The Drum Digerati 2015

Digerati - 2015

Now in its third year, The Drum Digerati is an annual celebration of the 100 most influential people across the breadth of the UK’s digital marketing industries.

This year, we called on our readers to nominate those they most admired in the industry. The nominations were then put to a panel of independent digital experts – drawn from the pool of Dadi Awards judges – to curate and rank the shortlist.

In tandem with The Drum’s Dadi Awards, which reward digital excellence, the Digerati represents our commitment to recognising the businesses, work and people excelling in modern marketing.

Rank	Name	Job Title	Company / Organisation
1	Mark Read	chief executive	Wunderman
	Mark Read was appointed as chief executive of Wunderman in February 2015. He has worked for the agency’s parent network WPP since 2002 across various roles including director of strategy and board... View Profile
2	Matthew Candy	European leader	IBM Interactive Experience
	Having worked at IBM for 18 years, Matt Candy has spent the past two years leading its newly badged digital agency Interactive Experience across Europe. In 2014 the company won clients including... View Profile
3	Matt Lodder	senior vice-president and managing director, EMEA	R/GA London
	Matt Lodder takes responsibility for the continued commercial success and strategy of R/GA in the EMEA region, having been appointed as senior vice-president in April 2015. He joined the business... View Profile
4	Caspar Schlickum	chief executive, EMEA	Xaxis
	Caspar Schlickum has only worked for two employers since graduating, one in banking, and WPP for whom he now heads up Xaxis’ EMEA offering. As chief executive he is responsible for managing the... View Profile
5	Matt Brittin	president, EMEA	Google
	Former Trinity Mirror director Matt Brittin leads Google’s business and operations for the EMEA region, heading up teams across twelve countries. He joined the search giant in 2007, initially... View Profile
6	Lindsay Pattison	worldwide chief executive	Maxus
	Lindsay Pattison was appointed worldwide chief executive of Maxus in 2014 having transformed the UK agency throughout her tenure as UK chief executive at the agency. She is an avid blogger and... View Profile
7	Nigel Vaz	chief executive, Europe	SapientNitro
	In 2015, in addition to his role as European chief executive, Nigel Vaz was named global chief strategy officer for SapientNitro. As chief strategy officer, Vaz plays a key leadership role in... View Profile
8	Jay Stevens	general manager, international	Rubicon Project
	Jay Stevens has worked for Jimmy Carter and launched MySpace in Europe, but he ranks the crowning achievement of his career to date as building Rubicon Project internationally over the last five... View Profile
9	Anthony Rhind	chief strategy officer	Adform
	Anthony Rhind has been in the industry more than 20 years. He has been leading global digital strategy at Adfrom since May 2015, prior to this he was global chief digital officer at Carat and global... View Profile
10	Louisa Wong	chief commercial officer	Amnet
	Louisa is the chief commercial officer for Amnet global. Her experience ranges from strategic sales, ad technology, data marketing solutions and developing targeting and optimisation strategies.... View Profile
11	Bruce Daisley	head of Europe	Twitter
	Bruce Daisley’s entry into the digital world came at Capital, and then Emap radio, where he took up the role of digital sales director and created a customer-focused digital team. Having previously... View Profile
12	Tom Roberts	managing director	Tribal Worldwide London
	Tom Roberts describes himself as "a digital veteran that is, slowly creeping towards the two-decade mark," Having started out at Billco New Media (an early incarnation of what is now... View Profile
13	Sarah Mansfield	vice-president, global media, Europe and Americas	Unilever
	View Profile
14	Phil Jones	founder and organiser	Podge Events
	Founder of the infamous Podge Lunch, Jones chaired the Typographic Circle for five years in the pre-digital era. He built and sold his type studio, APT Photoset, and became a visiting lecturer in... View Profile
15	Matt Isaacs	founding partner and executive chairman	Essence
	View Profile
16	Zac Pinkham	managing director, EMEA	Millennial Media
	Starting his career at GCapMedia, formerly Capital Radio Group, Zac Pinkham found himself as the only person in the building who (at the time) knew what CPM stood for. With more than 12 years in... View Profile
17	Robin Grant	global managing director	We Are Social
	Robin Grant has been working in digital marketing for 18 years. Six years ago he co-founded We Are Social alongside Nathan McDonald, a former account director at MRM Worldwide. We Are Social now... View Profile
18	Andy Mihalop	group head, Atlas	Facebook
	View Profile
19	Ajaz Ahmed	founder	AKQA
