CMA NXT Marketing Careers Night - Oct 1

Melissa Wagner
Marketing Director, Canadian Marketing Association

Mark Simone
Partner, Director of Growth Strategy, King Street Media

Mark Simone is an entrepreneur, growth strategist, and chartered marketer based in Toronto, committed to assisting Canadian businesses with their most pressing online challenges.

Throughout the past decade, Mark has collaborated with national brands such as Canadian Tire, Walmart, and TELUS. He is also passionate about partnering with small to mid-sized businesses, where the strategies developed and executed by his team have enabled numerous brands to thrive online.

As a founder and strategist, Mark has created a system for developing and executing brand, performance, and content strategies. His approach fosters genuine business partnerships, drives innovation, demonstrates tangible results, and facilitates ongoing growth.

In the last two years, Mark and his team have established a content management system designed to help brands brainstorm, create, approve, and distribute content efficiently at scale.

Serving as the bridge between brands and consumers, Mark believes that every brand possesses stories that can captivate and influence their audience while achieving measurable business objectives.

Arielle Uwonkunda
Marketing Manager, Molson Coors
Young Lions Gold Winner 2025

Arielle Uwonkunda is a Rwando-Canadian marketing leader with a body of work spanning four continents. She is currently the Marketing Manager of Molson TM and the Economy Portfolio at Molson Coors, where she leads strategy and award-winning innovation and campaigns across beer and cider. Arielle blends cultural fluency with emotional precision and commercial clarity. Known for instinctive leadership and creative discipline, she builds ideas rooted in deep human behaviors and category trends. She believes storytelling is an act of courage and collaboration, and uses her voice to shape culture, empower teams, and unlock bold, purpose-driven work that truly resonates.

Suzanne Liu
Senior Global Partner Manager, Uber
Young Lions Gold Winner 2025

Suzanne is a marketing and sales professional with a background in both consumer goods and technology. While she was obtaining her marketing degree at UBC, Suzanne explored different opportunities in sales & retail strategy at companies like PepsiCo and L'Oreal. Upon graduating, she began her career at PepsiCo where she had the opportunity to learn the full sales funnel & distribution models across brands like Frito Lay, Quaker, and Pepsi Beverages. She later pivoted to the tech industry as a Senior Global Partner Manager at Uber, where she now leads partnership growth with brands like Starbucks. Suzanne has relocated 3 times with her career, living in Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, and now Toronto. Outside of work, Suzanne enjoys creative outlets like cooking, baking, and DIY crafts.

Mark Simone (Moderator)
Partner, Director of Growth Strategy, King Street Media

This panel will discuss the experience of participating in the Young Lions competition and the early career path stages. 

Tammy Gardner
Director, Media Strategy & Optimization, RBC

Tammy Gardner is an accomplished media executive with 20+ years of experience driving innovation and growth for Canada's top brands. As Director of Media Strategy & Optimization at RBC, she managed their external agency and brings to life customer centric data driven media plans - leveraging AI, marketing mix modeling, and strategic partnerships. With a background in senior leadership roles at The Home Depot, Corus, and top agencies, Tammy has spearheaded campaigns for major brands like Canadian Tire and Volkswagen. She excels at building high-performing teams, fostering collaboration, and translating consumer insights into actionable strategies.

Lauren Bradeen
Chief Marketing Officer, Deloitte Canada

Lauren Bradeen is the Chief Marketing Officer at Deloitte Canada, where she leads a high-performing team focused on brand health, client engagement, and growth. With expertise spanning data-driven marketing, digital innovation, and impactful content, she shapes Deloitte’s voice in the market and strengthens connections with clients and communities.

Previously, she led Deloitte’s digital marketing consulting business, advising leading organizations on elevating digital marketing capabilities, driving technology-enabled transformation, and tying marketing more closely to growth. Her earlier experience in financial services marketing at Scotiabank and in the agency world provides her with a unique perspective across publisher, agency, client, and consulting environments on how to ignite your brand in a connected and effective way.

This panel will discuss the career paths of senior marketers and their insight for the next generation of marketers. 

Barry Alexander
Chief Marketing & Diversity Officer, Canadian Marketing Association

Please be advised that George Brown College is currently on strike. While we are fully committed to holding the event as scheduled at the venue on October 1, 2025, circumstances beyond our control may affect access to the facility, staffing, or services (including parking, security, food services, and building access).

By registering, you acknowledge:

• There is a possibility that certain parts of the venue or amenities may not be available.
• The schedule, venue access point(s), or event amenities could be modified at short notice.
• We will do our best to keep you informed of any changes as soon as we become aware of them.

What you can expect from us:

• Timely updates via email if there are changes to the event location, start time, or guest access routes.
• Clear instructions for alternative arrangements if needed.

If we are unable to host this event in person, we will host virtually and confirm 48 hours prior.

If you have questions or concerns, please get in touch with events@thecma.ca. Your safety and event experience remain our top priority. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility.