Meet the Members of the
Native Advertising Awards 2023 Jury

Alex started SUNT in 2017, offering the first platform and network for scalable true native advertising in Sweden. He has also been a member of the taskforce of IAB Sweden since 2019.

CEO/Founder of Nemorin Film & Video, the premium branded video agency (part of the Argonon Group). Ex Head of Commercial Video for the Telegraph. Broadcast, media and branded content geek.

Communicator with more than 15 years of experience in the field of journalism and content creation. She has received international awards in media and content issues. During those years she has created, developed and edited leading media in its field.

For 6 years she was the Editor in Chief of ContentLab, the content lab of Grupo El Comercio, in which she led comprehensive projects for more than 350 clients in the local and international market such as Amazon, Movistar, Maestro, Claro, among others, becoming the leader in the peruvian market. She is a graduate of the University of Lima and a Diploma in Communication Management and Management from the University of Piura, with Inbound Marketing courses, from the IEBS of Spain.

I am Head of Native and Operations Manager at Bonnier News Brand Studio and I have been developing Bonnier News native since 2015 together with my sharp colleagues. I am a native advertising specialist and I have great respect for the craftmanship required to make good content that is adapted to the platform it is created for, which in turn gives the best effect for our clients. I have had the honor to travel around Europe and lecture other media houses on how to build up their departments and products. In addition to that, I am the current chairman for the IAB Native Advertising task force.

I am passionate about my job and love developing our products as well as my colleagues.

In 2006. I started my career in Publicis Groupe where I progressed to the Regional Account Director position responsible for the ex-YU region clients.

In 2015. I joined 24sata as the Marketing Director and member of the core management team.

Founded commercial content production department in 2017. Set up of the business model of producing and selling commercial content.

Kevin Sewell brings 9 years of experience spent at the forefront of native advertising to the jury panel. As Commercial Director for Adyoulike, now part of OpenWeb, Kevin, who has a degree in journalism, has spent the best part of a decade working with leading brands and advertising agencies in planning, executing, and scaling multi-market campaigns. An expert in evaluating the ROI of native advertising campaigns he brings a strong commercial acumen to the jury panel. In his spare time Kevin enjoys scuba diving and is training to become a pilot.

I am a graduate journalist who was first attracted to native advertising as a student, and there was no turning back. I took my first native steps in the award-winning native studio 24ContentHaus, where I worked first as a content producer and then as a coordinator and editor in the native department.

Then I got the opportunity to start the native department at the most-read Croatian news site Index. hr, where I still work today as the head of native and am responsible for every native campaign we create for different clients.

Creating stories on a portal with more than a million visitors per day is not only a creative but also a responsible job. I enjoy creating native campaigns with my team, and the thought that guides us is - to create content that makes a difference.

Firstly, native content should be informative and valuable to our readers and encourage them to think and change. If we succeed in this and connect the client and the reader, then we know that we have done a good job.

With 10+ years’ experience in digital advertising and content marketing, David has spent the last 4 years leading commercial and publisher development for Nativo in Europe. Working alongside Nativo’s award-winning in-house media and operations teams, when David is not focussing on growth across the region, he uses his hands-on campaign experience from publishers like The Economist to help media companies build a successful and sustainable business from native advertising and branded content.

Fara Warner has worked in every storytelling medium from traditional print, books, and digital publishing to virtual reality films throughout her three-decade journalism career. Her passions are the art and science of storytelling in the digital age, new business models for journalism, and the critical role journalism plays in how communities respond and adapt to global climate change.

Empathetic leader. Creative marketeer. With a love for creating stories that matter, Maria is Head of Creative for the native advertising team at the publisher Dagbladet Børsen – the preferred business newspaper in Denmark for more than 125 years.

Educated as a journalist in 2010 she has worked with native advertising and content marketing throughout her career at several of the most influential btc and btb media platforms in Denmark.

The combination of her journalistic background and business insights enables her to take a story first-approach and consistently create high quality advertiser paid content and tailoring the creative concepts to meet the business goals of the advertiser, the demands of the audience and balancing the editorial brand.