	Whenever you read a profile of Ajaz Ahmed, you’ll usually find terms such as ‘precocious’, ‘whizz-kid’ or ‘pioneer’, and not without good reason, given that Ahmed founded the hugely influential... View Profile
20	Chris Whitelaw	chief executive officer	iProspect
	Chris Whitelaw is the chief executive of iProspect, the UK’s leading digital performance marketing agency. A true entrepreneur, in 2012 Aegis PLC acquired iSpy, an award-winning agency that he... View Profile
21	Deirdre McGlashan	global chief digital officer	MediaCom
	Deirdre McGlashan kicked off her career during what she calls “the late 90s digital bloom” in San Francisco, and has gone on to work across a variety of digital marketing roles from strategy to... View Profile
22	James Whatley	digital director	Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, London
	James Whatley is Planning Partner - Innovation at Ogilvy & Mather Advertising London. He has a history of working mobile, social, and web as for his innovation remit at O&M, that's just... View Profile
23	Marco Bertozzi	president, global clients	VivaKi
	After moving through the ranks of ZenithOptimedia and TMP Worldwide, Marco Bertozzi joined VivaKi in 2010 and established addressable media buying practice Audience on Demand. In February he was... View Profile
24	Nicolas Roope	creative partner	Poke
	Nicolas Roope is a London-based cross-disciplinary creative entrepreneur behind Poke, Hulger, Plumen, Antirom and the Lovie Awards. He studied at Liverpool John Moores University in the early 90s... View Profile
25	Adam Sefton	executive creative director	Reading Room
	Having spent the majority his career as a planner, Adam Sefton was appointed as Reading Room’s group executive creative director at the start of 2014. Over the last 12 months, he has led the... View Profile
26	Mel Exon	managing director	Bartle Bogle Hegarty(BBH)
	Mel Exon joined BBH early in her career in 1997. Since then she has led the development of award-winning and effective cross-platform work for clients as diverse as Levi’s, British Airways,... View Profile
27	Paul Frampton	chief executive	Havas Media Group
	Previously a media planner buyer working with the likes of P&G, Cartier and Dockers, Paul Frampton entered the digital space in the early 2000s. He held the post of managing director at MPG... View Profile
28	Gregory Roekens	chief technology officer	AMV BBDO
	View Profile
29	Andy Hobsbawm	co-founder and chief marketing officer	EVRYTHNG
	Andy Hobsbawm established the first international web agency in 1994 and was European chairman of digital marketing firm Agency.com from 2003 to 2009. He is co-founder of award winning... View Profile
30	Guy Phillipson	chairman	iCrossing
	Guy Phillipson is chairman of iCrossing UK and former chief executive editor of the Internet Advertising Bureau, UK View Profile
31	Natalie Gross	chief executive	Amaze
	Natalie Gross is responsible for defining and driving the strategic and commercial direction at Amaze. She was recruited in 1999 by Roy Stringer and has since led the acquisition of Amaze by the... View Profile
32	David Coplin	chief envisioning officer	Microsoft
	Dave Coplin said he told his mum that one day he would be the “chief executive of a big company,” today he is chief envisioning officer at Microsoft. Since joining Microsoft in 2005, he has... View Profile
33	Laura Jordan Bambach	creative partner	Mr President
	2015 is Laura Jordan Bambach’s 21st year in digital, of which she says: “I guess that finally makes me grown-up.” Currently creative partner at Mr. President, she cut her teeth working at Geekgirl... View Profile
34	Daniel Kirby	chief executive	Techdept
	An art school graduate who now runs a tech company, Daniel Kirby has only ever worked at startups. He established Techdept in 2004, working as an innovation lab for brands like Microsoft, NBC... View Profile
35	Andrew Shebbeare	founding partner & global innovation director	Essence
	Andrew kicked off his career in the financial sector in analytics, where he says he learned "the impact that data-driven insight can have on a business." After a variety of roles in big... View Profile
36	Amy Kean	regional director, strategy, APAC	Mindshare Worldwide
	Amy Kean admits that she had “initial ambitions to be a do-gooder” and work in educational policy, but says she quickly realised she was far better “socially and emotionally” suited to PR. After... View Profile
37	Dylan Collins	chief executive	SuperAwesome
	Throughout his career, Dylan Collins has headed up several European video game tech companies, including DemonWare, which was acquired by Activision and Jolt Online, which was snapped up by GameStop... View Profile
38	Kathryn Parsons	chief executive	Decoded
	Kathryn Parsons co-founded Decoded in 2011 with a mission to spread “digital enlightenment” through an understanding of the world of coding, data and the technologies behind the screen. The business... View Profile
39	Fern Miller	chief strategy and insight officer, International	DigitasLBi
