank the judges and partners who make this possible. And I’ll see all of you shortly on the dancefloor.
Tom Fogden
Editor
GRAND PRIX
Nikyah
Hutchings
NITV
After sweeping to victory in the Media Sales/Account Management category, this year’s Grand Prix winner is Nikyah Hutchings.
A proud Wonnarua–Gringai woman, Hutchings is not only a future leader, she’s already setting the pace at NITV and equally setting examples of how we can all better serve Indigenous and First Nations audiences with smart storytelling, partnerships and cultural sensitivity and inclusion.
Hutchings is NITV’s first executive producer of commercial and sponsored content, a new role that combines storytelling, communications, community impact and commercial thinking. She leads NITV’s commercial content portfolio, a role that would keep most people busy enough. But Hutchings also voices a weekly national weather segment that centres Indigenous knowledge systems and she is a contributor to SBS’ (parent company of NITV) Australia Explained series.
In her role, she’s trusted to build new revenue streams for NITV, as well as leading teams of staff from across a range of disciplines to deliver results for advertisers. But all of that is in service of cultural integrity, community impact and trust between Australia’s Indigenous and First Nations peoples and NITV. To do this, she designs fairer briefs, embeds cultural safety into production and mentors emerging First Nations talent. In her view, representation in front of the camera is not enough, Indigenous and First Nations people need to be in the room when and where the decisions are made.
As one referee told us, Hutchings “Listens deeply, asks the right questions and then builds solutions that work for everyone at the table—broadcaster, client and community. She doesn’t settle for safe, templated packages; she pushes for creative, culturally grounded ideas that still hit targets and open doors for First Nations businesses.
“Nikyah’s leadership has helped redefine how media partnerships can support First Nations businesses—not as charity, but as smart, mutually beneficial deals that benefit mob, media and mainstream audiences. She is a future focused media sales and account manager who understands audience, product and opportunity in a way that very few do.”
Hutchings is not just a future leader, she’s an exemplar we should all seek to learn from.
AGENCY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Aaron
Paul
iProspect
When Aaron Paul jumped out of a plane over Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, he learned that growth usually sits on the other side of fear.
Paul grew up between Mumbai and Dubai and studied engineering and finance before pivoting to advertising. At 21, he moved to Melbourne with no safety net and a lot to prove.
Fast forward to today and Paul is one of the youngest directors at iProspect. He has also represented his agency at the MFA for the past three years and was even voted a future CEO by his peers.
It isn’t hard to see why. Whether supporting marginalised communities in Mumbai as he did in his teens, mentoring young talent in adland or speaking at conferences in front of 700 people, Paul is focused on bridging gaps in access and community, and helping build the future.
“He embraces stretch opportunities, seeks feedback, and approaches challenges with curiosity and ambition,” said one of Paul’s bosses.
“His rapid development is a testament to his commitment to excellence, not just for himself, but for those around him.”
Paul’s clients agree, noting his ability to lead across multiple roles and consistently demonstrating ownership, strategic thinking and accountability.
What sets Paul apart is his ability to inspire, motivate his team and engage stakeholders. He earns respect through integrity, energy and vision.
AGENCY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Sarah
Findlay
HerdMSL
Herd MSL’s Sarah Findlay could just be adland’s answer to Julia Donaldson and Dr. Suess.
Only four years into her career, the talented account director has already ghost-written a children’s picture book, Zac and Zoe’s Hide and Sneeze.
This experience was put to good use for HerdMSL’s client Zyrtec which educated kids about hay fever, allergies and how to treat them, leading to a 24 per cent increase in sales of its hay fever medicine.
Findlay displays a flair and maturity for earned media that belies her years.
When she isn’t writing Herd MSL’s gossip column, Findlay leads the account team for Four Seasons and runs campaigns for Kenvue and Amazon, delivering remarkable results.
Leading Amazon’s ‘Thank My Driver’ starring Ash Barty, Findlay delivered a seamlessly integrated social and earned campaign that outperformed previous campaigns by 25 per cent, generating more than 150 positive stories in media and reaching more than 2.5 million Australians.
It’s little wonder one major client described Findlay as a future leader that “brings strategic clarity, creative ambition and emotional intelligence well beyond her years”.
A passionate advocate for the power of earned media, Findlay believes the industry needs to overhaul how it measures success, working with clients to define metrics that “show real business impact, such as behaviour change, commercial outcomes and brand reputation”.
When she isn’t plotting the future of PR, she helps shape the next generation by mentoring young talent to build better relationships with journalists and clients.
AGENCY ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT
Wendy
Hoang
Special Group
There’s something special about Wendy Hoang, if you’ll pardon the pun.
At just 17, she left her native Vietnam to study in Australia, and has subsequently forged a successful career in advertising, firstly at McCann and now as a senior business manager at Special Group.
Having previously worked with clients including Mastercard, Microsoft, Bumble and eBay, Hoang now works with Uber and Uber Eats in Australia and New Zealand.
