Client: Natwest
Kim Johnson, Climate Strategy Campaign Lead, NatWest Group
Kim is a brand marketing strategist who specialises in climate, sustainability and brand purpose at NatWest Group. She recently completed her MSc in Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability at Birkbeck, University of London with her dissertation focused on the UK’s emerging B Corp movement. At NatWest Group, Kim owns the customer brand climate marketing strategy and has recently launched the Royal Bank Regenerate Fund — designed to help local community groups to realise their climate and sustainability ambitions.
Creative Agency: AMV BBDO
Jonny White, Senior Business Director, AMV BBDO
Jonny is currently a Senior Business Director at AMV BBDO where he leads Currys, their largest domestic client and has been there for the past 12 years. He previously worked across a range of global and local brands including; Maltesers, Guinness, Cesar and Rexona. Jonny, together with Suzy and Mark set up AMV X Green earlier this year as consultancy to help support the sustainability briefs for their clients. He’s most recently led sustainability projects on Currys focused on reducing e-waste and encouraging a more circular tech economy. Jonny is the father of two young boys, Ralph and Boaz and lives in North London.
Matt Hardisty, Strategy Partner, AMV BBDO
Matt lives between city and coast with his beautiful daughter Freda. He has 25+ years agency experience across all their genres. He has spent the last 6+ years with AMV BBDO in strategy leadership roles on Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays, Bombay Sapphire, Guinness, Currys and TENA. Matt also leads strategy innovation for the agency, and is part of the AMV x Green team. Matt’s brand-led sustainability endeavours have included a range of EMECO furniture made from RPET bottles for Coca-Cola, the regeneration of a warehouse in Valencia to become the global creative hub for Heineken, and paying customers to bring their e-waste in-store for Currys. In April 2023 Matt completed the University of Cambridge’s ‘Business Sustainability Management’ course, achieving 93% for his final project.
His current passion is raising funds for a blue carbon project off the coast of Margate. All his professional and personal links can found be on the tree: https://linktr.ee/matthardisty.
Insight Agency: Kantar
Jonathan Hall, Managing Partner, Kantar Sustainable Transformation Practice
Jonathan is Managing Partner of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice. He is responsible for leading the team, solution development, thought leadership and
business management for all of Kantar’s client work across the world. Jonathan has over 25 years’ experience of creating breakthrough brand, innovation and consumer strategies, and has led businesses in the UK, France and East & West-Coast US: in the fields of innovation, design, communications, brand development and consumer insight. Jonathan is also on the Executive Council for the Future of Marketing Initiative at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, and a contributor on Said’s Digital Marketing Disruptive Strategy Programme, as well as the Advisory Group for the Disrupting Marketing for Sustainability course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Emily Simons, Associate Director + Innovation Lead, Sustainable Transformation Practice at Kantar
Emily is an experienced strategist on a mission to help brands transform business as usual through sustainable innovation. Emily understands the importance of innovation as a lever to drive sustainable behaviour, short and long term brand sales and equity, and the necessity of change to reconfigure the world as we know today, for the better.
With a background in Consulting (Brand strategy, Insight and Innovation) Emily has helped numerous global brands use their influence for good by uncovering the issues that matter to consumers, identifying where to play and how to show up in order to drive sustainable business growth and positive social & environmental change.
As part of Kantar’s Sustainable Transformation Practice, Emily is well placed to join the dots between the best of what Kantar has to offer in creating innovative and agile solutions to support clients on their transformation journeys. Starting with identifying the opportunity all the way through to finding the best ideas and optimising winning concepts.
Alongside deep client understanding, Emily has also:
- Completed the Business Sustainability Management Course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)
- Created Kantar’s first global sustainability eLearning course: Sustainability Foundations
- And leads the Kantar partnership with Chapter Zero + Climate Governance Initiative
Media Agency: OMD
Hannah Stockton, Head of Strategy, OMD
Hannah has 15+ years experience working across creative and media agency planning in UK, NYC and HK. In her Head of Strategy role and Board membership, she’s excited about understanding people, culture and driving collaboration to make hard ideas happen. She has specialised in behaviour change from the UK anti smoking campaign, to oral care in APAC, to encouraging people to save or donate money with financial and charity clients. She’s been passionate about sustainability in recent years, making lifestyle changes and volunteering with Hackney community garden projects. As co-chair of OMG Green group, she’s focused on making Sustainable living more attractive to everyone and driving positive behaviour change. Here she spends time getting Omnicom’s house in order, changing the brief to drive lower carbon media planning and sustainability focused campaigns with clients, and thirdly changing the way we work with progressive media owners in this space.
Grant Beckley, Strategy Director, OMD
Grant Beckley is a Strategy Director at OMD UK, one of the UK’s leading media agencies. He works with clients to advise them on the strategic deployment and creative execution of their brand communications. Grant has remained passionate about Sustainability since University and has continued to read broadly on the subject. Last year he completed the IPA Excellence Diploma with his final thesis entitled: How Brands DeGrow: Advertising within Planetary Boundaries. As co-chair of the OMG Green Team and recent member of the IPA Climate Action Group, he is working to shift the narrative about Sustainability in Advertising.
Awards Body: D&AD
Charlotte Westlake, Head of Sustainability, D&AD
Charlotte recently joined D&AD as Head of Sustainability, working to get to net zero and harness D&AD’s position to enable the industry to do the same. Prior to this, she worked for BAFTA albert, and am particularly interested in how narrative and communication can be used to support the transition to a sustainable society. Alongside D&AD she works for a small creative agency; Create Sustain — working across the fashion and lifestyle sectors, on sustainability strategy, circular product design and development, communications and digital marketing.
Media Owner: Channel 4
Sophie is the Branded Entertainment and Creative Leader at Channel 4.
She has worked in the TV and advertising industries for over 15 years, working on many award winning advertising campaigns and TV shows. She has developed, created and produced many purpose led campaigns with Greenpeace, Maternity Action, Water Aid. Woman’s Hour and Elvie.
Rupinder Downie — Channel 4 Sponsorship & Creative Partnerships Leader
Rupinder began her career at ITV as an assistant and later moved over to Channel 4.
With over 20 years’ experience driving revenue, reputation and innovation across multi-platform broadcast and digital sponsorships and brand partnerships. Rupinder’s role now focuses on working with programme formats, producers and talent to creative stand out solutions for brands and advertisers.
Rupinder is passionate about driving change in the industry as an Asian woman who has faced cultural and class barriers herself. She has played a central role working across several projects including coverage of Paralympics on Channel 4, bringing the W Series to Channel 4 to encourage women to motorsport as well as Formula E supporting sustainable solutions in sport.
