John Delacruz has joined San Jose State University’s Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communications as a Tenure-track professor on the Advertising Program. He is tasked with developing the creative track and developing links between industry and education as well as developing projects for students both nationally and internationally.

Prior to this, John worked at Staffordshire University in Stoke-on‐Trent, UK between 1999-2012. During this time, John initially began teaching on the Graphic Design Degree and was later to redesign the Professional, Historical and Contextual Studies programs for all Design disciplines in the former School of Art and Design. A mammoth task that resulted in the embedding of contextual studies within studio practice.

John designed the Advertising and Brand Management degree from the ground up, a degree program that was established in 2006 and is running strong as a unique degree program that integrates creative practice, strategy and management into one unique package. He holds the edcom Presidency between 2011-2013.

When asked why McCann Worldgroup hired Matias, Linus Karlson, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer simply said, "He is Matias – one of the most creative minds in the business. He has the innate ability to ‘see around corners’  like no one else I know, and has incredible foresight.” Matias has been involved in the creative and digital world of advertising at the beginning of the digital era. Working for MTG and the Swedish media mogul, Jan Stenbeck, he developed and produced one of the first and biggest European web portals in 1992. 

In 1996, Matias started his first digital agency, Spiff Industries, a well recognised and award winning Swedish shop, with a focus on the Scandinavian market. Matias then moved on and founded Farfar (Swedish for “grandfather”) in 2000 to expand to global brands, giving clients a platform and channel in the new digital space. Global clients included Diesel, Absolut and Nokia. Farfar immediately had award-winning success. In 2001, within just a year of its founding, Farfar began winning at Cannes, continuing to win various Cannes Lions for nine consecutive years.  The Diesel “Heidies 15 MB of Fame” campaign won a Grand Prix Lion in 2007 and the agency also won a Grand Prix in Cannes for Milko with the “Music Machine” campaign.

The last campaign Matias was part of with Farfar was “The worlds biggest signpost” for Nokia. In 2010 at Cannes, this campaign won eight Lions in five different categories. It was also recognised by The Gunn Report as the most award-winning piece 2011. As an esteemed member of the creative community, Matias has served as a jury member and Chairman at various major awards shows. At Cannes, he has served as a judge three times in the last decade, including the Titanium Lion. 

At the University of Leeds Mike designed and now is a Programme Director of MA Advertising and Design. More recently he has gained approval for a new Masters programme in Digital, Mobile and Social Media beginning September 2013.

Mike's expertise and knowledge is predominantly in the area of Branding and Brand Communications and as Creative Director at Ashleigh in Leeds he art directed brand identity projects predominantly in the Leisure Retail sector for a range of 'Blue Chip' clients including Scottish & Newcastle, The Spirit Group, Luminar Leisure and Six Continents PLC.

He is particularly interested in the tense relationship between plagiarism and originality and how the definition of creativity is perceived through different cultural experiences and or social/political environments (individual ‘genius’ or collaborative cooperation?) and how the creative industries can influence strategic business, organizational or social objectives.

With a carrer as Art-, Creative- and Executive Creative Director at Young & Rubicam, Leo Burnett, Saatchi & Saatchi, DMB&B and McCann Erickson in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf, Jean Claude has been in charge at local, national and international level for the likes of Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Canon, Goodyear, Zwilling, Burger King and Yamaha Motors.

He is a laureate of, among others, the New York Festival, Art Directors Club, Eurobest, iF Design Award and founder and Creative Director of Consumers’ in Düsseldorf.

Jean-Claude started his academic career as lecturer for Graphic Design at the Lycée technique des Arts et Métiers in his home country Luxembourg, before he was named Professor at the Faculty of Design of the University of Applied Sciences in Mannheim in October 2007.  

Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, João moved to the UK, where he got his Master's degree in Marketing Communications before moving back to São Paulo.

Before joining Publicis Lisbon as Creative Director, João Braga worked in Brazil for 15 years in agencies such as Lew'Lara\TBWA and JWT São Paulo.

During that period, he developed work for clients like Coca-Cola, Renault, VISA, Nokia, HSBC, Kraft Foods, Nissan, Banco Santander, Nestlé and Microsoft. His work has been rewarded with various national and international awards including Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

After a steep career start in the marketing and communications sector during which he was Senior Media Executive for communications agencies in Lisbon and Mexico, José joined The Coca-Cola Company IBERIA in 1997.

During these 16 years working at Coca-Cola he gained experience as Media, Presence and Marketing Manager in both Portugal and Spain before becoming Content Excellence & CRM 2.0 Manager for Spain in 2011.

Despite his professional obligations, José is maintaining his dedication to the educational sector by continuing to teach Marketing & Communications at the university level. He holds a degree in Advertising and Public Relations since 1992, a post-degree as Marketing Manager since 2005 and a Master's degree in Marketing Management since 2012.

Since 2008 Sofia has been Executive Manager of APAP, the Portuguese Association of Communications Agencies.