She was described by one extremely senior client as a “superstar” who “consistently delivers complex, fast-moving campaigns to a high standard, balancing multiple workstreams while staying across detail, and timelines”.
She has led projects such as Uber Eats collaboration with Coles, and brings a sharp cultural and strategic lens to her work.
In fact, it is culture and diversity where Hoang truly shines. She has championed Shift 20 Initiatives across Uber and Uber Eats campaigns, and ensures that casting for Uber Eats ‘Get Almost, Almost Anything’ campaign reflects Australia’s broader society.
Hoang believes that advertising has a branding problem. As Australia becomes increasingly diverse, advertising is not keeping up. Hoang is determined to change this.
“When you look at leadership, there aren’t enough people who are reflecting a brand’s audience, people like me,” she said.
She wants to improve diversity at the very top of adland, and is well on her way.
AGENCY SALES
Jemima
Simpson
Smith
Meaningful Agency
Jemima Simpson Smith has been on a meteoric rise since she was last a B&T 30 Under 30 finalist list in 2024.
Back then she worked at an agency leading accounts including Honda and Energy Australia, and picking up silverware including an MFA Award and Semrush Search Award.
Eighteen months ago, Simpson Smith left to set up her own business that reflected her vision of an agency.
Today, the Meaningful Agency has five staff and clients including Doshii, Matrix Education, Southern Cross Travel Insurance, Cudesign, Foodpak, Savic Motorcycles and more.
Aside from being a finalist in B&T’s Women in Media Awards, Simpson Smith is delivering outstanding results, such as helping Doshii significantly reduce its cost per, growing Story House’s Google ads leads and increasing Wyld Bub’s the organic revenue by an order of magnitude.
“Simpson Smith treats our business like an extension of her own team, always seeking feedback, refining her approach, and pushing for better results,” said one client.
“Her strategic input has been critical in driving measurable improvements in our growth KPIs.”
Simpson Smith’s attention to detail, clarity of communication and confidence has also helped Doshii lift its performance game for months in a row.
Part of her genius is a philosophy that focuses on improving the advertising experience for consumers and clients alike.
AGENCY SALES
Madeleine
Baillie
News Xtend
Since joining News Australia in 2021, Bailey has been promoted three times and cherry-picked as a ‘Pacesetter’ by none other than News Australia’s sales boss Lou Barrett, an award given to News’ top sales and account management personnel. And it isn’t hard to see why.
She manages more than 160 accounts, regularly maintaining high satisfaction and retention rates.
Her ability to build deep rapport with News Australia’s highest-spending clients, while transforming transactional relationships into long-term strategic alliances sets her apart as an “elite” account manager.
She helped one travel client achieve $1 million in revenue in a single day, for instance. She was also key in retaining a $2 million e-commerce beauty client.
Bailey is a well respected leader, empowering and managing a team of women with 80 per cent promoted in the past 18 months.
Bailey is an advocate of change, citing that the current media and marketing ecosystem is broken.
Bailey wants to help brands move away from chasing efficiencies at any cost to enabling agency partners to become an extension of their business and future success.
The future of the industry is truly in great hands.
AGENCY SALES
Megan
Naylor-Smith
WPP Media
At the age of 23, Megan Naylor-Smith took a punt on her career, packing her bags in rainy London for sunnier climes with Wavemaker in Sydney.
In just two years, she has been promoted to client development associate director, a WPP Media role, and is now commercially responsible for $44 million in annual targets across WPP media agencies in NSW and QLD. Now, Naylor-Smith leads a team of three and consistently exceeds expectations.
She pioneered WPP Media’s first programmatic e-commerce campaign for the RSL, leading to a 10 per cent improvement in performance, and launched a breakthrough AI audio campaign for Westfield.
Naylor-Smith played an important role in securing and on boarding major clients including Nova, MG, Indeed and Amazon.
As an expat who has had to quickly adapt to life in a foreign country, Naylor-Smith understands the importance of supporting colleagues and is passionate about helping others settle in.
After winning WPP Media’s Incub8or pitch, she set up WPP Media’s award-winning international mobility program, LEAP, which provides talent with buddy systems, networking events and vital relocation support.
She also runs a popular expat-focused TikTok platform that provides education and support.
“In my close to two decades in media, few professionals have demonstrated her rare combination of commercial excellence, innovation, and cultural leadership,” said one senior industry figure.
Expect to hear much more from Naylor-Smith as she calls Australia home.
CREATIVE
AMY
MORRISON
M+C Saatchi
It’s hard to ignore a creative like Amy Morrison. Her ideas are sharp, thinking clear and her momentum is noticeably building.
According to Morrison’s own boss: “In Amy’s orbit, everything is brighter”. Some praise indeed.
Although still in the early days of her career, Morrison has already built quite the reputation as a creative.
She’s recognised as the kind to walk into a brief with a plan, and will subsequently bring the craft to bring it to life. Her ideas are anchored in the real business problems her clients need solved and her thinking is sharp.
If Morrison wasn’t in the creative industry, she’d be a teacher. Which makes completely sense given her knack for explaining ideas and helping others produce their best work.
