The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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Lists

Digerati: The 100 top people in the UK digital industry

The Digerati is The Drum’s annual celebration of 100 outstanding individuals excelling in the UK digital industry. Based on nominations from our readers and curated by our editorial team, the list spotlights talent from four categories: agencies, brands, adtech & martech and media & platforms. In tandem with The Drum’s Dadi Awards, which reward digital excellence, the Digerati represents our commitment to recognising the top talent driving digital media and marketing forward today.

Agencies

Abbie Walsh
Fjord/Accenture Interactive
Abbie Walsh
managing director
Abbie Walsh is a service design pioneer, former journalist and DJ. At Fjord and Accenture, Walsh oversees Fjord's activities in the UK and Ireland, leading key clients through their digital transformation journeys and fulfilling a global and regional remit to mentor leaders. Within the last year, she and the Fjord London team have moved into a new studio together with Accenture Interactive. Designed in partnership with Studio Jenny Jones, the new space has been designed to enable creativity to thrive, bringing together different partners and clients to create exceptional experiences. This year, she served as a panellist for D&AD New Blood Academy, was a juror at the Cannes Lions on the first ever industry craft jury, and was also a juror for the D&AD Awards 2018.
Ajaz Ahmed
AKQA
Ajaz Ahmed
chief executive officer
Ajaz Ahmed is now in his 18th year as chief executive of AKQA, the innovation powerhouse he founded after dropping out of college aged 21. This summer marked the next step in Ahmed’s vision for the agency as it acquired a majority stake in architecture and interior design practice Universal Design Studio and industrial design consultancy Map Project Office to turn it into a new multidisciplinary design group. From its roots in London, AKQA has grown to today employ around 2,100 professionals in 23 studios across the USA, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Anatoly  Roytman
Accenture Interactive
Anatoly Roytman
EALA head
As head of Europe, Africa and Latin America for Accenture Interactive, and the firm’s global commerce lead, Anatoly Roytman is on a mission to create the agency of the future. During Roytman’s time at Accenture, the company has been joined by businesses like Fjord, Karmarama and Rothco, helping to shape end-to-end capabilities and a more creative-led culture, as well pushing Accenture into new areas of content, media and creativity. The company won its first ever Cannes Lions this year, including a Grand Prix. Before joining Accenture Interactive, Roytman was vice-president of marketing strategy and analysis at Sapient.
David Burgess
Deloitte Digital
David Burgess
director
David Burgess started his career as a design consultant at Reading Room, progressing through the company to become UK chief executive of the business with a team of 110 and a turnover of £9.6m. Burgess sat on the Reading Room group board, which oversaw the international growth of the business and the sale of its UK operations to Idox PLC for £5.6m. Burgess is now a director at Deloitte Digital where he leads teams focusing on large scale digital transformation projects in the public sector. He is focused on projects which deliver value through technical delivery, design thinking and organisational transformation.
David Levin
That Lot
David Levin
creative director
David Levin has had a busy year. In July his social agency That Lot was acquired by Weber Shandwick, allowing the agency to supercharge its offering and ramp up growth. Levin has gone from intern to news writer, freelancer to drummer and from the writer/producer of Facebook entertainment channel to becoming a bespoke social media guru for brands, broadcasters and celebrities. Some of That Lot’s biggest client successes have come this year, as well. Channel 4 and E4 have taken pole position as the most viewed UK broadcasters on Facebook, while the agency helped Jamie Oliver launch a junk food campaign on Instagram which made news around the world. That Lot also produced the world’s first Snapchat spin-off drama. Levin’s got big plans for the future, from social-first, innovative masterplans at That Lot and methods to encourage change around racial discrimination in the industry itself.
Debbie  Vavangas
IBM IX
Debbie Vavangas
UK lead
Debbie Vavangas is an executive partner at IBM, where she leads digital strategy and iX for UK and Ireland, alongside being an executive partner for the Digital@BP and VWG accounts. iX is home to over 700 creatives and since stepping into the role six months ago the practice has grown exceedingly in signings and has unprecedented growth in team morale, size and revenue. Over the last year Vavangas has created a network of innovation hubs for BP that focus on creating experiences that exceed all expectations of the client and its customers. Vavangas has expanded this way of working with Audi VW Group. She's a proud sponsor and pioneer of 'LGBTQ' and 'Women in technology' IBM societies and is a mental health first aider.
Ete Davies
AnalogFolk
Ete Davies
managing director
Appointed as managing director in 2016, Ete Davies has led AnalogFolk towards a period of unprecedented growth and creative excellence. Creative and commercial success has accompanied new business wins across Unilever, Pepsi, Nike, Nando's, BT, Danone and Scotch&Soda. Away from AnalogFolk, Davies is a leading protagonist in driving diversity, inclusion and equality across the creative industries, especially for the BAME community. He was one of the original co-founders of WeAreStripes, is the founder of CultureHeroes and sits on the advisory boards of several other diversity initiatives.
Fiona  Proudler
AmazeRealise
Fiona Proudler
chief executive officer
Fiona Proudler's career spans more than 25 years in the industry. In 2017, Proudler was appointed chief executive officer of fellow Kin + Carta stablemate Amaze and lead the successful integration of the two agencies to form AmazeRealise. Proudler oversaw the winning of critical new brands during the last 12 months including a highly prestigious project in the financial services sector calling upon the collective services of the Kin + Carta group. Under her stewardship, AmazeRealise has launched a bold new positioning and is breaking ground in the US. Proudler founded the Voice of the Client strategic platform to represent the complex experiences of modern clients within a rapidly evolving marketplace.
Guy Weiynk
Publicis
Guy Weiynk
chief executive officer Western Europe
As a member of the Publicis Groupe UK board, Guy Wieynk has led the transformation of Publicis Worldwide UK's 'micro network', consisting of Publicis London, Poke, Arc, August and Baker Street Productions. As part of his European remit, Wieynk has been focused on helping a wider transformation within Publicis Groupe, forging a collaborative approach between Publicis Communications, Publicis Media and Publicis Sapient called Publicis Inside. He also leads the Heineken business globally. Prior to joining Publicis, Wieynk spent 17 years at AKQA.
James Hilton
M&C Saatchi Performance
James Hilton
global chief executive officer & founder
James Hilton is founder and global chief executive officer of M&C Saatchi Performance. Dissatisfied with the lack of quality and marketing knowledge he encountered when looking for a mobile marketing supplier, Hilton made the decision to found his own company Inside Mobile in early 2006. In 2018 the agency repositioned as M&C Saatchi Performance and is now one of the largest global performance marketing agencies. In addition to winning The Drum DADI's 'Digital Agency of the Year' in 2016 and The MOMA's 'Most Effective Mobile Agency' consecutively in 2017 and 2018, Hilton was personally voted the number one influential individual in mobile by industry professionals in 2014 and listed as one of Europe's digital leaders in The Drum Digerati 2017.
James  Harris
Mindshare
James Harris
global chief strategy officer
A true veteran with over 25 years in the advertising and media world, James Harris has been a pioneer of digital advertising from its earliest days. During his career has founded several highly successful media agencies, including the Media Business North, now part of the global media agency network Mediacom and Diffiniti now iProspect. He has recently Joined Mindshare as its global chief strategy officer and prior to that he was chief digital and data officer for Carat, where as a member of the global executive team he helped drive the development of the network's digital capabilities and strategy and helping propel in Carat being ranked the number one agency by Recma a spot it then held consistently.
Joy Bhattacharya
Accenture Interactive
Joy Bhattacharya
UK & Ireland managing director
Joy Bhattacharya leads Accenture Interactive in the UK and Ireland. Bhattacharya has always been interested in innovation and digital transformation, developing an expertise in each. Bhattacharya has made it his mission to create the best customer experiences and improve the way people work and live. Over the past 12 months Accenture Interactive has been laser focused on solving experience-led challenges for clients from Maserati to Radisson. Accenture also broke new ground in launching Programmatic Services for clients. Meanwhile, Bhattacharya oversaw the opening of two new integrated agency spaces in Dublin and London.
