Industry vs New Talent – Enable People to Flourish

Jo is the first female CEO of the globally renowned organisation D&AD, a multi-disciplined creative with twenty years of experience building relevant, award-winning brands.

She has helped some of the world’s most loved brands to create innovative strategies and campaigns to engage and connect with today’s consumers. As Chief Creative Officer at MADE.COM, and Diesel Jo specialised in building in-house creative teams and growing innovative agency Protein internationally. Her clients have included Nike, Adidas, Burberry, Microsoft, Red Bull, Pepsico, Gap, Bestseller, Bacardi Global Brands and Diageo.

Jo began her career winning Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004 as co-founder of Beyond the Valley, where her passion for supporting emerging creative talent began. Today she brings that passion full circle back to D&AD, championing its young talent programs, SHIFT and the New Blood Awards.

Russie Miessi is a D&AD Shift alumni Class of 2019 and an advertising trustee at D&AD. They work full-time as a strategist within the Social Media advertising agency Born Social. Over the past few years, Russie was a co-founder of the collective Fax No Printer which is a collective that centres Jr’s voices within Adland. Currently although based in Wales, they run Emo-Pop Punk Queer, Trans, or Intersex, people of Colour centred events night called NOT OK based in London.

How to pronounce my name (if needed) – like Chrissy but without the ‘Ch’