That same clarity has propelled her into Australian Young Lions Digital Competition victory. She didn’t stop there, her work for Lifeblood scored her a D&AD Pencil, as well as a Silver Lion for her work with Macca’s.
Rather than feeling satisfied, her wins intensify her hunger, making her eager to do more, push further and continuously raise the bar.
As one leading creative put it she’s “the kind of creative you notice very quickly – and then keep on noticing.”
Alongside her strong creative instincts and relentless curiosity, she exudes humility, always wanting to learn more. She is already able to balance the craft of authentic creativity with the mindset of a future leader.
Which is exactly why Morrison fits in so well among the industry’s 30 Under 30, and why her next chapter is definitely one to watch.
CREATIVE
Andrew
Bao
VML
Andrew Bao is the epitome of “annoyingly good” according to one of his bosses.
He’s got the kind of mind you can’t understand, but only dream for. Although he prefers to remain in the shadows, his work is hard to miss.
Bao’s portfolio is a masterclass in execution meeting ambition.
From award-winning campaigns to AI-driven work, he moves seamlessly across every sector, blending conceptual thinking with a brilliant eye and a hunger for new ideas.
Bao’s work speaks louder than any accolade could, although they do help.
From D&AD to Cannes, AWARD to Clios, his campaigns have received international recognition and been featured across mainstream media and prime-time news. Not once but twice, he has been named Creative of the Year, Bao’s relentless drive and mind-bending innovation make him one to fear.
He has the ability to make great ideas look effortless, inspire his colleagues to think bigger and somehow keeps on innovating.
If you’re looking for a modern creative who can deliver world-class work today and blow minds tomorrow, Bao isn’t just your guy, he’s the blueprint of what every agency hopes and dreams to hire.
He’s what we call a once-in-a-generation kind of creative.
CREATIVE
Gabriella
Dudman
Howatson+Company
Some take years to find their stride, but Gabriella Dudman was seemingly born already running.
Her own boss said he knew she would be getting the job before the end of her interview. Dudman was clearly intelligent, warm and already had a strong portfolio. What wasn’t yet obvious was how quickly she would become one of Howatson+Company’s most trusted creatives.
Like many in her role, early on she didn’t immediately see the full extent of her own capabilities. At just 24 she became Howatson+Company’s youngest ever senior designer.
A turning point for Dudman came when working on a rebrand for radio broadcaster Triple J. She was tasked with delivering brand guidelines that had to be flawless. No mistakes, no rewrites, just get it right the first time.
She did. And something shifted.
That very project went on to win a D&AD pencil and a Cairns Crocodiles Award, becoming a defining moment for the trajectory of her career.
Now, she works across major clients and has quickly become the person every team wants on their project. She mentors her junior designers, aiming to set the exact same standards of curiosity and care she brings herself.
Which is precisely why Dudman is quickly becoming one of the most sought after creatives in the industry.
ENTREPRENEUR
Isobell
Roberts
BrandComms.AI
If you’ve ever sat in a meeting where the research team is speaking fluent data while the creatives are sketching big ideas on a whiteboard, you’ll understand the problem Isobell Roberts set out to solve with BrandComms.AI.
In her words, the “baton is consistently dropped” between the two. Her solution? Build the missing bridge herself.
By turning a marketing science IP asset into a creative AI platform, Roberts created a tool that transforms dense data into visual creative direction—helping brands finally turn insights into actual work.
It’s a big idea that’s moved quickly. Since launching in 2023, BrandComms.AI has attracted more than 20 blue-chip brands including Taco Bell, JetBlue and T2, while scaling to seven-figure revenue. Not bad for a company still young enough to be ID’d at the bar.
But Roberts isn’t just building clever tech, she’s building the kind of industry she actually wants to work in. At BrandComms.AI, she’s created training programs that give colleagues hands-on experience with large language models, prompt engineering and AI evaluation, particularly for those who never saw themselves as “technical”.
Her leadership philosophy is simple: give people real responsibility early. As she puts it, “confidence comes from doing the work, not watching from the sidelines”.
The result is a fast-growing company where women hold real influence across product, client work and strategy. Roberts’ ambition isn’t just to ride the AI wave, but to raise the standard for it—building technology that’s rigorous, responsible and genuinely useful.
And if she happens to kick down a few industry doors along the way? Even better.
ENTREPRENEUR
Joshua
Richardson
Q Agency
In the words of his very own co-founder: “Josh operates at a level most people aim for but rarely reach”.
They aren’t just words of praise, but a reflection of the way Richardson has always worked. Eager to learn, always building and constantly several steps ahead.
At Q Agency, Richardson has helped shape a performance-driven digital marketing and web development business built on a simple but powerful belief: marketing should drive real commercial growth. Not vanity metrics or surface-level wins, but measurable outcomes that businesses can genuinely feel.
That focus on impact has defined Richardson’s career from the beginning. While studying full-time at university, he was already immersed in high-growth environments, working with companies including WiseTech, Westpac and IBM. But it was in the startup world where his entrepreneurial instincts truly took flight.