Karen Boswell
Adam & Eve/DDB
Karen Boswell
head of innovation
Karen Boswell leads initiatives across all of Adam & Eve/DDB's creative disciplines products and services, and all clients and agency partners. Having instigated a culture of positive disruption, Boswell help teams and clients alike look at things differently; constantly challenging the norm, lifting the bar and creating new rules. Over the last year, Boswell has incubated three consultancies that now operate as up-stream strategic services, including Data and Insight 2.0, Brand Experience and Brand Acceleration. Boswell also founded a tech startup in her spare time - passion project THEI.A, a bespoke neural network that powers real-time personalisation within virtual reality.
Liam Brennan
MediaCom
Liam Brennan
global director of innovation programmes
Liam Brennan is the global director of Innovation Programmes at MediaCom, where he is helping develop transformation agendas with some of MediaCom's largest clients through the use of data, technology and start-ups. The Blink team has helped MediaCom clients uncover new opportunities to deliver business and digital transformation – working on 40 briefs and projects showcasing over 200 technology companies and startups since its inception. Outside MediaCom, Brennan is lead mentor for The Wharton School's Entrepreneurship Capstone Programme, helping students with problem solving, financial and competitive analysis, building pitch decks and storytelling, and a mentor on the Google Launchpad programme - global acceleration program that helps start-ups build and scale.
Lindsay Pattison
WPP
Lindsay Pattison
chief client officer
Lindsay Pattison was last week promoted to chief client officer at WPP after a year serving as the first-ever global chief transformation officer for WPP and its GroupM network. In both these roles, Pattison led the strategy on how to adapt business models and services to better serve clients, and headed programmes focusing on talent and leadership. Previously Pattison was chief executive officer of Maxus Global, with responsibility for 3,000 staff across 55 markets. Pattison is a passionate advocate for business leaders taking meaningful action to improve gender equality. In 2016 she launched 'Walk the Talk', an initiative to help senior Maxus women to overcome the practical, cultural and psychological barriers to achieving their potential. WPP has now adopted this globally and by the end of 2018 nearly 1,500 women will have ‘Walked the Talk’.
Mark Read
WPP
Mark Read
chief executive
Mark Read took on the most high-profile vacancy in agency land in September when he was named Sir Martin Sorrell’s successor as WPP chief executive. Read brings to the post immense digital pedigree having served for 12 years as head of strategy and then chief executive of WPP Digital, and over three years as global chief executive of digital agency network Wunderman, WPP’s largest business. A two-time winner of The Drum’s Digital Individual of the Year award, Read’s first major act as WPP chief executive was to fold creative agency Y&R into digital shop VML, perhaps a sign of things to come during his reign at the top of the world’s biggest marcomms company.
Matt Candy
IBM iX
Matt Candy
global leader
Matt Candy is the global leader for IBM iX, a global professional services organisation that helps clients reinvent their business by design. Candy leads a global team of over 15,000 creators and makers across a studio network of 37 studios, who blend strategy, technology and creativity to tackle every client challenge. He is a frequent public speaker and blogger on the impact of design driving business reinvention, customer experience and digital transformation. In 2017, he was elected onto the Central Council of BIMA, to take up the role as the chair of the BIMA Technology Community and Council.
Mel Edwards
Wunderman
Mel Edwards
chief executive officer EMEA
Mel Edwards was appointed global chief executive of Wunderman in September 2018. A catalyst for business transformation, Edwards is recognized globally as a leader with a proven record of helping marketers anticipate and navigate change. Edwards has been recognized as one of the most influential people in digital marketing and advertising on many occasions. Prior to Wunderman, Edwards served as chief of M&C Saatchi's LIDA.
Michael  Olaye
Dare
Michael Olaye
chief executive officer
Michael Olaye is the chief executive officer of Dare, a digital creative agency with hub offices in London, Bristol and Stockholm. Dare is part of marcomms company Inside Ideas Group. Olaye leads Inside Ideas Group's entire tech vision, responsible for its technical collaboration, industry thought leadership and advanced technology incubations. He's a regular guest speaker and judge, an advisor to tech startups. Olaye has also been honoured in the BIMA 100 and is one of Creativepool's top 100 influencers. Olaye assists at the School of Arts & Communications 2.0, working with up-and-coming industry talent and helps local communities in the London boroughs through the Future First Alumni programme, both as a supporter and guest speaker.
Natalie Cummins
Zenith UK
Natalie Cummins
chief digital officer
In July 2018, Natalie Cummins was promoted to chief executive of Zenith UK after three years as its managing director. She achieved this on a four-day working week and as a lone parent of three children. Over the past year, Cummins – alongside the Zenith leadership team – has continued a two-year run of 100% client retention, maintaining excellent client relationships in the top quartile of the advertising industry. This past year has also seen a growth in client take up of Zenith’s unique data products, including Brand Contribution, which is a personal focus for Cummins.
Nick Farnhill
PublicisLondon/Poke
Nick Farnhill
chief executive
Nick Farnhill is a founding partner and chief executive of Poke and chief executive of Publicis London. His focus is on growing digital communications and experiences for Publicis UK clients that include EE, Huawei, Google, Ted Baker, Heineken, Morrisons, NBC and Garnier. In 2010, Farnhill launched The Lovie Awards to celebrate the wonderful and inspiring things connected by the web's many tentacles. He continues to co-chair the Awards. Farnhill is also an advisory board member of independent film streaming service Mubi and non-executive director for National Citizen Service. Partnering with Hackney Council and Hackney Community College, Farnhill co-founded and launched the Tech City Apprenticeship in 2013. The initiative was developed to specifically help young people meet the skills and employment needs of the growing technology cluster around the Shoreditch and Old Street area.
Nick Baughan
Essence
Nick Baughan
chief executive
Nick Baughan, chief executive officer of Essence, has been pivotal in helping his firm to define the modern agency model, encouraging brands take control of their media while simultaneously enhancing the agency's expertise across the digital spectrum and beyond. Over the past 12 months, Baughan has focused on strengthening his team, enabling Essence to bring best-in-class analytics, strategy and activation across all media and apply it to the world's leading brands. Under Baughan's leadership, Essence has grown 25% while enjoying a 100% retention rate for existing clients. Baughan has overseen teams that delivered world class work for Google across Pixel and Home, welcomed BT and delivered ground-breaking work for marketers who like to lean in..
Nigel Vaz
SapientRazorfish
Nigel Vaz
chief executive officer
Nigel Vaz serves as Publicis Groupe's global lead of digital business transformation and leads the Publicis.Sapient business across the EMEA and APAC regions. He held a variety of leadership positions with Sapient prior to its acquisition by Publicis Groupe and helped to build Sapient into one of the largest digital professional services companies in the UK from a startup in the space of a decade. He went on to lead the Sapient business in EMEA and APAC and its evolution to SapientNitro, as well as playing a key role in the successful integration of Razorfish to create SapientRazorfish within the Publicis.Sapient digital business transformation hub. In his current role, Vaz acts as strategic advisor on complex transformation initiatives for clients including Lloyds Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Carrefour, M&S and Unilever.
Rob Pierre
Jellyfish
Rob Pierre
chief executive officer
Since launching Jellyfish in 2005, Rob Pierre has grown the agency to over 500 people working across Europe, the US, South Africa and Asia Pacific. In the last 12 months alone, Jellyfish has opened four new offices, including one in New York, taking the total number to 11. Agency accolades in the last 12 months include Agency of the Year for Digital Marketing at The Drum Network Awards and at the DADI's, a Drum Search Award for Experian and a top 30 ranking in the Sunday Times International Track 200. Pierre was also recognised as a regional finalist in the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 'Scale Up' category.