	Fern Miller cut her teeth as a graduate planner at Delaney Fletcher Bozell and has been working as a strategist ever since. While working for JWT, she scooped an APG Grand Prix for my work on... View Profile
40	Steve Parker	co-chief executive	Starcom MediaVest Group
	Steve Parker leads the strategic direction and management of Starcom Mediavest’s UK operation, working closely with the group’s global executive network. In the last five years, the agency credits... View Profile
40	Pippa Glucklich	co-chief executive	Starcom MediaVest Group
	As she puts it herself, Pippa Glucklich has always been “a media girl at heart”. She started as a media trainee at DMB&B (which became MediaVest), followed by a move to Initiative Media and... View Profile
41	Nick Bailey	chief executive and executive creative director	Isobar
	Over the past 18 years Nick Bailey has creatively directed some of the most recognised work in digital, as well as - he readily points out – "lots more work that scored high for effort but is... View Profile
42	Paul Wright	iAd director, EMEIA and APAC	Apple
	Paul Wright was appointed to the role of director of EMEIA at iAd, Apple’s mobile advertising network, in 2013, heading up the European, Middle East, India and Africa regions. Apple launched iAd... View Profile
43	Chris Perry	chief executive, UK	Wunderman
	Chris Perry started as a strategist at Ogilvy & Mather before launching DNA, one of the first UK digital advertising specialists in 1996. DNA was acquired by Razorfish and became the agency'... View Profile
44	Matt Adams	managing director	iProspect
	Matt Adams has spent the past seven years working agency-side, taking up the role of managing director at iProspect UK 10 months ago. 2015 has seen him lead a team of over 400 digital specialists... View Profile
45	Claire Hazle	head of digital	Marie Curie
	Claire Hazle has worked in the digital space for over 15 years. For the past 18 months she has served as Marie Curie’s head of digital, a newly-created role designed to build and lead the charity’... View Profile
46	Victoria Buchanan	creative director	Tribal Worldwide London
	Victoria Buchanan started her career in digital advertising more than two decades ago. It began in the fine art world with an interactive masters' degree, before progressing to interactive... View Profile
47	Mark Sherwin	managing director	Accenture Interactive
	Mark Sherwin has spent 20 years in the digital industry, mostly agency-side. In 2014 he made the leap to join Accenture's newly-formed digital business, and the past twelve months have seen... View Profile
48	Adrian Lomas	chief executive	Blueleaf
	Adrian founded award-winning digital commerce agency, Blueleaf over 15 years ago. As well steering Blueleaf in the right direction, Adrian is devoted to supporting the industry as a whole. He... View Profile
49	Michael Docherty	director of digital, insight and portfolio marketing	Cancer Research UK
	Michael Docherty is CRUK’s digital, insight and portfolio marketing director and has been with the charity since late 2007. In 2014 he helped drive the transformation of the group’s website to... View Profile
50	Richard Costa-D'Sa	chief executive	Deep Focus London
	Richard Costa D'Sa's career launched in 2004 when he joined digital agency i-level, running the Gillette, Sony and William Hill accounts before progressing to director at the agency's... View Profile
51	Nicole Yershon	director, innovative solutions	Ogilvy & Mather Group UK
	Nicole Yershon puts her success down to a “healthy appetite, an understanding of business, and an entrepreneurial streak”. She joined Ogilvy in 2000, and overhauled the agency’s broadcast and... View Profile
52	Matt Bush	head of performance	Google
	“Fell in to media from uni, made redundant, started a business, failed, did some local and National Press (The Guardian – should have stayed longer, fantastic place to work), joined VNU and there got... View Profile
53	Chris Baylis	executive creative director	iris Worldwide
	View Profile
54	Lawrence Weber	managing partner innovation	Karmarama
	Lawrence Weber has more than 15 years’ experience in digital, integrated and creative agencies, including LBi, Lida (MandC Saatchi), Work Club and The Brooklyn Brothers, joining Karmarama in 2012... View Profile
55	Stephen Waddington	chief engagement officer	Ketchum
	Stephen Waddington is chief engagement officer at Ketchum for Ketchum, an international PR firm with 2,500 practitioners across more than 100 markets. He is responsible for driving the integration of... View Profile
56	Nadya Powell	managing director	Sunshine
	Nadya Powell’s career in advertising began 15 years ago at Grey Interactive exploring WAP, video streaming and TV as interactive platforms. After almost four years at Grey she jumped ship to Dare... View Profile
57	James Temple	senior vice-president and executive creative director, EMEA	R/GA London