Between the ages of 18 and 20, Richardson helped grow Nutrition Station’s e-commerce revenue from zero to seven figures in less than two years. In the process, he built proprietary software that powered same-day custom meal fulfilment across 30 locations nationwide and secured $1 million in R&D funding. Soon after, he took an equity position in creative franchise Pino & Picasso, helping scale the brand from a single studio to 80 locations and building a platform that generated more than $10 million in revenue before his successful exit at just 24.
At Q Agency, Richardson brings that same builder’s mindset to every challenge. As his co-founder explained, “He does not wait for permission—he identifies gaps, tests ideas and turns them into working offerings”.
It’s a philosophy that continues to power Q Agency’s growth—and proof that the best entrepreneurs don’t just chase opportunity. They build the engine behind it.
ENTREPRENEUR
Kate
Gatfield-Jeffries
Moodi
At just 23, while most graduates are deciding which corporate offer to accept, Kate Gatfield-Jeffries decided to walk away from multiple six-figure job opportunities to build the wellness brand she felt the industry was missing.
That idea became Moodi—a science-backed mental wellness supplement brand designed to help women feel their best through daily rituals they actually enjoy. The mission was deeply personal. After navigating her own chronic health challenges, Gatfield-Jeffries saw how poorly burnt-out women were being served by existing products. Instead of accepting the gap in the market, she set out to fix it.
She built the business in her final year of law school, teaching herself everything from product formulation to e-commerce and growth strategy. For two years she didn’t take a salary, supporting herself through full-time pet-sitting while building the brand from the ground up.
Three years later, Moodi has grown into one of Australasia’s fastest-growing wellness brands. The company now has more than 200,000 customers, over 10,000 five-star reviews and its functional drink even became the number-one seller in New Zealand at one point—briefly outselling Coca-Cola.
But for Gatfield-Jeffries, success is about more than sales. She’s focused on impact, using Moodi to help women feel stronger, more balanced and more capable in their everyday lives.
As one mentor put it, “Kate doesn’t just build a business; she builds people, culture and community”.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Ben
Nagappa
PepsiCo
If there’s one thing that sets PepsiCo’s Ben Nagappa apart from the rest, it’s his foresight and comfort with fast-moving innovation.
In his role as PepsiCo’s digital and media manager, he’s led transformational projects to improve efficiency and effectiveness alike. Considering he works across more than 15 of PepsiCo’s brands in this market—from Gatorade and Mountain Dew to Smith’s, Red Rock Deli and Pepsi itself—that’s no mean feat.
Take, for instance, his work on Pepsi, launching its first-ever Christmas campaign. Or his work launching Fast Switch energy drinks Down Under. Or the more than $5 million he delivered in added media value through smarter partnerships. Or his entire rebuilding of PepsiCo’s annual planning processes, delivering faster, timelier campaigns well ahead of schedule. If that wasn’t enough, he’s leading the rollout of Doritos’ new work in Formula 1.
Frankly, he must be exhausted. But he’s showing no signs of slowing down. Nagappa is constantly iterating, testing and improving to deliver better media and, ultimately, sales across his brands. But he’s not doing it without a conscience. With so much of his work happening in the social and content space, Nagappa has a focus on removing algorithmic bias and ensuring his ad dollars (and yours) don’t support harmful content.
That relentless drive for excellence makes Nagappa not just a future leader but an extant, bona fide boss of today.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Taylor
Nolan
McDonald's
Taylor Nolan has perhaps one of the most important (for B&T, anyway) jobs within the Macca’s portfolio: leading the charge on the QSR brand’s Value range.
Her work, needless to say given the shiny trophy she’s taken home at B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards, is top-drawer. She helped shape Macca’s entire Value strategy and worked across major platforms including the relaunch of Monopoly at Macca’s and its digital Everyday Value plank.
Her work on the McSmart burger was recognised internally as a top global McDonald’s campaign. The broader Value strategy even picked up an Effie. That’s some going.
But there’s far more to Nolan than conjuring some of the smartest QSR work we’ve seen in the market—as if that wasn’t enough.
She has spearheaded Macca’s involvement with the Shift 20 Initiative to boost representation in its creative work, noting that she believes value and inclusivity to be “intrinsically linked”.
She’s also taken steps to improve the accessibility of Macca’s platforms, including the MyMacca’s app.
Nolan’s commitment to improving this area of the industry is deep, thanks to a personal connection to the topic, and her passion for the matter is palpable.
With an already impressive back catalogue and a seemingly inexhaustible drive, it seems Nolan is set for the very top of the industry and standing in her way would be a foolhardy endeavour.
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
Tina
Provis
Havas Red
The worlds of PR, social media, influencing and content creation are becoming ever more tightly bound together.
Fortunately for Havas Red, its senior PR and influencer specialist Tina Provis literally lives and breathes the industries.
You might remember Provis as the winner of Australian Love Island season three. Or you might remember her as a contestant on I’m A Celeb last year.
