The first six judges for this year’s Marketer of the Year award have been announced. The initiative is partnered by BusinessPlus and will be chaired by AAI chief executive Barry Dooley. The panel includes Kevin Kent of Laya, Greta Hammel of Promise Gluten Free, David Field of Fresh, Cliona Hayes of Indeed, Chris Cashen of WPP Media Ireland, and Karen Hand of Strategy & Research.
The Judges and Their Backgrounds
Kevin Kent is head of marketing at Laya, the healthcare provider which recently became title sponsor of the RDS. Hammel was voted Marketer of the Year in 2024 for her strategies in making Promise Gluten Free a major success in Irish and overseas bakery markets. Hand is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s top independent strategists.
David Field has held senior marketing and commercial roles at Superquinn and Eason. He previously worked with Brown Thomas, Glanbia and TV3/Virgin Media Television. He is a former CEO of the Marketing Institute, where he worked with council members in reinventing the industry body, with the launch of a series of new initiatives. Hayes has a wealth of marketing experience. At international recruitment group Indeed, she has held roles such as senior board director of global brand and advertising.
She worked for Denis O’Brien’s Communicorp, now Bauer Media Audio, radio group, for almost eight years and held several roles at Pernod Ricard’s Irish Distillers. Cashen is one of the most respected and popular executives in media advertising. He worked at Carat before joining Mindshare, now WPP Media Ireland. He has served on the board of the Institute of Advertising Practitioners (IAPI), now the Creative & Communications Association.
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It is unusual for a judging panel to include a former CEO of the award’s organizing body. Barry Dooley’s role as chairman adds a layer of institutional knowledge to the selection process. The remaining six judges will be announced shortly.
Criteria for Selection
The judges will be looking for Irish marketers who have achieved outstanding brand success through exceptional strategic direction, innovation, creativity and effective communications. Entrants should have a track record of driving growth and possess strong leadership qualities, having managed, upskilled and inspired teams.
The panel will also seek out candidates who have helped develop marketing’s reputation as a strategic discipline. This focus suggests the award aims to raise the profession beyond mere execution. Details of how to enter Marketer of the Year can be found on the BusinessPlus website.
Submissions should be emailed to [email protected] or sent by post to Marketer of the Year, DMG Media Ireland, 3rd Floor, 20-38 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 HE94. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on Thursday, September 24th, 2026.
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