LIA Global President

Barbara Levy is maverick. She challenged the status quo when women were still lamenting the glass ceiling.

It began in 1986, the same year The Guardian newspaper ran one of the most influential ads in UK history. Their “Points of View” TVC was a dramatic reminder to see things from different angles. It was also the year that Barbara Levy, left her job at the CLIO Awards, left New York and crossed the Atlantic to start London International Awards.

Like the commercial “Points of View”, there were different perspectives to her move. Many thought it was a reckless venture. To Barbara, it was the beginning of a world of opportunity – to take on the challenge and become the first woman to start an international awards show. After all, as the Chinese adage goes, “You can’t catch a cub without entering the tiger’s den.” Barbara’s determination, resilience and indomitable spirit has made London International Awards (LIA) what it is today – one of five top international awards in the world to be part of the WARC Creative 100, the globally recognized benchmark for creative excellence.

Barbara Levy is a mastermind. LIA is the first awards show to demystify judging. Before the inception of Creative LIAisons in 2012, no judging room was open to observers. Barbara. a firm believer that “jade requires polishing to turn into a gem”, threw the judging room doors open and allowed young creatives to sit in, observe and, most importantly, learn from being in those rooms.

That’s why she created Creative LIAisons - a fully-funded creative coaching academy to nurture talent between the ages of 21-30 through sitting in judging rooms, curated master classes, seminars and workshops; through meeting and connecting with their peers and with top creative people in the industry from all over the world. All done during judging in Las Vegas. At no cost to attendees or their employers.

The Program was expanded in 2021 to include the LIAisons Virtual Global Coaching Program. This was designed to give each participant the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for world-class mentorship and coaching with three different top creative industry leaders.

Barbara Levy is a mover and shaker. She loves nothing more than pushing the creative bar higher. She believes that the best creativity in the world needs to have a platform to showcase excellence in order to inspire others, which inadvertently helps creative communities flourish.

In 2017, to honor, celebrate and award work from the Chinese creative community, LIA Chinese Creativity was born. This is the only show where all work must be conceived, written and released in Chinese, This levels the playing ground for all Chinese work. It is a show for the Chinese, in Chinese and judged by Chinese-speaking judges. It stands tall with other global awards show and the winners are included in the Campaign Brief Asia rankings.

Barbara Levy never rests on her laurels. She is never complacent. She is never one to be fettered by constraints, real or perceived. To her, it doesn’t matter if you move one foot or five feet, as long as you keep moving forward.

From Barbara’s point of view,“it is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life story will develop.”