Justin Thomas-Copeland - Chair African Cristal Festival | Founder KINDRD Global | Former Network Agency CEO (RAPP NYC & DDB NAM) | Former Chief Digital Officer (Novartis)| Executive Client Partner
Justin serves as the Chair of the African Cristal Festival, with a charter to help to build the brand and celebrate Africa’s creativity, globally. Justin has been a serial agency CEO and led client engagements across the world for the past 30 years, working with brands ranging from Microsoft, Kroger, HPE, Virgin Atlantic, Nokia, Adidas, The US Army, Novartis, Vertu to name a few.
Justin holds several advisory board seats, serves as an executive mentor to global brand leaders and through launching KINDRD Global, is vested in working with creators to drive business growth through cultural brand experiences.
Under Justin’s leadership DDB North America was awarded Effie US Network of the Year. DDB North America returned to the Cannes stage winning double digit Lions in 2022 and enjoyed more wins in 2023 contributing to DDB global winning Cannes global network of the year in 2023. Also during his tenure as CEO DDB had multiple wins at Clio, Andy’s, and North America being integral to D&AD Network of the year wins.
Justin has worked with organizations including the T.Howard Foundation, The Brixton Finishing School, 100 roses… to share his global experience in a way which helps diverse talent to find opportunity within the advertising industry. Justin holds a BSC in Business Information Systems, and has completed his Executive MBA at Babson College.
Kofi is the Chief Marketing Officer at Doordash, responsible for driving growth and engagement across all three sides of the marketplace.
Prior to Doordash, Kofi was VP of Brand & Consumer Marketing at Meta (fka Facebook), having previously served as the company's Head of Consumer Marketing for internet.org.
Before Meta, Kofi was Chief Strategy Officer at FCB New York. He joined FCB from Bacardi Global Brands, where he was the Global Communications Director for the Rum category and the architect for the reinvention of the Bacardi brand.
As the Founder and Managing Director of Publicis West Africa, Kofi created and launched the first majority-owned network agency on the African continent.
And as the Senior Strategic Planner on Nike at Wieden+Kennedy, Kofi crafted the strategy for Nike’s global Beijing Olympics campaign.
He began his career at Leo Burnett Chicago & Leo Burnett London - working on Kellogg's, Coca Cola, and Global Giving.
Kofi has a BA in Economics and International Studies from Macalester College. He serves on the Board of Trustees for Macalester College; on the Board of Vital Farms - a Certified B Corporation that brings ethical food to the table to improve the lives of people, animals, and the planet; on the Board of Stitch Fix - the leading destination for personalized shopping, styling and inspiration; on the Board of One Young World - the global community for young transformational leaders; and as a Venture Advisor to Listen Ventures.
Kofi lives in South Orange, NJ with his college-sweetheart-turned-wife Kate, and their rambunctious young sons Marlowe and Miles.
Andrea builds iconic brands, drives transformation, and delivers high-impact results. She was appointed Global CEO of GUT in 2022, and a year later, the agency was named Independent Network of the Year and LATAM Network of the Year at Cannes Lions. In 2024, GUT was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in marketing and advertising.
Originally from Venezuela, Andrea spent most of her career in New York; however, from 2011 to 2013, she served as CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Mexico, where she doubled the agency's business and earned numerous international awards. In 2016, she became CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi New York, where she successfully diversified the client base and revitalized the agency's creative reputation. In 2021, she took on the role of CEO of DDB Chicago, achieving 35% growth and winning multiple awards.
Throughout her career, Andrea has built diverse, high-performing teams that deliver powerful creative solutions for complex business challenges. She has earned over 250 creative and effectiveness awards from top festivals, including Cannes Lions, Effies, D&AD, Clios, and One Show.
Andrea has served on prestigious juries, including Cannes Lions, Effie Grand Jury, London International Awards, and as Jury Chair at the Iridium Effies.
With 25 years and counting in advertising, Shobha has spent most of her career defining, guiding, and shaping the trajectory of brands and more recently, agencies. She has lived and worked in three different continents and in addition to making her a natural linguist, this gives her a unique perspective on local and global nuances that shape the brands she’s worked on and the agencies she’s worked with.
After some foundational years in Leo Burnett (Chicago, NY and London), she honed her creative strategy skills at Mother, helping it grow from a 20 person shop to a 200 person agency. She rounded off her natural inclination to be a “strategic creative” with a stint at Deutsch, where she leaned into building and elevating the strategy department and the quality of the strategic product.
Since then she’s held three CSO roles at The&Partnership (North America), the community (Global CSO overseeing 5 offices) and most recently at 22Squared, a small independent agency with big creative ambition. At all three, she was tasked with one big goal: TRANSFORMATION. This included defining and deploying a compelling agency positioning; building and growing a strong, modern strategy force; and elevating the strategic and creative culture. She’s passionate about both the potential and the power of creativity and extraordinary things happen as long as the right people put their minds to it, as a collective.
When she’s not working, she’s a creative “dabbler” and has even tried her hand at designing luxury handbags. She likes to spend her time outside of work travelling (or planning her next trip) to far-off lands.
Kwame is a creative executive and entrepreneur with a passion for storytelling, design, innovation and impact. He is Co-Founder at Kin, a creative company designed to advance social change through culture for brands including Delta Air Lines, Mailchimp, Chobani and Ben & Jerry's.
Kwame currently serves as the D&AD President for 2024 / 2025.
His prior agency experience includes tenure at Sid Lee, Anomaly, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Y&RVML on global brands including Procter & Gamble, Uniqlo, Apple, Nike, Facebook, Spotify, Adidas, Stella Artois, Captain Morgan, American Express, General Mills, Renaissance Hotels and Toyota.
He has brand side experience at Chobani where he was responsible for building and leading an in-house creative discipline that generated demand and grew the brand through design, advertising, digital innovation, partnerships and experiential.