A CLASS OF CREATIVE LEADERS

Lucas holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications and has professional experience in Marketing and Advertising in three Latin American markets (Peru, Chile and Colombia).
He works as Marketing Manager for Falabella in Colombia. Falabella is a department store chain with headquarters in Chile with more than 125 years in the industry. He is considered a team leader in the organization who always encourages his team to maximize their potential and to be creative. He wants to generate a positive impact in his team and the company by constantly looking for changes and innovation.Lucas was born in Lima, Peru and has been living 10 years abroad.

Milena has worked in marketing and communications for over 20 years, and her experience includes working with television stations, newspapers, radio stations, digital media, and entertainment, among others.

During the last 10 years, Milena worked directly with one of the top ten media groups in Brazil, GRPCom, formed by a newspaper company, radio stations and a TV broadcasting company (RPC) affiliated Rede Globo. There she has been working in different areas of marketing and led major projects in events, branding and business intelligence strategy. She currently leads a team of 40 people located in several areas of communication and branding, customer relations and business intelligence.

Prior to her current role, Milena was a Corporative Marketing Director, and was responsible for developing marketing strategies and identifying attractive opportunities to leverage the company’s image. Milena has a BSc degree in Business Administration from UNIFAC, a Masters level Postgraduate in Hospitality Management from SENAC Sao Paulo, and a Master in Business Administration, Executive MBA from Fundação Getúlio Vargas.

Milena comes to the Berlin School to build onto her background and experience and help her organization meet current challenges. “Nobody doubts that the communication industry is changing. With the digital revolution came a new reality and a new consumer behavior, which is creating a different relationship among people and brands. We are living in an important disruption moment, where there is always the need to reconsider, to change or to intermit products and services and to create new demands and a new value for the consumers.”

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Aleksej’s company, Circus of Now Productions, is a show production visionary think-tank, helping clients in the cinematic, music, and advertising industries conceptualize and stage productions, exhibitions, and various events. Aleksej’s main role consists of Conception, art direction and realisation – from the idea via the technological experiment to on site-operating, especially visual media and stage design. He leads creative groups of up to 50 people – conceptualising and implementing hundreds of complex projects in collaboration with agencies and direct customers, authorities and institutions. He has worked with major corporations, international festivals, global NGO’s and won dozens of awards, including 2 silver medals the New York Festivals, 2 Globe Gold awards at the World Media Festival.

With more than 15 years in the event planning and design industry, Aleksej has worked on major productions with multi-million euro budgets around the world. One of his recent projects was stage design and media production for the highly successful YMA show at Friedrichstadtpalast in Berlin, with a budget of more than 8 million euro. He has also worked on projects with dozens of major global companies. Aleksej received his Bachelors in Pyschology, Philosophy, and Politics at Freie Universität Berlin.

Aleksej comes to the Berlin School to develop business skills that will allow him to work within any corporation and business as he further develops his company. “My career has been marked by strong achievements and notable successes, but these partly reflect serendipity, which does not provide a systematic basis for a sustainable career in the creative industries. Therefore, I have to acquire stable knowledge structures through a recognized formal qualification like the EMBA in Creative Leadership, and in the future not rely only on experience-based principles of decision-making.”

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Bruno Bertani entered the creative world as an Art Director at Norton in 1994 and later joined the McCann Erickson creative team. He has now been the head of his company, Indústria Nacional Design, for ten years. Over his career he has been in charge or worked in the fields of graphic design, POS, branding, packaging, webdesign, events, and new products. His clients have included L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, MTV, Brasil Telecom, Petrobras, Nike, Rio City Government, Rio State Government, and NGO’s, such as Grupo Arco-Íris, Grupo Pella Vida and Viva Rio.

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Wolfgang Schneider is the Chief Creative Director for BBDO, Germany.

Prior to this Wolfgang Schneider was the Chief Creative Director for Jung von Matt Berlin, Germany. He previously worked for DDB, Berlin; Jung von Matt, Hamburg; and Springer & Jacoby, Hamburg.

Wolfgang has been awarded by the Art Directors Club Germany for sound design, and print/illustration for campaigns such as Mercedes Benz, Spiegel Online, T-Mobile and Fisherman’s Friend. He was also won awards from LIAA, Die Klappe, VDW, Eurobest, Das Plakat, Goldenes Mikrofon, One Show, Montreux, Cresta, New York Festival, Epica, Mobius,Ramses, Lead Award, CCM sterreich, Zeitung Kreativ, Axel Springer, Spotlight Festival, Plakat & Media Grand Prix and Goldenes Lenkrad.

Wolfgang Schneider has a Diploma in Business Communication from the University of Applied Sciences, Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin.

