Gerety Awards - Gerety Talks: Cross Country Creativity

Gerety Talks Cross Country Creativity with Hira Mohibullah, ECD at VMLY&R in Kansas City, Kelsey Webster, Associate Creative Director at BCW Global in Detroit and Susan Golkin, ECD at Wunderman Thompson New York.

​Just like the award show, the Gerety Talks series puts some of the marketing and creative industries true changemakers in the spotlight and at the centre of the conversation for a refreshing take on what leadership looks like.

​Women to Watch 2021, Hira Mohibullah currently works at VMLY&R Kansas City as Executive Creative Director.
​As a creative, she prides herself upon creating campaigns that have impacted social change and moved culture with minimal or no media spending, winning her more than 215 International Advertising Awards including Cannes Lions, Clios, D&AD and more. Her most notable campaigns are UNWomen's #BridalUniform (#56 on WARC100) and #BeatMe (Gunn Top 100 Campaigns of 2017). In her time at BBDO Pakistan, Hira’s leadership was instrumental in elevating the agency’s reputation into worldwide circles, placing BBDO Pakistan at #1 in South-Asia: Cannes Lions Global Creativity Report, #3 in APAC: WARC Creative100, and #20 Globally: The Drum World Creative Rankings 2020.
​With a career spanning 12 years, Hira has also worked at leading agencies like, Ogilvy and Leo Burnett and while she brings a unique 10-year beverage experience on Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, her expertise also extends to creating effective work for notable brands like Unilever, Frito-Lay, Nando’s and Friesland Campina.
​Hira is a Cannes Lions See It Be It Alumni, Campaign Asia’s Women Leading Change Honoree, Creative LIAisons Mentor, TEDx speaker and has served on some of the most prestigious juries in the world such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, Clio, Ad Age, Gerety, NYF, Young Guns and ADSTARS.

​Kelsey is an Associate Creative Director at BCW Global, and lives in Detroit, Michigan. With a passion for writing and storytelling, she believes creativity can change the world. Kelsey has over ten years of advertising and PR experience and has worked on brands such as Chevrolet, Cadillac, Travelocity, Pure Michigan, Merrell shoes and more.
​She has two kids, four dogs and has even trained side-by-side with the Dog Whisperer himself, Cesar Millan, at his Dog Psychology Center in Santa Clarita, CA.

​Susan Golkin is Executive Creative Director, Wunderman Thompson has worked in every category during her career, from luxury to insurance…CPG, DTC, B2B, if there’s an acronym she’s done it. It’s quite frankly not the category that matters to Susan, it’s the insight and the understanding that there is a human being behind every purchasing decision, from chicken soup to life insurance. 
​Susan is the creative behind last year’s Hellmann’s “Make Taste, Not Waste” Super Bowl spot with Pete Davidson and this year’s soon-to-be launched spot. She helped land the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism account, a major initiative and investment led by New England Patriots owner, Robert Kraft, with a bold brave idea that will go live early this year.
​Prior to Wunderman Thompson, she spent 12 years at BBDO where she was responsible for transforming the Campbells business from a montage of smiling faces, into an honest portrayal of families, women and modern life. The campaign received a lot of press (and a fair share of awards) for its honesty and its rejection of a Pinterest perfect version of life. Raising a young boy on her own, Susan called BS on the social world mothers were portraying and channeled that into an award-winning campaign that sold soup. The company saw a spike in sales after years of steady decline.
​While at BBDO Susan also ran the woman’s Gillette business, changing the work from just beauty to stories of substance, stories with humor, stories that resonate with women today.
​And while working on Dove chocolate, she created a purpose for the brand- every generation of woman should get more pleasure out of life than the generation before it. Leading to award winning, category differentiating work for the core brand and holiday pushes.
​She’s won awards across her body of work from every major show, and from her son for Best Quesadilla.