Join us for the
IHAC Evolution In-House Agency Summit 2025!
This year, we’re embracing transformation and progress as we explore the evolution of in-house agencies – from shifting structures and capabilities to creative innovation and technology integration.
Whether you're a long-standing IHAC member or new to the community, this summit is your opportunity to connect with forward-thinking peers, gain actionable insights, and reflect on how our roles are evolving in an ever-changing landscape.
Expect a collaborative, inspiring environment filled with real-world stories, future-focused panels, and meaningful networking.
Available to all IHAC Members and non members by invitation only.
The Details…
Tuesday, 16 September 2025
The Grounds of Alexandria
7a/2 Huntley Street, Alexandria New South Wales 2015
8.30am – 5.00pm (with extended networking drinks between 5pm-7pm)
Testimonials
“Exceptional panels, the content itself and the overall structure and quality of attendees, 11/10”
“The line-up of keynote speakers and panellists was second to none. No stone unturned! All the content was bang on, it’s rare to get this type of talent in one room. No egos, just good, smart people who gave their time to benefit us all in attendance.”
“It was all good. I came away with a to-do list as long as my arm. Lots of great ideas, things and partners to look into”
“My favourite presentation topics were around team structure and processes and recruitment. But, the main thing I appreciated was meeting new people in the in-house universe, and the chance to catch up with people I already know! I took the most notes in the recruitment talk. It was interesting from the perspective of building my own career, as well as attracting new talent to my team.”
The 2025 Speaker Line-up
Cat van der Werff
Executive Creative Director, Canva
Cat van der Werff is the Executive Creative Director at Canva, where she leads a global in-house creative agency of more than 120 creatives across brand, campaigns, performance, and production, all in service of Canva’s mission to empower the world to design.
Cat joined Canva in 2018 as the company’s first brand designer, bringing more than 15 years of global brand-building experience. Since then, she’s helped shape the creative direction for some of Canva’s most iconic campaigns, including Love Your Work and annual Canva Create events. Under her leadership, Canva’s in-house team has also earned industry-wide recognition, including three Gold Transform Awards, an ANA In-House Excellence Award, and a spot on the ADWEEK Creative 100.
With a focus on designing for scale, building high-trust creative teams, and crafting a brand the world genuinely loves, Cat believes in design as a force for good.
Nick Thomas
Partner & Chief Strategy Officer, -lution
Nick helps run -lution; a marketing transformation consultancy run by marketers for marketers. Nick’s background as an international executive has seen him lead marketing, product and P&L functions for big blue-chip consumer brands in the UK and Australia. His previous roles include CMO RACV, CMO Betfair, GM Consumer Telstra, and Head of Digital & Consumer O2 UK. With practical experience leading growth and change for some of the biggest consumer brands in the world’s most competitive markets, Nick has also built and led in-house agency teams at Betfair, RACV, O2, and GE Money.
Anna Jackson
Head of Brand, Westpac
Anna is a strategic marketing leader with a career spanning corporate, advertising agency and brand consultancy roles. In a nutshell, she’s responsible for making the work better by providing the best conditions for creativity to thrive. Anna values creativity as the ultimate advantage, powerful enough to overcome any type of challenge whether it be commercial, cultural or customer.
She values creativity as the ultimate advantage, powerful enough to overcome any type of challenge whether it be commercial, cultural or customer.
Fun fact: plays mandolin.
Adam Ledbury
Global Creative Director APAC, Uber
Adam is an award winning creative / creative director with time spent in advertising agencies both here and in the U.S.
In his career, amongst other things, he’s renamed McDonald’s, found 61 missing children, and set fire to Cher.
Now, in his first client side role as Global Creative Director, APAC for Uber and Uber Eats, Adam works to create a safe space for creative, a role that encompasses being a putter of arms around shoulders, a gee-er upper, an asker of stupid questions, a simplifier of thoughts, a cutter to the chaser, and an evangelist of creativity as the greatest advantage in business.
Fun fact: Adam hates writing bios, partly because he never knows what to say, partly because he’s English and hates talking about himself but mainly because of the whole third person thing. It’s weird, no? If we spoke like this in polite or any other society we’d be rightly mocked. Yet here we are.
