LEAD 2023

Biography

Michelle Donelan was appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on 6 September 2022.

She was previously appointed Secretary of State for Education from 5 July 2022 to 7 July 2022.

She was Minister of State for Higher and Further Education from 15 September 2021 to July 2022.

She was also previously Minister for Universities at the Department for Education from 13 February 2020.

She was previously Government Whip (Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury) from 29 July 2019 to 13 February 2020.

She was also an unpaid Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education covering the maternity leave of Kemi Badenoch MP from 4 September 2019 to 13 February 2020.

Biography

Alessandra has an international background in advertising and Marketing and is obsessed with developing people and growing brands, seeing these as the ultimate levers to a successful business.

She joined Tesco in March 2017, as Chief Customer Officer, where she brings together all of the disciplines of marketing, advertising, innovation, loyalty and insight to create strong and distinctive brand proposition – putting customers at the heart of Tesco.

Prior to Tesco, Alessandra worked for Unilever for over 20 years, holding different board-level positions in Marketing and General Management in Italy, Central & Eastern Europe and the USA.

Alessandra started her career in Advertising at JWT Milan, as an apprentice straight out of School. She worked in Advertising for 12 years in Italy and the UK.

She has two grown up children, lives in London travelling around town on a baby-blue Vespa.

Alessandra is the Chair of Teens Unite, a charity helping young adults facing cancer, live their best life.

Biography

Julian Douglas, or Dougie as he is better known, is the Vice Chairman of the VCCP Partnership. He joined the agency in 2008, having previously worked at WCRS, BBH, TBWA, and Grey London twice. With over 20 years experience, he has created some of the world’s most successful campaigns, both in the UK and internationally, for brands including Audi, Lynx, O2 Telefonica, Domino’s, Nationwide and Shell.

He holds a BA and MA from Jesus College, Oxford, an MBA from Warwick Business School and is a Fellow and Council Member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. As the Chair of the IPA’s Talent Leadership Group, he originated Advertising Unlocked, the annual joint industry open-day welcoming thousands of young people into the industry from right across the UK.

Outside of advertising, he is a Founder of Lucky Voice, the UK’s premier chain of karaoke bars and online karaoke. His latest venture is Parent Pool, a social enterprise on a mission to transform the childcare market through collaborative parenting.

Dougie was awarded 2018 Account Person of the Year by Campaign Magazine.

Biography

Margaret joined NatWest Group in September 2020 as Group Chief Marketing Officer.

Margaret has spent the majority of her marketing career in FMCG working on some iconic brands such as Lynx, Dove, Radox, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Birds Eye. At the end of 2014 she left FMCG to join the utilities sector as Director of Marketing at British Gas, one of the most recognised household brands in the UK. At the beginning of 2016 she moved into a global role to develop marketing capability across all the businesses as Group Chief Marketing Officer for Centrica, transforming the firm’s marketing capabilities across all regions.

Some of her key achievements include launching Dove deodorant across Europe; delivering the first ever global Lynx campaign and winning a Cannes Gold Lion for Lynx “Getting Dressed” campaign. Margaret launched the first ever award winning “time to be selfish” brand campaign for Radox which turned around the performance of the brand.

In September 2020, Margaret was announced as one of Marketing Week’s Top 100 Most Effective Marketers for her work at Centrica.

Margaret lives in Surrey and has her own qualitative study group of 4 children and a Chihuahua called Alfie and a Great Dane called Vegas.  In her spare time, she acts as a taxi service for the kids, gets taken out for a walk by the dogs, runs the odd half marathon and occasionally gets a chance to sleep.

Biography

Lucy is the Labour and Cooperative MP for Manchester Central and Shadow Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. She was delighted to take on the brief, with art, culture and sport all bringing joy and meaning to daily life and bringing our nation together. Lucy leads on how digital, culture, media, sport and the creative economy can boost prosperity across our regions and nations, create good secure jobs everywhere, and how the Department can help make people proud of the places they live, and make places liveable.