Mikaela Folkestad (31) is the CEO of one of Norway's largest content studios Schibsted Partnerstudio, and chairman of the board of the content agency Manus. She has previously worked within business and product development and tech in Partnerstudio, and brand management in Orkla.

Ekstra Bladet Brand Stories is a small integrated story studio that creates and executes native advertising campaigns on one of Denmark's largest media platforms. We work closely with advertisers, media agencies, and creative agencies etc. and love to share advise and discuss branded content in general.

Ida is Head of Native and Co-founder of Storybook. Storybook is a creative native agency founded as a part of Concept in 2017 with the aim to create more effective native campaigns with high-quality content that is relevant and inspiring to both the target group as well as the platform it takes place on.

Ida has been working with Storybook and Concept since 2015 and has through the years been lead countless of creative native campaigns for all types of brands. Ida is driven by identifying the perfect match between client, platform, timing and key message to create the best possible result.

Being part of Schibsted Marketing Services gives me the opportunity to work with great people, clients and news sites. As a leader, I am most proud of having won sales manager of the year in Schibsted. As director of Schibsted Brand Studio, I strive to strengthen our position in content marketing and define tomorrow's content products.

This year we have started that journey by launching Native Premium, a product that delivers more reach, great content and world-class campaign reporting. Last year's entries held a high level and I look forward to seeing what all content creators around the world have achieved since then.

Professional with 10 years of experience working in the media. Has the role of Head of native studio at tportal, one of the leading news portals in Croatia which is part of Hrvatski Telekom (Deutsche Telekom member), a leading tech company in the region.

Tportal is one of the leading online news and entertainment media web sites in Croatia. As one of the most visited news web sites in Croatia, tportal records over 58% monthly total market reach and makes a unique advertising platform to help our partners expand their businesses while our team of digital media experts offers a complete solutions for digital advertising, including native content studio since 2014.

Our studio is the leader in terms of the number of completed campaigns in Croatia for several years. The results, which are far above the Croatian average, give us motivation when creating new creative concepts.

Patrick has more then 20 years of experience in the world of branded content. After various sales and marketing roles at Amsterdam RAI, TMG, Sanoma and DPG Media, he founded Value Zipper in 2014. Value Zipper exploits the mediaspace and other associated possibilities of currently 16 media owners;publishers of print media, digital media and even movies. With this wide range of possibilities, Value Zipper offers advertisers and media agencies a one-stop shop to share their brand stories. With branded content as their core specialty.

Jerusha Raath leverages a decade’s experience as a journalist and editor in her role as Head of Adspace Studio. A multiple-award winner for digital publishing, she was chosen as one of 28 women globally for the Poynter Institute’s 2018 Leadership Academy for Women in Digital Media. She holds an MBA from Wits Business School and serves on the IAB South Africa’s Content Marketing Committee. She is a coach for Digital Women Leaders and the South African Media Investment Partnership.

Mats has over 20 years of media and communication experience. Mats has a solid and industry awarded background in content production, both commercial and editorial.

Mats is currently Head Of Brand Studio, a part of Bonnier News.

Mats has extensive experience from various media companies, including sales director at MTG, Media Director at MediaEdgeCia and CEO at Metronome Digital Media. Prior to joining MSLGROUP, he worked as CEO for 7 years at the own filmproduction company Hard Hat AB, which he founded with Calle Schulman in 2009.

Mats is a senior consultant who worked in communications, media and marketing for almost 20 years. He has a very broad experience of working with engaging content, whether it is a company's brand and values, public affairs or consumer products.

Mats has been starting up many companies, has been owner of companies and has run own companies for over 12 years. Mats has a Master in Management from IHM Business School.

Mats is award-winning by 100-Wattaren & Guldägget for the commercials with Henke Lundqvist and Head & Shoulders.

Jo Carrigan is Managing Director of Women’s Lifestyle at Future PLC, a UK-based media company home to over 250 of the world's best-loved brands. Having recently joined Future from NewsCorp where she spent five years as Head of Commercial Content, Jo started her career in news journalism, and over the last 13 years has worked across a host of brands including The Huffington Post, Mail Metro Media, MediaCom and The Sunday Times.

