Judges

THE MOST

effective

marketing

leaders

JUDGES

2023

Chief executive, Thinkbox Following a career in advertising at agencies including McCann Erickson and J Walter Thompson, Lindsey's love of telly drew her to Thinkbox, the UK marketing body for commercial TV, where she now leads the brilliant team who make it their mission to help brands get the best out of today’s TV. Lindsey is a passionate and persuasive advocate of the power of TV advertising, the benefits of gender equality and the joy of netball. A regular industry speaker, commentator and awards judge, Lindsey is also a member and former president of WACL (Women in Advertising and Communication Leadership), a member and former president of the Global TV Group, a fellow of the Marketing Society, an honorary fellow of the IPA and a member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain. Lindsey is a trustee of The Rank Foundation and chairs the Rank Fellowship, its School Leadership Award alumni group. She also serves as a non-exec director of its TV production company, CTVC.■

Lindsey Clay

CEO, The Marketing Society Sophie Devonshire’s career began with classic management training at Procter & Gamble and then Coca-Cola. She later moved agency-side with Leo Burnett in the Middle East and Interbrand in London. She set up her own ecommerce business during the global financial crisis, which she sold before running a luxury gifts business and an award-winning business consultancy. In July 2020, Sophie became CEO of The Marketing Society, a global community of senior marketers whose purpose is to empower brave leaders. Founded in London in 1959, it now has hubs in the UK, the UAE, the US, India, Singapore and Hong Kong. She is a passionate advocate of flexible and dynamic working as the future of effective companies. Her book on 21st-century leadership, Superfast: Lead at Speed, was published by John Murray Press and was shortlisted for Business Book of the Year, as well as reaching the number one spot on Amazon.■

Sophie devonshire

Partner, Passionbrand, and Marketing Week columnist Helen Edwards has an MBA from London Business School and a PhD in marketing. An award-winning business columnist, she is a regular industry awards judge and speaker. She is co-author of the publication Creating Passion Brands: How to Build Emotional Brand Connection with Customers, and is a partner at strategic brand consultancy Passionbrand. Helen is a member of the executive education teaching team for brand management at London Business School and co-teaches the brand management elective for the MBA course at the University of Bath School of Management. She also writes a monthly column for Marketing Week.■

Helen Edwards

CEO, Pearl & Dean Kathryn Jacob has extensive experience in many areas of the media industry, including national newspapers, magazines and radio. She has also turned her hand to running cross-media initiatives that expanded her role into television, posters, radio and cinema. Now, as CEO of Pearl & Dean, she focuses on film and cinema. Building on the cinema advertising company’s reputation, her team has grown its activities outside of the usual tried-and-tested venues into pop-up cinema, cinemas on luxury ships, film partnerships and product placement. Previously, Kathryn was managing director of SMG Access, commercial director of Virgin Radio and agency sales director of IPC Magazines.■

Kathryn Jacob

Managing director, Hill+Knowlton Strategies Tanya Joseph is a marketing and communications professional who has a particular expertise in behaviour change. She was the architect of 'This Girl Can', a Sport England campaign designed to encourage more women and girls to get active. She has spent her entire professional life in communications, starting as a journalist before becoming a press secretary, initially to the UK’s lord chancellor and then the prime minister, a role she held for more than four years. In 2003 she left the Civil Service for a senior role at international agency Grayling. She has advised companies including Tesco and Mars, and worked in-house at Sport England and Nationwide. She is currently managing director of specialist services at Hill+Knowlton Strategies. Tanya is a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and director of campaigning for Women in Advertising and Communications, London (WACL).■

tanya joseph

Founder and CEO, The Marketing Academy Sherilyn Shackell is the founder and CEO of The Marketing Academy, a unique non-profit organisation dedicated to the development of leadership talent in the world of marketing, media and advertising. In the UK, Australia and US, it brings together some of the world’s best-known brands to provide world-class learning for young leaders through to CMOs. When she gets the chance, Sherilyn writes about talent engagement and development – a particular passion – and all things ‘leadership’, and her many articles have been published in The Sunday Times, Fast Company, The Telegraph, AdNews, Marketing Week, AdWeek and Management Today. Her background includes 25 years spent as a board-level headhunter before selling her company, and she served eight years on the global board of IMD International Search Group. She is currently a board advisor to Grace Blue executive search CMO practice and WeAreFearless.■

Sherilyn Shackell

Director general, ISBA ISBA is the voice of British advertisers, and Phil Smith’s broad marketing and general management career has spanned packaged goods, grocery retail, consultancy and marketing technology startups. He spent 10 years at Kraft, latterly as vice-president of strategy for Western Europe. He was marketing and trading director for Kwiksave before joining the board of Somerfield as group marketing director. Phil joined National Lottery operator Camelot in 2002, becoming commercial and operations director before being appointed managing director of Musgrave GB in 2007. He was commercial director for the 1,000-boat Thames diamond jubilee pageant in 2012. He has also worked on a number of early-stage and startup digital businesses, most recently with Ecrebo, the point-of-sale marketing specialist.■

Phil Smith

CEO, Advertising Association 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, adam&eveDDB and Next 15). He is a governor of Ravensbourne University in London, the UK’s newest creative and technology university. Stephen is a past president of NABS and serves on the board of the History of Advertising Trust. He was IPA president between 2003 and 2005 where he led both the organisation's first ethnic diversity initiative and launched its professional qualifications for new industry entrants, which more than 20,000 people have now passed in the UK and around the world.■

Stephen Woodford

Former CMO, RBS Group Described by Marketing Week in February 2021 as blissfully semi-retired, David Wheldon is an advisor to Accenture/Accenture Song, non-executive chairman of Pablo, senior advisor to Lansons, member of the corporate advisory boards of The Donmar Warehouse and Teenage Cancer Trust and a mentor/coach. He presents the WFA Better Marketing podcasts, is the president emeritus of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), an ex-chair of the MGGB, fellow of the IPA, fellow of The Marketing Society and was awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to advertising and marketing. He had a long and varied full-time career, starting out in advertising at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1983 and ending as chief marketing and communications officer of NatWest Group and member of the executive committee, stepping down with serendipitous timing in March 2020.■

David Wheldon

CEO, Digitas UK Jen is leading Digitas’s mission to harness the power of connection to create positive impact for clients, her team and society every day. A dynamic and future-facing leader, Jen has worked with some of the world’s most influential brands during her career including Unilever, Citi, Marriott and the United Nations. Jen puts people at the core of everything she does and thrives on the ability to connect the latest technologies, creative experiences, media and data to create solutions that impact business, consumers and culture.■

Jen berry

Managing partner, Oystercatchers Gill is managing partner of Oystercatchers and is responsible for overseeing all client relationships and successful project delivery. She is a media specialist with a strong understanding of traditional and digital communication channels, as well as the optimum ways to ensure brands always leverage their creative ideas and assets. Gill has held senior leadership positions in both Posterscope and Starcom MediaVest, where she led the client management teams, working on large multinationals including Heineken, McDonald’s, Bupa and Peugeot. Gill sits on the board of WACL (the world’s oldest organisation for women in advertising) and is a member of the MSc Strategic Marketing Advisory Board at Imperial College Business School, London.■

Gill HUBER

methodology

judges

analysis