LONDON, UK // Chaka Sobhani is President and CCO of DDB Worldwide.

Before joining the ad industry, Chaka spent over a decade as an award winning film-maker and in television.

She set up ITV’s first in-house creative agency, during which time the network regained the no.1 position in the UK, created its most successful global formats and content in shows like the X Factor and Downton Abbey, and won the prestigious Channel of the Year for the first time as well as numerous BAFTA’s, Golden Globes and the prestigious Rose D’Or.

Chaka then spent a number of years at leading independent agency Mother, running a number of key accounts and building their content capability, before joining Leo Burnett.

She has worked on countless brands including McDonalds, Coca Cola, Google, Kelloggs, Samsung, Boots, Skoda, AXA, Co-op, Tui, Premier Inn, Sky, P&G, General Motors, Stella Artois, National Lottery, Agent Provocateur, The Design Museum and Adidas.

Highly awarded amongst all the major honours, she has been privileged to serve as jury member and President numerous times at the world’s greatest awards shows including Cannes, D&AD, One Show, the Andy’s, Art Directors Club, Eurobest, Clios, LIA’s, the IPA, the Creative Circle and the British Arrows.

She was named Campaign’s Creative Leader 2022, and has featured in Campaigns Top 10 Creative Leaders consistently for the past 5 years, as well as Adweeks Creative 100.

During her tenure, Leo Burnett London has won Campaign Agency of the Year 2022, and Leo Burnett Worldwide has been named Network of the Year at Clios, ADC, Dubai Lynx and Spikes, with Leo Burnett Chicago named Agency of the Year 2022 at One Show, D&AD and the Clios. Leo Burnett India were also named Indian Agency of the Year 2022 at Cannes, D&AD and Spikes, with Leo Burnett Middle East winning Most Effective Global Agency at the Effies and Agency of the Year for Dubai at Dubia Lynx in the same year.

Chaka is also a regular speaker at Cannes, AdWeek, D&AD, the One Show Exec Summit, Creative Circle, IPA, Creative Equals, Meta’s Internationals Women’s Day Festival and numerous Podcasts.

Chaka sits on the External Affairs Committee for the Design Museum as well as on the board of D&AD, The One Club International Board, the British Arrows, Creative Circle and Facebook EMEA Creative Council, Snapchat Global Creative Council and WARC Advisory Board.