DDB Worldwide Team Members

Alex is DDB Worldwide’s Global President focused on growth, working closely with DDB’s global leadership team on DDB’s global strategic plan.

Alex was most recently President, McCann North America where he held several regional leadership roles during the course of his tenure there. Before taking on his role at the helm of McCann’s North America region, Alex led McCann’s integrated new business activity, was President of McCann Worldgroup Asia Pacific, and was also the CEO of McCann London. Prior to that he held leadership roles with agencies including Grey and BBH. 

With over two decades of experience across agencies, broadcasters and brands, Chaka has an outstanding background. She was named Campaign’s Creative Leader in 2022, she has been featured in Campaign’s Top 10 Creative Leaders consistently for the past 5 years, and she always holds a top spot on Adweek’s Creative 100 list. While in her previous role as global CCO of Leo Burnett, she fueled several Agency of the Year awards and major creative accolades including being named Network of the Year at Clios, ADC, Dubai Lynx and Spikes. Chaka's award-winning campaigns include “Raise your Arches” and “Lights On” for McDonalds, “The Missing Chapter” for P&G, and “One House” for Suncorp.

Chaka has also served as jury member and President numerous times at most of the world’s biggest awards shows including Cannes, D&AD, One Show, the Andy’s, and Clios just to name a few. She sits on the External Affairs Committee for the Design Museum, as well as on the board of D&AD, The One Show, the British Arrows, Facebook EMEA Creative Council, Snapchat Global Creative Council, and WARC Advisory Board.

Before joining DDB Worldwide, Chaka spent a number of years at creative agency Mother where she worked on brands like McDonalds, Coca Cola, Google, Kellogg, Samsung, Boots, Skoda, Disney, P&G, General Motors and Adidas. She started her career in film making and television, and set-up ITV’s first in-house creative agency, production company and design studio.

Chaka is a big believer in the power of culture and collaboration… She also fully appreciates the breadth and variety of creative product needed to engage consumers today and drive our clients’ businesses. 

Tomas Gonsorcik is the Global Chief Strategy Officer, tasked with leveraging DDB’s creative capabilities to arm businesses and brands for the future. Tomas oversees the region’s strategic community and deliver on the vision to be the future-forward integrated creative powerhouse. Tomas brings an analyst-verified breadth of understanding of modern strategic planning as well as a strong growth mindset.

Prior to DDB, Tomas was chief strategy officer leading the integration of VMLY&R, TAXI and other WPP agencies into one integrated strategic capability. Tomas has worked with Coca-Cola, Google, Pernod Ricard, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, PwC, Ford Motors Company, MasterCard, International Olympic Committee and Premier League to name a few. Tomas serves as 4A’s Strategy Committee Co-Chair, is a jury member of the Global Effie Awards, and an active contributor to the industry’s benchmarks on marketing effectiveness. 

George Strakhov is a Chief Strategy Officer for DDB EMEA and a Global Strategy Director for McDonald’s. George also co-founded DDB FTW (the network’s gamingand metaverse arm) and RAND (the network’s Hybrid Creativity platform). George is 50% business lead, 50% creative technologist and 100% strategist. He assists local and international clients in their strategic needs–from business planning & innovation consultancy all the way to communication strategy and ideation. He is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of reusable models, products and services that local DDB agencies and their clients can benefit from.

Before relocating to the Netherlands in 2017, George spent a decade starting and running various Digital Agencies, Innovation Consultancies and Tech Startups in Moscow and Hong Kong, working with a diverse set of international clients including Carlsberg, Intel, Volkswagen, Coca-Cola, Manulife, Cirque du Soleil and many others. Outside work George is an avid musician,essay writer,a rock climber and a father of three. 

Susie’s role is to bring together the DDB creative community to make the agency stronger - for clients, for business and for the staff across the world.

She has 20 years of experience working in creative communications and culture at global organisations, including ten years running the Cannes Lions Awards. Susie leverages unique skills in insight, strategy, marketing, business operations, product development and launch. 

Elaine is the Chief Growth Officer for DDB North America, responsible for driving the region’s transformation through growth. She fosters a culture of growth and elevating it to new levels of effectiveness. She has operationalized processes, systems, and teams to successfully convert outbound and organic growth opportunities. Across many key clients, she serves as the ongoing executive sponsor ensuring continuity, superior standards of service and leadership oversight.

Prior to joining DDB, Elaine spent nearly 20 years in strategy roles across many of the best advertising agencies in the world. Her career started in Saatchi & Saatchi in Sydney where she worked on Toyota, Lexus and Unifem. She moved to the United States in 2008 and led teams of strategists at Grey, Droga5 and Havas. She has won over a dozen Effies and twenty Cannes Lions.

Ambitious, focused, and eternally optimistic, Elaine has an insatiable appetite for change. When not working, Elaine is an aspiring author, yogi and chef. She lives by Sesame Street ethics of being kind, honest and taking naps when she needs them. 

Marty is a creative thinker and strategic marketer who runs one of DDB’s most successful regions. A former elite athlete, he is highly competitive and driven to grow his client’s businesses. He does this through an ability to attract the market’s best talent and by encouraging a culture that champions creativity. Like Bill Bernbach, Marty knows that creativity is the most powerful force in business, and he has a reputation for delivering brand platforms that deliver long-term success for his clients.During his time leading DDB Australia and New Zealand, Marty has transformed the agency creating a group of specialist agencies that deliver market-leading integration for their clients. In the past five years, DDB has been the fastest-growing International Network in the region.