Steve King
Publicis Media
Steve King
chief executive officer
As chief executive officer of Publicis Media, Steve King oversees the media hub of Publicis Groupe, one of the largest communications networks in the world. He is responsible for its global agency brands, Starcom, Zenith, Digitas, Spark Foundry, Blue 449, Performics, and Publicis Media Precision, which manages programmatic for more than 125 clients globally. Earlier this year he launched Publicis Media's Commerce practice dedicated to aggregating and scaling Publicis Media's commerce expertise globally to span strategy and acceleration, media and investment, and content and merchandising, working alongside Publicis.Sapient and Publicis Communications to bring together technology, infrastructure, media and creative for an end-to-end commerce offering. In addition, King played a leading role in the creation of Publicis Spine, which fuses together Publicis Groupe's data assets, technology and talent to drive and link marketing and digital business transformation.

Brands

Adam Boita
Pernod Ricard
Adam Boita
head of marketing
Adam Boita started his marketing career at PlayStation EMEA and UK, launching PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation Network. He later joined Pernod Ricard UK to work on lifestyle spirits including Malibu, Havana Club, Beefeater, Plymouth, Monkey 47, Tequila, Jameson and Absolut. In terms of digital transformation, he was responsible for PRUK's first digital hire and initiated its digital strategy roadmap. Most recently he's been focused on transparent data driven media efficiency models with Havas and launched Jameson's first TV ad in seven years across the Sky Media portfolio, including its data-driven products Sky Advance and Sky AdSmart, in addition to YouTube and Teads network buys.
Adrian Cutler
Microsoft
Adrian Cutler
global agency director
Experienced marketer Adrian Cutler counts his greatest achievement of the last 12 months as leading the winning project – WhyCry AI – in Microsoft’s OneWeek UK 2018 Hackathon. For Cutler, WhyCry was more than a passion project; it was borne out of an intense personal experience, when his daughter, Jessica, was taken seriously ill just after turning one. After many hospital visits, it transpired that Jessica’s heart had swollen to the point of pressing on – and suppressing – the nerve that controls her vocal cord. She would cry at night, but not be heard by the baby monitor. Jessica’s distress was only visible through her facial expressions. This problem formed the crux of Cutler’s hackathon concept – if only there was a way to recognise a child’s cry without relying on sound. Using Visual Emotional Detection, based on all the resources within Microsoft, WhyCry sends an alert whenever it detects a child is in real distress. The reaction to WhyCry was so positive the team had developed a working prototype by the end of day one.
Alessandra Di Lorenzo
Lastminute.com
Alessandra Di Lorenzo
chief commercial officer, media & partnerships
Alessandra Di Lorenzo is chief commercial officer of media and partnerships at Lastminute.com, and heads the group’s media business, Travel People. In over a decade in digital marketing, Di Lorenzo has previously held roles at eBay Advertising and Vodafone, with a focus on mobile and data-driven commercial and product development. Passionate about all things tech, Di Lorenzo is also a member of the Board of Trustees for Youth for Technology. Since Travel People's launch in 2016, Di Lorenzo has worked with her team to build out a fully-fledged publisher monetisation capability within Lastminute.com group. Di Lorenzo’s team has since evolved into an in-house marketing solutions agency, offering Lastminute.com and all its partners a modern marketing approach that spans from engagement through to content, social and advanced performance campaigns, all powered by data.
Alexandra Willis
The AELTC Championships Limited
Alexandra Willis
head of communications, content & digital
Alexandra Willis is head of digital, communications and content for the All English Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – better known as one of the best loved brands in sport, Wimbledon. Willis has built on the brand’s reputation by introducing groundbreaking artificial and augmented intelligence technology to The Championships in 2018. AI was used to create the official Wimbledon poster and underpinned a Facebook Messenger chatbot for player alerts, scores and relevant content updates. There were also AI-based auto-generated highlights for use across Wimbledon's digital and social media platforms and for distribution to broadcasters. These innovations yielded a 31% increase in technology media coverage for Wimbledon, and a 10% increase in engagement and viewing consumption across digital. A former journalist, Willis has led Wimbledon's digital strategy since 2012, developing Wimbledon's presence in the industry from scratch to a multi-award-winning portfolio of platforms which service a fanbase of 30 million across digital and social media.
Ali Parsa
Babylon Health
Ali Parsa
founder
Dr Ali Parsa is a British-Iranian healthcare entrepreneur and engineer as well as founder and chief executive of the pioneering artificial intelligence and digital health company, Babylon, whose mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on earth. Parsa was recently named by The Times among its '100 global people to watch'; made the Health Service Journal's list of 'the 100 most influential people in UK healthcare'; and was featured in the Maserati 100 list showcasing great British entrepreneurs who are challenging the established players.
Aman Matharu
PepsiCo
Aman Matharu
beverages digital lead
Aman Matharu leads the beverages digital marketing strategy for PepsiCo's western Europe region in addition to Pepsi's global football campaigns. With over 15 years of experience across automotive, consumer electronics and FMCG, Matharu has been central to the success of its global brands by helping make sense of media and content in a digital world while ensuring digital channels work as part of the media mix, delivering real scale, impact and measurable results. Within the last 12 months, Matharu has set a digital strategy for beverage brands. As part of Pepsi Max's Taste Challenge campaign, he piloted an ‘intelligent mass marketing’ approach, creating a hyper-personalised digital campaign which talked to the target audience in a more relevant way than ever before. Matharu also participates in acceleration sessions with partners such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in order to drive a faster digital transformation within the business.
Ben Carter
Just Eat
Ben Carter
UK marketing director
Ben Carter is UK marketing director of one of Just Eat. Carter’s strategy to make the brand famous includes Just Eat’s award-winning sponsorship of The X Factor. Locally he’s reinforced the Just Eat brand presence by ensuring the brand is displayed across 29,000 Restaurant Partners as well as tactical sponsorships, such as the newly launched Edinburgh Cycle scheme - all intended to ensure Just Eat is in every town and city in the UK. Carter’s team has focused on encouraging customers to order more often, growing Just Eat’s app order share over the last 18 months. With a more dynamic market and more demanding consumers than ever, Carter’s focus is on not only on making sure the Just Eat brand is well known but that it becomes the go-to food app.
Corinne  Suchy
Topshop/Topman
Corinne Suchy
global digital director
Corinne Suchy was appointed global digital director for Topshop in July 2016. She currently oversees a team of 80 and sits on the Topshop board. Suchy is responsible for developing direct-to-consumer business through delivering exceptional customer experiences across all of the brand’s digital properties, including digital marketing and social media; CRM and customer analytics; usability engineering and interaction design; front-end development; photography and editorial; merchandising; and omni-channel operations. Her team’s work has been acknowledged by L2, a business intelligence agency, as an industry leader in both the United States and United Kingdom. Prior to joining Topshop, Corinne was Executive Director of Global Ecommerce at Urban Outfitters, based in Philadelphia, USA, and vice-president and editor - online, at Indigo Books & Music based in Toronto, Canada.
Doug Gurr
Amazon
Doug Gurr
country manager UK
Doug Gurr has led Amazon's business in the UK since 2016. He joined Amazon in 2011 and was China Country Manager from 2014 to 2016. Prior to Amazon, he was a senior executive and board member at Walmart’s UK operations, Asda Stores, after founding an internet startup and working as a partner at McKinsey & Co.
Ellie Norman
Formula 1
Ellie Norman
director of marketing & communications
Ellie Norman was named Formula 1's first director of marketing in August 2017 as part of its push to transform itself from a motorsport into a global entertainment brand. She has played an integral role in this process, leading campaigns with digital at their core. Last year, F1’s brand was recognised as the fastest growing in sports on social media with followers up 54.9% across all owned platforms year-on-year. As well as overhauling the F1 brand itself with a new logo reveal, Norman also launched F1 TV, its first ever OTT platform. Prior to F1, she spent five years at Virgin Media where, in 2014, her role as head of advertising was expanded to include leading strategy and implementation of sponsorship across the business.