There’s every chance you might be one of Provis’ 157,000 Instagram and 121,000 TikTok followers, too.
This, quite literally, hands-on experience in the fields is paying dividends in Provis’ work with the agency.
In fact, Provis worked with leaders from across 10 of the French holdco’s markets to establish its influencer offering and co-authored its 2024 State of Influence whitepaper.
Her experience also allows her to push boundaries in the sector or, as she puts it to create “shit hot PR,” and develop scroll-stopping creator and influencer strategies that hit the mark every single time.
In fact, during one new business pitch, the brand managers present recognised Provis as an important and influential creator herself the moment she walked in the room.
Needless to say, that’s the sort of client confidence that only a few could expect to create.
And with her focus on inclusivity and diversity, again a result of her lived experience, Provis is truly blazing a new trail.
MEDIA PLANNER/
BUYER
Angus
McLeod
Atomic 212°
Angus McLeod is not your average marketer. Along his short yet incredible career he has been able to adapt and turn into a key figure in the industry.
He began his career at OMD Brisbane and within a year his “can-do attitude and an eagerness to learn” quickly saw him swoop in on Melbourne to handle the Coles account.
Fast forward to the present and he now dominates Atomic 212° as a senior planning and trading executive looking after the mammoth Origin Energy and Tennis Australia accounts.
His career to the naked eye seems smooth sailing, but this trailblazer has demonstrated natural born leader qualities in order to respond to adversity.
In 2022 he was assaulted and became profoundly deaf—completely changing how he perceived the world and subsequently how he viewed his role in the industry.
With his incredible and unique ability to turn a negative into a positive, he has devoted any spare time he has to educating the industry on accessibility and inclusion.
This has led to this incredible marketer sharing insights via B&T, Atomic 212°’s All Around conference, MFA Ex and Bus Stop Film’s Driving Change Summit.
Not to mention in November of 2025 he was knighted as the next up-and-coming talent set to champion regional media, as a member of the Boomtown Insiders advisory council.
This path forger isn’t letting anything get in his way, and the way he’s trajectory is going, the media world is at the feet of McLeod.
MEDIA PLANNER/
BUYER
Liana
Millauro
OMD
Liana Millauro’s career has skyrocketed ever since she entered the media industry via OMD in 2021 to work on the Apple account.
Within that first year her director said to her, “I’ve never seen anyone with their shit together so early in their career”.
That sentiment was quickly reflected in her career trajectory. She received four promotions in four years—and now oversees the Telstra account as an account director.
From spearheading +61’s very first integrated campaign, managing the launch of the famous ‘whistle man’, to leading the Christmas campaigns for the past two years, Millauro is the definition of a game changing, visionary.
Her praises have already been sung with her work being shortlisted for the B&T awards in 2024 in the Best Use of Tech and AI, and Best Regional Media Campaign categories. She even racked up some almost-as-prestigious Cannes Lions and the Effies.
As one senior client-side marketer said of Millauro, there is absolutely no question that “Liana has firmly cemented herself as a future leader within the media industry and is a clear standout for industry recognition”.
MEDIA PLANNER/
BUYER
Louisa
Andrews
Spark Foundry
Louisa Andrews isn’t afraid of the bright lights and the big decisions. This has led to her impressing both her colleagues and clients, as well as forging her way to four promotions!
When first stepped into the offices of Spark Foundry she had a clear goal of making an “impact that matters.” Since then she has kept her promise delivering real business outcomes.
Now as Spark’s youngest associate investment director, Andrews leads investment for the agency’s largest client, Westpac.
This meant she was in charge of the bank’s biggest sponsorship to date, the coveted principal partner of Cricket Australia. This sponsorship over summer delivered national scale, cultural relevance and tangible results—not to mention a 4-1 Ashes win.
It’s this grit and determination that also led to this trailblazer being named Spark’s MVP in B&T’s 2025 agency scorecards.
As a leader Andrews looks at ways to better the Spark community. One way she does this is through Spark Society, where she plays a pivotal role in organising agency social events and enriching the agency’s culture.
Last year Andrews was a 30 Under 30 finalist, this year she has taken the next step leveraging her “fierce ambition with a commitment to self-improvement” to force her way onto the prestigious 30 Under 30 stage.
Media Sales / Account Management
Camille
Repellin
Broadsheet Media
Camille Repellin didn’t just walk into a group sales and partnerships manager role at 27. She overcame numerous setbacks to earn the right to manage her team of three passionate women and has never looked back.
She was working in TV sales in Melbourne before she took a leap of faith in 2021, packing up her life and relocating to Sydney. She spent the next seven months with her head down, grinding away to build herself up in a market she was completely new to.
By 23, she flew into a sales executive role and quickly earnt her stripes to land an account manager role at Good Food. Here her love of food and culture was reinforced, and she knew she wanted to work in this space. But life had other thoughts and redundancy created more change.
Fast forward to now and she looks after Broadsheet Media’s top three spenders who delivered 44 per cent of the independent publisher’s revenue in the last financial year.
