Judges

Philip Smith - Chair of the Judges, Head of Content Solutions, Haymarket Brand Republic Group

Philip Smith is Head of Content Solutions, Haymarket Brand Republic Group, which includes the following business magazines and brands: Campaign, Brandrepublic.com, Marketing, Media Week, Pr Week, Revolution and Event. He is responsible for production and commercial success of the business-to-business portfolios’ creative solutions team and brand extensions including web sites, events and print specials and supplements. In 2010, Smith headed up the online publishing for several of Haymarket’s key business-to-business titles, including Management Today, PR Week, Planning and Regeneration & Renewal. He successfully relaunched the web site for MT, Haymarket’s market-leading business and management title, at Managementtoday.com in September 2010. Having spent the best part of a decade at Haymarket, the largest independent magazine publisher in the UK, Smith was, for three years, the head of digital content at Brand Media, home of Campaign, Marketing, Media Week, Revolution and Brandrepublic.com, the online marketing, media and advertising portal.

Gayle Noah, Media Manager, L'Oreal UK and Ireland

Gayle Noah has over 15 years experience gained in several sides of the media industry. She is currently Media Manager at L'Oreal UK & Ireland, having worked as a buyer at several top media agencies, and assisted the CRR Adjudicator at Ofcom. She moved client-side almost 6 years ago, and re-discovered a whole media world beyond television, including a passion for outdoor. Gayle lives in West London and regularly enjoys a competitive game of netball.

Andrew Mortimer, Director of Media Strategy & Planning, BSkyB

Andrew is the Director of Media Strategy & Planning at BSkyB, responsible for managing Sky’s above-the-line advertising budget.  He joined Sky in June 2010 from Manning Gottlieb OMD where he was the board director responsible for running the Communications Planning department and worked on clients across the Virgin Group and COI.  Prior to this he worked at Vizeum and Saatchi & Saatchi.  He has been lucky enough to win three Campaign Media Awards, the Grand Prix at the MediaWeek Awards, the Grand Prix at the Cannes Media Lions and an IPA Effectiveness award for Carling, the Home Office, the MS Society and Virgin Atlantic.

James Hilton, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, AKQA

AKQA co-founder, James Hilton, is one of the world's most recognized and widely respected creative directors. James co-founded AKQA in 1995 as Creative Director. Now Chief Creative Officer, James has been at the forefront of an industry which has seen AKQA grow to become the world’s largest independent digital agency with offices in London, Amsterdam, New York, Washington DC, San Francisco, Shanghai and Berlin. As a world leader in design and creativity, James has collected a multitude of global awards; most recently the Creativity 50, a list of the most influential and inspiring creative personalities of 2010, the Grand Prix Cannes Cyber Lion for Fiat eco:Drive and the Gold Cyber Lion for Heineken’s Star Player. Often lecturing on the international circuit, he has also served as a judge for such highly respected industry awards as Cannes Lions, Webby Awards, as Jury Chairman for the Clio Awards and EuroBest 2010. James lives in Dulwich, South London, with a couple of motorcycles, a collection of old things, some dead goldfish and an overgrown garden.

Marc Mendoza, CEO, MPG Media Conacts

Marc is ultimately responsible for delivering outstanding results for both MPG Media Contacts clients and shareholders. Marc joined MPG in 1997, and has worked in the media industry for 27 years. He previously worked for WCRS and in his time has experience of planning and buying for clients including BMW, Prudential, RHM,  Mercedes. He was also involved in the launches of Orange, Sega, The National Lottery and ING Direct in UK. Marc currently works with clients including BBC, The Conservative Party, Camelot, bmi, Magners, EDF Energy and Credit Suisse. He sits on the IPA Futures Group, is a trustee of NABS and a patron of The Pepper Foundation whilst developing a role as the advertising industry’s charity auctioneer. Marc is Married with two teenage daughters and lives in Buckinghamshire.

Matthew Dearden, CEO Clear Channel UK / President Clear Channel UK and Ireland

Matthew Dearden is Chief Executive Clear Channel UK and Ireland, and a member of Clear Channel International’s Executive Committee which provides leadership, direction and resources across all its businesses. Matthew joined Clear Channel in August 2010 to lead the company’s vision, strategy and plans for growth, and is responsible for managing more than 650 employees in the UK across all functions including sales, marketing, operations, finance, IT, HR, legal and development. Prior to joining Clear Channel, he was Marketing Director for BT’s Consumer business where he was responsible for acquiring and keeping over 10m customers. During his six years at BT, Matthew also held the roles of Director of Voice Services, Chief Executive BT Directories and General Manager of Directory, Operator & Emergency Services.

Mick Style, Managing Director, MEC Manchester

Mick previously worked at CIA Manchester where he rose to Broadcast Director and took the MD role at MEC Manchester in 2003. Under his tenure, MEC has grown to 60 people in Manchester, accelerating its digital and search marketing capabilities and names Lloyds Banking Group, PZ Cussons, Shearings Group, Dr Oetker and Seven Seas amongst its clients. Mick has led MEC to win five Agency of the Year accolades over the last three years including winning How-Do’s Media Agency of the Year three times. Mick attributes the agency’s success to matching the agency’s push in new business, and into digital in particular, with excellence in client service. In his own words, Mick's a 'fell-bred' Cumbrian, a keen racing cyclist with more passion than raw talent, a Neil Young and Clash fan amongst a thousand other artists, and, giving away his vintage, once sported a fine Morrissey style quiff!

Mike Baker, CEO, Outdoor Media Centre

A modern languages graduate, Mike taught English in Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Japan. Mike has worked in outdoor since 1996, as UK marketing director with TDI and then in marketing and development roles at Viacom Outdoor and CBS Outdoor. His other media roles were at Thames TV, The Sunday Correspondent newspaper, and IPC Magazines, where he was ad marketing director.

Russell Place, Chief Strategy Officer, UM

Russell began his media career at WCRS as a media planner/buyer. He rose to the level of Associate Director before moving to Saatchi’s as a Group Planning Director and handling the launch of The Lottery in the UK.  He moved back to WCRS to set up a discipline neutral Communications Planning team initially working on BMW and the launch of new MINI. In three years he doubled the income and the size of the team, adding prestigious projects from Vodafone, Anchor and COI to retained business. Russell joined UM as a Communications Planning Director in 2002, was promoted to Head of Planning and now holds the role of Chief Strategy Officer.  His role at UM is to ensure that UM is constantly evolving its product. He has played a significant role in establishing CURIOSITY, created new ways of working and a new operational model, and has diversified the agency’s services in order to drive organic growth opportunities. Russell has also been integral to UM new business success, leading the agency to many major wins including the likes of Dairy Crest, Nickelodeon, General Mills, Burton's Foods and Autoglass.
 

Tracy De Groose, Managing Director, Carat

Tracy has spent 20 years tackling some of the UK's biggest marketing and communications challenges, both client and agency side. Since joining Carat in September 2010, she has been working with clients such as Disney, Kellogg’s and Diageo to re-structure teams and approach media to find new and different ways to deliver business value. Over the past five years, Carat has won more major awards than any other media agency, from Cannes Media Lions to Marketing Society awards. During her time at Whitbread Beer Company, Tracy led Stella Artois from top 20 to a top 10 FMCG, winning FMCG brand of the year in 1998. At media agency Starcom Motive, as communications director, Tracy helped conceive and implement award winning creative media campaigns for Stella Artois, Levi’s and Johnnie Walker, both in the UK and internationally. At Naked Communications, as its first UK managing director, she helped build, scale and sell an international business anchored around communications strategy (that many said couldn’t be done!).