Emily Somers
McDonald's
Emily Somers
vice-president, marketing
Emily Somers joined the McDonald’s UK leadership team in September 2015 as vice president of marketing and food development. Before that she has had a long-standing working relationship with the company having worked for over a decade at its creative agency Leo Burnett London. During her time at the agency, Somers led the McDonald’s account as the brand experienced a resurgence in trust and awareness, contributing to the company’s current ongoing and prolonged growth in the UK.
Jerry Daykin
Diageo
Jerry Daykin
head of digital media partnerships
Working within Diageo's Centre of Digital Excellence, Jerry Daykin leads the relationship Diageo has with key global media owners. Internal partnership successes have included the Smirnoff and Spotify 'Equalising Music' campaign, and Diageo's wider marketing reframe. At Dmexco last year he took the stage alongside Facebook's Carolyn Everson, while at Cannes this year he represented brand marketers on a senior panel. He's chairing the WARC media awards and Drum Social Purpose Awards, as well as judging the Campaign Tech Awards and Social Buzz Awards. Previously he's led digital teams globally at Carat, and social media for Mondelez across Europe.
Jon Davies
Vodafone
Jon Davies
head of digital
Jon Davies heads up digital for Vodafone in the UK and is responsible for digital experiences across both its consumer and enterprise channels. He’s been central to Vodafone’s digital transformation and is currently establishing a new digital hub in London as a centre of innovation and creative technology. Davies joined Vodafone in early 2015, prior to which he held senior digital transformation roles at Adobe, Orange and Eurostar.
Kate Slater
Unilever
Kate Slater
director of digital engagement
As Unilever’s director of digital engagement, Kate Slater oversees projects that land in more than 100 countries. She led a full reimagining and redesign of Unilever's 48 corporate websites which completed its launch in 2017. This year, she oversaw the creation of Unilever's mould-breaking Take Action Hub – a new way to engage young millennials in what Unilever's brands and partners are doing around sustainability. It inspires the social entrepreneurs of the future to get involved with projects around the UN's sustainable development goals and has won industry-wide praise. Slater, who started her career in TV in 2000, today describes herself as 'being on a mission to make corporate digital activity as bold, powerful and brave as the most exciting brands do. In a sector that's constantly evolving, we're always looking for better ways to tell a vivid story'.
Lara Izlan
Autotrader
Lara Izlan
director of advertising & data solutions
Lara Izlan's extensive experience in digital media includes brands like AOL, Disney, Telegraph, and Auto Trader. In her current role, Izlan is leading the development of advertising and data products, with a team of programmatic, media buying, ad technology, and data science specialists. This year, Izlan's team of analysts received an award for 'Best Use of Data' for an innovative project using first party demand data to challenge long-standing conventions in the automotive industry. This platform is now regularly used by car brands and agencies, forming the basis for better media planning and performance measurement. Izlan is a regular speaker and panelist at advertising technology and digital marketing events. She is an advocate for women and diverse groups in the industry. Izlan is also a volunteer mentor with Bloom UK, an organisation supporting young women in the media and communications industry.
Mark Bullingham
FA
Mark Bullingham
group commercial director
Mark Bullingham oversees all digital departments at the Football Association, including the development of new consumer products and all digital content. It's been a bumper year for Bullingham and his team, in no small part thanks to the England team captivating the nation at the World Cup. Sentiment throughout was positive and the growth in subscriber base during the campaign was huge with 1.2m new fans across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The FA has also had a landmark year in the creation of new digital products, including an app designed to help any amateur player organise their football lives. 'Matchday' automatically tells players their fixture details and allows them to input their availability. Another digital product was created to run events for the FA, giving participants and organisers a better experience and building digital engagement. This project allowed the event organisers to run the FA People's Cup and create 27,000 new data records from players around the country.
Matt Barwell
Britvic
Matt Barwell
chief marketing officer
Matt Barwell is a key member of Britvic’s executive committee responsible for all aspects of the soft drinks company’s global brand strategy and execution, innovation, corporate affairs and sustainability agenda. Over the past 12 months, Barwell has continued to drive forward Britvic's purpose of making everyday moments more enjoyable, overseeing a portfolio of more than 30 brands globally. That includes household names including Robinsons, Purdey's and Fruit Shoot, to super premium adult brands from incubator WiseHead Productions, as well as PepsiCo brands such as Pepsi MAX, 7UP and Mountain Dew which Britvic produces and sells in GB and Ireland under exclusive agreements. Barwell is a fellow of the Marketing Society, a council member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain, and an active member of The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Effectiveness Group and The Ehrenberg Bass Institute.
Nathan Ansell
M&S
Nathan Ansell
marketing director
Nathan Ansell was appointed marketing director of the M&S Clothing & Home business in January 2018, where he has the task of revitalising and growing the M&S brand globally. Previous roles at M&S include director of customer loyalty (responsible for all Loyalty, CRM, customer insight, analytics and data science) and head of brand and marketing for M&S Food where he led a team to deliver 36 consecutive quarters of like-for-like growth under the successful “Adventures in…” integrated campaign, which received many accolades. Ansell has previously held a number of FMCG marketing roles growing brands such as Heinz, Birds Eye and Red Bull.
Nick Beighton
Asos
Nick Beighton
chief executive officer
Nick Beighton is a chartered accountant, who qualified at KPMG and has been chief executive of Asos since 2015. He joined the fashion retailer as chief financial officer in 2009 and took the expanded role of chief operating officer in 2014. Before Asos, Beighton was head of finance at Matalan in 1999, later moving into the role of business change and IT director. He joined the Matalan retail board in 2003. In 2005, he joined the board of Luminar Entertainment Group as finance director, and became a member of the EU e-Commerce Task Force and the Future Fifty Programme Advisory Panel.
Nick Buckley
L'Oreal
Nick Buckley
chief digital officer
Nick Buckley is chief digital officer at L'Oréal UK and Ireland. Buckley is responsible for the digital transformation of the company and ensuring the organisation becomes the most innovative brand in the beauty market. Buckley has previously held senior roles at Sony, Marks & Spencer, and EE.
Nina Bibby
O2
Nina Bibby
chief marketing officer
Nina Bibby is the chief marketing officer at O2 (Telefonica UK), with commercial profit and loss accountability for the consumer and SMB mobile business. She also has responsibility for brand, marketing communications, customer experience, data and analytics, products and sustainability. The past 12 months have seen Bibby lead her team to deliver new and disruptive propositions and continue to drive market leading brand consideration and customer churn levels. Bibby has been challenging traditional ways of working, creating an agency planning hub and agile ways of working within the marketing function. She continues to promote O2's work in the online safety space, through her involvement in the Royal Foundation's Cyber Bullying Taskforce and the company's ongoing partnership with the NSPCC. Bibby is also a non-executive director of Barratt Developments plc, a trustee of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, sits on the council of the Marketing Group of Great Britain and is a fellow of the Marketing Society.
Nuria Tarré
City Group (Man City)
Nuria Tarré
chief marketing officer
Nuria Tarré joined Manchester City owner City Football Group as chief marketing officer in November 2015. Over the past 12 months, a strong part of her focus has been on Manchester City’s fan growth, with City being the fastest growing football club in social media during that period. The club has also enjoyed innovative tie-ups with the likes of Amazon Prime and dating brand Tinder. As well as launching a new kids app, the club continued the evolution of its membership platform, Cityzens, and celebrated its record-breaking 2017/18 season with a global trophy tour. Tarré joined City Football Group after 19 years in the telecommunications, Aviation, tourism & leisure and strategic consulting industries.
