This year marks our eighth annual Innovator 25 class in EMEA. Once again, this year’s list features remarkable innovators who are addressing the industry’s challenges with ingenuity and creativity to make meaningful (and hopefully lasting) change at time when it's needed more than ever. The tumultuous past 30 months have forced the industry to embrace change and continue to reimagine the future of work and communications. 

Many of the innovators on the 2022 list are leading the way – often vocally – on breaking down barriers and moving beyond talk to action on all aspects of diversity, equity and inclusion, both within the communications world and in wider society. The EMEA cohort also includes pioneers of new agency holding company models, as well as those producing inspiring, groundbreaking creative work, and individuals focusing on evolving areas such as ESG, digital, and countering misinformation. This year, we celebrate professionals who are innovating within traditional organisations, and those who are leading the way in communications for new industry areas and categories, from space communications to citizen campaigning.  

As in the past two years, 56% of our innovators for 2022 are women, and the list is again diverse, with nearly half (48%) being people of colour, including 24% who are Black. Most (60%) of the cohort come from an agency background, 24% are in-house practitioners, and 16% are from other organisations. 

On the EMEA list we once again feature one communications innovator from the region who isn’t, in fact, a comms professional. This year, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stood out for his exceptional, era-defining communications skills, leadership and resilience in the face of the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy follows English football manager Gareth Southgate, campaigner and footballer Marcus Rashford and environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg in our archive of communications innovators from outside the PR world.  

Given the continuing Russian invasion, it’s only fitting that Zelenskyy is one of two Ukrainians in the Innovator 25 for 2022: he is joined by Nataliya Popovych, the extraordinary founder of agency One Philosophy and co-chair of the Ukraine Communications Support Network. 

There are 13 Brits in EMEA list this year: unsurprisingly, the highest proportion of the class are based in the dense UK market, with other markets represented including the UAE, South Africa, Germany, Nigeria, Sweden, Ireland and Poland.  Each of the Innovator 25 profiles explores their views towards the state of industry innovation, while also providing unique insight into the habits and learnings that drive our class of innovators.  

You can read full profiles of this year's Innovator 25, including their Q&As on innovation, by clicking on the individuals’ names in the right-hand column. Other insights and trends from this year's innovators can be seen in the infographics below, including the organisations they come from, their collective take on the PR industry's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to innovation, and more.