Sarah Hetherington
Head of Production & Operations, CBAgency
Sarah has 20 years' experience in creative agencies such as Clemenger Proximity, DDB, and M&C Saatchi - in the fast-paced world of integrated production, she delivered countless campaigns for global brands such as McDonald’s, Volkswagen, Telstra, and Westpac. Four years ago she moved to her first in-house role with CommBank to lead the then Creative Services team. Soon after starting, she was involved in the design and launch of CBAGENCY, officially launching in June 2024, and now going from strength to strength supporting Marketing and Corporate Affairs for CommBank.
Georgie Bugelly
Group Head Agency Services, 1House
Georgie is a highly awarded, results driven marketing, brand, creative and content specialist, with over 20 years in the top Creative agencies in Australia and the UK. During her time in Creative agencies, Georgie has led extensive global and local brand portfolios for the likes of Unilever, Colgate, Danone, EnergyAustralia, GE, AXA, Google, KraftHeinz, McCain and BeyondBlue whilst leading and managing many high performing teams of agency specialists.
In 2023, Georgie made the leap into the Asahi Beverages business to take on a leadership role within 1House, Asahi’s inhouse agency offering. 1House services 28 brands within the business, specialises in social and content and provides a full service offering of specialists with a team of 70 people.
Angela Greenwood
Chief Marketing Office, Youi
Angela joined Youi in June 2022 as their Chief Marketing Officer and embraced her new identity as a Queenslander.
With a love of challenger brands, her mission is to continue Youi’s impressive growth story in a highly competitive industry. Her acceleration of Youi’s brand and business outcomes saw her named #9 in the 2025 CMO Awards. She leads a mature in-house agency model which has put marketing at the heart of the business since day one, named as the IHAC Awards 2025 In-House Agency of the Year.
Her career spans client and agency side roles in Australia and the UK, demonstrating a passion for building high performing teams and an ongoing belief that great culture delivers great commercial outcomes.
Mike Worden
Partner & Chief Media Officer, -lution
Mike is an experienced, passionate, and accomplished leader in the Media Industry with 20+ years’ experience in both agency and client roles. Most recently he led the creation and transition of the hybrid in-house media team at Endeavour Group. Prior to this he was Managing Director at EssenceMediacom, Sydney’s second largest media agency.
Mike has overseen some of the largest and most complex media accounts in Australia, including running the McDonald’s account for 3 years, and has a proven track record in delivering business growth. Through these roles he has built up a wealth of experience in managing complex businesses and building world class relationships. He is a multi award winning leader with a passion for delivering client growth through innovation, collaboration, data led solutions, and pushing the boundaries of the media industry.
Gemma Poesaste
Head of In-house Creative Agency, Telstra
Gemma Poesaste is a senior marketing leader, MBA graduate and Head of Telstra’s in-house creative agency. She leads the transformation of the studio's capabilities into a high-performing strategic and creative agency partner. With a background in both agency and in-house across FMCG and premium lifestyle brands, she brings deep expertise in transformation, creative excellence, and integrated marketing execution. Gemma is known for uniting marketing and in-house agency, to drive business impact, and she is a passionate advocate for the value in-housing can bring to customer engagement channels.
She also contributes to industry thought leadership, serving as a board member for the In-House Agency Council (IHAC).
Tim Hernadi
General Manager Marketing, Sportsbet
Tim is a career marketer who has worked in a variety of marketing disciplines. With over 30 years’ experience on both the agency and client side for household brand names like Medibank, Sensis, Suncorp and Sportsbet, Tim is an IHAC board member.
Conor McGowan
Sales Director, Storyteq
Conor, hailing from Ireland, stands as a pivotal figure at Storyteq, being one of its initial employees and playing a crucial role in its expansion. As our Sales Director, Conor has distinguished himself as one of the foremost experts in Content Automation within the company, thanks to his deep involvement from the early days. His approach to problem-solving is deeply rooted in his consulting background, enabling him to craft innovative solutions for our clients.
