This marks The Internationalist’s seventh annual Innovators and celebrates 30 men and women from agencies around the global who were nominated by their industry colleagues. According to their peers, the 2012 Innovators are leading lights— champions of multinational strategy, adept at innovative communications, individuals who think about advertising in new ways, and advocates of responsible brand-building.
It is never easy to list similarities among such a diversity of people, disciplines, national origins and backgrounds. Yet this year, a few interesting trends do emerge. It’s clear that New York, and now Silicon Valley, attract industry talent from all over the world. Some of the boldest and bravest advertising ideas are coming from places not immediately associated with creativity; this includes Colombia and Myanmar among this year’s group. And although the 2012 Innovator job titles vary dramatically—from Chief Experience Officer to CEO to EVP Insights & Strategy to COO World Markets to Social Marketing Lead to Global Chief Performance Officer to Director of Business Intelligence to Worldwide Digital Creative Director— it is clear that regularly redefining notions of innovation steers all of them toward excellence.
| First | Last | Title | Company | Location |
| Wayne | Arnold | Co-Founder and Global CEO | Profero | US-NY & UK-London |
| Valerie | Beauchamp | Senior Vice President, Director | Starcom USA | US-Chicago |
| Jordan | Bitterman | SVP/Social Marketing Practice Lead | Digitas | US-NY |
| Chris | Boothe | CEO | Spark | US-Chicago |
| Arvid | Boström | Managing Partner | MEC | Germany-Cologne |
| Beth | Doyle | Innovations Director | Vivaki | US-NY |
| James | Fox | CEO | RedPeak Branding | US-NY |
| Jan | Gerits | Dir. Business Intelligence & Development | Omnicom Media Group | US-Miami (Latam) |
| Huw | Griffiths | Global Chief Performance Officer | UM | US-NY |
| Warren | Griffiths | SVP, Global Digital Director | Starcom USA | US-NY |
| Bob | Habeck | Executive Director- Global Accounts | Omnicom Media Group | US-Chicago |
| Jonathan | Hoffman | Chief Experience Officer | Starcom USA | US-Chicago |
| Sebastian | Jespersen | CEO | Vertic | US & Denmark |
| Prashant | Kumar | President, Asia | IPG Mediabrands | Malaysia- KL |
| Anna Khin Khin | Kyawt | Founder | SAIL | Myanmar (Burma) |
| John | Handley | CEO | SAIL | Myanmar (Burma) |
| David | Lee | Worldwide Digital Executive Creative Director | TBWA/Worldwide | US-NY |
| Michael | Litchfield | VP, Executive Creator Director | Doremus | US-San Francisco |
| John | Noe | CEO & Founding Partner | Rokkan | US-NY |
| Jitka | Petrickova | Managing Partner- West | MEC | US-San Francisco |
| Tamina | Plum | Business Director | ZenithOptimedia | UK-London |
| Sarah | Power | EVP, Director Insights & Strategy | Initiative | US-NY |
| Jim | Russell | Chief Innovation Officer | McKinney | US- N.Carolina |
| Francisco | Samper | Co-Founder | Lowe SSP3 | Colombia- Bogota |
| Jose Miguel | Sokoloff | Co-Founder | Lowe SSP3 | Colombia- Bogota |
| Miguel Magalhães | Santos | Vice Chairman-elect, ICOM+IN | Brandia Central | Portugal- Lisbon |
| Patrick | Walhain | Chairman-elect, ICOM+IN | Quai des Orfevres | France-Paris |
| Andrea | Suarez | President, World Markets | IPG Mediabrands | US-Miami (Latam) |
| Sue | Unerman | Chief Strategy Officer | MediaCom UK | UK-London |
| Steve | Williams | President, PHD New York | PHD | US-NY |
| Damian | Winstanley | Managing Director | OMD International | UK-London |
| Jarek | Ziebinski | President (Asia Pacific) | Leo Burnett | Singapore |