If you’re like B&T and you’re inspired by the way media contributes to making positive changes in the world beyond the industry, you’ll know just how important it is to recognise those at the forefront of these causes.
Leading this contribution are a league of experts with big hearts and open minds from across the creative and media agencies, publishers and platforms.
In this Best of the Best list, we’re celebrating those who make real, positive change outside the industry through their work and actions as much as in it. These are the people helping all Australians and people around the world, not just those of us working within the industries.
There are hundreds that we could have included on this list. From their pioneering work with sustainability like The Payback Project’s James Greet or Compass Studio’s Natalie Dean-Weymark, or in the field of neurodiversity such as Digital Picnic’s Cherie Clonan.
But sadly we had to pick just 10. You’ll find them below.
We’re still taking nominations for upcoming Best of the Best lists, too. In the next fortnight, we’ll be looking at the Best of the Best Project Managers and then, the Best of the Best Recruiters.
NOMINATE NOW FOR B&T’s BEST OF THE BEST!
But on with the list.
10. Laura Clarke, co-executive producer/head of impact of Deep Rising, co-founder of The Palau Legacy Project
Laura Clarke is a comms director, strategist and best-selling author. She is also the co-founder of the Palau Legacy Project, the resultant ongoing work from the Palau Pledge, one of the most-awarded sustainability campaigns ever.
After moving to Palau with her husband, she quickly identified the island nation’s urgent environmental challenges and mobilised a global creative team out of Australia to help safeguard its future. The result was a world-first initiative that redefined how tourism and conservation intersect.
Clarke is co-executive producer and head of impact for Deep Rising, a feature-length documentary narrated and executive produced by Jason Momoa. Premiering at Sundance last year and powered by Emotive, the film and its accompanying impact campaign expose the ecological threat posed by deep-seabed mining, and have become powerful tools for global ocean advocacy.
Miners are attempting to turn a vast area of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) – spanning over 3 million square kilometres in the Pacific Ocean – into the largest mining site on earth. While mining companies insist the seabed is barren wasteland, Deep Rising hopes to change the narrative and show people it is teeming with life and home to millions of species, yet to be discovered.
Now based in Sydney, Clarke is the Honorary Consul General of the Republic of Palau to Australia. She continues to lead global behaviour change campaigns and champions the power of creative comms to drive positive, lasting impact. She also spoke at this year’s Cairns Crocodiles.
9. Phoebe Sloane, creative director, Bullfrog; founder, The Aunties
Phoebe Sloane believes impactful work comes from a combination of creativity and human connection. This tenet has held steadfast through her stints at Clemenger BBDO, Special Group, and, as of earlier this month, her appointment as creative director at Bullfrog.
Back in 2021, Sloane co-founded The Aunties alongside eleven women of the Melbourne Advertising and Design Club (MADC) committee. Since then, the organisation has grown to become Australia’s largest mentoring and support network for women and marginalised genders in the advertising industry. This network inspires, protects and champions women of all ages and backgrounds across creative industries. We could have picked any of The Aunties. Heck, we could have had Esther Clerehan, the OG Aunty, on the list. But given Sloane’s recent move, she’s got the nod this year.
The Aunties’ latest initiative is a series of meet-ups inviting women, non-binary and gender diverse founders, partners and freelancers to get together and talk about the ups and downs of navigating the industry while being self-employed.
Earlier this year, The Aunties also launched Auntie Intel, a research project aiming to better understand how women and gender-diverse individuals are feeling throughout the year, so they can build actionable support systems.
Their work supports people throughout the industry and, as a result, people around Australia by making work that works for everyone.
8. Louise Wilson & Lauren Thornborough, co-founders, The Village
In 2023, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’ head of new and emerging business Louise Wilson and UM client partner Lauren Thornborough together launched The Village, the first association dedicated to supporting working parents in the Australian media industry.
The group is designed as a community for industry professionals who are planning a family, expecting, or already caring for children.
Research commissioned by The Village revealed 80 per cent of parents in the media are concerned about an overbearing mental load as a barrier to performance, leading to stress both in the workplace and at home.
The long-term vision is to push for industry-wide changes to address staff retention issues faced by new parents in the fast-paced media industry.
Wilson is also the global co-chair of Families@LinkedIn, leading one of LinkedIn’s largest employee resource groups, spearheading groundbreaking initiatives like gender-neutral parental leave and global mentorship programs.
Through their visionary leadership, this duo is breaking down barriers, advocating for systemic change, and ensuring that working parents can thrive both professionally and personally in a more inclusive future. And don’t forget, there’s no more direct relationship from adland to the outside world than from parent to child.
7. Phillipa Moig, CEO of UnLtd
Not quite a year after Stephen Hunt took the helm as UnLtd’s CEO, he left the role, leaving a vacant position which Phillipa Moig snapped up. Moig joined UnLtd from Google, where she had been its ANZ media leader, having previously held senior leadership positions at PHD, OMD, Carat and Mediacom.
Moig has long been involved with UnLtd initiatives, volunteering for several charity partners and campaigns. She is a force for driving positive change and progress through her contribution to The Marketing Academy and her mentorship within the MFA community, where she is a member of the MFA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Advisory Council.
She is a passionate ally, continually striving for greater equity and representation across diverse communities.
Although early days, Moig has already slept behind bars to support UnLtd’s Adland Bail Out last month.
UnLtd’s Raise the Age campaign is an initiative that stands out in the industry, garnering industry support to lobby governments to change the minimum age of incarceration for young people in Australia. That’s the kind of important impact we can all get behind.
6. Yatu Widders-Hunt, general manager, Cox Inall Ridgeway
Yatu Widders-Hunt has proud Dunghutti and Anaiwan heritage and is a director at First Nations social change agency Cox Inall Ridgeway (CIR). Having worked for nearly ten years in government across immigration, sustainability and mental health, she is passionate about driving policy and social change through comms.