Neville Doyle
Strategic Client Partner, Ideally
A highly respected strategist and former Chief Strategy Officer, Neville brings a career of shaping creative and commercial thinking for some of the world’s most ambitious brands, including Disney Pixar, Colenso BBDO, TBWA and Clemenger.
Neville has spent the last 20 years decoding audiences and building strategy for some of the world’s most iconic companies. Now he’s turning his focus to a different kind of challenge: helping brands use insight to build ideas – by co-creating with customers, testing early, and building around what actually works.
The Agenda
Session 1 – Is Design Democratisation Ruining the Industry?
by Cat van der Werff - Executive Creative Director, Canva
It’s a question that sparks heated panels and Reddit threads. As tools like Canva place creative powers into more hands than ever before, some argue that “Design with a capital D” is under threat. Cat van der Werff, a brand designer by trade and now Canva’s Executive Creative Director, tackles the debate head-on. In this session, she unpacks the identity tension at the heart of the industry, makes the case for creative leadership over control, and explores how design teams can shift from production bottlenecks to imagination catalysts at scale.
Morning Tea
Session 2 – Creatively Evolving Your Operations!
by Gemma Poesaste - Head of In-house Creative Agency, Telstra, Sarah Hetherington - Head of Production and Operations, CBAGENCY and Georgie Bugelly - Group Head, Agency Services, 1House
Evolving your in-house team to make it fit for purpose is a crucial element to success. Whether you are fresh or hitting the refresh button on your team, currently focused on improving creative quality through operational change, or an established set up wanting to sense check your current set up, there is something for everyone in this panel. Join representatives from three of Australia's most well-known and trusted brands, currently in three different stages of evolution to share their learnings..Gemma Poesaste from Telstra chairs this session, she is joined by Sarah Hetherington from CBAgency at CommBank and Georgie Bugelly from 1House at Asahi Beverages.
Session 3 - AI in Practice: Real Life Examples of AI in use Today
by Tim Hernadi - General Manager Marketing, Sportsbet and Jason Ross - Co-founder, Time Under Tension
Join Tim Hernadi from AI early adopter Sportsbet to hear how they're applying generative AI to produce content and agentic AI to streamline processes, as well as a recap on the World AI Conference in China which will blow your mind!
Lunch
Session 4 - Content Marketing Unleashed: From Siloes to Unified
by Conor McGowan - Sales Director, Storyteq
Learn about the future of content marketing tech, from production at scale, to asset management and collaboration. Conor McGowan and industry leaders will present real-world applications, showcasing efficiency and innovation. Perfect for designers and marketing leads eager to streamline processes and enhance creativity
Session 5 – Creative Excellence Unlocked
by Nick Thomas - Partner & Chief Strategy Officer, -lution, Adam Ledbury - Global Creative Director, APAC, Uber and Anna Jackson - Head of Brand, Westpac
Creative excellence is the key to business growth. Well, in this panel session, come and hear from two global leaders who's job it is to drive creative excellence for Cannes Grand Prix winner Telstra and Gold Effie winner Uber. Our speakers will share insights into how they drive creative innovation, protect the ideas, improve the work, and balance the plethora of channels they execute within. Learn how two of the world’s most recognisable brands approach creative strategy, collaboration, and execution in fast-moving environments, leveraging their partners and in-house capability, to truly embed their work in culture. Although we cannot guarantee Anna will do the Telstra walk onto stage! Whether you’re leading an in-house team, or working with external partners, this session will provide the inspiration and guidance to elevate the work you put into the world.
Session 6 – The Power in Proximity: Leveraging the Customer Voice from the Inside
by Neville Doyle - Strategic Client Partner, Ideally and Adam Murphy - Founder Curioso & Head of -lution Insights
IHAC and Ideally are partnering to explore of how in-house agencies can uniquely unlock customer value through insight.
