Media Business Course 2026

Biography

Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency.

He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour – these are the often small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make – for instance tripling the sales rate of a call centre by adding just a few sentences to the script. Put another way, lots of agencies will talk about “bought, owned and earned” media: we also look for “invented media” and “discovered media”: seeking out those unexpected (and inexpensive) contextual tweaks that transform the way that people think and act.

It is a hugely valuable activity – but, alas, not particularly lucrative. This is because clients generally do not have budgets for solving problems they did not know they had.

Before founding Ogilvy’s Behavioural Practice, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Market Leader and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of three books: The Wiki Man, available on Amazon (at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day), and the best-selling Alchemy, The surprising Power of Ideas which don’t make Sense, published in the UK and US in May 2019, and, co-written with his former colleague Pete Dyson, the newly released Transport For Humans on the behavioural science of transport.

Rory is married to a vicar and has twin daughters. He lives in the former home of Napoleon III – unfortunately in the attic. He is a trustee of the Benjamin Franklin House in London and a Patron of Rochester Cathedral.

Biography

After leaving school Simon decided that University was not for him and joined the army.

This was followed by work in Venezuela, America and Australia before returning to the UK in 1991 to start work on the ‘new’ Daily Telegraph, which had recently been purchased by Conrad Black. Having managed the launch of the Saturday Magazine in 1995 he decided to set up his own publishing company, and in 1998 sold it to Tony O’Riley’s Independent Magazines.

Simon then joined the fledgling Classic FM and within 4 years it had grown into the biggest commercial radio station in the UK and the most profitable. In 2005 Classic FM and its parent company GWR merged with Capital Radio and Simon became the Group Commercial Director. On the sale of GCap Media to Global, Simon left and joined the early social media revolution working for MySpace as Commercial Director. Simon joined ITV plc in January 2011 as Group Commercial Sales Director and was promoted in 2014 to Deputy Managing Director, Commercial.

In his free time he has rowed across the Irish Sea and walked to the South Pole, unsupported on both trips.

He has also led an expedition to the North Pole with 4 wounded soldiers and HRH Prince Harry. Simon completed his second South Pole challenge in December 2013 for Walking With The Wounded, a charity which he founded and he has raised nearly £10 million for various charities.

Biography

Fox moved from OMD UK at the end of 2023 to drive market-leading connected planning excellence across OMG UK, to deliver effectiveness, efficiencies and improved outcomes for clients. Her role is to ensure that the group and its clients are equipped to navigate the increasing complexity in the media landscape, and to leverage the proliferation of available data to deliver fully integrated planning across paid, owned and earned communications.

In her previous role as Chief Planning Officer at OMD UK, Fox led the agency’s planning output to create competitive advantage for their clients. During her tenure, she oversaw the creation of the agency’s Connected Performance team (joining media planning with biddable expertise to deliver audience-first thinking) and re-built the OMD Planning Process to focus on Full Funnel Planning. At group level, Fox played a key role in the creation of a suite of products and solutions focused on Attention metrics.

Fox has been twice named Media Planner of the Year by Campaign (‘20 and ‘21), was honoured with an IPA Fellowship in 2021 in recognition of her services to Media Planning and was Highly Commended in the IPA’s iList 2022.

Biography

Kathryn is the CEO of Pearl&Dean, the cinema advertising company, famous for its “Pa, pa, pa, pa” sonic logo.

In previous roles Kathryn has worked in national newspapers, magazines, radio and in a cross media role at Scottish Media Group. As well as having the opportunity to watch films for a living, Kathryn sits on the Development Board of RADA, the Board of AOC Sport (which offers sport opportunities to college students), the Council and Board of the Advertising Association and the Executive Council of SAWA. She is a past president of WACL.

In 2016 the book she co-authored with Sue Unerman, “The Glass Wall” was published and since then they have given over 150 talks about the book. In October 2020, Sue and Kathryn joined forces with Mark Edwards to write another book “Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusion and Equality at Work”. Esquire called it “The most important business book of the year”.

Biography

Clare Peters, Client Strategy & Comms Partner at Channel 4 leads the client sales strategy and manages it’s dedicated client sales teams within its award-winning Ad Sales division, 4Sales.

Previously Clare was Chief Business Strategist at Manning Gottlieb OMD, working with clients to find new and innovative ways to solve business challenges, boost effectiveness and increase profitability. She has spent 15 years with the media agency where she also held the position of Head of Planning for six years.

