BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA – MAD STARS 2026 has announced its executive jury. Five global industry leaders will lead this year’s judging, joined by over 350 professionals across the preliminary and final juries.
Together, they will define the standard of creative excellence and evaluate the world’s most outstanding work.
Meet the executive jury below:
Anny Havercroft, Global Head of Product MarComs at TikTok
Anny Havercroft is a distinguished marketing leader with a proven track record in driving innovation and delivering impactful business outcomes across the world. As the Global Head of Product MarComs, she spearheads initiatives that educate, inspire and connect businesses with TikTok’s solutions as well as dynamic ecosystem, fostering creativity and growth globally.
Before joining TikTok, Anny held senior leadership roles at Yahoo and WPP, where she pioneered cutting-edge strategies, and led digital transformation efforts in major media agencies across the UK and Australia.
Anny’s influence extends beyond her professional roles. She serves on advisory boards for programs like SxSW Sydney and is a passionate advocate for startups and scale-ups. She actively mentors female entrepreneurs and serves in board and advisory roles, championing innovation and equity in the business community.
Aurora Straton, Creative Lead at Google
Aurora Straton is a multi-disciplinary Creative Lead, empowering brands and cultural institutions to leverage Google’s next gen technologies to craft impactful narratives and experiences that capture the zeitgeist and drive action.
With 20 years of experience in the creative industry, including ten at Google, Aurora has worked alongside diverse innovation and creative teams to shape immersive experiences, and open new forms of storytelling across industries such as gaming, entertainment, luxury, travel, automotive, and culture.
Aurora believes that compelling stories resonate because they tap into fundamental human truths, and she’s constantly reevaluating the role of technology and media in bringing them to life. A dedicated advocate for cultural innovation, she is fueled by a deep conviction that technology has the power to serve as a transformative catalyst for meaningful, positive change.
Raja Rajamannar, Senior Fellow, Former Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard
Raja Rajamannar is a Senior Fellow and Former Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Mastercard, helping transform the company into one of the world’s fastest-growing and most valuable brands.
He evolved the iconic Priceless platform, and his work is featured in case studies at Harvard Business School and Yale School of Management, where he serves as an Executive Fellow. A bestselling author and thought leader, Raja has been inducted into multiple halls of fame and serves on several boards.
Sandipan Bhattacharyya, Chief Creative Officer at MONKS
A well-known industry leader with over 24 years of experience in shaping the creative vision, culture and output of major agency networks. Sandi Bhattacharyya has recently joined Monks India (S4 Capital) as its Chief Creative Officer. His journey through Saatchi & Saatchi, BBDO and GREY have shaped his view of how creativity can be the most effective business multiplier.
He’s a multiple Cannes Lions, D&AD, One Show, Clio, Spikes Grand Prix and APAC Effie winner with over 120 international and regional award wins.
Under his leadership, GREY was ranked the number two Creative Agency in India by Campaign Brief Asia – The Work, The One Club Global Rankings and among the top four creative agencies in India by the Cannes Global Creativity Report. He has led the agency to win India’s first Entertainment Lion, India’s first D&AD Yellow Pencil and numerous other accolades on the agency’s biggest clients like Procter & Gamble, Haleon, Volvo, PepsiCo, Ferrero, Dell, Axis Bank, Kotak, Britannia, Raymond, Indian Oil and Aditya Birla Group.
His campaigns for P&G Gillette – “Barbershop Girls” and “Man Enough,” have garnered over 110 million views globally and find mention among Gillette’s most defining work.
He’s also a vocal critic of perfunctory cause-crusading and metal-mongering with ideas for good. His “Video appeal to the Cannes Lions jury,” questioning the ethics of public service advertising, is a well-debated point of view.
He’s been on the jury at Cannes Lions, The One Show, LIA, Dubai Lynx, Spikes Asia, NY Fest AME and has also been a member of the Grey Global Creative Council.
In his spare time, Sandi is sufficiently amused at how people refer to themselves in the third person, while writing a self-congratulatory profile.
Tara McKenty, Chief Creative Officer at AKQA Australia & New Zealand
Tara McKenty has spent over 17 years working in the creative industries across the APAC region, including at creative agencies TBWA, Saatchi & Saatchi, BMF, and also spent a decade pretending to be a Tech-bro working as head of Creative for Google APAC, leading a lot of Google’s sport innovation. Tara now finds themselves in the halls of AKQA, a creative home that feels tailored to their passions of technology, craft and creative excellence. Tara leads the creative offering for AKQA across Australia and New Zealand.
Tara’s most notable achievement to date is founding Rare with Google, an initiative that provides equitable opportunities for underrepresented creatives to thrive at every stage of their career when DEIB was a thing (facetious tone intended).
Tara continues to disrupt the status quo, and as a consequence has won over two hundred awards, which includes D&AD pencils, Cannes lions, Grand Prix’s, and Best in Shows, during her advertising rebellion.
