JAMES WRIGHT
Global Chief Executive Officer, Havas Red

One of the most recognized agency heads in the world, James is global CEO of Havas Red, a global micronetwork of merged media agencies and is global chairman of the Havas PR Global Collective that comprises 1,300 consultants across 40+ agencies. Before taking on his global role, James was group CEO responsible for PR agencies across the Asia-Pacific region between 2011-2018. He advised brands including AWS, Capgemini, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Mondelēz, Novartis, Toyota, Yahoo! and the Australian government. He also served as chief commercial officer for Havas Group Australia/New Zealand, working across advertising, PR and media.​

Under his leadership, Havas Red transformed into a regional powerhouse of creativity and one of the most awarded agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, winning multiple Agency of the Year titles. In 2017, PR Asia named James Agency Head of the Year at its annual awards show, and PR Awards Asia named him Asia-Pacific PR Agency Head of the Year. That year, he was also the Australian PR juror for the Cannes Lions Festival, the second time he has performed the role, having previously done it in 2013. In 2008, at the age of just 28, he won the coveted PRCA’s Consultant of the Year (U.K.) and the same year was named International CSR Leader by PR News USA at its All Stars Awards. In 2016, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia, one of the youngest ever admitted.​

James joined the Havas Group in 2011 from the U.K. Previously, he was managing director at international agency Grayling, where he led international accounts including BT, HSBC, Sony, Jaguar and Land Rover.

LINDA DESCANO
Executive Vice President; Corporate Communications and Executive Visibility Practice Head, Havas Red North America

Linda joined Havas Red in 2015 to spearhead the agency’s digital, social and measurement practice areas. With more than 15 years of experience, she specializes in providing strategic counsel and tactical implementation of integrated communications programs, incorporating PR, media relations, social media, content partnerships, influencer marketing, thought leadership and advertising. Her work includes a variety of sectors such as financial services, economic development, pharma and corporate responsibility. Previously, Linda was managing director and global head of content marketing and social media at Citi, where she launched numerous digital firsts and served as president and CEO of Women & Co., the bank’s award-winning financial lifestyle community for women.

Davitha Tiller
Executive Vice President, Social and Integration, Havas Red North America

Davitha is a strategic leader, subject-matter expert and senior strategist with in-depth knowledge about all areas of the social realm. Having grown up in Amsterdam, Davitha has gained life and work experience across multiple markets including Europe (Amsterdam, Istanbul), Australia (Sydney) and most recently New York, where she heads Havas Red’ social media offering across North America and the U.K. Davitha is a regular social media guest lecturer for educational entities and is co-author of the world’s first government-accredited social media degree, developed in partnership with Social Media College.

Andrea Pellicciari
Executive Vice President, Health, Havas Red North America

Andrea Pellicciari has more than 25 years’ experience in consumer marketing and public relations with a larger focus on health and wellness. Andrea has managed campaigns for Allergan, Nature’s Bounty Vitamins, Sanofi, Alcon (Novartis) and Perrigo, among others. She’s led teams that have managed multiple product approvals and launches across multiple therapeutic categories including CNS, aesthetics, dermatology, vaccines and gastroenterology. Andrea has managed issues and crisis work for marquee brands like BOTOX® and the NFL, with her team’s work for the NFL, launched at the height of the concussion crisis in the league, resulting in more than one billion media impressions and a marked  favorable shift in the conversation about the care received by NFL players. Her teams’ work in the vaccine space has led to measurable improvement in vaccination rates for influenza.

VINEEL AGARWAL
CEO, Havas Village Africa

Vineel Agarwal is a seasoned marketing leader with extensive experience in media and advertising. She has worked at Havas International in France for a number of years before joining the Havas Africa network in 2014. Vineel has tackled diverse roles from client management to strategic direction to new business development during her journey at Havas. Today she is CEO of the Havas Village in South Africa as well as the Africa network, which comprises of 10 agencies with 200-plus staff across the continent.

Vineel is passionate about building meaningful communications for global and local businesses, and making a measurable impact in markets through campaigns and initiatives that bring different stakeholders and partners together.

Vineel is a recipient of the Most Inspiring Leader award by the French South African Chamber of Commerce. Under her leadership, the Africa network of Havas, headquartered in Johannesburg, has seen an impressive growth in the last three years.

THANH BÙI
Managing Director, Havas Red Vietnam

With over 14 years of experience in PR, communications and media in Vietnam, Thanh has handled various major accounts across different industries such as FMCG, banking, real estate and education, including Gamuda Land, VinGroup, Techcombank, Hongleongbank, just to name a few. Thanh loves to explore unexpected customer needs to create meaningful impacts on their business.

The experience of working with large organizations has given Thanh the skill of strategic thinking in marketing and communication, along with the practical experience of managing large-scale marketing and communications programs and projects.