Biography

Born in Newport, Wales, Nick graduated from the University of Bristol with a degree in French and Spanish. Joining Saatchi & Saatchi as a graduate trainee, he became managing director nine years later. Nick was one of the nine founders of M&C Saatchi as joint chief executive, became chairman of M&C Saatchi Europe, and opened offices in Paris, Berlin and Madrid. Nick left to found George & Dragon, an ad agency with clients such as HM Government; Kwik Fit; and BAFTA. In 2015, Nick led a management buyout of The Groucho Club becoming chairman there.

In 2021 he joined the AKA Group as Chief Executive. AKA is owned by the Ambassador Theatre Group and specialises in the entertainment sectors, with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles. Clients include ABBA Voyage, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Cabaret, Tina the Musical, Matilda, Pretty Woman, Jerusalem, Sony Pictures, Universal, Disney, Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon.

Biography

Emma Dibben is part of the senior media leadership team at Wavemaker UK. Emma has more than 20 years of experience across all media, principally in publishing. In her role as Head of Partner Engagement at Wavemaker, Emma works with partners in all media to support the creation of unrivalled work that moves people and has a positive impact in the world.

Biography

Despite his youthful looks, Rob has worked in media for over 30 years and in partnerships for over 15 years.

Having worked at “a lot” of newspaper and magazine publishers in agency and client-facing roles he’s proud to say he has over 3000 followers on LinkedIn. He says he genuinely loves his job at Immediate Media as he has a lot of creative freedom and is tasked with being bold and pushing boundaries at a company that has a deep-rooted culture of positivity and creativity. In his spare time he plays a lot of racquet sports, loves a quiz and once DJ’d backstage in Hyde park “for Jay Z.”

Biography

Scott is an experienced leader in AI-powered advertising solutions, blending a computer science background with a deep interest in the intersection of technology, business and psychology. He leads a team of product solution specialists crafting holistic customer-focused strategies across Search, Performance Max, and Apps for the UKI market. With a deep understanding of how technology impacts behaviour, his goal is to simplify complexity for clients and sellers, enabling businesses to concentrate on growth.

Biography

Ryan Uhl is the Chief Brand Strategy Officer of Mail Metro Media, working across commercial strategy, brand storytelling and key projects like EDI and sustainability. He began his career at Mindshare over 13 years ago in digital planning and buying, and since then has worked in various roles within the commercial advertising department giving him a holistic view of media and future trends.

Biography

Louise Stubbings is Partnerships & Creative Director at Clear Channel. She has worked in media for over 20 years, starting her career in press before moving to cinema and OOH. She has held various commercial roles at Clear Channel UK, but her real passion is in her current role as Creative & Partnerships Director, working with her incredible team to bring anything that a client can imagine to life on the streets. A passionate advocate for the industry, she has judged the Cannes Young Lions and works to encourage exciting new talent to join the industry through her mentoring activity with The Girls Network and Brixton Finishing School.

Biography

Jonathan Appleby is a commercial and agency sales leader at Amazon Ads, where he oversees senior agency partnerships and product launches across Prime Video and streaming innovations. A trusted industry voice, he blends commercial acumen with deep AV expertise and regularly contributes to thought leadership through events, training, and media commentary. Jonathan began his career 14 years ago as an AudioVisual planner and buyer at MEC (now Wavemaker) and maintains a strong passion for the TV industry and its evolving trends.

Biography

Joining our executive team in late 2023 to spearhead the dedicated Tesco UK Retail Media business, Tash has brought a wealth of experience, passion, and a track record of impressive achievements delivered across nearly three decades including 18 years at Havas and 6 years at Tesco.

With extensive expertise in customer value growth, loyalty and CRM strategy, and business transformation. At Tesco, Tash spearheaded a significant overhaul of the Clubcard scheme, increasing active households from 14.3 million to approximately 22 million and expanding app users from 900,000 to over 11 million. Under her leadership, sales penetration approached 90%, and she oversaw the design and launch of a personalised rewards scheme that went from zero to 4 million users in less than 12 months.

Previously, Tash served as CEO of Havas helia, where she led award-winning data, tech, CRM, and loyalty initiatives. She played key roles in developing successful strategies for brands like Pets at Home, easyJet, adidas, Subway, and Diageo.

Recognised as a Fellow of the Marketing Society and featured on the Campaign A-List, Tash is celebrated for her leadership, mentoring talent, and building high-performing, diverse teams.

Biography

Rich Smith is a Commercial Group Strategist at Global, The Media & Entertainment Group.

Rich is responsible for developing objective-led media strategies and solutions for clients’ communication briefs across all Global brands and platforms.

Rich joined Global in 2014, bringing with him 8 years of media agency planning and insights experience across multiple categories.