Previously, she was Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, and Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers on Keir Starmer’s frontbench. Following the 2019 General election, Lucy was one of the Commissioners on the Labour Together Review into the 2019 General election which set Labour on a path back to power.

Lucy was elected in a by-election on November 15^th 2012, becoming the first female Labour MP to represent a Manchester constituency and has campaigned on a range of issues through her time in Parliament, including on online safety, the cladding and building safety crisis, and education. Before entering Parliament Lucy worked for NESTA – the innovation agency for social good, helping to secure investment into Manchester.

Biography

Nina Hossain is an award winning journalist and ITN newscaster.

Nina is lead presenter of the ITV Lunchtime News and also presents News at Ten. She presented the series Coronavirus: Q & A for ITV, throughout the lockdown period of the COVID-19 crisis. She has also co-presented ITV’s Election Live coverage for the 2015, 2017 and 2019 elections.

She joined ITN 15 years ago after being poached from BBC London where she was a launch face of their evening programme.

Born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire she studied at Durham University before gaining a post-graduate diploma in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire.

She is the RTS Presenter of the Year for Regional News, and has picked up three RTS Programme of the year awards when anchoring ITV News London and the ITV Evening News.

She was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield.

When not writing and presenting daily news she has worked on documentary programmes, Exposure and On Assignment, has hosted countless awards ceremonies and chaired a range of conferences for both charities and the corporate world.

She has three children, loves travelling and music.

Biography

Dan Clays is Chief Executive of Omnicom Media Group in the UK. He is responsible for the overall business performance, client delivery, and future growth strategy of Omnicom’s media agencies and central operations in the UK. As CEO of OMG, Dan provides oversight, guidance, and support across OMD UK, PHD, Manning Gottlieb OMD, Hearts & Science, alongside OMG’s centres of excellence including DRUM, Fuse, and Unite.

Dan has been in Omnicom for 10 years, leading OMD UK over that period as Chief Executive of the agency before taking on the Group-wide leadership. In 2021, OMG UK won the pitches for ComparetheMarket.com, Chanel, Peloton, British Airways, as well as retaining Channel 4 and the UK Government. Prior to OMD UK, Dan spent 12 years at the independent, then Havas owned business Arena, during which time, he spent 9 years leading the digital specialist agency Quantum. His media career started in TV buying at Carat and then PHD. Dan is also Chair of the UK Advertising and Media Industry non-profit education programme Media Smart.

Biography

Zaid Al-Qassab is the Chief Marketing Officer of Channel 4, the UK public service broadcaster, where he leads the marketing and digital teams, and 4creative, Channel 4’s award-winning in-house creative agency. Zaid is a Director and Council member of the Advertising Standards Authority, a Board Trustee of WaterAid and a Board member of Creative Diversity Network. He was educated at Oxford University, where he read PPE. He spent 20 years at Procter & Gamble, including as Managing Director of the UK Health & Beauty division. He is committed to diversity and inclusion.

Biography

Sebastian Munden is the Executive Vice President & General Manager, Unilever UK & Ireland and joined Unilever in 1990 as a marketing trainee at Lever Brothers in the UK after completing his MA in English Language and Literature at Oxford University. After several brand management and customer team positions in Home and Personal Care, he was appointed category director for Laundry UK in 1997.

Sebastian then went on to hold various senior roles across the US and Europe before being appointed Vice President of the Laundry Category for Europe in 2008 and head of Global Marketing Operations in 2012.

Sebastian now leads the UK & Ireland business, a position he has held since 2017. Sebastian has pioneered new ways of working across Unilever to accelerate the agility of the business, helping to respond to the challenges of today’s competitive environment in an ever more connected world. He champions the sustainable packaging  agenda and the inclusion of more diverse young talent in the workforce, and into Unilever. He is married to Elisabeth and has two children.