Thanh graduated from Bolton University with a Master’s degree in 2012.

Lisa Campbell
General Manager, Red Connect

As General Manager of Red Connect, Havas Red’s content marketing arm, Lisa is responsible for co-running the division as well as heading up strategy globally. With more than 20 years’ experience in content, digital and social, spanning four continents, Lisa has worked in publishing, client-side and in agency in journalism, strategy, social, marketing and management roles. Having had the great fortune of working on a vast roster of clients across the world from KPMG, Google, Snapchat and LinkedIn to Ferrero, Dubai Tourism, Westfield, Clarins, Batiste and so many more, Lisa has expertise in both B2C and B2C content strategy, marketing, social and editorial.

Lisa is an advocate of fostering strategic thinking throughout our organization and is passionate about meeting clients’ business goals through clever content.

Mark Campbell
Content Creative Officer, Red Connect and Havas Red

As our global Content Creative Officer, Mark is responsible for leading our content expertise across creative strategy, concepting and execution, as well as co-running Red Connect, our specialist content marketing arm.

With 20+ years creating B2B and B2C transmedia content in both the northern and southern hemisphere, Mark is responsible for creating the world’s first brand TV channel for Land Rover back, creating TV formats for brands such as Britvic-Pepsico, Sony Music and Commbank, and global social content campaigns for UNICEF and Emirates. He has also helped clients find their creative voice in the podcast space, something the United Nations Refugee Agency benefited from when he helped steer the editorial development, and lead the branding, visual identity, creative and social campaign for their Forced To Flee docuseries podcast.

Whether it’s omnichannel big format content or pure play social creative, Mark consistently applies his big thinking and passion, whilst inspiring a global team of creative thinkers and makers to be bold and to lovingly sweat the detail of the work.

MYRIAM DEMBÉLÉ
Public Relations Manager, Havas RED Côte d’Ivoire

With a Master’s degree in Political Communication, Lobbying and Public Affairs from Sup de Pub and HEIP Paris, Myriam has more than 5 years of experience in the field of communication and public relations. After starting her career at the OXYGEN Paris agency, she returned to Abidjan in 2021, where she worked in agencies such as Voodoo Communication, Ladili Consulting and 35° Ouest, mainly on B2B, corporate and institutional topics. After a successful experience as Institutional Communication and PR Officer within the Organizing Committee of the CAN (COCAN) 2023, she joins the Havas Africa Côte d’Ivoire team as Public Relations Manager, in charge of HAVAS RED.

STEVE FONTANOT
Commercial Managing Director, APAC & Managing Director, Havas Red

As Commercial Managing Director, APAC, Steve’s remit includes M&A and commercial partnerships in order to strengthen the Havas Group offering in the region. He’s additionally tasked with leading Havas Blvd agency as its Managing Director.

With 20 years in the industry, he’s a leading voice in the creation of insight-led communication campaigns, which blend earned, shared and owned media.

Steve’s resume includes founding Chieftain Communications (acquired in 2014), leading Making Waves Australia and driving DDB Australia’s PR, experiential and sponsorship division, Mango.

Steve frequently speaks at government and industry events and has been a judge at numerous industry awards…he’s also won a bunch of them along the way (Spikes, D&AD, AdNews, CommsCon, PRIA, B&T, SABRE, Clios, PR Awards Asia, AGDA, Mumbrella).

Steve has had the privilege of having worked with many leading brands, including Toyota, Lexus, Nestlé, Samsung, Telstra, Tigerair, Coca-Cola, and eBay, to name (brag!) a few.

Nigel Hughes
Managing Director, Havas Red U.K.

Nigel has over 25 years’ experience leading agency teams for internationally renowned brands such as Kellogg’s, Danone and Rank Group as well as leading high-profile teams supporting the U.K. Government and other public sector bodies. Other key consumer brand experience includes Greggs, Asda, Debenhams and Co-op. Nigel is a member of the senior management team at Havas Red U.K., as well as the Global Leadership Team.

AURÉLIE JARRY
Managing Director, Havas RED Côte d’Ivoire

Aurélie is Regional Director for West Africa at Havas Africa and Managing Director for Havas RED and Havas Africa in Côte d’Ivoire. For the second year running, she was selected for the Choiseul ranking, which identifies the 200 leaders in the French economy under the age of 40. Aurélie was also a member of the Cannes Lion jury in 2022 . Under her leadership, Havas Africa Côte d’Ivoire won major new contracts including L’Oréal and BNP . Before joining Havas Côte d’Ivoire, Aurélie was Digital Director at Havas Africa based in Paris, where she managed 24 countries for nearly 3 years. Aurélie is passionate about creating meaningful campaigns for international brands.

