"Helen's a truly remarkable creative, combining a great depth of experience in advertising agency leadership, while also having acquired outstanding client-side experience, first at Meta and now at Disney," says Lewis Blackwell, CEO of Creative Standards International, the organisation behind the Cresta Awards.

"She has been associated with great work wherever she has gone. Indeed, in the 2024 Cresta winners, we saw Dentsu Creative take Gold honours with the outstanding 'This is Magic' campaign for Disney, which Helen was involved with."

Pak leads Yellow Shoes, Disney's multidisciplinary bi-coastal in-house creative agency. It works across advertising campaigns, strategic partnerships, programming, innovative content and more, with its reach spanning everything from theme parks and resorts to cruise lines, says the awards.

Before joining Disney, she spent 25 years in the agency world, rising to CCO at Grey and holding roles at Ogilvy, JWT, Taxi, Havas and StrawberryFrog in Amsterdam. She also worked at Meta as a Global Creative Strategist and launched brand advertising on Instagram, adds the awards.

The awards confirms that Cresta's Jury Chair does not vote or otherwise influence jurors during judging, but instead gives initial guidance and later reviews all winners to add special honours.

Blackwell adds that he greatly values Pak's experience, as it combines a proven ability to view work from both the agency creative perspective and the client-side drive for lasting innovation benefits. "At Cresta, we care deeply about rewarding work that has real-world benefits, that displays the highest creative standards when fully applied and effective."

Now in its fourth decade, the Cresta Awards aims to be rigorously fair in its judging. It is known for a distinctive method of assessment involving approximately 120 jurors working individually, with marks averaged and reviewed, an overall aim being to strongly avoid 'groupthink' or juror influencing. The organisation believes this gives all entrants a more equal chance of unbiased assessment, says the awards.

The Cresta Awards concludes that it is currently finalising its complete jury, whose remit in 2025 will include a special category for AI. It is currently closing its mid-season rates, of which the deadline is Friday, 6 June, and will then move into its final phase of entries, due to close Sunday, 20 July.

For more information, visit www.crestaawards.com. You can also follow The Cresta International Advertising Awards on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or on Instagram.

*Image courtesy of contributor