Stephanie Losee is a native advertising and content marketing thought leader and speaker. She is the Global Head of Thought Leadership Research & ABM Content at Autodesk, and former head of content at Visa and Dell. She is the founder of Politico’s content studio.

Journalist by education, marketing lover by nature, Daria built her career in the leading Croatian media company, Hanza Media. She was a student when she started working as a journalist in print newspaper, but ultimately discovered her passion for digital platforms. She became editor of the economy section and transferred in the field of native advertising. For the last three years, Daria was in charge of many successful projects and campaigns. Last year, Daria and her team were awarded with a MIXX award for the best native campaign in Croatia and project with the best 'green' impact in society.

Erin oversees content strategy and insights at Nativo, working with some of the largest and best-known brands across healthcare, CPG, travel, finance, B2B, tech and more. A creative insights evangelist, she has pioneered many of the company's insights solutions and processes. Erin distills the most important learnings from over a decade of experience in content production and creative strategy into clear, actionable guidance that helps brands get ahead in the era of branded content.

Since starting at Seven West Media in 2016, Nahum has channelled his creative energy into building a team of storytellers and makers, shaping environments for ideas to grow. Previously, Nahum worked across a range of digital and video roles including government, not-for-profit and web development agencies resulting in a well-rounded skill set to lead the MINT team. Eclectic and diverse in his interests, Nahum sees creativity as the ability to connect the seemingly unconnected.

Josh Robinson is the head of the award-winning Forbes Content & Design Studio, a multidisciplinary unit that produces high-impact paid content, event branding and marketing, social executions and more. Prior to joining Forbes in 2014, Josh held positions at The New York Times, AOL and two television stations.

Anne Leinonen works as Head of Concepts and Content at the Helsinki-based publisher A-lehdet. A-lehdet have nearly 90 years experience in storytelling, is one of Finland’s biggest media houses and offers a number of popular, high-quality Finnish brands online and also in print.

Anne leads the b2b-unit’s creative team and is passionate about creating high-quality, authentic advertiser paid content and tailoring new concepts.

Anne has a strong background in newspaper and online journalism. Before joining A-lehdet she worked as managing editor at Iltalehti, which is the largest online news site in Finland (and also a tabloid paper). She has a wide experience of writing and editing news, feature articles and long stories. She has also a strong background on producing and hosting live broadcasts. Anne has 10+ years experience in leading positions and team development.

In her work Anne emphasizes the use of journalistic principles to create quality branded content. Story always comes first, you just need to figure out the best way to tell it.

Mary Gail (MG) Pezzimenti is the Head of Creative for the Washington Post Creative Group. She is passionate about content strategy work, beginning her editorial career at Conde Nast, then leading award-winning branded content creation teams at Federated Media, Huff Post, Mashable and most recently Healthline. She also has worked on commerce content development for the CNET Media Group at CBSi. She and her family have lived in NYC (Brooklyn and Manhattan) as well as London. She holds a BA from Emory University and an MBA from NYU Stern. MG is an advisor/volunteer for EDF, Road To Hire and Brightly.

Matt Flemming is the Director of Content Works, Postmedia's full service branded content studio. Postmedia is one of Canada's largest national media companies, including a network of over 130+ media brands, credentials of outstanding journalism, extensive digital capabilities, and an audience of millions of Canadians each month. Matt has two decades of experience in journalism, PR, custom publishing and content marketing in Asia and North America. Matt has created branded content for a wide range of clients, from local mom and pop small businesses to global brands such as Samsung, Audi and Pfizer. As the leader of Postmedia’s branded content studio, he develops strategies to make sponsored content more engaging and more effective.

At Bloomberg, Ashish leads the global creative and content teams to craft bespoke brand solutions that engage Bloomberg’s audience of leaders and influencers. Bloomberg Media Studios has grown over 50% year-over-year under his direction, becoming an award-winning powerhouse for brands ranging from luxury and technology to health and finance.