Biography

Mimi has a true passion about media, studying Media at UEA and furthering her education by obtaining a Masters in Media, Society and Culture. With has 5 years of experience, working in both network and independent agencies, Mimi has worked across a variety of clients such as Camden Town Brewery, LEGO, Klarna, Thames Water and Premier League. Throughout Mimi’s career, she has worked to create safe spaces for ethnic minorities within the advertising industry.

Biography

Martin is a leading Creative Director, ranked 10^th in the world in 2020, with wide experience across advertising, brand and digital marketing.

After years of successfully building brands for others, he decided to turn his hand to building his own brands as Co-Founder of Serious Tissues. He has been instrumental in driving the creative vision and growth for Serious Tissues, resulting in the brand being the 2022 Grand Prix winner of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund and securing a game changing £1m in media value.

Biography

Stephen was appointed CEO of the Advertising Association in October 2016. The AA promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, business and the economy. All the key advertising trade bodies, commercial media owners and tech platforms are members of the AA. Prior to joining, Stephen held management roles in four agency groups (Leo Burnett, WCRS/Engine and DDB/adam&eveDDB and Next 15). He is a Governor of Ravensbourne University in London, the UK’s newest creative and technology university. He chairs The Debating Group, a cross-industry programme that hosts debates on industry issues in Parliament. Stephen is a past President of NABS and serves on the board of the History of Advertising Trust. He was IPA President (2003-05) where he led both their first ethnic diversity initiative and launched its professional qualifications for new industry entrants, which over 20,000 people have now passed in the UK and around the world.

Biography

Sarah Jones is Director of Planning at Sky Media. She has spent the majority of her 20+ years in media in agency roles at MediaCom, MGOMD, MindShare and Starcom, looking after communications strategy and planning for a wide range of clients. Sarah moved to Sky Media in January 2019 and now looks after our trade marketing strategy and partnership teams. Last year Sarah and her team launched the Sky Zero Footprint fund – a £2m advertising value fund to get more sustainable campaigns on TV.

Biography

Chris is an award-winning strategist who has worked across a wide range of brands and developed an expertise in using communications to change behaviour and address society’s biggest problems. He has worked on everything from knife crime and illiteracy to climate change and homelessness, as well as on some of the biggest brands in the world.

In 2020 he decided to use these skills to create a toilet paper brand that addresses climate change and deforestation. Serious Tissues plants a tree for every roll sold. In just 2 years they have planted 1.5m trees and the brand has grown rapidly. He is also Co-Founder of the coffee business Change Please that helps homeless people off the streets.

Biography

Michaela is news editor of Marketing Week, where she is responsible for steering the title’s overall news agenda and output. She herself writes about retail, finance, media and luxury brands, as well as media trends and marketing effectiveness. She joined Marketing Week in 2021 after three years covering the media industry for Mediatel News (now The Media Leader).

Biography

Nick Baughan is Meta’s Director of Business Partners leading their partnerships with the marketing, professional services and investment industries.

Prior to joining Meta in 2019, Nick spent 13 years at WPP Plc, latterly as CEO of Essence across EMEA.

Nick sits on a range of industry trade bodies and committees including the Effies Council, the Advertising Association Council, the Advertising Standards Authority Industry Advisory Panel, the Adweek Europe Advisory Board and the IAB Board. Previously Nick also sat on the World Economic Forum’s Global Council for Information. Nick mentors widely and is a Trustee for SSAFA, the Armed Forces Charity. 

Nick lives in North London with his wife and two children.

Biography

Imogen Fox heads up the commercial teams responsible for client relationships, marketing, strategy and content for the Guardian’s UK advertising business. Previously, Imogen was executive editor of Guardian Labs for six years, leading their award-winning branded content partnerships. She joined the commercial department in 2016, from the newsroom where she was head of fashion. In this role, Imogen drove the Guardian’s global reputation for intelligent fashion reporting, features and visuals.