Ilinca Barsan is a Director of Data Science at VML, where she leads the data practice for the Creative Data Group. Ilinca was born in Romania, grew up in Germany, and studied in the UK, where she fell in love with programming and data science during her MSc in Social Science of the Internet at the Oxford Internet Institute. Ilinca has been with WPP since 2016, when she was selected for the WPP Fellowship, WPP’s three-year multidisciplinary, international management training program. After rotations in London, Singapore, and NYC, she joined VML (formerly Wunderman Thompson) at the end of 2019. Most recently, her work has been awarded the inaugural Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Creative B2B in 2022, and the Cannes Lions Grand Prix in Creative Commerce in 2023. Ilinca has a passion for creative side projects, storytelling with data, and that sweet spot where code and creativity collide.