Since stepping into Broadsheet Media she has never looked back, being instrumental in the launch of the publisher’s first Dine Out Festival with her clients making up two of the three major sponsors, as well as hosting an International Women’s Day event championing female vintners.
Her clients sing her praise, labelling her the “kind of account lead you hope for but rarely get”. And quite frankly so do we.
She cuts through the noise and handles chaos with calm precision, reinforcing her resume for a coveted 30 Under 30 award.
Media Sales / Account Management
Nikyah
Hutchings
NITV
Nikyah Hutchings is an exceptionally talented, remarkably accomplished and burgeoning leader in our industry.
A proud Wonnarua–Gringai woman, she is NITV’s first-ever executive producer of commercial and sponsored content.
In this role, she finds herself on both sides of the camera and microphone, ensuring that Indigenous stories are told with heart, compassion, understanding and impact whilst also balancing the needs of commercial partners.
In fact, through her work, the two work in symbiosis, as one referee explained.
“Nikyah didn’t just sell us a media plan or basic partnership, she understood our audience, our brand and our mission, and then proactively designed a partnership that created a genuine win for both a First Nations owned, social enterprise brand like ours and for NITV as a broadcaster,” they said.
We’re not the only ones to notice Hutchings brilliance. She won a silver First Nations Leadership award at the Australia and APAC WCWA Awards and was nominated as a Rising Star at the Rise Awards in London.
Hutchings is a future leader because she lives the values that others talk about.
She turns opportunity into action while keeping NITV’s Indigenous and First Nations audience at the heart of matters.
Her leadership and stewardship of teams to deliver better outcomes for the communities that watch NITV are something we would all do well to learn from.
Media Sales / Account Management
William
Mitchell
Snap Inc.
William Mitchell is the ultimate professional who cannot be overlooked.
As part of his role of being an agency partner at Snapchat, he is tasked with leading the senior relationships with the agency holdcos across ANZ.
It’s in this space where his discipline and strategic approach has delivered over eight per cent growth across the holdcos.
In his first year in the role, Mitchell and his team grew revenue and increased the number of agency advertisers activating by 54 per cent. How? Through strengthening pipelines and sharpening Snap’s incremental value story
But what sets Mitchell apart is “his initiative; he doesn’t wait for a brief or a title to lead”.
He stepped up to own ‘Snapchamps’—a program designed to upskill and empower the next generation of agency leaders focused on AI creators and strategic planning.
Begging for a manager, Mitchell raised his hand and took the opportunity by two hands.
Remarkably, his leadership drove a remarkable 31 per cent year-on-year revenue growth amongst the participating agency clients and the cohort rated the program 4.7 out of 5.
For the second year running this highly regarded leader has been a finalist in the 30 Under 30 Awards.
But his proactivity and leadership qualities has won the judges over one upping last year’s result.
Project Manager
Alex
Johnson
Mutinex
Alex Johnson has a habit of making the complex look suspiciously easy.
At Mutinex, Johnson is recognised as the driving force behind one of the most difficult challenges in modern marketing: onboarding businesses into marketing mix modelling.
As the marketing industry moves away from neat little click metrics to full-scale business modelling, the process has become annoyingly painful.
He has built up Mutinex’s onboarding capabilities, creating processes that can now power the company’s growth. In the last year alone, Johnson has led nearly 50 onboardings, guiding agencies, brands and CMOs through a transformation that most businesses are still unable to understand.
When one of Australia’s largest insurers needed a new data taxonomy, Johnson whipped it up in a day and had it approved in just three. That’s the sort of speed you’d expect with a couple of decades in industry, not just five.
Johnson is at once deeply human and deeply technical. He is consistently working with senior marketers, leaders and execs, untangling problems and aligning stakeholders before they turn into crises.
His own CEO said it best, “AJ is a force”.
Which, in the world of marketing measurement is arguably the highest praise going.
Project Manager
Isabelle
Hatton
Resolution Digital
Since joining Resolution Digital, Isabelle Hatton has swiftly built a reputation as the type of project manager you need when the stakes are high and the deadline is arriving at breakneck speed.
Within her first six months at Resolution Digital, Hatton was named Employee of the Month, going up against more than 200 of her colleagues.
This was an early omen that her blend of work ethic, precision and resilience was sure to make a significant impact.
Hatton thrives on mission-critical projects. Working with client H&R Block, for instance, she played a foundational role in some of the brand’s largest campaigns. In a category built on complexity, she has a knack for simplifying complex, constantly pushing back to find the “why” behind the data.
For Hatton, the ‘Pink Text ‘29’ campaign was a career-defining moment.
Not only did she lead the project across multiple disciplines, she brought teams together from media and analytics to infrastructure and UX for a common goal. By fostering shared governance, she ultimately turned what could have been a fragmented process into a seamless, streamlined campaign, helping secure $12 million in donations.
But that isn’t enough for Hatton. She’s fiercely focused on uplifting those around her, founding the Omnicom Young Professional Society to support and connect emerging leaders from throughout the network.
