30 under 30

Questionnaires were duly dispatched to the lucky nominees who were asked to complete the form in order to garner vital pieces of information.

Once all questionnaires had been completed and returned, the editorial team were able to sit down and assess each potential pollster and judge who would be included in the final results. Judging was exceptionally hard as the standard of all who were polled was extremely high. But winners had to be found and over the next few pages Adline showcases the industry leaders of the future.

Happy headhunting

Name: Rachel Morgan.

Date of birth: 29 October 1976.

Job title: Communications Director.

Company: Viv’id(a) Ltd.

Place of birth: Urmston, Manchester.

Qualifications: CIM Diploma in Marketing, CIM Advanced Certificate in Marketing, Advanced GNVQ in Business.

Career to date: Feb 2000–Present: Viv’id(a) Ltd, Communications Director. November 1999–Feb 2000: Green Elephant Ltd, Account Director. June 1999–November 1999: Norweb Telecom, Database Marketing Manager. June 1996–June 1999: Littlewoods Home Shopping t/a Business Express, Marketing Executive/Exhibition Marketing Manager.

Biggest Achievement: A couple, including passing my Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing, becoming a director of Viv’id(a) Ltd, being responsible for clients’ jobs from cradle to grave and exceeding the anticipated ROI, plus writing articles for Adline, a publication I believe in and which is doing a great job in generating a wider understanding of the industry.

Goals: Gaining Chartered Marketeer status. Taking Viv’id(a) to the next level from a “small” agency to a “better known, respected” one. Making the Northern marketing scene better recognised.

Role model: Nicky Chapman.

Pet hates: The lack of respect and trust in the industry. The unqualified and inexperienced, the “let’s do lunch daaaahlings”, the cowboys that lose the industry as a whole respect because their advice is not sound and their charges outrageous. Lack of recognition of the Northern creative scene.

Name: Stuart Ledger.

Date of birth: 28 June 1975.

Job title: PR Director.

Company: McKevitt & Kenwood.

Place of birth: Sheffield.

Qualifications: CIM Marketing Certificate, “A” Level Art & Design and Communications.

Career to date: Public Relations Director at MK Communications, Managing Director of own public relations firm, Foxy PR, Account Manager at Bell Pottinger, PR Manager at Infogrames, PR Executive at Gremlin Interactive.

Biggest achievement: Revitalising Sega’s internal and external PR structure in the face of some monumental changes of direction. As a result, I was nominated for trade magazine CTW awards for “2001 PR Executive of the Year”, which was no mean feat considering that Sega were Bell Pottinger’s only games account.

Goals: To establish MK Communications as a respected authority within the creative, technology, entertainment and sporting sectors, among both peers and industry commentators.

Role models: Graham Wrench of Electric Canyon, Ian Anderson, founder of Designers Republic and Steve McKevitt.

Pet hates: Ignorance, lack of awareness/perspective/

understanding. I’m not overly keen on the 21st Century pseudo-science of brand management, if I’m being totally honest.

Name: Wini Tse.

Date of birth: 2 May 1974.

Job title: Company Director.

Company: Code Computer Love Ltd.

Place of birth: York.

Qualifications: Three “A” Levels, HND Graphic Design with Distinctions.

Career to date: Senior Designer at Mainstream. Set up Code Computer Love in 1999.

Biggest professional achievement: Winning Best Multimedia and Best Internet Design Awards at the North West Cream Awards in 2002.

Goals: To nurture Code to become the North’s best digital agency, then the UK’s.

Role model: My father.

Pet hates: Mediocrity.

Name: Jo Balcombe.

Date of birth: 24 June 1975.

Job title: Senior Account Manager.

Company: Rees Bradley Hepburn.

Place of birth: Solihull.

Qualifications: BA(Hons) – Desmond. Majored in advertising and marketing.

Career to date: Joined RBH straight from uni after a temping stint in London. I joined as a Junior Account Exec and was promoted in 2002.

Biggest achievement: Producing award-winning and successful work for the unsexy and pathologically hated train industry – for our client Central Trains. Three Cream Awards (two got Silver at the Grand Prix), three Cream nominations and the HSBC Rail Marketing Award 2002 – we beat Virgin Trains and they’d spent £7m (we spent £120,000).

Goals: I’ve developed great relationships with my clients and have worked on some excellent pitches and campaigns. I’d like to take my initiative and understanding learnt from this and get involved in all aspects of our agency – its clients, success and reputation. Would love a client services role.

Role model: Sean Pillot de Chenecey, trend analyst and captaincrikey.com.

Pet hates: Our industry’s obsession with London. And creativity for creativity’s sake – an ad that’s a bit too “mad, me” with the product slapped on at the end. Urgh.

Name: Ryan Bowd.

Date of birth: 29 December 1978.

Job title: Co-managing Director.

Company: 1090 Communications.