Rikesh Shah
TfL
Rikesh Shah
head of commercial innovation
Rikesh Shah is accountable for Transport for London's (TfL) engagement with market innovators including startups, small and medium-sized enterprises, academics, R&D institutes, accelerators, venture capitalists and large corporates. During 2018, several challenges to help harness innovation are taking place, including the Mayor's Civic Innovation Challenge. Previously, Rikesh was responsible for TfL's world leading open data strategy and set up a digital and data partnerships function. TfL's free Unified API provides a wide range of real-time data. As a result of this open data policy, there are nearly 700 apps used by 42 per cent of Londoners with over 14,000 registered users, mainly developers. Shah also is a member of the Smart London Board which is charged helping the Mayor shape his vision and strategy for London's smart city agenda.
Sarah Holt
Lego
Sarah Holt
digital marketing director
Sarah Holt is global marketing director, brand and digital, at Lego Group where she has been tailoring the toy brand's communications towards millennial parents since taking up the reins in 2017. She joined from BBC Worldwide where she was vice president, franchise marketing and digital planning. Highlights from the BBC include a ground-breaking partnership with Twitter, the global launch of new Top Gear, and an April Fool stunt named by BuzzFeed as one of the best April Fools on the internet. She has been described as a "relentless innovator" with an "unbelievable knack for making the impossible happen”.
Theo Blackwell
Mayor of London
Theo Blackwell
chief digital officer
As London's first chief digital officer, Theo Blackwell plays a leading role in realising the mayor's ambition to make London the world's smartest city. Appointed in September 2017, Blackwell developed the Smarter London Together Roadmap of 20 initiatives to improve digital public services through a new emphasis on service design, data, enhanced connectivity, leadership & skills and proposing a new collaborative institution to work with the most innovative councils to scale the best ideas. Blackwell works in the open – progress is measured through an online report card – and he has championed new ways of directly engaging the public, including the 'Your Commute' tool which uses TfL data on passenger journeys to spark discussion around the use of citizen data for civic benefit.

Adtech & Martech

Amy Williams
Good-Loop
Amy Williams
founder & chief executive officer
Amy Williams is one of the co-founders of ethical advertising platform Good-Loop. The agency secures goodwill and engagement from audiences by donating half the money behind ads to a charity of their choice. Williams has taken Good-Loop to some of the biggest agencies and advertisers in the world. She's developed key relationships with global advertisers such as Unilever, Nestle, Universal and Coca-Cola and together they are well on their way towards the Good-Loop goal of using ad money to raise over £5m in free charitable donations by 2020. Williams is also an active member of the Women in Tech and Tech For Good communities and was recently named by Forbes as one of the 30 Under 30 most influential people in media and marketing.
Andrew Morsy
Sizmek
Andrew Morsy
UK managing director
Andrew Morsy is UK managing director of advertising platform Sizmek, with responsibility for all revenue and P&L. Morsy sees himself as a passionate business leader who strives to make complicated technology simple for his customers. Previously, he held roles at Yahoo, Dennis Publishing, Struq and StrikeAd, where he was vice-president sales EMEA prior to the company's acquisition by Sizmek.
Ben Murphy
Quantcast
Ben Murphy
managing director
Ben Murphy is UK managing director at Quantcast. In a year in which industry discussion was dominated by GDPR, Murphy has successfully led Quantcast's UK team and guided its clients through uncertainty for the entire sector. Central to this has been Murphy’s leadership approach and the launch of Quantcast Choice, the company's free consent management platform (CMP) enabling brands and publishers to be GDPR compliant. Murphy leads Quantcast's representation on the IAB UK board, and champions industry issues including diversity, inclusion, and brand safety. Under his leadership, Quantcast has been recognised with the IAB's Gold Standard and received accreditation by JICWEBS. Murphy recently championed a partnership with the Women's Network and invited 25 children to become engineers for the day as part of an annual Coding for Kids event.
Dave Reed
MediaMath
Dave Reed
managing director International
As the managing director of MediaMath’s newly created International Business Unit, Reed is in charge of growing the business across EMEA, LATAM and APAC, developing teams focused on delivering value through MediaMath’s technology. He joined MediaMath in 2009, helping the business develop technical solutions and working with MediaMath’s largest clients to advance their strategic marketing objectives in the US, before moving to London in 2014 to oversee the UK and EMEA business. Prior to joining MediaMath, Reed gained 10 years of experience in digital marketing, e-commerce and software development, creating technology and marketing solutions for Fortune 500 marketers.
Dominic Joseph
Captify Technologies
Dominic Joseph
chief executive officer
Dominic Joseph is the chief executive of Captify, the search intelligence business he co-founded in 2011 which works with the likes of Amazon, American Express and BMW. In the past 12 months, Joseph has been responsible for Captify’s ambitious growth plans, with continued US and EU expansion, growing out its global leadership team and driving new innovations in voice search. He is a frequent public speaker, a keen mentor to other young entrepreneurs and plays a crucial role in Captify’s CSR strategy, launching Captify’s Media Rocks – a major charity event which is set to return next year.
Elli Papadaki
Conde Nast
Elli Papadaki
head of programmatic
Elli Papadaki is head of programmatic at Condé Nast. After spending the bulk of her career during two stints with The Financial Times – selling cross platform solutions across a number of client categories, and later leading the title's programmatic strategy – she later joined Condé Nast International's newly-created commercial hub with the task of leading efforts around simplifying and streamlining programmatic trading across all its titles and markets.
Elsa Bezhani
The Daily Telegraph
Elsa Bezhani
head of digital & programmatic sales
Elsa Bezhani is the joint head of digital and programmatic sales for The Telegraph, leading digital sales transformation. Key projects over the last 12 months have seen her hire and develop a newly created team who focus on driving digital and programmatic led solutions. In addition to budget and P&L ownership, product innovation has been central, and Bezhani has introduced first party data takeovers, newsletters and improved the Telegraph GTM Audio sales proposition. Previously, she worked at AOL, where she managed integrations of key RTB supply partners.
Florian Gramshammer
Impact
Florian Gramshammer
managing director
Florian Gramshammer is managing director EMEA for Impact, a natively-integrated suite of products for fraud detection, marketing attribution and analytics, and creating and optimising performance partnerships. Gramshammer heads up day-to-day management of the commercial and client services teams and is also responsible for the development and execution of Impact's European growth plan. Based in London, he has amassed 17 years of marketing and ad tech leadership experience, holding senior positions in CJ Affiliate by Conversant and Gartner, and most recently serving as managing director of IgnitionOne.
Gavin Stirrat
OpenX
Gavin Stirrat
vice-president Europe, partner services
With almost 20 years of experience in digital advertising, Gavin Stirrat has worked across a range of operational and commercial leadership roles from the early days of display through to the programmatic world we live in today. At OpenX, he looks after Partner Services and Buyer Development teams in EMEA. He represents OpenX on the IAB Board and continues to speak regularly about the importance of trust and quality.
Guilluame Périé
Thomson Reuters
Guilluame Périé
head of programmatic
Guillaume Périé is head of programmatic EMEA at Reuters. In only three years of experience in media, he has played a key role in improving the programmatic proposition of two publishers by leading the automation of various bespoke ad formats, building unique first party data sets and making sure that programmatic guarantees have become the transactional norm in a market challenged by a scarcity of high-value audiences.
Ian Charlesworth
Awin
Ian Charlesworth
country manager
Ian Charlesworth joined Awin from technology analyst Ovum in January 2017. Charlesworth launched new projects within a year of his arrival to help maintain momentum and manage the business’ growth, including agile working methods and new technologies. His approach is characterised by open and honest communication from monthly all-hands gatherings to informal interaction with staff at all levels. Fundamental to his leadership style is a belief that people will enjoy being challenged when in a secure environment where their contribution is recognised.