	James Temple is responsible for leading the vision and overseeing all creative work at R/GA’s London office, which opened its doors in 2006. Since then, he has grown the agency to over 160 people... View Profile
58	Paul Cooper	managing director	MediaCom Manchester
	Until January this year Paul Cooper was joint managing director of MediaCom i-LAB UK. He is currently managing director of the brand's Manchester operation where he has been tasked with... View Profile
59	Mary Keane-Dawson	digital business consultant, non-exec director, exec consultant	Freelance
	Mary Keane-Dawson’s career started at the Observer, in the dying days of the hot metal press and the dawn of desktop publishing. She’s since played a part in creating an impressive mix of... View Profile
60	Ben Dansie	chief executive	Omobono
	Ben Dansie cut his teeth in international marketing in Tokyo and Hong Kong before returning to the UK as Founder of Omobono – a digital agency focused on corporate brands. The firm now employs a... View Profile
61	Anjali Ramachandran	head of innovation	PHD
	Anjali Ramachandran is PHD Media’s head of innovation and co-founder of Ada’s List (a network for women in tech), an advisor to Angel Academe (a pro-women angel investment group) and a mentor to... View Profile
62	Nick Hynes	co-founder and chief executive	Somo
	After beginning his career as a fast-track graduate with British Airways, Nick Hynes helped pilot loss-making loyalty points brand Air Miles to a $62m profit within four years. He then pioneered... View Profile
63	Jordan Harper	technical director	iris Worldwide
	Following what he describes as a “misspent youth buried in Astro- and then Nuclear- physics,” Jordan Harper says his passion for the internet and “possibilities it creates” led him to a career in new... View Profile
64	Adam Stewart	global digital director	Vodafone
	As a teenager Adam Stewart established his own business in Australia and has since moved across a wide range of industry verticals in the UK, holding senior executive positions at Marks and Spencer,... View Profile
65	Jon Davie	UK chief executive	Zone
	Jon Davie has led Zone to a number of a blue-chip client wins including Coca-Cola, BT, Barratt Homes and Tesco. In January 2015, the agency announced the completion of a £6m equity investment... View Profile
66	Phil Guest	senior vice-president, International	The Exchange Lab
	Phil Guest’s 27 year media career spans TV, radio, print, digital and social where he led numerous commercial teams to success. Prior to joining The Exchange Lab in 2011, he worked for social... View Profile
67	Jonathan Milne	chief revenue officer	Celtra
	Jonathan Milne was named chief revenue officer of creative tech agency Celtra in September 2015. He joined the firm in March 2011 as general manager, EMEA, before also taking responsibility for... View Profile
68	Adam Graham	partner	Cact.us
	Adam is the Chairman of The British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) and a Partner at Cact.us – an "agency growth hacker". Prior to this, Adam was chief executive of Weapon7 and... View Profile
69	Tony Foggett	chief executive and owner	Code Computerlove
	Tony Foggett started as a digital designer in 1994 before setting up and leading the digital team for an event management business in Manchester, which led to jumping ship with two others and setting... View Profile
70	Anil Pillai	formerly chief executive UK, Middle East and Africa	DigitasLBi
	View Profile
71	Cat Turner	Co-Founder & CEO	Cult LDN
	Cat Turner’s experience in digital communications started in politics, where she set up political news site PoliticsHome and ran the digital campaign for the Lib Dems during the last election.... View Profile
72	Dom Burch	senior director, marketing innovation	Asda
	Dom Burch is the founder and MD of Why Social, a strategic marketing consultancy, and former senior director of marketing innovation and new revenue at Asda. Trained in PR, Dom has spent the last... View Profile
73	Ross Sleight	chief strategy officer	Somo
	Ross Sleight has spent the past two decades working in digital and has been a founding member of six digital businesses. At Somo he advises the likes of Red Bull and Universal Music on how to... View Profile
74	David Skerrett	managing partner	Nimbletank
	Now managing partner at Nimbletank, David Skerrett was previously head of mobile at R/GA and before that Havas. He has worked in digital for 15 years. Over the past seven months, his agency has... View Profile
75	Neil Miller	chief executive, UK	POSSIBLE
	Currently UK chief executive at Possible, Miller helped found one of the UK's first digital marketing companies, DNA. It was acquired by Razorfish in 2005 and he was appointed as chief executive... View Profile
76	Robert Shaw	chief executive, UK and Australia	Jaywing
	Rob Shaw left school and became a software developer before landing on his feet as a project manager and eventually an IT director. In recent years he has focused on leadership roles within... View Profile
