Ilona has 23 years of experience in the industry. She has been with Leo Burnett for 17 of those years, working at three of the most successful offices in the agency’s global network: Melbourne, Sydney and Toronto.

Ilona started her career client-side with Mattel and then Honda Australia. Prior to her current role as Head of Planning with Leo Burnett in Melbourne, she was a senior planner with BBDO/Clemenger and Head of Strategy at MindShare. She has extensive experience in financial services, automotive and FMCG and has worked on powerhouse brands, including NAB, Colonial First State, Procter & Gamble, Mars, General Mills and Honda.

Ilona leads a team of diverse planning and strategic specialists at Leo Burnett Melbourne – leveraging hard and soft intelligence to create connected business, brand, digital, media and social strategies for the agency’s clients. Under her stewardship, the focus of the agency is on creating Humankind™ ideas that are compelling, drive behavioural outcomes and deliver strong business results.

Ilona is an advocate for effectiveness awards and is proud of the agency’s record, consistently receiving recognition for a wide variety of work at the most esteemed effectiveness shows: Cannes, Australian Effies, Asia Pac Effies, AME, APMA, WARC Awards and 4A’s Jay Chiat Awards. She has been a regular judge at the AME’s, Australian Effies and the Asia Pac Effies.