James Brown
Rubicon Project
James Brown
managing director EMEA
James Brown is the EMEA managing director for Rubicon Project, leading its commercial operations in key markets including the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Nordics and the Middle East. With over 20 years' experience in the industry, Brown is responsible for scaling the business across all digital advertising channels and enabling the buying and selling of all media. In 2018 this has been recognised by the industry, with the company nominated for five industry awards for programmatic excellence (including Best Overall Technology for Programmatic Trading in The Drum's DTAs).
James Marriott
Expedia Group
James Marriott
head of programmatic media
James Marriott is the head of programmatic media at Expedia Group, one of the world's largest travel platforms. In the last 12 months Expedia has taken the step to fully in-housing programmatic, including strategic areas such as data management and analytics. This has involved establishing and scaling a global team across London, Seattle and Singapore delivering programmatic marketing campaigns across 26 markets and five brands including Expedia, eBookers and Travelocity. Prior to joining Expedia Group, Mariott held roles in digital performance at Sky & Wavemaker. Marriott sits on the IAB Europe programmatic trading committee, contributing to the development of industry best practice.
Jana Gökalp
MoPub
Jana Gökalp
head of demand partnerships
As the head of demand partnerships in EMEA, Gökalp and her team focus on growing existing partnerships with programmatic buyers, identifying new business opportunities for MoPub and educating the market on the potential of mobile programmatic in-app advertising. Prior to joining MoPub, Gökalp was the head of global supply at mobile technology provider LiquidM. Previously, she worked at mobile ad network Madvertise, the consulting firm Advanced Marketing Consulting, and SevenOne Media.
John Gillan
Criteo
John Gillan
managing director
John Gillan has been at the helm of Criteo's UK and Northern European operations since 2017. With the aim of building a high-performing, trusted team at the business, he introduced a strategic 'product buddy' initiative to support every account team. This fresh approach is helping the business solve complex problems facing customers in driving wider commercial outcomes and achieving strategic goals. Other initiatives like Criteo Evangelists have proven essential to the company's development and positive affiliation with the very best elements of the industry today.
Jon Mew
IAB UK
Jon Mew
chief executive officer
This year IAB chief Jon Mew has shifted the focus of the organisation away from growth towards building a sustainable future for digital advertising. Under Mew’s stewardship, IAB UK launched the Gold Standard which, in under 12 months, has certified over 100 companies who each commit to reducing ad fraud, increasing brand safety and improving the user experience. Mew is a fierce lobbyist on behalf of the industry, delivering four formal submissions to government in 2018, as well as completing two select committee appearances and an audience with the ICO and Elizabeth Denham.
Mary Keane Dawson
Truth Media
Mary Keane Dawson
chief executive officer
Mary Keane-Dawson is the founder of global blockchain-enabled media agency Truth Agency. Her company aims to provide 100% transparency in the programmatic advertising supply chain. Keane-Dawson is one of the UK's leading voices in advertising and technology and global ambassador to BIMA and Tech London Advocates. She is also the founder of How She Made It, the women's networking franchise. Her career started in 1987 at The Observer, and she's since played a major part in creating an impressive mix of companies, including Redwood Publishing, SPAFAX (WPP), Steak (Dentsu), Reform, Collective London, and Trade Doubler.
Nicolas Bidon
Xaxis
Nicolas Bidon
global chief executive officer
Nicolas Bidon is passionate about enabling companies to leverage data and technology to transform their business and create new opportunities. In his current role as global chief executive officer of Xaxis, he's spearheaded the organisation's repositioning to support brands in their quest for more accountable programmatic advertising and proven results. Bidon joined Xaxis as UK managing director in 2012 from Yahoo, oversaw the integration of Plista into Xaxis in 2016, and was promoted to global chief executive officer in early 2017. He now oversees the company's presence in 47 markets across North America, South America, Europe, and Apac.
Nigel Gilbert
AppNexus
Nigel Gilbert
vice-president of strategic development EMEA
Nigel Gilbert is a leading evangelist for programmatic. At Appnexus, he’s created strategies that have changed the face of digital, from enabling and supporting the largest trading desks within agency groups, fostering and advocating for the strongest independent players in the ecosystem and educating the largest publishers in the world as to the best path forward for their own sustainability. Gilbert has been one of the loudest voices for the sustainability of important digital companies, and has worked tirelessly to keep pushing them forward. Prior to leading Appnexus in Europe, Gilbert was a founding partner of Unanimis, the UK's largest independent digital sales house, responsible for fostering some of the UK's best digital talent.
Paul Gubbins
Unruly
Paul Gubbins
programmatic lead
Paul Gubbins has over 16 years' experience in the advertising sector, with the last nine spent in programmatic. Shortlisted by The Drum in 2017 as one of the most influential people in the digital advertising sector, Gubbins sits on the Captify advisory board, is a mentor at The Programmatic Advisory and is regularly asked to moderate or participate on panels about how automation is changing and disrupting the advertising ecosystem. Gubbins currently resides at News UK-owned video adtech company Unruly, where he leads its programmatic strategy. Gubbins writes for The Drum as a programmatic columnist, discussing all things M&A, data & technology in the digital ad sector. Gubbins' infectious passion and enthusiasm for all things adtech also saw him nominated by Exchange Wire in the adtech personality of the year awards 2017.
Simon Harris
Dentsu Aegis Network
Simon Harris
head of programmatic buying
Simon Harris leads the optimisation teams at the Dentsu Aegis Network in London and has been instrumental in creating a modern and progressive trading operation that is fully integrated into the planning teams within the group. He is a regular contributor to the trade press and a regular speaker at industry panel events, recently including the Index Exchange and Rubicon Project annual summits. Harris has an active and influential social media presence, where he offers insight into the industry from a programmatic trading perspective.
Stephen  Upstone
LoopMe
Stephen Upstone
chief executive officer
Stephen Upstone is chief executive officer and co-founder of LoopMe, a full-stack tech platform with the mission to close the loop on brand advertising. Under his leadership this year LoopMe has introduced new products including PurchaseLoop Sales which uses AI and sales data to optimise purchases. Upstone champions AI, recently appearing on Radio 5Live, Reuters and CNBC to discuss its use cases and benefits in advertising.
Stewart Easterbrook
Medialab/MiQ
Stewart Easterbrook
chairman
Stewart Easterbrook is an advisor to the boards of several companies operating in the fields of media communications, data analytics, technology and mobile communications. He is chairman of MiQ, the leading global analytics technology and programmatic media specialist and chairman of Medialab Group, the award-winning data, digital and media planning agency. He holds an advisory role with video and animation production marketplace Wooshii and sits on the board of the online talent business Instrumental. He is also part of the management team behind the launch of content marketing specialist business Content Inc. Prior to this, Easterbrook was in the Publicis Groupe for 17 years in a number of senior management roles.
Wayne Blodwell
The Programmatic Advisory
Wayne Blodwell
chief executive officer
Wayne Blodwell founded The Programmatic Advisory in 2016. Since then, he has provided global advertisers with media agency reviews, conducted technology audits, helped multi-market advertisers in-house programmatic technologies and operations, ran dedicated training programs and created regular thought leadership for the industry. He also set up and ran an out-of-hours mentorship programme which allowed industry members an opportunity to learn more about programmatic through monthly one-to-one mentoring.
Zuzanna Gierlinska
Spotify
Zuzanna Gierlinska
head of programmatic, Europe
Zuzanna Gierlinska is the EMEA head of programmatic at Spotify. Throughout her career, she’s found herself at the forefront of data-informed, technology enabled advertising, leading digital adoption internally, across clients and the industry through enablement and activation of data, adtech and martech. After stints at Microsoft, BlueKai and Oracle, Gierlinska took on the job of future-proofing Spotify's EMEA advertising business through the roll-out and adoption of a programmatic strategy. Gierlinska is both spokesperson and industry evangelist, as a regular in the press and on the speaking circuit. In 2017 she was recognised as one of the 50 Women in Ad Tech You Should Know at the AdTech Inclusion Summit, and in 2018 was named Digital Trading Leader Of The Year by The Drum.