As one senior Omnicom leader put it: “She leads with influence, not authority—and has my highest recommendation for B&T’s 30 Under 30 Awards.”
Project Manager
Xixi
Li
Monks
At Monks, Xixi Li has quietly become the backbone behind high-stakes, complex client work, most notably at Amaysim. She coordinates everything from tag management to reporting dashboards with a kind of calm that can only mean chaos isn’t a word in her vocabulary.
Her superpower? Turning problems into clarity.
Li has an undoubtable knack for wrangling stakeholders, quickly approaching deadlines and technical systems without breaking a sweat.
In one particularly impressive moment, Li attended a stakeholder meeting in regards to the launch of a referral program and also managed to somehow coordinate the entire rollout in just one week. It was estimated to take a month. That’s overachieving if we’ve ever seen it.
Her calm nature makes her the strategic engine of the projects she works on and has earned her the title of “behind-the-scenes legend” at Monks.
It’s not just about keeping projects on track for Li, she proactively identifies risks, keeps everyone moving in the right direction and aligns her teams even when it feels impossible.
When things are running smoothly, there is a high chance Li is lurking in the background.
As one senior leader put it, Li is the “steady, unshakeable force” that any agency would die for.
Strategy
Amber
Knight
Monks
Launching a brand is hard. Launching one while simultaneously aligning content, web, media and strategy teams is even harder. But Amber Knight has done it all with aplomb.
As Monks’ lead strategist on the Australian launch of NCS, Knight has quickly been placed at the center of an intensely busy universe. She translates strategy into practical places that are actually effective, earning trust immediately and keeping teams aligned on the same page.
Knight’s style is equal parts collaboration and clarity. She creates working environments where teams feel empowered to take ownership whilst never losing sight of the bigger picture. The result? A launch that set the foundation for an always on, long term strategy guiding NCS’s media approach.
She’s that rare breed of strategist who loves to get her hands dirty. During the campaign’s half way analysis, Knight sunk into performance data, emerging with a clear, distinct point of view and sharp recommendations that undoubtedly strengthened the client partnership.
For a strategist, still so early into her career, Knight carries herself with the authority of a seasoned pro, always able to lead client conversations with a calm confidence and a soothing composure.
To say that Knight delivers strategy would be an understatement. She makes everyone in her orbit better and delivers standout leadership on a silver platter.
Strategy
Samuel
Bessell
Atomic 212°
Strategy might be about numbers, data and dashboards—but for Samuel Bessell, it starts with something far more human: empathy.
While many in the industry talk about audiences in vagaries, Bessell wanted to understand real lived experiences—particularly those often overlooked.
After recognising he didn’t fully understand the media experiences of disabled Australians, he didn’t just acknowledge the gap—he acted. Partnering with disability inclusion consultancy Inclusively Made, he led research exploring how disability is represented in advertising and whether media environments are truly inclusive.
The results? A wake-up call for the industry, and one Bessell hopes will spark meaningful change.
But empathy is only one side of the story. At Atomic 212°, Bessell has quickly become a strategic powerhouse. In just five years (and three promotions later), he’s helped transform the agency’s strategy department into a commercial engine. His biggest brainchild, the research platform SONAR, has landed more than 16 clients, generating significant revenue and is shaping marketing decisions for major brands—including BMW.
“Sam’s set up of the Sonar measurement platform and his subsequent analyses and insights have been pivotal in setting our marketing strategy,” said one of Bessell’s clients.
Colleagues say his leadership style is just as impressive as the numbers. As one of the agency’s senior leaders said, Bessell was “one of the best hires I’ve made in my career… a natural leader, mixing kindness, smarts and passion.”
For Bessell, success isn’t just about better media planning—it’s about leaving the industry better than he found it. And at just 26, he’s already well on his way.
Strategy
Tayla
Orr
Nine
Tayla Orr is not the next industry leader, she is already there. Her talents have been validated on the world stage being named an Australian Young Lions Winner alongside her partner Elizabeth Nan as well as being a global top five finalist in the Media category for 2025.
This achievement, paired with her AWARD School certification, speaks to a strategic mind that seeks to redefine briefs within the evolving publishing landscape.
But what truly sets her apart is her ability to proactively chase growth opportunities, doubling down on development areas, whilst not shying away from new challenges.
From the age of eight years old Orr dreamed of making ads on TV. After confessing her dream to her Mum, she was handed a book where Orr would go on to create all kinds of ads.
She began her career as an art director and sales coordinator at Aussie Dog Products. Here she honed in on her skills for three years before moving into a regional account executive role at Nine.
Today she combines all her skills that she has learnt along the way as a client strategist, making an embedding spots into huge cultural moments such as the Australian Open and Married At First Sight. And so far she has driven more than $27 million in revenue.
Along with her biggest strengths of “curiosity and passion” her career is going to continue to springboard.
Tech
Amy
Vu
iProspect
If SEO had a main character, it might just be Amy Vu.
