The two big themes of our November issue of OMMA, mobile and video, came together in, of all places, André Balazs's The Standard in Manhattan in the shadow of the High Line. The NYC Wine and Food Festival had taken over half the Meatpacking District for the weekend, putting the focus back on actual meat, for at least a little while. (Don't worry, though, a week later the sort of prime USDA stuffed into too-tight mini-skirts and sequined tops once again prowled the cobblestones, teetering dangerously on stilettos.)

A charge (his word) often leveled at Simon Waterfall is that he is a renaissance man, but he shrugs that off. The word creative may suit him best, no matter what sphere we are talking about; from his work at Poke, the agency he cofounded (and recently announced he would be leaving), to Social Suicide, the fashion line the dapper Waterfall designs with Matthew Grey.

"Obviously, I'm a very ambitious person," says Jens Karlsson. "I like to get my creative vision through." At just 30 years old, that ambition has served him well. Your Majesty, the company he started in 2007, after serving as creative director at Big Spaceship, is growing in stature, if not size.

Since coming over from jtw in late 2007, Colleen DeCourcy has quickly distinguished herself at tbwa as a leading innovator and collaborator. With ample accomplishments to choose from as the agency's chief digital officer, DeCourcy cites her partnership with Omnicom sibling shop 180 to win Adidas' $40 million global digital account, and create Riot - a collective of digital creatives, project managers and planners. "It was a labor of love," she says of the undertaking. "It was a bet backed by hard, hard work and it paid off."

Having grown up in the business as a second-generation creative, Stephen Gates is showing all he can do as creative director of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. This past year, Gates oversaw the launch of two beautifully designed sites, LuxuryCollection.com and Westin.com, both of which built on a foundational user experience that brought the brands' core values to life.

A lot of people know Tim Ellis is Volkswagen's vp marketing, but most don't know he used to be a stage actor. For what it's worth - and I'm sure Ellis will concur - acting is about risk, and actors are willing to risk a lot to make a character come to life. Volkswagen's willingness to take risks since Ellis came on board in late 2007 is certainly reflected in campaigns both traditional and digital.

An iconic American brand with a multibillion-dollar business built on a secret formula isn't easily given to risk-taking. (Remember New Coke?) But at the Coca-Cola Company, Tom Daly has helped nudge the beverage giant into the digital and mobile future. From seizing on the YouTube sensation of the "Diet Coke-Mentos Experiments" to letting a pair of fans build its Facebook page, the company has loosened up during Daly's tenure.

Like many agency media executives, Amanda Richman began her career in the traditional agency business, before the great unbundling that cleaved media and creative into separate types of agencies, back when the word digital was more likely to be used in reference to watches than widgets.

Digital media may be known for its measurement capabilities, but for Rob Norman, CEO of GroupM Interaction, his entry into the digital world came about through some serendipity in 1993. "I was literally in the tube," recalls Norman, a native Brit. "And I was in a 'what's going to happen next?' phase of my career."

Renny Gleeson's resume doesn't read like the typical CV of someone with a strategic position at a major agency, but, on the other hand, as disciplines like strategy, media and creative merge - particularly in digital - Gleeson's myriad experiences may become more commonplace in the agency world.