Media & Platforms

Bruce Daisley
Twitter
Bruce Daisley
vice-president EMEA
Bruce Daisley is Twitter's boss in EMEA. He is also one of the UK's leading workplace culture experts – as host of the #1 business podcast, Eat Sleep Work Repeat, and author of the forthcoming Penguin book The Joy of Work. He has campaigned to reduce the demands of modern work on us and is an advocate of us finding more sustainable ways of working. Prior to Twitter Daisley worked at Google and Bauer Media.
Chris Duncan
News UK
Chris Duncan
managing director
Chris Duncan is the managing director of The Times and The Sunday Times. In July The Times and The Sunday Times reached 500,000 subscribers of which more than half are now digital only, and digital growth was over 20% year on year. He has overseen the recruitment of 4 million registered access users as part of the evolution of the paywall model, and championed the launch of James, the AI powered digital butler that delivers automated content engagement for subscribers.
Claire Valoti
Snapchat
Claire Valoti
vice-president International
Claire Valoti is international vice-president for Snap's business solutions organisation, with responsibility for growing the company's revenues outside of the US. Today, international represents 32% of Snap's global revenue up from 19% a year ago. Valoti established Snap's first office outside of the US in London and has played an influential role in ensuring the company has delivered a localised experience for international markets as it has rapidly scaled globally. Prior to joining Snap, Valoti was head of agency relations at Facebook, media director of Weve and MD of O2 Media Telefonica. She spent eight years at Mindshare as head of digital display & mobile.
Fiona McKinnon
Pangaea Alliance/T1
Fiona McKinnon
general manager
Fiona McKinnon is the general manger of T1, Turner International's new global digital advertising division, as well as The Pangaea Alliance, the digital advertising partnership. McKinnon has led Pangaea, which brings together premium publishers including The Guardian, Reuters, CNN International, Mansueto, The Economist and Dennis Publishing, since 2015. She has taken the Alliance from strength to strength in the last 12 months, overseeing a 65% revenue growth in recent months, introduction of new products and new staff hires. At T1, she was part of the launch of Turner International's global digital advertising division, providing international advertisers with a way to activate global, regional and local campaigns.
Hamish Nicklin
The Guardian
Hamish Nicklin
chief revenue officer
Hamish Nicklin is the chief revenue officer (CRO) of Guardian News and Media Group. He is responsible for driving operational and strategic direction across the media, jobs and Labs businesses and building long-term business relationships with clients and agencies across the globe. As CRO, Nicklin has been a driving force in media collaborations including The Ozone Project with News UK, The Telegraph and Reach, and the Verified Marketplace for outstream video. He has been a leading voice on the topic of transparency in the ad market, shining a light on opacity in the programmatic supply chain through regular investigations, and sharing knowledge and insight with the industry.
Iain Sawbridge
Beano
Iain Sawbridge
chief marketing & digital content officer
As chief marketing and digital content officer of Beano Studios, Iain Sawbridge leads all facets of marketing, comms, growth, insight and digital content for the transformed UK brand – formally a nostalgia-driven comic, now a cross-platform entertainment studio. In the last 12 months Beano.com has consistently been the fastest growing UK kids website, now with 5 million monthly network reach, powering a transformation in Beano brand perception and trust. Growth has been driven by a refreshed approach to insight-driven content creation and digital marketing, using the Beano's proprietary data and insights platform, the Beano Brain.
James Kirkham
Copa90
James Kirkham
chief business officer
James Kirkham is chief business officer at Copa90, the football media brand that enjoyed a successful World Cup in Russia where it amassed 750m views of content in a single month. Kirkham has helped Copa90 create successful football content, strategy and media activations for brands including Uber, Adidas, Pepsi and Puma. It helped Uber activate its Manchester United sponsorship by 'teleporting' Old Trafford to one lucky fan in Bangalore, India. Another key highlight of the year for Kirkham was The Modern Football Fan report he edited which has since been touted as a fundamental piece of research on the behaviours, media and consumption habits of a modern football fan.
James Rushton
Dazn
James Rushton
chief executive officer
Headquartered in the UK, Dazn is a British tech startup that is on a mission to be the world's number one sport broadcaster. James Rushton has overseen the launch of Dazn in Italy and the US. To keep up with the pace of growth Dazn is rapidly expanding its global workforce which already sits at over 1,200. In the past year alone, Dazn has made 750 new hires in the UK and opened a software hub in Amsterdam that will create 300 new jobs. Rushton joined Perform in 2003 and has held multiple senior roles within the Dazn Group family, including managing director of Apac, managing director of Australia and New Zealand and managing director of ePlayer.
Jamie West
Sky Media
Jamie West
deputy managing director
With almost 30 years of TV and online experience, Jamie West now heads-up the team responsible for the development of emerging advertising opportunities across Sky Group. Central to this role was the creation of a suite of products and capabilities that has led Sky to be acknowledged as one of the global leaders in advanced advertising. These products include AdSmart, Sky's addressable advertising capability, Sky Analytics which is powered by Sky's viewing panels and data capability, as well as the cross-screen product Sky Advance. His career path has taken him from ITV to Channel 5 to Viacom Brand Solutions, and now to the world's largest multi-channel sales house, Sky Media.
Kerris Bright
BBC
Kerris Bright
chief customer officer
Kerris Bright is currently chief customer officer for the BBC where she is on a mission to reinvent the corporation for a new generation and is leading its digital transformation. Prior to the BBC, Bright was chief marketing officer for Virgin Media and before that held global CMO posts at British Airways and ICI Paints/AkzoNobel. Bright, who has a PhD in molecular neuroscience, has also held senior marketing and general management roles across a number of Unilever companies.
Marco Bertozzi
Spotify
Marco Bertozzi
vice-president Europe & head of sales Europe & multi-market
After 20 years in the media agency world, Marco Bertozzi joined Spotify in 2016 as vice-president of European sales. 18 months into his tenure, Spotify has gone from being a startup challenger in the advertising industry to a leader in European digital media. Spotify Europe has contributed significantly to the business's global year-on-year performance of 38% growth in Q1. On a personal level, Bertozzi has consistently contributed to the industry through events, conferences, judging and commentary. As a co-founder of Adlondoncalling, supporting WACL, Nabs and Creative Equals as well as being advisory board member of DIMA and London Adtech, Bertozzi has got behind the most important issues in the industry.
Matt Bush
Google UK
Matt Bush
director of agencies
Matt Bush is country sales director at Google where he works with leading advertisers and agencies to help them get the most from the web. He joined in 2010 after previously working in press and digital publishing. He also started his own business that failed, which he considers a badge of honour now but didn't feel like it at the time. Bush is a regular public speaker on many topics around digital, technology and media and how businesses might want to react to benefit from it.
Matt Brittin
Google
Matt Brittin
chief executive officer
Matt Brittin joined Google in 2007 to help build its business in the UK and became managing director of Google UK two years later. In 2011, he was promoted to VP of Northern and Central Europe before taking over as president of business and operations in EMEA in 2014. Brittin is a non-executive director of Sainsbury’s and a Trustee of charity The Media Trust. He has had a long career in media and marketing, joining Google from the newspaper industry, where he led commercial and digital operations at the biggest UK publisher. He previously worked at management consultancy McKinsey.
Nick Hugh
Telegraph
Nick Hugh
chief executive officer
Chief executive officer since June 2017, Nick Hugh has implemented an ambitious new company vision at the newsbrand. The Telegraph has increased its registered users by many millions, ahead of Hugh's ambitious targets. Hugh recruited 39 new journalists and has launched several new channels including Technology Intelligence and a new satellite office in California. The Telegraph's coverage of the Royal Wedding, World Cup and the launch of several specialised newsletters cemented The Telegraph's position, backed by an impressive financial performance. Hugh also oversaw the launch of Project Ozone, a new platform designed to offer brands and advertisers large-scale buys across Britain's largest and most respected newsbrands. Hugh has also effected changes in other areas of the business, becoming the only media chief to pledge to reduce the gender pay gap to zero by 2025, and achieving a reduction of one fifth in just one year. As part of this, Hugh has introduced an Equal Parental Pay policy, giving both new mothers and fathers at The Telegraph an entitlement to 26 weeks full pay for parental leave and becoming one of only a few companies in the UK to offer this. Outside The Telegraph Hugh’s expertise has also seen him appointed as a non-executive director of Esure, where as part of the board he has played an instrumental role in managing the proposed acquisition by Bain Capital.