Vu didn’t follow the traditional path into tech. After years working in restaurant and café management, she swapped menus for meta tags and stepped into the world of digital marketing. Safe to say, the pivot paid off. Today, as senior SEO manager at iProspect, Vu is quietly (and sometimes not so quietly) rewriting the playbook on what modern SEO can do.
Her specialty? Authority-led SEO and Digital PR—an approach still rare in the Australian market but one that’s proving seriously powerful. According to her manager, Vu’s expertise has “elevated our service from technical and content heavy to truly full-service SEO”.
And the results speak loudly. When a major insurance brand slipped off page one for one of the most competitive keywords in the country, Vu stepped in with a sharp data story and an even sharper strategy. The outcome: a 600 per cent increase in SEO investment, a return to the top five rankings and a staggering 461 per cent quarter-on-quarter click growth.
But while the metrics are impressive, Vu’s biggest impact might be on the people around her. One colleague said she has quickly become “the person I rely on most to understand client contexts, business goals and ways of working”.
Beyond client wins, she’s also shaping the future of the industry—running training programs across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and mentoring the next wave of SEO specialists.
Fearless, analytical and deeply collaborative, Vu is proving that great SEO isn’t just about ranking higher—it’s about lifting everyone around you while you do it.
Tech
Helen
Han
Easygo
While most people do SEO, Helen Han is behind the scenes making the whole thing run.
As a Technical SEO Executive at Easygo, Han has built a reputation for turning the messy, manual grind of technical SEO into something far more powerful and scalable systems. Where others see spreadsheets and repetitive tasks, she sees automation opportunities—and then builds them.
One standout example? A world-first GROQ query she invented that extracts anchor text and destination URLs directly from a CMS. In SEO circles, that’s a massive deal. Internal linking audits have long relied on incomplete crawler data—but Han built a solution that bypasses the problem entirely.
As her manager explains: “Helen doesn’t just do technical SEO—she solves problems the rest of us didn’t even know were solvable.”
Her automation systems now power audits across tens of thousands of URLs, multiple domains and languages, detecting everything from false 404s to hreflang mismatches before they cause headaches. And crucially, they’re not just clever scripts – they’re scalable infrastructure used across teams.
Han’s systems thinking has already helped deliver real-world impact, contributing to Easygo taking home Best Use of Search – Gaming (Large) at the Global Search Awards.
She’s also sharing that knowledge with the wider industry. In 2025, Han became the youngest speaker at WTSFest Melbourne 2025, presenting a talk on scaling SEO through automation.
Her manager perhaps said it best: her work has “fundamentally changed how we approach automation and scalability”.
In short, Han isn’t just optimising websites—she’s quietly rebuilding how SEO works.
Tech
Tara
Tjandra
Atlassian
While some engineers are busy shipping code, Tara Tjandra ships systems that the world quietly relies on.
In her role at Atlassian, Tjandra sits at the heart of one of tech’s most widely used tools: Jira. As technical lead for Jira’s Issues platform—the engine which powers the product—she helps keep the system humming through more than 65 billion requests a day. No pressure at all!
But Tjandra isn’t just watching over the machine, she’s upgrading it while it’s still running. She led a company-wide reliability goal aligning more than 300 engineers, lifting critical Jira APIs to a near-mythical 99.99 per cent reliability. Along the way, she also designed Jira’s first-ever data shape limits and remediation system—essentially guardrails that keep the platform scalable and stable even as it grows.
According to one senior colleague, Tjandra is exactly who you want on a mission-critical system: “Tara is the engineer you trust with your most critical systems,” she said, adding that her work has already “prevented catastrophic incidents and protected customer trust.”
It’s no secret that her impact stretches well beyond software. Earlier in her career, Tjandra worked with researchers at UNSW to build an open-source tool modelling renewable energy supply chains. The platform helped inform real-world energy investment decisions and was even used by the Government of South Korea to assess renewable ammonia exports from Australia.
From global software infrastructure to clean energy modelling, Tjandra is not only solving problems—she’s engineering systems that make big, complicated things actually work.
People's Choice
Leah
Moriarty
Mindshare
Mindshare’s Leah Moriarty is this year’s worthy People’s Choice winner and stormed the leaderboard, receiving nearly twice as many votes as the second placed nominee.
It isn’t hard to see why.
Moriarty is a leading light in Mindshare’s Melbourne office.
She led a campaign for NAB which resulted in three Effie Awards.
She managed NAB’s AFL partnership and significantly boosted its media value while keeping investment flat.
That work, among other things, saw her named employee of the year across Mindshare, employee of the quarter in the NAB team and across all teams in Mindshare.
She also led the Impact Culture Day across Mindshare Melbourne, which raised funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. She’s not slowing down, though, as she’s generating more media value for NAB and overseeing all of Domain’s media investment.
With a passion for neurodiverse inclusion, Moriarty is all about ensuring that difference voices are heard and different skillsets are valued to improve culture and retention.
That she was described as building “credibility and trust through composure, accountability and sound decision making,” isn’t surprising.
That she’s this year’s People’s Choice Award winner is even less of a shock.