JOS ORTEGA
General Manager, Havas Red Philippines

Jos is the Chief Executive Officer of Havas Ortega and concurrently the General Manager of Havas Red Philippines. He has 40 years’ experience in integrated communications, including public relations. Aside from leading agency teams on Unilever, Nestle and other multinational clients, Jos has worked on 12 of the top 15 family conglomerate accounts in the Philippines.

His primary advocacy is youth education. He co-founded the MadWorld Conference in 2010, together with the Philippine Junior Marketing Association. It is now the largest student marketing conference in the country today.

Jos is also a Board Member and Vice President for Communications of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Philippines, a Board Member of the Kythe Foundation, an Adviser of Bike Scouts Philippines and an Adviser of the De La Salle University College of Saint Benilde MMA Program.

ROXANE PHILIPPE
General Manager, Havas Red Health France

With more than 20 years of experience in the health sector, Roxane brings a consultative vision on all health-related issues from a global perspective: the pharmaceutical industry and medical devices, nutrition, public health or public interest issues, and health tech. Roxane has in-depth knowledge of how to influence opinion leaders in the health sector. From strategic consulting to sensitive communication management, Roxane is also used to working alongside leaders to create storytelling adapted to a sector’s stakeholders.

ANA PICÓ
General Director, Havas Red Spain

Ana has a track record of nearly 20 years in the Havas Group, as well as in multinational advertising agencies (including Tiempo BBDO, J. Walter Thompson, Tandem and DDB).  

 

Within Havas, she has held different positions of responsibility such as general manager of Uncommon and AIS agencies (both BTL Group agencies) and general manager of Luxhub (specialized unit in communication for luxury brands). Since 2020, she has been general manager at Havas Red, taking on public relations with a focus on reputation and brand purpose, digital influence and creative branded content. In her free time, she is also a speaker and Professor at Business Schools (Master Vogue Condé Nast, Nebrija University and Carlos III University). Ana is very passionate about creating meaningful storytelling for brands. 

JUSTINE PIECHATZEK
General Manager Health PR, Havas Red Health Germany

Justine has more than 15 years of experience in pharmaceutical agencies and has broad industry expertise in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device sectors regarding marketing communications and corporate communications. Justine gained her experience in numerous indications, clients and brands (Rx and OTC). She studied linguistics, German language and literature and sociology at the WWU Münster and focused her passion for communication and medicine on public relations early on.

SHANE RUSSELL
Chief Executive Officer, Havas Red Australia

Shane Russell is Chief Executive Officer of Havas Red Australia, one of the country’s most awarded PR, Social and Experiential agencies.

In a 20-year career that has spanned both Australia and the United States, Shane has built a reputation for leading high-growth teams and brands that aren’t afraid of taking creative risks.

For a decade prior to joining Red in April 2023, Shane served as Executive Vice President at New York-based 5W Public Relations, helping it become one of the largest independent firms in America. As an agency leader Shane was instrumental in driving the company’s record multi-year expansion, helping win and retain household-name brands and disruptive startups, manage group operations, and provide senior counsel and strategic direction to clients across a diversity of consumer and B2B verticals.

Prior to 5W, Shane was head of global PR at Shutterstock, where he managed external agency relationships and helped craft the company’s product and international communications program.

At Red, Shane is focused on elevating the agency’s merged media offerings and leveraging his deep operational expertise to support clients as they navigate various growth stages, brand and campaign launches, corporate and financial milestones, issues and more.

Shane launched his career in his homeland of Australia in 2004, representing some of the country’s largest real estate groups and operating his own generalist PR consultancy before relocating to New York in 2012. Shane holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Communication from James Cook University in Queensland, Australia.

Outside of work, Shane dedicates much of his waking and sleeping hours to his two young daughters and travel.

Rachael Sansom
Chief Executive Officer, Havas Red U.K.

Rachael has spent the last 25 years working with some of the world’s biggest brands such as Amex, Disney, B&Q, Sky, Unilever, Talk Talk, Huawei, Jaguar Land Rover and the U.K. government across all their communication platforms. During her time as Managing Director at Engine MHP, she led the NHS Blood & Transplant account including the iconic ‘Missing Type’ campaign. Strategic brand communications is her passion, but her experience covers everything from crises to corporate communications and ESG.

Rachael worked with American Express in different agencies from 2005 to 2017, leading a variety of projects from sponsorship of Wimbledon through to more recent programmes like AMEX Invites and Shop Small. Rachael has also led the inter-agency team work for AMEX. As such, Rachael has an innate understanding of the American Express brand. Rachael has achieved multiple industry awards, including three Cannes Lions and multiple PR Week Awards.

CAREL SCHEEPERS
Head, Havas Red South Africa

Carel has been in the advertising industry for over a decade, starting out in creative and making his way into strategy. Today he wears many hats from strategy to research, design, art direction, writing, and all things comms and crafts.