We’ll investigate: The upside and potential pitfalls of proximity, for both commercial results and creative output
How real-time access to category intelligence and customer data gives in-house teams a competitive edge
Who truly owns the “voice of the customer” inside organisations, and how that is evolving
How to foster a lasting culture of curiosity that drives consumer centricity and business results
Afternoon Tea
Session 7 – The (In) House Always Wins?
by MIke Worden - Partner & Chief Media Officer, -lution
What's the current state of the nation to own media? In this session, Mike Worden will unpack the results of our latest survey, exploring the burgeoning in-house media market within Australia. From team structures and capability gaps to AI adoption, measurement, and more, we’ll spotlight where in-house teams are thriving, where opportunity lies, and what "great" looks like in 2025. Whether you're scaling a team, refining your model, or just wondering what everyone else is doing, this session has the benchmarks, trends and hot takes you need to stay ahead.
Session 8 – How an in-house Powerhouse Reignited a Challenger
by Angela Greenwood - Chief Marketing Officer, Youi
When Angela joined Youi in mid-2022, her mission was clear - to reignite Youi's incredible challenger brand and drive growth in a highly competitive category. As one of Australia's OG in-house teams spanning the full marketing mix from strategy to media to creative and beyond, the Youi marketing crew has been on a multi-year journey to achieve just that. Angela will share the story of how a passionate, focused and strongly united Sunshine Coast team drove their brand and business to new heights, leveraged their in-house superpowers to drive impact at pace, challenged everything to reignite a challenger – and were ultimately rewarded with the accolade of the IHAC Awards 2025 In-House Agency of the Year.
Session 9 - Roundtables
Breakout sessions held by industy leaders.
Wrap-up
Drinks & Networking
Sponsors
Storyteq helps brands grow through our AI-enabled Content Marketing Platform to create, manage, and activate content so you acquire customers faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. Our end-to-end Content Marketing Platform helps global brands deliver content faster with the power of automation. Bring teams together to create pixel-perfect campaigns on brand, on time and on budget across markets and channels.
-lution exists to help marketing teams evolve.
As experts and former client-side marketers, the team at -lution know what it takes to lead change from the inside and make it last. -lution helps businesses build world-class in-house and hybrid agency models to enable teams for what’s next.
If you're ready to evolve, -lution is ready to help.
Ideally is the market research platform built for innovation and continuous growth. We help brands test ideas, shape propositions, and build a living, connected foundation of insights powered by input from real people so you can create with your customer.
Starting with foundational Usage & Attitude data, every test multiplies what you know, turning research into an ever-evolving intelligence base that reflects how your category and consumers change in real time. With AI-assisted analysis, inclusive methods, and overnight feedback loops, Ideally helps teams move faster and smarter whether you're launching products, developing creative campaigns, or uncovering new opportunities.
Trusted by over 180 leading brands—including Google, Starbucks, Burger King, Afterpay, and 25+ top creative agencies—across the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore, Ideally transforms research into commercial growth and creative advantage, driving bigger ideas, bolder decisions, and better outcomes.
BUCK is a design-driven, global creative company with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Amsterdam, Vancouver, and London.
Founded in 2004, BUCK has built a reputation for outstanding craftsmanship and innovation through collaboration with a wide range of clients across the cultural and technology spheres, including Apple, Instagram, IBM, Nike, Airbnb, Paypal, and Pepsi.
Recognized as an industry leader, BUCK’s trophy case includes two Emmy’s, multiple gold Cannes Lions, Clios, pencils, cubes, and over 200 other awards from the most prestigious competitions in the world.
Commercial Radio & Audio (CRA) is the peak industry body representing the interests of commercial radio broadcasters across Australia. CRA promotes the effectiveness of radio and audio to advertisers, manages audio research and insights, the metropolitan and regional audience measurement surveys, the official Australian Podcast Ranker, revenue reporting, industry innovation, industry codes and standards, and regulatory and legislative matters.
We also collaborate with the broader digital audio ecosystem to grow the total market and provide services to the public and part public audio broadcasting services.
PLAYE is a flexible resourcing solution built for in-house agencies, giving you access to a global network of top-tier freelance talent across design, video, strategy and more. Whether you need end- to-end support or just want to compliantly engage your own freelancers directly, PLAYE makes it simple to scale and flex your creative output without overheads.