Nicola  Mendelsohn
Facebook
Nicola Mendelsohn
vice-president EMEA
Nicola Mendelsohn is the vice president for Europe, Middle East, and Africa for Facebook, a role she has held since 2013. She currently serves on The Mayor of London's Business Advisory Board, and in September 2014 she became a non-executive director of Diageo. She and her husband are also co-presidents of the charity Norwood. In 2015, Mendelsohn was awarded a CBE for services to the creative industries in the UK. From 2012-2018, she was the co-chair of the Creative Industries Council alongside Secretaries of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and BEIS – a joint forum between the UK creative industries and government. Prior to joining Facebook she worked in advertising for over 20 years, beginning her career at Bartle Bogle Hegarty then moving to be deputy chairman of Grey London. In 2008, she became partner and executive chairman at Karmarama.
Nishma Robb
Google
Nishma Robb
marketing director
Nishma Robb is marketing director for Google and YouTube’s advertising products in the UK and the ex-chair of Women@Google. Robb is also a non-exec board director and fellow of The Marketing Society. Prior to Google, Robb was at Dentsu UK working across brands such as British Airways and Sky. She was recently listed as Ad Age's Woman to Watch in Europe 2018, and was named the Campaign 2018 A-List.
Philip  Thomas
JC Decaux
Philip Thomas
chief executive officer
Spencer Berwin and Phillip Thomas are driving forward a new digital future for JCDecaux. At a time of significant change in the media and out-of-home industry, they have presided over the introduction of BranDO, a brand-safe charter for digital outdoor, and the launch of an automated digital trading and delivery platform in 2018. Investment in the digital portfolio continued this year with the expansion of the digital Towers UK-wide, the extension of LDN bus shelters into the city of London and the announcement of LDN Drive – a London-wide digital billboard network coming in early 2019.
Ronan Harris
Google
Ronan Harris
managing director
Ronan Harris is managing director of Google UK & Ireland. Prior to this he was VP of Google EMEA and head of Google's operations in Ireland. Since joining Google in 2005 Harris has focused on growing the company’s online advertising sales across EMEA and also launched several other Google products and initiatives in the region. A graduate in electronic engineering at University College Dublin, Harris began his career with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation at its Information Storage Products division in Japan.
Sarah Wood
Unruly
Sarah Wood
co-founder and chair
Sarah Wood is the chair and co-founder of Unruly, the global video advertising marketplace acquired by News Corp in 2015. She currently sits on the boards of FTSE 250 company Superdry plc and Tech Nation, the UK network for ambitious tech entrepreneurs. She is a technology ambassador for London, a member of the London Mayor's Business Advisory Board and an ambassador for The Prince's Trust Women Supporting Women Programme. Wood has been named Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year, City AM Entrepreneur of the Year, and has been awarded an OBE for services to technology and innovation. She is also the author of best-selling career handbook Stepping Up: How to Accelerate Your Leadership Potential, which calls for more diverse, digital and empathetic business leaders.
Simon Gresham Jones
Conde Nast
Simon Gresham Jones
chief digital officer
Simon Gresham Jones leads a multi-disciplinary department of 80 at Condé Nast Britain, working across iconic brands including Vogue, GQ, Wired and Vanity Fair. Gresham Jones is accountable for digital strategy and growth across all Condé Nast Britain businesses, and oversees central functions including marketing, creative strategy, sales, data and insights, and digital product design and engineering. Gresham Jones has advised organisations including Google and the British Fashion Council, and spoken at events including Cannes Lions and YouTube's Intersection creative tech summit.
Solly Solomou
LadBible
Solly Solomou
founder & chief executive officer
Solly Solomou is the founder and chief executive of LADbible Group,the world’s biggest social publisher aimed at millennial audiences - with a global reach of 1 billion plus. Its brand includes LADbible, SPORTbible, Pretty52 and the award winning branded creative agency Joyride. LADbible has successfully developed a social good strategy that tackles the issues that really matter to youth audiences, from mental health to politics and the environment. It has been a defining 12 months for LADbible Group - picking up 8 prestigious Cannes Lions, launching one of the fastest growing Snapchat Discover channels and ranking in the top ten of Britain’s fastest growing private tech companies' according to The Sunday Times Fast Track.
Spencer  Berwin
JC Decaux
Spencer Berwin
chief executive officer
Spencer Berwin and Phillip Thomas are driving forward a new digital future for JCDecaux. At a time of significant change in the media and out-of-home industry, they have presided over the introduction of BranDO, a brand-safe charter for digital outdoor, and the launch of an automated digital trading and delivery platform in 2018. Investment in the digital portfolio continued this year with the expansion of the digital Towers UK-wide, the extension of LDN bus shelters into the city of London and the announcement of LDN Drive – a London-wide digital billboard network coming in early 2019.
Stephen  Mai
Boiler Room
Stephen Mai
chief content officer
Stephen Mai is a multiple award winning, senior creative, strategic marketing and content professional. At Boiler Room he leads a division with teams across marketing, communications, film, production, music programming and creative. In his first six months he has launched 4:3, a narrative-driven platform designed to evolve the media brand by merging live events, video content and the role of cultural institution. Most recently Mai led the 360 project System, a multiplatform campaign designed to subvert the negative media coverage of 'migration' through installation, parties, performances, live broadcast and film celebrating migration's impact on music and culture.
Steve Hatch
Facebook
Steve Hatch
director for UK & Ireland
Since his appointment in March 2014, Steve Hatch has driven a fundamental evolution across Facebook's platforms, namely the explosion of video consumption, and the commercialisation of Instagram. Prior to joining Facebook in 2014, Hatch worked at Y&R, Omnicom and WPP where he spent 15 years, with his final role as chief executive officer of MEC. Hatch is a non-executive director of Trinity Mirror PLC and is the chair of the Confederation of British Industry Tech group. His co-authored book Rigorous Magic was published in 2007. Hatch lives with his wife Sophie and their two children and, when time allows, follows his passions of movies, running, yoga and cooking. He would like to be a chef but isn't good enough.
Stuart Flint
Oath
Stuart Flint
EMEA vice-president
Stuart Flint is vice-president of EMEA and Latin America for global media technology company Oath. Flint is responsible for driving the strategic direction and promotion of Oath's advertising solutions within its house of brands and tech platforms. Flint has overseen the merger of two huge global media and technology businesses across the EMEA region as Verizon brought together Yahoo and AOL under its new subsidiary, Oath. His priority has been building a new internal culture for Oath in EMEA, including creation of his EMEA leadership team, overseeing over 1,500 employees and a complete overhaul of processes and systems within the business.
Vicky Foster
Bauer Media
Vicky Foster
digital commercial director
Since 2015, Vicky Foster has led Bauer Media's development of digital commercial revenues across radio and lifestyle portfolios, helping to shape and drive the digital advertising strategy. In her current role, she has developed a digital audio advertising strategy for Bauer Media with a focus on personalisation, podcasts and audio programmatic. She has a particular focus around the creative digital 'always on' opportunities developed within Adventure, Bauer Media's commercial creative operation. As a leader in the industry, Foster represents Bauer Media at industry events including the IAB and AOP, raising its digital credentials by supporting initiatives like the IAB Gold Standard. Foster actively works to support the culture and values of the advertising business along with developing key talent.