North America

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    Dani Benowitz

    President, Global and US

    Dani Benowitz

    President, Global and US

    As U.S. President of MAGNA, IPG Mediabrands’ centralized investment and intelligence division, Dani heads up both of the agency’s core competencies:

    – Investment – She serves as the chief media buyer for all of IPG Mediabrands, negotiating with media partners on behalf of UM and Initiative clients.

    – Intelligence – She oversees the agency’s highly-regarded suite of studies (ad spending forecasts, media trials, media economy reports, etc.).

    Dani’s career spans nearly 30 years, including stints in TV sales and at agencies including Mindshare, J. Walter Thompson and Grey where she worked on a variety of clients including Warner Lambert, Sprint, DeBeers, Domino’s Pizza, Warner Bros. and Block Drug. She joined IPG in 2003 as a VP, Supervisor at UM and rose through the ranks to become EVP, Managing Partner at the agency.

    Her tenure at MAGNA began as EVP, Integrated Investment in 2016, where she played a key leadership role in media negotiations on behalf of IPG Mediabrands’ clients, working with UM’s investment teams on brands such as Coca-Cola Co., Johnson & Johnson and BMW, and with Initiative’s on brands like Amazon, Merck and Liberty Mutual.

    A bold industry leader who continually redefines how media buying is conducted, Dani has been a constant force of positive change. She has advocated for moving clients’ upfront cycles from broadcast year to calendar, designed numerous innovative media partnerships and continuously tests new forms of data-driven media buys to ensure her clients receive the best efficiencies in the marketplace.

    Dani has been recognized with a few industry achievements including being named a 2022 Adweek Media All Star, and in 2011, Dani was one of 20 recipients of AWNY’s Working Mothers of the Year Award.

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    Leanne Burnett Wood

    President, Canada

    Leanne Burnett Wood

    President, Canada

    Since joining MAGNA Canada in April 2020 as VP, Investments, Leanne has brought extensive value to our investment practice, creating, negotiating, and implementing partnerships. Before joining Mediabrands, she held senior investments roles at Dentsu and Publicis in Canada.

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    Elijah Harris

    EVP, Impact Investment

    Elijah Harris

    EVP, Impact Investment

    Elijah Harris is responsible for applying media responsibility acumen to how IPG Mediabrands clients and teams around the world invest for greater media outcomes by forming strategic partnerships with media companies that yield both commercial returns and tangible social or environmental benefits.   

    He previously served as MAGNA’s EVP, Global Digital Partnerships & Media Repsonsibility. Harris continues to lead tentpole events at MAGNA, including the Equity Upfront™, where diverse media partners, clients and agency leads gather to create opportunity for all, and the Media Responsibility Index, a tool to assess the impact of harmful content on media platforms and establish a benchmark for platform responsibility and roadmaps for improvement. He also acts as an industry advocate for media responsibility across all media types within IPG Mediabrands.  

     Prior to joining MAGNA in 2021, Harris spent six years at IPG Mediabrands sister agency, Reprise, becoming Global Head of Social, responsible for driving growth and expansion of Reprise’s Social craft and developing the agency’s core product capabilities.  

    With over ten years of experience across the U.S. and APAC digital landscape and a passion for data-driven performance, he educated and empowered Reprise strategically to leverage social data and insights and make informed decisions on behalf of IPG Mediabrands clients.  Before joining IPG Mediabrands, Harris held performance marketing roles at Dentsu Aegis Network APAC, as well as roles at Channel Advisor, Sensis and Internet Brands. Harris’ approach is grounded in the principles of media responsibility, meticulous consumer analysis and a strong understanding of the ever-evolving media landscape. 

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    Allison Kallish

    EVP, Managing Director, Strategic Investment

    Allison Kallish

    EVP, Managing Director, Strategic Investment

    As EVP, Strategic Investment in the U.S., Allie is responsible for leading MAGNA GLOBAL’s go-to-market proposition, working with MAGNA’s intelligence and forecasting teams and in close partnership with IPG Mediabrands’ agency-based investment teams. In addition, Allie leads negotiations on behalf of clients and creates strategic partnerships with key media owners and platforms.Allie has actually boomeranged back to IPG Mediabrands. She spent seven years at UM and J3 starting in 2006, where she was SVP, Managing Director, leading Johnson & Johnson’s TV business. With FCA’s win in 2009, Allie transitioned to lead the team’s Investment practice focusing on all video and publishing efforts. She then went on to Starcom MediaVest Group, as SVP, Managing Director, where she led investment across some of the world’s largest brands including Proctor & Gamble and Samsung. Allie’s career in media spans over 25 years at media agencies including Lowe & Partners, J.Walter Thompson and Mediacom, building up experience over a wide-variety of categories.

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    Vincent Letang

    EVP, Managing Director, Global Market Intelligence

    Vincent Letang

    EVP, Managing Director, Global Market Intelligence

    Vincent Létang has been an international researcher, expert and consultant in the media industry, specializing in advertising market trends for the last 25 years. Vincent is currently EVP, Managing Partner, Global Market Intelligence. He has been leading MAGNA’s global market research and forecasting unit, based in New York, since 2011. In that role, he’s supervising MAGNA’s market research, publications and consulting activities. Among the regular publications of Vincent and his team are the Global Advertising Forecasts (a bi-annual report on advertising market trends in 70 countries, with 5 years net ad spend forecasts), the US Advertising Forecasts and the Programmatic Reports. Earlier in his career Vincent was Head of Advertising Research for IHS Screen Digest in London where he worked as a consultant for high-profile organizations including IAB Europe, Sony, CBS Outdoor, Ofcom and the European Commission. Prior to that he led media/telecom research practice at BIPE in Paris.