77	Natalie Bell	managing director	Manning Gottlieb OMD
	After eight years at Manning Gottlieb OMD running a breadth of digital functions and teams, Natalie Bell has recently taken on the role as managing director, demonstrating the importance of the new... View Profile
78	David Harling	digital marketing director	moneysupermarket
	View Profile
79	Tarek Nseir	chief executive and co-founder	TH_NK
	Tarek Nseir was an early starter, founding the Th_nk agency in 2004 while still studying at university in Newcastle, before going on to open a London operation in 2008 and placing its first team... View Profile
80	Ben Hatton	managing director, digital services	Trinity Mirror
	View Profile
81	James Hilton	global chief executive	M&C Saatchi Mobile
	James Hilton founded M&C Saatchi Mobile (formally Inside Mobile), almost 10 years ago with the aim of providing international mobile marketing solutions “with a creative edge”. Coming top of... View Profile
82	Jerry Daykin	global digital partner	Carat
	Jerry Daykin currently leads global media partnerships for the Mondelez business, as well as supporting Carat's chief digital officer in driving social media best practice across a range of key... View Profile
83	Martin McNulty	chief executive	Forward3D
	View Profile
84	Michael Olaye	head of technology and innovation	Havas Worldwide London
	Michael Olaye kicked off his agency career at full-service agency Hyperlink-Interactive in 1999, developing WAP, ActionScript and Lingo. Afterwards he jumped ship to small Surrey-based startup... View Profile
85	Adam Clarkson	global business director	Holler
	Adam Clarkson kicked off his career at design shop Intact Design, having graduated with a degree in philosophy from the University of Greenwhich. He then worked for Teeming before moving on to... View Profile
86	Jonny Tooze	founder and managing director	Lab
	Jonny Tooze is the founder and managing director of independent digital agency Lab, which he said he “started from his bedroom as a kid by hiring some amazing people.” Having been listed in Bima... View Profile
87	Tim Malbon	founding partner	Made by Many
	View Profile
88	Clare Sutcliffe	co-founder chief executive	Code Club
	Clare Sutcliffe is co-founder and chief executive of Code Club – a nationwide network of free, after-school coding clubs for children aged 9-11 in the UK. She was named New Entrepreneur of the... View Profile
89	Jonathan Wall	group ecommerce director	Shop Direct Group
	Having worked in e-commerce since 1999, starting out with dabs.com, Jonathan Wall most recently joined Shop Direct in 2010 as group e-commerce director. Wall controls the commercial performance on... View Profile
90	Marc Keating	global director of digital and innovation	Stein IAS
	Marc Keating joined Stein IAS in 2005. He has since led the agency to win 30+ BMA digital awards, Social Media Agency of the Year at The Drum’s digital awards, RAR Digital Agency of the Year, MPA... View Profile
91	Martin Kelly	chief executive and co-founder	Infectious Media
	View Profile
92	Tiffany St James	co-founder	Transmute
	Former head of social media for the UK government, Tiffany St James spent a decade leading digital change programmes. She also spent five years working for FTSE 100 firms before founding her own... View Profile
93	Andy Sandoz	creative partner	Havas Work Club
	Andy Sandoz is founder and creative partner at Havas Work Club. Previously creative director at Agency Republic, he has held a variety of roles in the arts including: TV channel brander, designer... View Profile
94	Simon Penson	founder and managing director	Zazzle Media
	View Profile
95	Gemma Howley	head of PPC	Manning Gottlieb OMD
	Gemma Howley kicked off her career in search when she came to London in 2006. After two years at digital-only agency Diffiniti, she moved to MG Omanaging director as a planner on its multi-million... View Profile
96	Zoe Collins	creative director	Jamie Oliver Ltd/Fresh One Productions
	View Profile
97	Fern Potter	head of search and programmatic, EMEA	MediaCom
	View Profile
98	Poppy Dinsey	founder	WIWT.com
	Poppy Dinsey is a precocious young entrepreneur carving her own stylish niche in the digital world. She started blogging in 1999 (aged just 11) and has since turned her hobby into the flourishing... View Profile
99	John Newbold	Co-founder	383 Project
	John Newbold co-founded award winning customer experience studio 383 in 2005 and the studio has experienced strong growth every year since. Under his direction, 383 has attracted a list of... View Profile
100	Tom Smith	chief executive	GlobalWebIndex
	Tom Smith founded GlobalWebIndex in 2009 in response to a lack of robust, up-to-date insight on the digital consumer. Driven by an explosion of new media channels and platforms, consumption was... View Profile

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