At CIR, Widders-Hint leads comms and creative projects. As a former journalist, she developed an interest in Indigenous fashion and arts and is the founder of the online Australian Indigenous Fashion community.
Widders-Hunt is also on the Australian Fashion Council board and speaks regularly about First Nations representation and leadership in the media and social justice sectors.
She has even co-authored a chapter in The Failure of The Voice Referendum and the Future of Australian Democracy, which examines the role of corporate Australia during the 2023 voice to Parliament referendum and beyond.
5. Jasmin Bedir, founder, Fck The Cupcakes and Yeah The Pies! & CEO, Innocean
Jasmin Bedir launched Fck The Cupcakes back in 2021 to fight performative DE&I tactics in workplaces, hoping to engage men in the discourse around equality and misogyny. Through ad campaigns, events, research, and training programs, Bedir has launched a movement of starting genuine conversations about difficult topics.
After great initial success, Bedir noticed that the movement was struggling to attract the men it needed to keep the pressure on positive change. To alleviate that, she launched Yeah The Pies! in 2024. A male-focused program, it aims to bring men together to unpack gender bias and talk openly about vulnerability and masculinity while participants cook their own pies.
It’s this relentless focus on advancing the cause of gender equity that makes Bedir an exemplar for many in the industry and rightly one of the Best of the Best. She also has been leading Innocean to make some of the best car ads in recent years.
4. Priya Addams Williams, Lead, Shift 20 Initiative
Priya Addams Williams heads up the Shift 20 Initiative at the Dylan Alcott Foundation. She is on a mission to create an advertising landscape that reflects the society we live in, ensuring people with disability aren’t left behind in advertising and marketing efforts, helping them realise their own potential.
Having received unparalleled industry support upon launch in 2023, Shift 20 Casting Call collected its first award at the TikTok Ad Awards for Greatest ‘For Good’ Campaign earlier this year.
In January of this year, Shift 20 unveiled an impressive group of networked and independent partners, committed to creating work that is more inclusive and representative of disability.
Alongside founding agency Special, a further 14 agencies, including 72andSunny, Bread Agency, BMF, Cummins&Partners, TBWA, 303 MullenLowe, Today the Brave, Droga5 ANZ, part of Accenture Song, Paper Moose, Akcelo, Apparent, Dentsu, DDB and Ogilvy have committed to joining a community of best practice.
Agencies will also partner with Shift 20 in centrally tracking disability representation through brand and agency work, helping to quantify the impact the collective is making, to create meaningful benchmarks for the following years.
3. Paul Nunnari PSM, Paralympian & CEO, Inclusively Made
Paul Nunnari is a three-time Paralympian, and won a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Games in the Men’s 4x100m Relay. Now, Nunnari leads the movement to transform disability representation in media, in a mission to embed authentic inclusion in every production.
As CEO of Inclusively Made, Nunnari draws on decades of experience driving systemic change—from making the Sydney Harbour Bridge wheelchair accessible to shaping inclusive policy for events like the Invictus Games.
Inclusively Made is the certification standard for inclusive production, empowering companies to embed disability inclusion from the very beginning of a project.
Just last month, Creative Australia established its Disabled Creative Collective, designed to deliver national forums and gatherings focused on supporting disabled artists and arts workers to build their leadership, skills and networks. Among other changemakers, Nunnari has joined the Collective to offer his expertise.
There are two barriers for disabled athletes, medical and social. When you remove those barriers, Nunnari believes anything is possible.
2. Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli & Rob Galluzzo, founders, 36 Months
After Nova 96.9 presenter Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Finch founder Rob Galluzzo launched a campaign to raise the minimum age Australian teenagers can sign up for social media accounts from 13 to 16, the duo sparked a national movement and found bipartisan support in the government.
The campaign set in motion the process to regulate a social media ban in 2024 and is currently set to take effect in December 2025.
The social media ban in Australia will restrict access to certain social media platforms for individuals under the age of 16. This means that platforms will need to implement age verification measures to prevent minors from creating accounts.
Earlier this year, 36 months launched its podcast series, sponsored by KitKat. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at the campaign that changed Australian social media laws.
Hosted by 36 Months director Greg Attwells, the monthly podcast is dedicated to supporting parents, teachers, and caregivers as they navigate the change in social media legislation.
Wippa and Galluzzo’s contribution to social media regulation is unparalleled; taking on social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and X is something that regulators in the US and closer to home have struggled with in the past.
Just today, in fact, it was revealed the Australian government may have to stare-down a lawsuit from Google after YouTube was brought into the social ban.
1. Sunita Gloster AM, non-executive director, UN Global Compact Network, chair, Diversity Council of Australia
Sunita Gloster AM is an all-around superstar. She has delivered moving and thought-provoking speeches, urging the industry to do better. Her speech at last year’s B&T Women in Media Awards was particularly moving and rousing.
She has consistently been on B&T‘s Women in Media Power List for the past decade. But 2024 marked the first time she claimed the top spot—and she used it to speak plainly.
“We’re half of the industry, and we don’t receive the same protections or opportunities as men. So we’ve got a lot of work to do,” she said.
Since joining the Diversity Council of Australia (DCA) as its chair, Gloster has kept steadfast in her unwavering commitment to diversity.
The DCA recently partnered with Ashurst for the 2025 Anna McPhee Memorial Oration to spotlight one of the most overlooked barriers in Australian workplaces, social class.
Gloster is also a non-executive director of UN Global Compact Network Australia, where she sits on its remuneration and nominations committee.
With more than 30 years in the media, marketing, tech, sustainability and not-for-profit sectors, Gloster has no plans to slow down and her contribution to the industry is unparalleled.
