Simona Simon, Group Creative Director at McCann PR will represent Romania in the Cannes Lions Public Relations jury in 2019 and will evaluate the shortlist entries.

Dorian Ilie – RogalskiDamaschin and Andrei Cohn – Cohn & Jansen where also among the nominees. Both agencies won Gold Lions in the past.

With an art education and a strategy expertise acquired over the years, Simona coordinates creatively the FMCG’s account, contributing to the development of local communication campaigns for Coca-Cola, Strausss Group, Coca Cola HBC, CCC Shoes or Carrefour. As a former Senior Copywriter, she has developed online communication strategies and she was involved into developing websites and mobile applications for international and local brands such as Anchor Group, Hyundai Romania, Nestle Infant Nutrition, Unilever, Tiriac Holdings, Unicef, The British Council or the Venice Biennale Romanian pavilion.

Agency of the Year (2018 / Biz Awards); Golden Excellence Awards & Silver Excellence Awards (2018 & 2017 / Romanian PR Awards); Creativity in PR (2017 / Biz Awards); The Agency of the Year (2017 / Romanian PR Awards & Biz Awards) are just some of the awards won over the years, alongside the McCann Professional Communication team.

“Almost a decade ago, as a winner of The Alternative School for Creative Thinking competitions, Simona qualified for the Cannes Lions experience, which inspired her, helped her to set clear standards and motivated her to aim higher. In 2019, her talent and results placed her in the jury position, evaluating the shortlist entries for the PR Lions,” said Teodora Migdalovici, the ambassador of the festival in Romania and the founder of The Alternative School.

An Arts graduate, Simona has a solar personality and is an experimentalist by definition. She learned to drive trucks when she was 18-years-old, then discovered parachuting, archery, airsoft and military simulations games. She followed the course “Training for journaliststransmitting from conflict zones”, organized by the Ministry of National Defense, where she trained with the Special Forces troops.

The intersections withdisciplines that are not necessarily related with her gender, allowed her to access another way to approach and evaluate every situation. Simona is passionate about documentaries and research, while “the extra mile” attitude always motivates her. She has a passion for graphics, glassware, up-cycling design and she is specialized in first aid techniques.

In 2019, Romania had three other jurors to evaluate the shortlist entries in other categories of the festival – Brand Experience & Activation (Andrei Cohn / Cohn & Jansen), Media (Irina Stoleru – Publicis) and Direct (IoanaZanfir – CentradeCheil).