Carel has been with Havas for five years. He believes we all have the responsibility to do good, and he lives and works by the philosophy of Havas Meaningful Brands — expecting brands to tangibly improve people’s lives, enhance their well-being and contribute to society.

Carel is passionate about education, as that is where he sees the crux and apex of the future lie. He believes that we remain students, no matter our age. Having worked and being involved in several NGOs, Carel not only contributes to these organisations, but also learns from them.

Last but definitely not the least, for Carel, anything kitsch is a must.

Dana Tahir
General Manager, Havas Red Middle East

With over 14 years of experience in the PR & Communications industry, Dana has been a pillar at Havas Middle East, where her role has spanned across all aspects of the agency. Recognized for brand building, consultancy, crisis management, know-how and do-how, Dana has successfully led the agency’s post-digital transformation in recent years, allowing Havas Red to expand its footprint and diversify its portfolio across industries and disciplines.

Dana led the agency’s transition to Havas Red, aligning with the global strategic direction of the Havas Group. The new agency vision embraces the micronetwork’s merged media strategic model, which integrates earned, social and experiential capabilities with content at its heart.

Dana is also a Middle East Public Relations Association strategy board member.

CORRADO TOMASSINI
Vice President, Havas Red Italy

Corrado is vice president, board member and partner at Havas Red Italy. He is a public affairs, healthcare and employer branding business development lead with more than 20 years of experience as corporate communications consultant. Before joining Havas, he was patient access manager with Pfizer and head of the corporate communications and new business unit with Edelman Italy. Corrado has an in-depth expertise in healthcare communications, public affairs and corporate reputation — both in the private and public fields — crisis communications, corporate social responsibility, political elections campaigns and financial communications. He has collaborated, among others, with Bayer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Comune di Milano, EG-Eurogenerici, Fondazione Umberto Veronesi, IDF International Diabetes Federation, Mattel, Merck-Serono, Novartis, Pfizer Italia, Regione Lombardia, Sanofi, Sara Lee, Standard & Poor’s, Swiss Re and Ubi Banca. He is lecturer at different post-graduate programs such as 24Ore Business School, RCS Academy and University of Milan.

CATERINA TONINI
Chief Executive Officer, Havas Red Italy

Caterina is the co-founder of Havas Red Italy, where she holds the position of CEO and member of the board of directors. She is also vice president and member of the steering committee of Havas Creative Group Italy with responsibility for environmental, social and corporate governance. In the past, she worked as communication manager for the McDonald’s brand, managing projects in the areas of corporate social responsibility and public affairs. She held the role of executive vice president in Edelman P.R. Worldwide (multinational company specialized in below-the-line communication and public affairs). Today, Caterina is a member of the board of directors of the CCI France Italie and shares the scientific direction of the RCS Group’s Master in New Media and Communication and brings her specific expertise in reputation, corporate and stakeholder management, and business areas of crisis and litigation. She has also acquired experience in coordinating projects in the CSR and shared value sector.

HARRY TUMENGKOL
Partner; Co-Founder, Image Dynamics, Havas Red Indonesia

Harry has over 25 years of experience in public relations, both on the in-house and consultancy side. He is currently a partner at Image Dynamics, where he manages the firm’s business development and supervises ID’s key clients: Google, Grab and Tokopedia.  

 

Prior to establishing Image Dynamics, Harry was senior vice president at APCO Worldwide, external relations advisor at BHP Indonesia, served as senior associate of marketing practice at Burson-Marsteller Indonesia, and as account director at independent PR firm Ellipse PR.  

 

Educated in the United States and Australia, Harry earned his bachelor’s from the University of Canberra. He loves swimming, the beach, the cinema, and most of all, his three wonderful children. 

SUSAN WALKLEY
Managing Director, Havas Red Health U.K.

Starting her career as a consumer healthcare PR specialist, Susan has successfully led the execution of award-winning global and U.K. campaigns for the bio-pharma industry for the last 20+ years. With long-standing agency experience, Susan is a specialist in developing campaigns and initiatives that create awareness, shift opinions, and establish the scientific credentials of brands and the reputation of organizations. She is experienced in a broad range of medical communications disciplines in multiple therapy areas and her expertise spans across brand launch and market shaping, patient education and disease awareness programs, corporate communications, employee engagement and change management.

KENNY YAP
Managing Director, Havas Red Singapore

Kenny leads PR and social at Havas Red Singapore, and is responsible for developing integrated communications strategies as well as conceptualizing innovative ideas for the agency’s clients. He was also one of the pioneers in influencer marketing, and has developed personal relationships with various top-tier influencers and community interest groups in the country. 

 

Kenny brings about in-depth knowledge and integrated communications experience, synergizing various marketing communications functions, from public relations, creative, media to digital and social media.  

 

He has also tailored regional integrated communications programs to help clients achieve business results, and introduced new marketing and digital initiatives to enhance the agencies’ capabilities and business growth.