Crowbar Festival 2013 appoints Ali Shabaz CCO Grey Singapore as chairman & jury president and Deng YingZhi art director at Grey as co-chair

Crowbar Festival 2013 has appointed Ali Shabaz (pictured left), Chief Creative Officer, Grey Singapore, Indonesia as Chairman and Jury President, and Deng YingZhi, Art Director, Grey Singapore as Co-Chair.

Shabaz’s career spans over twenty years across three markets India, Middle East and Singapore. He has worked on various big brands that include Visa, HSBC, Sunsilk, KFC, FedEx, ICI Paints, Qatar Airways, Pizza Hut, SilkAir and Glaxo Smith Kline.

Under his leadership since 2010, Grey Singapore has won every international creative award and earned itself the number two spot in the creative rankings in Singapore.

A slew of awards – 14 Cannes Lions, Effies, Silver nominations at D&AD, One Show Pencils, Clios, Grand Prix at Media Spikes, Grand Prix at Ink Awards – have placed him firmly among the top creative leaders in Asia.

Shabaz has been ranked among the 10 “hottest” creative people in Asia by Campaign Brief and one of the top 10 ECD’s in the region. He has been honoured “Advertising Professional of the Year” by Institute of Advertising Singapore (IAS) and has been voted one of the “Most Influential Creative Directors” in Singapore by IAS every year, since 2007.

“It’s an honour to be the Chairman for the Crowbar Awards. Ever since it began the Crowbar has helped discover some of the hottest young creative talent in Singapore. I look forward to seeing more amazing work this year,” Shabaz said.

Yingzhi (left) had her first tryst with advertising at Ogilvy Singapore and that’s where she grew over the next 4 years working on brands like Coke, Huggies, Economist, Getty Images, Prudential, GE Money and Health Promotion Board.

Two years ago, she joined Grey Singapore, focusing more on digital work for clients like Panadol, Qatar Airways, ESPN and KFC. She is a Crowbar alumnus who had her first taste of fame as a student in 2006.