Place of birth: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Qualifications: Grade 12 Bilingual Degree (French and English), International Baccalaureate certificates in Chemistry and French, Graduation Honours List, Campbell Collegiate Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. First Class Honours Degree in PR . Master in Research – Completed, awaiting mark. PhD candidate – Title: Communicating Corporate Social Responsibility; Models of Best Practice – To complete 2005. 2002: IPR North West Cream Awards – Young Communicator of the Year: Gold award winner.

Career to date: Co-managing Director, 1090 Communications. Institute of Public Relations Northwest, Board Member. Corporate Public Relations Practice Group at Weber Shandwick Worldwide. Virgin Management Press Office. University of Alberta Residence Hall Association (UARHA), National Communication Coordinator.

Biggest achievement: Winning the Institute of Public Relations North West Cream Awards Young Communicator of the Year.

Goals: To grow 1090 Communications into one of the UK’s leading specialist consultancies, with a staff of 10 and a turnover of over £1,000,000. To continue to be active in research and teaching, even after my PhD being completed. To publish a practitioner book on CSR Communications and Marketing and a book on lifestyle sports brands.

Role model: Will Whitehorn, brand development and corporate affairs director at Virgin Management.

Pet hates: Lazy practitioners who only care about hitting KPIs and not wowing clients. Practitioners who have not read up about the industry of marketing and PR since they joined and think professional development is one of those things lawyers and doctors have to do. And snobby clients – which is why I don’t have any.

Name: Ben Hatton.

Date of birth: 16 November 1975.

Job title: Managing Director.

Company: Rippleffect.

Place of birth: Liverpool.

Qualifications: BA Hons Visual Communications, George Washington University, Washington DC.

Career to date: Managing Director of Rippleffect from November 1999 to present.

Biggest achievement: Building up a market-leading, profitable organisation from nothing in an extremely volatile industry sector. I enjoy all of the challenges and continuously feel like I am achieving.

Goals: To continue to build Rippleffect into the recognised leader of online strategies and solutions – initially in the UK, then globally.

Professional role model: No particular individual.

Pet hates: Ignorant people who are not willing to learn about our industry or the benefits it can bring them and their brand. I also hate a lot of the pretence and pettiness in and around the business world. I am very much a “what you see is what you get” person – people know where they stand with me.

Name: Morgan Cox.

Date of birth: 23 November 1973.

Job title: Head of Marketing.

Company: Feather Brooksbank.

Place of birth: Orrel, Lancashire.

Qualifications: IDM Dip, BA – Philosophy, significant amount of management/idea generation and media training over last three years through external (Rogen, What If)/internal sources.

Career to date: Trainee Manager at InDepth Group, Key Account Manager in Affinity Marketing, Feather Brooksbank.

Biggest achievement: Securing strategic segmentation project with one of the world’s largest banks.

Goals: To offer what is really required for clients by breaking through anachronistic and effete service agency structures.

Professional role model: David Brent.

Pet hates: Paper, management teams, arrogance, traffic, comfort zones.

Name: Jon Severn.

Date of birth: 28 June 1976.

Job Title: Creative Director.

Company: Freestyle New Media Group.

Place of birth: Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

Qualifications: HND Illustration and Design; GNVQ Advanced in Art and Design.

Career to date: Designer/illustrator at Design One in Solihull. Designer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Head of Creative and Studio Manager at Freestyle New Media Group.

Biggest achievement: I’m really proud of what I have achieved at FSNM. I have organised the studio, employed some really great designers and spent the last 18 months developing the team.

Goals: It’s a little sad, but I’ve always wanted a shiny red sports car, which I purchased last November. I am passionate about creating work, the rest doesn’t matter that much to me. I’d like to make my own video game one day and I quite fancy myself as a film director.

Role model: Ian Anderson, founder of the Designers Republic.

Pet hates: “Impostors” – I have a general dislike for individuals who fall under the impostor label. “Impostors” are individuals who work in the creative industry who have no passion for their work. They normally speak for the sake of having an opinion and care nothing for the quality of their work. I used to work on the fair to make money in the summer holiday, and I’d rather go back to that than churn out crap.

Name: Adam Clyne.

Date of birth: 1 November 1977.

Job title: Managing Director.

Company: The Lab.

Place of birth: Manchester.

Qualifications: BA/Hons PR.

Career to date: Started first business aged 17 working on markets selling pots and pans. First job after uni at Connectpoint in the PR team. Moved across to Mason Williams. Dave Bell poached me to join CheethamBell as they merged with JWT. Left CBJWT to set up my own agency – The Lab.

Biggest achievement: Being the youngest owner of an agency (aged 25) but being taken seriously by major UK brands.

Goals: Compete against all the big agencies in the North, realise my vision of a truly integrated communication agency, be the first in some of the things we do and beat a major London agency in a creative pitch.

Role model: Simon Woodroffe of Yo! Sushi.