Sofia began her advertising agency career at Publicis as an Account Manager in 1984, after graduating from ISEG, with a degree in Administration. The next professional experiences were in the marketing field and during the next decade she went from brand manager for Bosch to Board Member and CEO of Panasonic, Technics and Hyundai representatives. Back into the agency world, Sofia was CEO of D’Arcy and Leo Burnett for 13 years.

Alongside her association career, Sofia teaches at ISEG, the European University and at ISCTE.

Professor Paul Springer is Head of Research and Special Projects for the Faculty of Design Media & Management at Buckinghamshire New University, UK. Springer's research addresses advertising and new approaches to mass communications.

His bestselling book Ads to Icons, How Advertising Succeeds in a Multimedia Age (2nd edit. Kogan Page 2009) received commendations from, amongst others, the 'Orange Choice Review for Academic Libraries of the United States'. His current book, Pioneers of Digital (written with Microsoft’s Advertising Community Manager Mel Carson) will be launched at the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. Springer has written for Admap, Brand Strategy, Business Excellence (Moscow), China Advertising and commentated on new advertising in the UK for BBC Radio 5 Live.

He co-devised the international Advertising Masters program for Bucks and leads doctoral programs on advertising, branding and new media research. Springer has advised the China Advertising Association, Beijing and has been selected to present ideas for, amongst others, Havas Media (global), R/GA (New York and London), Sunrise Industries (Guangzhou) Trendy International Fashion Group (Shenzhen), Crocus and Reliz (both Moscow) and Design & Art Direction.

Americo is the author of IDEAS(R)EVOLUTION Methodology and a project coordinator for Alvito, OESTE ATIVO, Caldas da Rainha, EDP, Cultura Avieira, Aldeias de Montanha Case Studies, as well as Branding and Innovation projects.

With a background as Innovation Director of BRANDIA – Design group, Creativity and Innovation Consultant for several business companies in Portugal and Belgium, Americo is the author of more than 25 internationally published scientific papers.

He is lecturer at several international universities: IADE - Creative University (Portugal), FH Volarberg (Austria), Karel de Groot Business School, Howest University (Belgium), Haaga-Velia Business School (Finland), RMIT University (Australia).

Nick is a student at Avans University in 's-Hertogenbosch. He is 21 years old and graduated as Hospitality Manager from "De Rooi Pannen" one year ago.

Nick enjoys cooking and making everyone around him feel comfortable. At first he had decided to not study any further, because he wanted to follow his passion and be creative in all kinds of ways. With the new study programme "Advanced Business Creation", he felt that he can express his creativity into something innovative that can ultimately help organisations.

Trendwatching is also very much part of Nick's creative process and he is dedicating a lot of time to look out for changes that can help achieve "a better world".

Andreas Hess is Lecturer of Public Relations and Integrated Marketing Communication at FH Wien, as well as of Communication Science at the University of Vienna.

He holds Master's degrees in B2B-Marketing and in Communication. Currently he works on his dissertation project on the meaning of targeting for Corporate Communication.

Bernadette Kneidinger is Junior Professor for Sociology with Particular Reference to Internet at the Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg in Germany.

Her research interests are focused on the fields of media and internet-sociology with projects about the interplay of technological and social changes, mobile communication, Social TV and computer-mediated intergenerational communication.

Ana MeloAssistant Professor, Universidade do Minho

Ana is Assistant Professor in the Communications Sciences Department of the Social Sciences Institute of the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal and a researcher of the Communication and Society Research Centre since 2004. Ana is also a PhD student. She hopes to soon deliver her thesis on advertising, communication and citizenship where she analyses the scope of consumer-citizen participation in advertising.

Ana was elected Vice-Chair of the Organisational and Strategic Communication Section of the ECREA in Hamburg in 2010 and re-elected in Istanbul in 2012. She is also Vice-Chair of the Advertising and Communication Working Group of the Portuguese Society of Communication Sciences (SOPCOM - Sociedade Portuguesa de Ciências da Comunicação) and member of IAMCR (International Association for Media and Communication Research).

Before fully committing to the Academia, Ana was an advertising professional for 16 years, during which she worked as copywriter and creative director (1988-2004).

Sara is Assistant Professor in the Communications Sciences Department of the Social Sciences Institute at te University of Minho in Braga, Portugal. Since 2004 she has also been doing research at the Communication and Society Research Centre.

With 20 years of experience in healthcare communications consultancy, Gloria has worked across a range of disciplines and has run agencies specialising in DTC, digital, advertising, branding, PR, medical education and consulting working in pharmaceutical and consumer health.

Gloria specialises in developing integrated, multimarket campaigns, above and below the line, for global clients. And, in addition to global clients, her geographical focus is on delivering healthcare revenue growth in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Gloria joined the WPP communications network in 1999, when the company she was a partner in, Shire Health, was acquired. She joined the Ogilvy network in 2003 heading up healthcare in the UK & Europe in 2006.