Thought Leadership

After building an internal agency and navigating a full restructure, Santiago Gonzalez is back at Wayfair — this time acting as the bridge between production, creative ops, and go-to-market teams.

Nicole Cobble is a global marketing and creative operations leader shaping how luxury brands bring ideas to life. With experience driving creative transformation, brand image, experiential strategy, and in-house agency operations globally, she’s spent her career building the systems that make creativity work at scale.

In this blockbuster episode of ML Stories, we sit down with Adam Akisanya, ex–North Face Global Creative Operations Manager, to talk about what it really takes to build creative teams and brands that last. From keeping burnt-out creatives inspired, to helping brands move beyond selling products and into building communities, Adam shares a real look at what makes marketing work in 2025.

In this episode of ML Stories, we sit down with Rich Sica, an advertising business affairs professional and music strategist whose career spans some of the biggest names in tech and entertainment, including TikTok and Meta. Rich has worked with global brands to shape campaigns that bridge advertising, music, and technology — from managing rights and talent contracts to leading creative partnerships that bring storytelling and sound together. We talk about how TikTok has become a testing ground for bold ideas, what are the most overhyped metrics, and how AI should be a co-pilot for creativity.

When you speak with Miles Chevalier, you quickly realize his perspective on marketing and technology is shaped as much by human experience as it is by systems.

From a career in performing arts to Digital Data Architect, Robert Barbaro’s career path has been anything but ordinary. Today, at David Lloyd Clubs, he’s shaping how data and AI are used to drive growth, optimise customer journeys, and rethink how organisations prepare for the future.

With a career spanning McKinsey, Motorola, Google, and Walgreens, Mansoor has seen marketing and strategy evolve from both the consulting and corporate side.

As Global Director of Brand Marketing for Accor’s premium brands, Marko Djukic lives and breathes brand activation—not as a campaign function, but as a way to create emotional experiences people remember.

Paul Nicholson has spent decades building and running creative operations at scale, including 24 years at Showtime leading Production and Operations.

Michele Fry, former Head of Creative at Ocado, has spent her career at the intersection of creativity, efficiency, and brand building. In this interview, she shares why perfection is no longer the goal in marketing, how authenticity and speed are redefining the industry, and where she sees AI unlocking new possibilities for creative teams.