Professional pet hates: PR people in London. There are too many blaggers down there who overcharge on their fees and don’t deliver the results. We have spoken with many brands with great potential who are scared of marketing because of previous experiences in London. People who won’t take a call. A polite no saves everyone a lot of time.

Name: Matt Clark.

Date of birth: 23 January 1975.

Job title: Head of Design.

Company: Guerilla.

Education & Qualifications: Three “A” Levels, BTEC National Diploma in Design, HND in Graphic Design

Place of birth: Selby

Career to date: Junior Designer at Creation Publicity, Designer at Baywatch Ltd, Designer at Yellow M and now Head of Design at Guerilla in Newcastle.

Biggest achievement: Building Guerilla Design from the start to its current status servicing a growing national client base.

Goals: To establish Guerilla as a successful, cutting-edge design company. It is also important to me to gain a growing national client base.

Role model: Neville Brody.

Pet hates: PDFs, for killing the presentation of working persons/trendy, “here today gone tomorrow” design fads/vague client comments and amends/cartoon operating systems and icons (OSX and the Word paperclip to name but two).

Name: Graham Furlong.

Date of birth: 11 December 1979.

Job title: Account Manager.

Company: TEQUILA\\Manchester.

Place of birth: Seattle, Washington, USA.

Qualifications: Three “A” Levels, Business Studies, Information Technology and Accountancy. Aspired to be an accountant, until meeting one. BA (Hons) Marketing with Design. The outcome ... a reputable 2:1.

Career to date: NexusXO Communications and Marketing. Account Executive – promoted to account manager – at TEQUILA\\Manchester.

Biggest achievement: Developing B2B channel strategies for the past two years for International Paper (UK) Ltd.

Goals: Gain experience in a variety of disciplines and market sectors. Manage a project that achieves recognition for advertising effectiveness or strategic planning. Write three strategic white papers. Work in the US. Own or become managing director of a communications agency. Start to write a book. Develop links with a leading advertising/communications school, eg Miami Ad School or Brainco. Assisting with the development of students through lecture assistance, providing mock projects and reviewing work.

Role model: Paul Biggins, chief executive of TEQUILA\\London.

Pet hates: People who provide problems not solutions, lack of detail and clarity, people who don’t smile.

Name: Melanie Beeby.

Date of birth: 31 March 1976.

Job title: Account Manager (PR).

Company: BCLO.

Qualifications: BA (Hons) Marketing Management and Tourism Management.

Place of birth: Bristol.

Career to date: Levick Strategic Communications, Washington DC, USA (6-month internship). Internship with a media relations specialist for law firms, including one of the advisors to Microsoft during the antitrust case. Levick Strategic Communications, London. One of a team of three involved in the start-up of the firm’s London office. Senior account executive at Text 100. Press officer at the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Biggest achievement: Having the courage to leave a secure job in order to make a change to my career direction and not regretting it one bit.

Goals: To become a successful account director by the age of 30, and to be happy in whatever I do.

Role model: My mother.

Professional pet hates: People who say one thing and do another, unnecessary rudeness.

Name: Joe Bonnell.

Date of birth: 11 January 1980.

Job title: Research Executive.

Company: Brahm Ltd.

Place of birth: Harrow, London.

Qualifications: BA Hons Philosophy and Sociology (2.1) University of Leeds.

Career to date: Over seven years’ market research experience from the age of 16 working for IPSOS (currently agency of the year), and Quaestor and McCallum Layton in Leeds. I spent one year working part-time in my current role at Brahm whilst at university. One year working full-time as Research Executive at Brahm since graduating.

Biggest achievement: I recently project managed and ran a series of qualitative research and branding groups amongst people suffering from disabilities and severe learning difficulties. I found it extremely challenging, but through successfully creating a relaxed, friendly and comfortable environment to encourage the respondents to participate openly in the group I feel I achieved a lot and gained skills that will help me get a lot more out of future research groups.

Professional goals: To become a leading industry figure in qualitative research and strategic planning, and to promote the value that research can have to the marketing industry. I’d also love to see researchers working much more closely with other members of the marketing industry rather than researching in isolation from the rest of the industry.

Professional role model: Clive Rand of Brahm.

Pet hates: People e-mailing when telephone or face-to-face would be a lot more effective, and probably quicker.

Name: Paul Dean.

Date of birth: 1 March 1975.

Job title: Account Director.

Company: McCann-Erickson Central.

Qualifications: Business Studies and Marketing “A” Levels, HND Advertising; CIM.

Place of birth: Chertsey, Surrey.

Career to date: Joined Campaign Concepts in 1996 as Account Executive, promoted to Account Manager within six months and then Senior Account Manager within two years (Campaign Concepts had by this time been bought out by McCann-Erickson) and in 2000 I was promoted to Account Director.

Biggest achievement: Winning the VWFS account.

Goals: To be on the McCann-Erickson board by 30.

Role model: Michael Schumacher.

Pet hates: Unapproachable, “old skool” advertising archetypes who can’t communicate clearly and effectively with clients.