    Vincent has been invited to speak on industry trends in more than 20 international conferences on media and advertising, and regular panelist at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York. Vincent is frequently interviewed and quoted in the trade press and the financial press including the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, MediaWeek, MediaPost, AdExchanger, Campaign, Horizont, Bloomberg TV, etc.

    Vincent holds a master’s degree in Economics from Paris Dauphine University and a master’s degree in business administration from HEC School of Management, Paris. He’s married and a father of two, and lives in New Jersey.

EMEA

LATAM

APAC

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    Kozo Saito

    Head of MAGNA, Japan

    Kozo Saito

    Head of MAGNA, Japan

    With more than 30 years industry experience Kozo first joined McCann Erickson Japan in 1992. In May 2013, he was appointed to SVP, Chief Buying Officer and later promoted to the position of CEO Trading. In April 2017, he was appointed to Chief Operating Officer of Mediabrands Japan and Head of MAGNA, where his strong media partner relationships provide an advantage to negotiate the best possible media deals for its clients on a sustained basis.

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    Hema Malik

    Managing Director, India

    Hema Malik

    Managing Director, India

    Hema Malik is a media veteran of over 24 years. She is currently the Managing Director of Magna Global in India and also the COO of Lodestar UM, where managing media responsibilities across a diverse set of clients like Coca-Cola, Samsung, BMW, Gillette, Reckitts Benckiser, Airtel, Zomato, Tata Docomo to name a few have provided extensive experience in brand building, innovation, media planning and buying. As the Managing Director of Magna Global in India, Hema drives the reputation of Magna as the trusted global source for predicting the future of media value, economic data, media and consumer consumption trends.

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    Venkatesh S

    SVP, Director Intelligence Practice, India

    Venkatesh S

    SVP, Director Intelligence Practice, India

    Venkatesh currently leads the intelligence practice at MAGNA in India. Venkatesh’s responsibilities are to liaise with other South Asian markets to extend the footprint of MAGNA Intelligence. He is also responsible for research procurement and fronts pricing during new business acquisition in the region.

    Prior to his current role at MAGNA, he was heading procurement for ITC - one of the largest advertisers for IPG Mediabrands. He was part of senior management and played a critical role in devising procurement strategy for the agency.

    Preceding this as Head of CTG at Group M, Venky was accountable for over 40% of the trading in the Southern part of India.

    Venky’s 28 years of experience across manufacturing, banking & advertising has seasoned him to embrace change, build open & honest relationships and be determined & passionate to do more with less.

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    Kanokwan Kunaruangroj

    Managing Director, Thailand

    Kanokwan Kunaruangroj

    Managing Director, Thailand

    In her 18 years with the Mediabrands network Kanokwan has gained experience across a number of core categories from Finance to FMCG. Following 15 years communication planning across media agencies Initiative and UM in Thailand, Kanokwan gained an in-depth specialized knowledge of the market, clients and business operations which led to her ascension to role of Managing Director for MAGNA Thailand. As Managing Director of MAGNA Thailand, Kanokwan has consistently demonstrated her strength in negotiation, partnerships, and consulting across key global accounts such as Nestle, Johnson & Johnson, BMW, Air Asia, and Telenor, as well as local clients with key global and local media owners.

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    May Rosales

    MAGNA Lead, Philippines

    May Rosales

    MAGNA Lead, Philippines

    May joined MAGNA in 2015 where she currently leads the media investment negotatiation across the Mediabrands agencies in market. Bringing more than 21 years industry experience across various roles and categories within the Mediabrands network, May first joined UM in 2000 as Buying Head for the Johnson and Johnson AOR account, in addition to working across Coca-Cola, and the local pharmaceutical company Unilab.

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    May Wong

    Head of MAGNA, Singapore

    May Wong

    Head of MAGNA, Singapore

    As the Head of MAGNA Singapore, May Wong works closely with clients and the agency’s Business Teams to maximise media and marketing investment utilizing insights, forecasts and strategic relationships with industry and media partners to provide clients of IPG Mediabrands Singapore with a competitive marketplace advantage. Prior to the MAGNA role, May Wong lead a Business team at IPG Mediabrands Singapore from 2012-2017. Her account management experience spanned across multiple categories, including but not limited to Travel, Tourism, Telecommunications, Internet, MICE, Luxury Fashion & Lifestyle, Automobile, Government, and FMCG. A Bachelor of Science graduate from the University of London, May Wong has worked in other local and international media agencies as well as taking a Research position at MediaCorp, the leading broadcaster of Singapore, in the early phase of her career.

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    Paul Waller

    Chief Investment Officer

    Paul Waller

    Chief Investment Officer

    In his position as Chief Investment Officer MAGNA APAC, Paul drives investment excellence and performance across the IPG Mediabrands group of agencies throughout the Asia Pacific region, through the network’s leading global media investment and intelligence company MAGNA.

    Having started his media career in the UK, Paul’s extensive trading and investment career encompasses all aspects of media communications, advertising and marketing spanning multiple categories and countries including, Australia, China and Singapore; with a remit expanding throughout the APAC region.

    Passionate about implementing a strategic approach to media investments and operational execution; Paul cultivates dynamic multi-market investment communities that drive strong business results.

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    Fan Chen Yip

    Chief Investment Officer, Malaysia

    Fan Chen Yip

    Chief Investment Officer, Malaysia

    Fan Chen Yip comes with 30 years’ experience across multi-faceted roles within the Malaysian media industry. As Chief Investment Officer, he is responsible for all legacy and new media investments within the group. His remit reflects a strong focus on buying accountability and innovation as he expands the trading scope to adapt to the new needs of the industry, creating opportunities to optimize business value for clients.