Over the past 20 years, Ashish has been driven by his belief that the best creative work is rooted in data and storytelling. Prior to Bloomberg, he held creative leadership roles in a variety of industries. He was Managing Director of Kelton where he established its Brand Development & Innovation practice;and was Executive Creative Director at Digitas New York, where he fueled its growth to become one of the biggest healthcare agencies in the world. Throughout his career, Ashish has honed his passion for innovative storytelling, be it through game design at Atari or branded entertainment at William Morris/Endeavor.

Ashish’s creative impetus has resulted in numerous awards and industry recognition including Cannes, the Webby’s, Shortys, Tellys and more. He holds a BFA in Design from Illinois Wesleyan University and an MFA in Computer Art from the School of Visual Arts, New York. His interactive art has been exhibited at the NTT Center in Tokyo, ZKM in Karlsruhe, German, and the Postmasters Gallery in New York. He is fluent in Hindi, struggles with Italian, and lives with his daughter in Brooklyn.

Evelin is the founder and strategist at Your Brand Up Studio that helps companies of various sizes and in different fields to succeed in sales and marketing. Its specific focus is on growth marketing and branding. She believes in lifelong learning and, in addition to a master’s degree in management and marketing, she is constantly developing herself in various fields. Her special interest is in digital marketing and personal branding and she also has written a book about it "The Brand Named You" (www.thebrandnamedyou.com)

My background centres around content marketing, and how brands can provide the most valuable and insightful content possible in order to reach and engage their target audience. With 13 years in the industry, focusing on quality content creation, audience development and targeted distribution, my goals are to help brands succeed in achieving their marketing objectives.

Member of IAB Sweden Taskforce - Content Advertising and Head of Native at Informa. Specialized in the public sector.

I've been working with content advertising almost my entire career in different positions. As Head of Native at Leeads my job is to help create ideas and see to that they have a stellar delivery.

Working with online media for 18 years. Always eager to learn and see the results on a good campaign. Also experienced the evolution of native advertising from early 2010 til today. What a great story.

Anders Lithner is CEO and co-founder of Brand Metrics, a tech platform used globally for measuring the brand lift outcome of digital advertisement, including thousands of native campaigns. His background is in academic media studies, followed by many years as entrepreneur in the market research industry.

As a Creative Content and Digital  Solutions Strategist at the Real Grupa, the leading marketing services company I am currently working  on conent digital strategies, campaigns and solutions for numerous companies. The privilege of having previous experience as a journalist and a chef in editor in Croatia’s biggest print and digital media and   also director of several native advertising media departments, allows me to create authentic and original campaigns.

Nina has a background within business development, commercial strategy and marketing. In 2018 she co-founded the video distribution platform, Biites. Biites challenges the standards within video distribution and create a high engagement alternative to existing video distribution options. Together with her co-founder and team, Nina has seen Biites grow across regions, introducing a new commercial model with focus on attention and relevance to content.

Nina has previously worked within content distribution and with marketing and branding within a variety of industries, and is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.

As Head of Creative Studio, Ida runs Aller Media's in-house agency - the company's creative hub, responsible for developing powerful commercial concepts for its advertisers, with the aim of inspiring and engaging the women of Sweden.

With 20+ years of experience, Ida has a strong background in the advertising and marketing industry. Before joining Aller Media she worked as a specialist at Bonnier News Brand Studio and Schibsted Brand Studio – making her a native advertising pro within the Swedish media houses.

What has driven her throughout her career, as well as today, is her passion for storytelling and creating high-quality content for women that engages.

Creative director at Stampen Media's creative hub STUDIO, leading designers, content creators and writers in advertising for both in-house campaigns and external costumers. 10+ years of marketing experience as a creative, marketing director and customer experience manager within retail, traveling and media industry.

In addition to founding the Native Advertising Institute, Jesper Laursen is the CEO of Brand Movers and Media Movers. The companies work with content marketing and journalism, respectively.

Jesper, a passionate content marketing and native advertising entrepreneur and speaker, believes that native advertising done right holds great potential for getting your message across to the right people, at the right time and in the right manner.

His company Brand Movers publishes the largest magazine in Northern Europe on the subject called Content Marketing Magazine and works with various brands and media on native advertising projects.