Our Culture.

Derek Rider

Derek is an award-winning executive and serial entrepreneur. Starting as a journalist for CTV and BNN early in his career, Derek went on to found an advertising agency and co-founded the digital video agency now known as Media One Creative.

He is the recipient of Canada’s 30 Under 30 for Marketing (2016), the winner of Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada (2015) and the winner of the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s Business Excellence Awards for 30 Under 30 (2014).

As one of Canada’s leading young entrepreneurs, Derek has led the agency to win the Canadian and global business for some of the world’s largest brands, including: Bell, Budweiser, EY, GE, Nike, Mark’s, SAP, Salesforce, Xerox, among others. He spends most of his time growing the business in Canada and the USA and ensuring Media One Creative is geared up for the future of marketing.

Derek is passionate about entrepreneurship, travel, video games and, most of all, his family. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Stephanie and their son, Theodore.

Corey Peck

Corey is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Media One Creative. Since 2010, Corey has grown Media One Creative’s team from 2 to almost 200 and has been recognized by the Toronto Region Board of Trade with a Business Excellence Award for both Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year and Top Under 30.

Corey is also an award winning Executive Producer and has led over 400 video projects for the world’s most recognizable brands such as Nike, SAP, OLG, EY, CGI, Tim Hortons, MLSE, BMO, Scotiabank, Xerox, YMCA, and many others.

Corey is passionate about creating great content across multiple art forms and spends his time away from the office with his wife and two daughters. On the weekends, you can find Corey beside his Offset Smoker in his backyard on a never ending quest to become a Barbecue Pit Master.

Sharon Rider

With over 30 years of progressive responsibilities in the banking sector, Sharon provides strategic financial direction to Media One Creative Inc.

Sharon is a passionate member of the executive team and she has made a significant contribution to Media One Creative’s video campaign for raising awareness of Hepatitis C for the Canadian Liver Foundation.

Sharon enjoys being with her family, travelling, fine dining and working on her flower garden.

Aine Corby

Aine is a Producer at Media One Creative with over 8 years of project and production experience in both media and live events.

Aine has toured the world with numerous international performers, including Andrea Bocelli, Dead Can Dance and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twin. She has coordinated events in over 80 cities worldwide.

What originally was a working holiday from Ireland in 2013 grew into a life here in Toronto that Aine loves and still continues to love 4 years later.

Aine is passionate about travelling, trying new food, live music and getting outdoors, exploring all Toronto has to offer.

Kelly Formela

Kelly is a classically trained sales leader with over 18 years of direct sales experience with roles at Xerox, Demand Metric, Buchanan Group, NRS Media and now leading the Sales & Marketing team here at Media One Creative.

Kelly has been in Advertising and TV/Video Production for over 10 years and most recently lead the North American business division of Buchanan Group, the makers of “Brand Power” and “Medifacts”. This role saw Kelly launch the business in to LATAM as well as travel overseas for secondment in London, UK where he grew the business by over 700% thus earning him Employee Of The Year in 2013.

Kelly has worked with virtually all of the CPG/FMCG giants including J&J, GSK, Reckitt Benckiser, General Mills and P&G to name a few.

If you visit Kelly’s home in Burlington you will find in his “man cave” with a stellar fine Bourbon collection, a shrine to Wendell Clarke and a “fan boy” type collection of Star Wars and Spiderman collectibles. The lights of his life are his two British beauties – his wife Tara and daughter Lily.

Alex Furrer

As ECD at Media One Creative, Alex leads the creative practice and works closely with the production team. She’s strategically minded with a focus on brand storytelling. She’s led creative teams for 9 years, including being CCO at OgilvyOne Toronto. And she’s been in the industry for over 17 years, starting as a copywriter. Prior to advertising, she was a reporter with the Toronto Star where her passion for storytelling and asking questions to get to the heart of an issue began.

Starting in digital, Alex created content from the outset of her career from short social pieces to brand films to experiential stunts that turned into shareable content. Her integrated experience comes from agencies like Wunderman, McCann, TAXI and Match MG. Her sector experience includes CPG, Financial, Automotive, Retail, Telecommunications and QSR. This experience has led her to be a national and international awards show judge and to have over 70+ awards.

Shelley Waterhouse

Shelley is an integrated marketing leader with over 20 years of international experience in client services. She has worked at several of the world’s largest advertising and digital agencies such as BBDO, J Walter Thompson, Wunderman and DDB, using her expertise to help clients with their business growth, and oversee client success and end-to-end delivery of CX programs across brand, digital and CRM. She also recently spent 8 years in South Africa where she launched and led OgilvyOne South Africa as Deputy Managing Director.

