Chair, The Gate
Stephen is The Chair of The Gate - the multi award winning integrated creative agency that works for clients such as The AA , AkzoNobel/ Dulux, Royal Mail ,3’s SMARTY Mobile , Shell and Very
The Gate is part of the MSQ micro agency network and is a leader in joined-up brand and customer experience creativity . It is a product of the merger of The Gate and MBAstack in March 2024 - designed to partner progressive marketers looking for strong integration of and deep expertise in brand building, customer experience and CRM, in order to build the powerful brands of the future
The agency offers clients this powerful blend of creativity, data and technology to deliver on The Gate's promise: "Find the gate, walk through walls."
The Gate has won over 50 awards for creativity at Cannes Lions, D&AD, EFFIEs, APG Awards, Creative Circle, One Show, CLIOS, The Marketing Society Awards and Transport for London's Diversity in Advertising competition
It has been awarded the prestigious IPA CPD Platinum accolade for its talent development 9 years’ running , supports many industry DEI initiatives such as Advertising Unlocked and is a BCorp company
After graduating with an MA in Modern History from Balliol College Oxford in 1983, Stephen entered agency account management working at agencies including AMV/BBDO and TBWA/ Simons Palmer before founding MBA in 1994 and then merging the agency with MSQ’s Stack in 2021
Stephen is Chair of the DMA , Ambassador and previous Chair of The Marketing Society and sits on IPA Effectiveness Board as well as being an IPA Fellow and Council Member. He is an Oystercatchers Fellow , a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, features in Debrett's ‘People of Today , is a Tech London Advocate , an E2E Ambassasdor, a Scale Up Institute Ambassador and sits on the Commercial Board of BAFTA
Stephen regularly speaks on behalf of the UK marketing and digital communications industry including on trade missions to China, the US and South America as well as in the UK, such as at the British Olympic Business Summit at Lancaster House and for UKAEG at CogX Createch on UK China Collaboration. He also regularly comments on industry issues – such our belief in ‘Total UX’ , on ‘Taking The Con Out of Content’ , Agencies’ ‘Techno-creative ‘ future , brand safety and Effectiveness
A keen Chelsea fan and failed rock guitarist, Stephen lives in South London with his wife and four children