Humans of Digital

Celebrating Canada’s Digital Citizens

Humans of Digital shines a spotlight on IAB Canada members who are driving innovation in Canada’s digital advertising industry. Each story offers a behind-the-scenes look at their journeys, challenges, and proudest moments, inspiring the next wave of digital talent.

Pawan Jailkhani

BrandMo Technologies
CEO and Founder

I’m building a culture-first AdTech platform that uses first-party, language-led data and AI-driven media intelligence to help brands reach multi- lingual audiences with precision, relevance, and measurable business impact—at scale.

Jayanthi Rajan

The 2045 Collective
Chief Strategy Officer

I help companies/brands make better decisions about their digital advertising by measuring what’s working, understanding customer behavior, and optimizing where they invest their digital marketing budget.

Taha Dharamsi

The Trade Desk
Senior Trading Specialist

I help brands make smarter advertising decisions by using data and technology to reach the right audiences at the right time. In simple terms, I make sure their digital ads work harder and deliver real business results.

Naomi Zhao

Eastward Media
Vice President

At Eastward Media, we help global brands engage Chinese audiences worldwide—with a core focus on North America—through culturally fluent strategy, creative storytelling, and data-driven media solutions.

Ryan Fuss

Stingray Advertising
Chief Revenue Officer

Walder Amaya

Apex Mobile Media ULC
CEO

I help brands and agencies maximize the impact of their advertising investments by building strategic partnerships and delivering measurable business results through innovative digital solutions.

Vlad Stesin

Optable
CEO, Co-Founder

We enable media companies, brands, and technology platforms to collaborate securely using their data. And now with Agentic Collaboration, we’re introducing AI agents that can analyze, plan, and activate campaigns on behalf of humans — intelligently, transparently, and with privacy at the core.

Doha Skaf

Spark Foundry
VP, Media Planning

With 19 years of experience and nearly a decade at Spark Foundry, I’ve built my career around helping brands form meaningful connections with their audiences. From digital and PR roots to leading integrated media strategies, I’m passionate about driving work that blends creativity, strategy, and real impact.

Fiona Karl

Sun Life
Director, Growth Marketing

I help brands turn attention into action.

George Leith

Adcellerant Canada
President, International Partnerships

I lead AdCellerant’s global expansion strategy, focusing on markets in Canada, United Kingdom, and beyond. Working to cultivate strategic partnerships to enhance international team growth and strategic partner acquisition. Leverage my 40 years of marketing and business development skills to establish AdCellerant as a recognized global brand.

Paula Festas

illumin
SVP North America Sales

At illumin, I lead strategic sales and partnerships, helping brands harness data-driven advertising journeys with clear attribution to drive measurable impact and smarter consumer engagement.

Jason Bauer

PRN
Sales Director, Retail Media

With decades of expertise in retail media, PRN/Stratacache provides comprehensive, turnkey digital signage solutions tailored for all retail media needs. From hardware installation and maintenance to content management software and ad monetization, PRN Media is your trusted partner every step of the way.

Marie-Claude Dion

Cirque Du Soleil
Digital Manager

I lead digital media strategy for touring shows at Cirque du Soleil in North America. I make our team’s work more accessible to other teams so they understand how we can work together for our common goal of selling tickets.

Sahil Razdan

Samsung
Senior Legal Counsel

I am a Technology, Data Privacy, Data Protection, and AI lawyer.

Ryan Casey

Time & Space
Director, Media Operations

I work with a great team of traditional and digital advertising experts in Halifax and Toronto, who work on strategy, planning, buying, execution and measurement of clients advertising budgets in Canada and internationally.

Noel Geer

Connected Interactive
Founder/CEO

We help brands utilize in-store purchase data and offline consumer behaviours in their digital advertising to combine offline data with online data to create their most valuable audiences to targeting consumers with the highest Lifetime Value.

Melissa Savage

Air Miles -BMO
Director, Media

My role is to support our businesses and Partners reach Collectors and Canadians with the right message at the right time. While we work to help our Collectors ‘Collect More Moments’, media strategy and execution is essentially for this storytelling and driving value to Canadians everywhere.

Joanne Crump

Active International
EVP Integrated Media

I oversee the Media Team at Active International. As the EVP of Integrated Media, I help brands unlock hidden value of their excess assets into working media and marketing investments.