Her diverse experience spans several categories across global markets including telecommunications and cellular, financial services, hotel, automotive, pharmaceutical, government sectors and more. 

She is an awards judge for the Canadian Marketing Association and South African Assegai Awards, and has been a speaker at various industry events including ‘the Knowledge Leader in eCRM, and Direct Marketing’ at the ‘Knowledge Executive C-Level Round Table’. Shelley joined Media One in March 2020 to provide senior oversight on all client relationships, services and deliverables.

Muhammad M. Khan

“Muhammad is a seasoned finance leader with over 20 years of progressive experience in finance and accounting. For last 15 years, he had a particular focus on entrepreneurial entities with exponential growth strategies. His ability to conceptualize out of the box strategic financial and operational solutions and perform under immense pressure and fast paced environments has played a pivotal role in achieving phenomenal growth targets for various organizations.

He has been on award winning teams of one of largest IPOs, investments and Equity raising deals, while partnering with few of the largest banking and non-banking financial institutions globally. Citibank, Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC to name a few.

Muhammad’s expertise for finance, budgeting, planning, forecasting, treasury management and leading operational efficiency initiatives has enabled several small to medium size organizations across manufacturing and service industries in increasing profitability, being competitive and achieve their long-term vision.

In his leisure time, he loves to play badminton, chess and do barbeque with his family.

Rakush Sarkari

Rakush is a Producer at Media One Creative. Born in India, Rakush moved to Canada in 2001, and over the years he has developed a penchant for immersing himself in new cultures, environments and challenges.

After graduating from the Broadcast – Television Program at Seneca College in 2015, Rakush joined Juice Worldwide as a Project Coordinator and worked with renowned studios such as Miramax, HBO, Entertainment One and others.

Abbi Morrison

Abbi is a a video editor at Media One Creative. She discovered her passion experimenting with video at an early age.

Abbi has since translated that passion into a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Industries from Ryerson University. She began her professional career as a video editor for advertising agency Buchanan Group working with major brands through the agency’s Brand Power and Medifacts platforms.

Shelley Vaz

Shelley is a Jr. Art Director within Media One’s Creative team.

She comes from a Digital Media and Marketing background. While completing her undergraduate degree at Ryerson’s RTA Media Production program, she concentrated in Digital Media and minored in Marketing. During this time, she grew her skill set in Web Design, Graphic Design, Motion Graphics and Video Editing. This led her to start her professional career as a Multimedia Designer. Starting at Media One as a Content Specialist, Shelley has had the opportunity to work with brands such as World Vision, Telefilm and CES.

Amy McDowell

Amy has over 15+ years of experience in corporate marketing, events and communications on both the client and agency side. She has worked with organizations of all sizes including Samsung, BlackBerry, Intel, EY, Shopify and Vidyard.

Carter Pinkowski

Carter is a video editor on Media One Creative’s in-house post-production team. A lifelong Toronto resident, Carter graduated from Ryerson University’s RTA School of Media in 2018, receiving his undergraduate degree in Media Production with a specialization in Video Production.

Ben Del Vasto

Ben graduated from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University with a BFA in Film Studies and a Minor in Theology, in 2018.  He has also supplemented his education with a certificate in Project Management and Post-Graduate Diploma in Filmmaking – both from Sheridan College.  While at school he produced and wrote multiple festival accepted documentary shorts.  In is own time he has also directed and produced four narrative shorts, with his latest Separated at Code to be released the summer of 2020.

His love for all things movies has led him to a career in the media industry, and he is happy to have found a team at Media One that shares the same passion and drive.  He continues to write in his spare time and collaborate with friends.

Nisha Sanyal

Nisha Sanyal is the Executive Assistant to the CEO. She’s previously worked as an Executive Assistant as well as a Project Coordinator. She graduated with a degree in political science. She holds  a post graduate diploma in Human Resources. She’s tech savvy and always looking to learn new software skills.

Kelly Sajda

Kelly comes from an operations management background in skincare, fashion and most recently, interior design. Kelly appreciates brands with a story to tell and believes that good aesthetics, visuals, and a strong message, help strengthen the vision of the brand. Kelly holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Marketing from Ryerson University and is also a singer who is passionate about music, fashion, visual arts and travelling.