Tara McKenty, Chief Creative Officer of AKQA ANZ named to MAD STARS 2026 Executive Jury
MAD STARS has announced the first three members of its Executive Jury for 2026, reinforcing its position as a leading international platform recognizing marketing, advertising, and technology-driven creative excellence including Tara McKenty, Chief Creative Officer of AKQA Australia & New Zealand.
Joining McKenty is Executive Jury is Raja Rajamannar, Senior Fellow, Former Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of Mastercard and Aurora Straton, Creative Lead at Google. Collectively, they represent global brand leadership, platform innovation, and effectiveness-driven creativity.
As members of the Executive Jury, they will oversee the final rounds of judging and determine the Grand Prix of the Year winners, defining the standard of excellence across the SOLUTION Group and POSITIVE IMPACT Group.
McKenty serves as Chief Creative Officer of AKQA Australia & New Zealand, leading the agency’s creative direction across the region. With more than 17 years of experience across the APAC creative industries, their career has been defined by the integration of technology, craft, and effectiveness in creative leadership.
Prior to joining AKQA, McKenty spent over a decade at Google APAC, including six years as Creative Head, leading innovation initiatives at the intersection of technology and brand storytelling. Their earlier experience includes senior creative leadership roles at TBWA, Saatchi & Saatchi, and BMF.
McKenty founded Rare with Google, an initiative designed to provide equitable opportunities for underrepresented creatives to thrive at every stage of their careers. Over the course of their career, McKenty has received more than 200 international industry awards, reflecting sustained recognition for creative work across multiple disciplines and markets.
McKenty’s appointment further underscores MAD STARS’ positioning at the intersection of creative excellence, technological advancement, and measurable effectiveness. Their experience in guiding technology-driven creativity within both agency and platform environments supports the festival’s commitment to recognizing work that delivers innovation alongside tangible impact.
Rajamannar is widely recognised as one of the most influential global marketing leaders of the past decade. During his 12-year tenure as Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Mastercard, he helped transform the company into one of the fastest-growing global brands, evolving the iconic Priceless campaign into a truly experiential, multisensory platform, infusing emerging technologies and advanced data analytics, while pioneering new standards in inclusive design.
His work at Mastercard has been developed into formal case studies at Harvard Business School and the Yale School of Management. He is also the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow’s Consumers, which inspired the Bloomberg Originals series Quantum Marketing with Raja Rajamannar.
Rajamannar has deep business management experience, leading large, revenue-driving organizations throughout his career. This has provided a critical foundation for ensuring marketing serves as a force multiplier for growth. His prior roles include founding president of the healthcare business at Mastercard, Chief Transformation Officer at Elevance (formerly Anthem), and Chief Innovation and Marketing Officer at Humana, in addition to senior leadership roles at Unilever and Citibank. He has been inducted into the AAF Advertising Hall of Fame, the Forbes CMO Hall of Fame, and the AMA Marketing Hall of Fame. He has been named one of Business Insider’s Most Innovative CMOs seven times and has received honors including WFA Global Marketer of the Year, Advertising Person of the Year by the Ad Club of New York, Adweek’s Brand Genius and Grand Brand Genius, Billboard’s Top Branding Power Player, among many other honors.
Says Rajamannar: “Happy to be joining the MAD STARS 2026 Executive Jury, a global platform that champions bold, culture-shaping creativity. I’m focused on identifying work that pushes boundaries and proves how sharp, innovative thinking drives real cultural and business impact.”
His participation reinforces MAD STARS’ commitment to recognizing work that advances creative standards while delivering tangible cultural and business impact at scale.
Straton is a multidisciplinary Creative Lead at Google with more than 20 years of experience across the global creative industry, including over a decade within Google’s innovation ecosystem.
At Google, she works with brands and cultural institutions to leverage next-generation technologies in crafting impactful narratives and immersive experiences that capture cultural relevance and drive action. Her work spans gaming, entertainment, luxury, travel, automotive, and culture, where she collaborates with innovation and creative teams to shape new forms of storytelling.
Straton’s approach is grounded in the belief that compelling creativity resonates when it connects with fundamental human truths. She continuously examines how technology and media redefine the way stories are created and experienced, advocating for technology as a catalyst for meaningful and positive change.
Straton’s appointment reflects MAD STARS’ continued focus on platform-era creativity and the evolving role of technology in defining how brands connect with audiences globally. Her experience in integrating emerging technologies with culturally resonant storytelling aligns directly with the festival’s emphasis on work that demonstrates both innovation and relevance.
The five members of the Executive Jury will lead a jury of more than 350 professionals from over 70 locations, spanning brand leadership, agencies, digital platforms, media, and innovation sectors. The jury structure is designed to reflect the diversity and evolving standards of the global communications industry.
With the Executive Jury representing global brand stewardship, technology platforms, and effectiveness-driven creativity, MAD STARS 2026 offers entrants a rigorous and balanced evaluation framework that recognizes strategic insight, craft excellence, and demonstrable impact.
Entry and Judging Timeline (All times in KST)
Entry Phase
1st deadline (Early Bird): 8 May 2026
2nd deadline (Regular): 29 May 2026
Final deadline: 15 June 2026
Judging & Awards
Preliminary Judging: 1-15 July 2026 (Online)
Finalists announced: 21 July 2026
Final Judging 1st round: 24 July – 6 August 2026 (Online)
Final Judging 2nd & last round: 24 August 2026 (In person)
Winners announced and Awards Show: 28 August 2026
Awards include Grand Prix, Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Crystal across all Stars. The Grand Prix of the Year, the festival’s highest honor, is selected from among the Grand Prix winners of the SOLUTION Group and POSITIVE IMPACT Group.
Entry information is available at www.madstars.org.
MAD STARS 2026 will take place from 26 to 28 August 2026 in Busan, South Korea, bringing together creative work from around the world and continuing its role as a global platform for ideas shaping today’s marketing and communications landscape.
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