A few years after graduating from college and working in public relations, church ministry, sales, and teaching performing arts in the US, Bai returned to Liberia to help his father Kenneth Y. Best restart his independent newspaper, the Daily Observer, founded by him and his wife in 1981. In his role, Bai supervises all pre-press departments: editorial, advertising and layout teams, as well as the web team. Bai now aims to continue the professional and institutional legacy of the Daily Observer, and this is what brings him to the Berlin School.

“This EMBA is a big deal for me because in Liberia not many businesses have been able to survive beyond the lifespan of their founders. The EMBA modules covering corporate planning and governance, as well as decision making and change management are of great interest to me because of this very issue. As the Observer grows, such knowledge will enable me to better understand the company under my control.”

Before becoming a Marketing Manager at the Daily Observer, he lived and worked in the US as a Co-director of a Youth Ministry, a PR Assistant, as well as Artistic Director and Dance Instructor.

Bai is currently a Steering Committee Member at the Arts & Culture Council of Liberia and a Founding Member and Secretary of the Arterial Network Liberia. Bai has a BA in Communication Studies from Westmont College in California.

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Matthias Schmidt is currently the Managing Director of Antoni, the newly formed agency for Mercedes.

Prior to this role, Matthias was Creative Director at DDB Tribal in Berlin.

Preceding this, he was Partner & Board Member with Scholz & Friends Hamburg. He has been there since 1998, when he started with the company as student, moving on to senior copywriter, creative director, head of unit and becoming partner in 2003. Schmidt has worked on accounts for Mercedes-Benz, Schering, Messe Frankfurt, Medecins sans frontiére, Berliner Zeitung etc.

Schmidt’s awards include a Gold and Bronze Lion in Cannes, LIAA Winner, ADC Germany and New York Silver and Bronze, being an Epica Winner, Clio short listed, and winning the Axel Springer award for outstanding print advertising. Schmidt became a member of the Art Director’s Club Germany in 2001.

Schmidt received a degree in communication science from the Universität der Künste in Berlin in 1998.

After receiving a degree in Theater, Film and Television Studies, Ute Biernat started her career as a journalist and documentary film producer. In 1992 she moved to New Zealand as a freelance television producer for TV3 and other local stations. Biernat then moved to Australia where she became a producer for various entertainment formats (including SBS) before continuing her career in USA with CNN, CBS and ABC.

In 1994 Ute Biernat returned to Germany as a broadcast production consultant. In 1996 she joined Grundy TV as Executive Producer. Two years later she became the Senior Executive Producer at Pearson Television Deutschland. In May 2000 Ute Biernat became CEO of GRUNDY Light Entertainment (formerly Pearson Television Deutschland) and in addition to her function she took over the management of UFA Entertainment in June 2010. With the rebranding of UFA in 2013, GRUNDY Light Entertainment was renamed as UFA SHOW GmbH and UFA Entertainment became UFA FACTUAL GmbH. Under Ute Biernat’s leadership both companies merged into UFA SHOW & FACTUAL GmbH at the beginning of 2015.

Florian currently is Associate Director of Global Brand Communication at Allianz Group in Munich. He is in charge of building and protecting the Allianz brand globally as well as of driving the business by breakthrough relevant and engaging brand communication. Prior to this role he worked at Triumph International for about six years, most recently as Head of CCMS (Creative Communication and Marketing Services).

Florian was born in Austria. Having trained as a photographer, he later switched to the commerce side of visual arts and has 8 years agency level experience.

Savitri is Founder of Homefyndr, a personalized home search app that utilizes machine learning to help people find home based on personal interests/needs, social habits and smart time-saving on daily commute. She also leads the Sydney-based Boomworks’ User Experience team in the quest to define robust, intelligent, and well-researched customer experiences that meet the needs of both the intended audience and the business.

Prior to this, Vivid was Associate Creative Director at frog in Munich as well as V.P. and Creative Director for Trigger in Shanghai, where she was responsible for managing and running a mixed-culture studio that specializes in games, mobile apps and touch media. She has worked on games such as Evil Dead, The Adventure of Tintin, The Karate Kid, District 9 ‘MNU’ alert and many others. She is a designer by trade with more than 8 years of experience using major design application packages for both the web and mobile platforms. Some of her clients include Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, Disney/Pixar, Lucas Film, Universal Studios and Paramount. Before Trigger, Vivid worked as a Creative Director and Chief Designer at Design San Frontieres in Shanghai and was also a Senior Designer at Wieden+Kennedy and Firefly Studio. She has also been a guest lecturer at Hong Kong University and a freelance feature writer for the Jakarta Post.

Her work has garnered several accolades including the People’s Choice Webby Award for 2010, W3 Awards, Pixel Awards and Dope Awards. Most recently, she won the Contagious Scholarship, a rigorous competition with applicants from more than 15 countries that awards the winner with partial tuition to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.

