To celebrate our 100th birthday, Andria Vidler, President of the Advertising Association, has presented two Mackintosh medals for the first time in our company history to Kathryn Jacob OBE and James Best CBE.
Introduced in 1952 and named after the first recipient, Lord Mackintosh, the ‘Mac Medal’ recognises exceptional individual contributions to the industry and the work of the AA.
Kathryn Jacob OBE was recognised for her outstanding leadership across media businesses and her role in chairing the All In programme on Talent and Inclusion, which is now the largest initiative of its kind in any UK industry.
Kathryn is the CEO of the iconic cinema advertising company, Pearl&Dean. She has extensive media experience across many areas but the lure of popcorn and watching films for a living has lasted for over a decade.
As well as her role at Pearl&Dean, Kathryn is Chair of Trustees at one the UKs leading arts venues, HOME in Manchester. She also sits on the Council and Board of the Advertising Association, the Development Board of RADA and as of August 1st, 2022, became President of SAWA, the global trade body for cinema advertising.
Kathryn has co-authored three books. “The Glass Wall” published in 2016 focused on the career development of women was written with Sue Unerman. In 2020 Sue and Kathryn published a second book together “Belonging: The Key to Transforming and Maintaining Diversity, Inclusion and Equality at Work” together with Mark Edwards. Esquire described it as “The most important Book of the year”. Most recently, Kathryn released her third book, “A Year of Creativity”, continuing her commitment to inspiring transformation through insight and storytelling.
James Best CBE, FIPA has been honoured for his deep strategic contributions to the business, his critical role within the ASA system, and for being a key architect of Ad Net Zero as well as the co-author, with Matt Bourn, of Trusted Advertising.
With 50 years’ experience in the advertising industry, James was chairman of BMP DDB from 1990 – 2000, joined the DDB Worldwide board in 1991 and later served as Chief Strategy & People Officer for the network.
James was Chair of the Advertising Association from 1997 to 2002, Chair of EACA 2003-6, an ASA Council Member from 2007-11 and is currently Chair of the Committees of Advertising Practice and of Credos, the advertising industry-funded thinktank.
You can see the full write-up of our Centenary Reception and the photos here.
