Ellie Bamford joined VML in 2023 as Chief Strategy Officer for North America. She is an Australian, New Yorker, and Ad Age's Media Person of the Year 2022. With more than 20 years in the business of marketing, Ellie advises brands on how to thrive in a connected world and create impact through communication, inspiration, and human experience. At VML, she oversees strategy across North America, focusing on driving breakthrough creativity and business growth for clients, strengthening talent, and integrated partnerships across capabilities.

Ellie believes that if the work we create for brands is not profoundly connected to how it lives in the real world for real people, it won't be inspiring or effective. Ellie has delivered on this belief and mission throughout her career with progressive, award-winning work for Reddit, Pepsi, Nike, FILA, Uber, Samsung, Spotify, Sephora, American Express, and more.

Before joining VML, Ellie served as Global Head of Media, Connections, and Influence at R/GA. Under her leadership, she drove a 50% spike in revenue for the Strategic Practice in 2021/22 and unlocked unexpected creative innovation. An example includes Reddit's 5-second Super Bowl, made within a week and named by The New York Times as the "unlikely Super Bowl winner." This Super Bowl game-changer experience led to a Cannes Lions Grand Prix win, contributing to R/GA's best-ever awards performance: 12 wins, 35 shortlists, and wins in seven new categories. Ellie was also the mastermind behind some of R/GA's most human-centered work, like changing Sephora's creative and search experience to push the discovery of Black Beauty content. This work for Sephora and Black Beauty is a multi-show award winner, culminating with a Silver Cannes Lion.

Ellie serves as Jury Chair for the Clios, Judge for Cannes Lions and The Young Lions, and Grand Juror for the Effies. She cares about positively impacting the next generation of diverse creative brains and contributes to She Runs It and Out for Undergrad as a mentor. As an opinion leader, she has been featured in The New York Times, Ad Age, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vogue, AdWeek, Wired and as a speaker at Cannes Lions, Advertising Week US & LATAM, Contagious, and DMEXCO.