Acadia CEO Jared Belsky returned high-six-figure rebates to 53 clients in February and gave up nearly $3 million in potential profit by rejecting principal-based media buying — one of the concrete commercial decisions behind ADWEEK's 2026 Agents of Change awards, presented by Empower.

The annual program, run in partnership with Empower — the industry platform created by Propeller Group and WACL — recognizes leaders across marketing, media, advertising and tech who combine commercial excellence with what the award calls "a commitment to creating a more responsible and forward-thinking industry."

Who made the 2026 list?

The honorees span agencies, brands, adtech and media companies:

• Rachel Apirian grew The Female Quotient community from 18,000 members to 8 million since 2018, building a media company generating 3 billion organic social impressions and branded content for over 200 companies annually.
• Talia Arnold leads Exverus, now part of Brainlabs, where leadership is over 70% women and people of color, with three months of paid family leave and unlimited PTO.
• Ellie Bamford, chief strategy officer at VML, raised strategy group billability from 68% to 98% and drove nearly $200 million in new business revenue in two years across a 600-person team managing $1.2 billion in business.
• Paris Hilton, through 11:11 Media, backed advocacy that helped pass the federal Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act and 16 state laws protecting more than 15 million children.
• Ellen Hyslop co-founded The Gist in 2018; the women's sports platform now engages more than 40 million fans monthly, with revenue up 100% year-over-year in 2025.

What does the list reveal about agency economics?

Several honorees attacked opaque industry practices directly. Belsky launched SayNoToPrincipalMediaBuying.com and ItsYourRebate.com, partnered with the ANA on procurement education, and still added 30 clients in 2026 with an 80% pitch-win rate.

Rebecca McKinlay led a management buyout of Oystercatchers that fueled a 50% increase in its client pipeline, and she is pressing ISBA for greater transparency around conflicts and compensation. Joe Maglio, McKinney's CEO since 2018, grew revenue 3.7x, built McKinney Health from zero to eight figures, and launched the five-agency Cheil consortium that posted 30% first-year growth.

On the brand side, Patricia Pieretti consolidated Culligan's portfolio from 87 brands to 18, shifted North American upper-funnel media spend from 8.3% in 2023 to 30% by 2025, and lifted total awareness from 66% to 71% by 2026.

How are the honorees changing who gets hired?

Representation outcomes feature heavily in the citations. Alan Brown co-created Project Violet and Come Out to Work at DNA&Stone, where 92% of 2025 new hires identified as women, BIPOC or LGBTQ+. Bernice Chao's Asians in Advertising has grown past 9,000 members, with 690 mentorship pairings and 75 leadership-program graduates.

Jean Freeman and Christy Hiler co-founded Own It in 2022; women-owned agencies have since grown from less than 1% of the industry to 4% in 2026, with a database of more than 1,000 agencies. Dinah Williams' BRiM program has connected more than 200 senior sponsors and sponsees since October 2024 across WPP Media, Publicis and Omnicom Media Group.

Amy White led Adobe's Digital Academy expansion, committing more than $100 million and reaching 1.7 million learners across 163 countries. Celeste Durve's Viper has built a 340-person W-2 workforce delivering experiential work for Google, Amazon, e.l.f. Cosmetics and HBO.

What role does sustainability and accessibility play?

Ben Skinazi guided Equativ's growth to tripling its size in three years and helped scale GreenPMPs, adopted by over 14,000 brands, cutting campaign emissions by 25% while improving viewability by 10% and CTR by 175%.

Michelle Yeadon drove the ISBA Ad Accessibility Network from a baseline where only 17% of global advertising had any accessibility features; ISBA member brand ads with subtitles have risen from 51% to 70% since the 2025 launch. Josh Loebner, the first person to earn a PhD focused on advertising, disability and accessibility, won silver and bronze Lions for Tennessee Sound Sites.

What about AI and wellbeing?

Jen Passaniti developed Digit at Highdive, a tool that trains custom models only on approved brand footage and cuts production timelines by up to 50%; she also brokered a SAG-Aftra AI partnership protecting voice talent. David Mesfin's Refacing the Future, launched in 2025 after generative AI misrepresented Black surfers in his documentary research, now spans over 22 agency partners and 100,000 original media assets across seven major AI platforms.

Emma Harris turned a cardiac arrest into an industry critique: her SlowTheF*ckDown programs have reached more than 200,000 people on four continents, working with BT, Bupa, easyJet and Virgin. Her advice condenses the ethos running through the entire list: "Busy is not a strategy."

With winners spanning adtech founders, CMOs, nonprofit leaders and a media mogul, the 2026 cohort signals that the trade's definition of leadership now runs through retention rates, rebate transparency and pay-gap legislation as much as through campaign craft.