“I’m joining the Berlin School to learn more on how I could apply my knowledge in game design at a more practical level that is useful for defining real-world problems that leads to prototyping applicable solutions,” she said. “I am convinced that the Berlin School has the right platform that could facilitate a stronger and balanced energy between individual thinkers.”

Vivid received her B.A. in Communications Science at University of Padjadjaran in Indonesia and attended a summer creative writing course at Stanford University.

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Julia is the Founder and CMO of JBG Lovelybrands, a Marketing and PR Consultancy.

Prior to this appointment, Julia held positions at Gabor Footwear, Birkenstock, KreativKonzept SolarWorld.

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With a BA in Advertising gained at the University of Brasilia, Antonio started his international career in Boston, just after graduated from The Creative Circus. He hold positions from Art Director to Global Creative Director working in 4 different countries: USA, Brazil, Vietnam and Singapore; and some amazing agencies. He has considered himself lucky for being able to work for brands like: VW, Porsche, GSK, Google, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Harley-Davidson, Unilever, Absolut Vodka and many others, creating multi-channel campaigns from Global to Local Markets. His work has generated solid business results, and a high creative standard winning more than 100 industry awards around the globe.

First creative hired by the ECD to be his partner and assist in establishing the new team and operations for GSK Creative Unit at Grey Singapore after moving the Panadol Global Account from NYC to Singapore.

Antonio is a conceptual thinker with a real passion for the craft, always bringing fresh ideas to the table and inspiring those around him to produce their best possible work. He has held positions from Art Director to Global Creative Director working in USA, Brazil, Vietnam and Singapore for many world-renowned brands such as VW, Porsche, GSK, Google, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Harley Davidson, Unilever, and Absolute Vodka to name just a few.

Antonio believes in the power of people and that ideas, together with constant innovation and technology have the ability to move brands, influence people’s behaviors and create a better, more sustainable world for everyone.

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Max is an Italy-born designer with extensive experience as a creative professional. His background includes a diverse range of experiences in architecture, digital media, branding, graphic and visual design. Over the course of his career Max has successfully worked across different media, defining and executing creative strategies for a number of clients both in Europe and the US. Clients he has worked with include Audi of America, Prada Americas Cup, Bottega Veneta, Benetton Group, MTV Italia, Coca-Cola, Flos, Zanotta, Canali, and Beneteau Group among others.

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In his role as Vice President, Technology Innovation for Broadcast Music Inc., in Nashville, Tennessee, Darren Briggs is responsible for the company’s enterprise technology and data strategy, architecture, platforms, processes, methodologies, data standards, and strategic partnerships. Since assuming this role, BMI has been named in The Information Week 500 Technology Innovators Awards, and in both 2011 and 2012 it was ranked higher than any other music company.

Briggs came to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership not only to learn from the classes, but also to share experiences with other participants from around the world. “The most compelling facet to me of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership is the opportunity to learn and share insights, experiences, and solutions to the challenges of bridging traditionally disparate business and creative disciplines, people, perspectives, and behaviors.”

Prior to his current role at BMI, Briggs served as Vice President & Chief Technology Officer for Landmark Digital Services, LLC, and an audio recognition research division of BMI. Hired as employee number one, he was tasked to define, construct, and staff the audio technology company from ‘greenfield’ to production in 24 months. Previously, he was the Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer for Fatbubble, LLC, a San Francisco based geo-location social network startup and also held several other leadership positions at Sony/ATV Music Publishing in Nashville and London. He received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at Vanderbilt University and is the inventor of four separate US patents.

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Shani Sandy works as a Design Executive at IBM, leading their design-driven transformation. Her role encompasses defining the design mission and strategy for the IBM Z product family, advancing design practice thinking throughout the company with an emphasis on superior client experiences and building connection and culture across the Design Research, Content Design, Front-End Development, UX Design and Visual Design Departments. Prior to joining IBM, Shani spent more than 14 years in the Finance and FinTech sectors, first as Creative Director at S&P Capital IQ and subsequently as Executive Creative Director at S&P Global.

A creative thinker and doer, Shani came to the Berlin School of Creative Leadership to challenge herself in a non-traditional educational environment and find inspiration and knowledge from an international class of participants facing similar complexities in their industries. “My output is at its richest maximum when it is informed in a multidisciplinary way. As I have progressed in my career, the stakes are higher and navigating through interpersonal factors and complex problems are all persistent variables. The rigorous practice and various tools the Executive MBA has offered me are invaluable to continue to meet these challenges, specifically in the context of creativity.”

Shani received her BA in Art History/BFA in Painting and Computer Art in a joint degree program from Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. She also attended AIGA & Yale School of Management’s executive business program “Business Perspectives for Creative Leaders” in 2012.

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