The IPA is recognising the outstanding services to advertising of five industry luminaries in its third annual New Year Honours.
Each of the honourees has raised the reputation of the industry at large throughout their careers and will be awarded FIPA (Fellow of the IPA) status.
2021 IPA New Year Honours’ List:
- Annette King, CEO, Publicis Groupe UK
- Mark Read, Chief Executive Officer, WPP
- Trevor Robinson OBE, Founder and Executive Creative Director, Quiet Storm
- Nigel Vaz, IPA President and CEO, Publicis Sapient
- Michael Wall, Global CEO and Partner, Mother
Says Paul Bainsfair, Director General, IPA: “It is always a pleasure to announce our New Year Honours, celebrating the service to our industry of some of advertising’s exemplars, particularly following such a difficult year for us all.
Annette, Mark, Trevor, Nigel and Michael have made a huge impact on advertising throughout their storied careers. They have each driven the industry forward in so many ways, and will continue to do so for many years to come.
“I am delighted to be able to recognise their significant contributions to adland in our New Year Honours. Congratulations to each of these remarkable individuals.”
Annette, Mark, Trevor, Nigel and Michael join 11 other industry stalwarts to be honoured in the IPA New Year Honours since 2019. The previous honourees are Jenny Biggam, Karen Blackett OBE, Helen Calcraft, Sarah Golding, Sir John Hegarty, Johnny Hornby, Carl Johnson, James Murphy, Jeremy Sinclair CBE, Dame Cilla Snowball and Charles Vallance.
In addition to the New Year Honours’ List for services to the advertising industry, the IPA will honour exceptional individuals for their services to the IPA in its annual Summer Honours’ List later this year.
Annette King
Annette King became the first CEO of Publicis Groupe UK, one of the so-called ‘big four’ holding companies, in 2018. King is in charge of 21 agencies and 5,000 people under one P&L.
King’s job is to accelerate transformation within Publicis Groupe UK so that the company can deliver exponential growth for its clients. The agencies reporting into King include Saatchi & Saatchi, Leo Burnett, Digitas, Zenith, Starcom, Langland and MSL.
King has revitalised the business, streamlining the structure, bringing in new capabilities and expertise so that people with creative, media, technology, data, influence and consulting backgrounds can be brought together for clients, which include six of the UK’s top 10 advertisers. In 2019, she introduced flexible working and a company-wide mental health programme.
Until 2017, King was CEO of Ogilvy UK, with responsibility for its 10 operating companies. Under her leadership the business won a string of high profile accounts including BA and Boots. She was previously CEO and Chairman of OgilvyOne, joining the agency in 2000 after eight years at Wunderman, in London and New York.
King is Chair of the Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board, a mentor for the Marketing Academy, and an active member of Women in Advertising and Communications London, the Marketing Group of Great Britain and The Thirty Club. She lives in London with her husband and two children.
Mark Read
Mark was appointed CEO of WPP in September 2018. He has held multiple leadership positions at WPP, having first joined the Company in 1989. As Head of Strategy and then CEO of WPP Digital, Mark was responsible for WPP’s first moves into technology.
Earlier in his career, he co-founded internet start-up WebRewards and specialised in media and marketing as a principal at consultancy Booz Allen & Hamilton.
In 2015, he became Global CEO of Wunderman, which he transformed into one of the world’s leading creative, data and technology agencies.
Mark is regularly named among the world’s top digital influencers. He is the Chairman of the Natural History Museum Digital Council, a member of the Male Champions for Change Global Tech Group, and was recognised as a HERoes Champion of Women in Business in 2018, 2019 and 2020.
Trevor Robinson OBE
Trevor Robinson OBE is one of the most high profile and highly regarded people in advertising, despite being told at the age of 11 by his school careers advisor he’d have more chance of being a bus driver. A background that has enabled him to keep his feet firmly on the ground and to create populist ideas, loved by real people.
He has been responsible for some of the most famous and talked about advertising of his era from the iconic and multi-award winning ‘You’ve Been Tango-ed’ Orange Slap to the more recent Haribo ‘Kids Voices’ campaign.
In 1995 he set up Quiet Storm, the first agency to write, direct and produce its own work. To this day we are still one of the few agencies where creatives direct their own work. Trevor is recognised in influencer lists including Debretts 500, Campaign’s A List, The Drum Top 100 Adverati and Creative Pool’s top 100 influencers 2020, as well as winning the UK Black British Business Award for top senior entrepreneur this year and Oystercatcher’s ‘outstanding, lifetime contribution to the industry’ award. He is a regular main stage speaker at Cannes Lions on creativity and craft. And in 2019 he was president of the craft jury, and the festivals ambassador for the craft category.
He’s chaired the IPA’s Ethnic Diversity Forum, is part of the IPA’s iList and set up “Create Not Hate” in 2007. Create Not Hate works to open pathways for underrepresented young people into the creative industries, through hands-on experience with creative projects, whilst also tackling social issues through communication in the wider world to drive positive change from all angles. He reignited the organisation in 2020 mobilising a staggering amount of industry wide support. Trevor was awarded an OBE in 2009 for his services to charity and advertising.
Nigel Vaz
He has held a variety of leadership positions with Sapient prior to its acquisition by Publicis Groupe, where he now serves as a member of its Executive Committee, charged with identifying opportunities to help clients drive growth and efficiency and evolve the ways they work in a world where consumer behaviour and technology are catalysing social and commercial change at an unprecedented pace.
Nigel’s roots are in business strategy and technology, where he has consistently helped clients to build businesses and create sustainable value propositions for their brands by operating at the intersection of strategic thinking, creativity and technology. Prior to Sapient, he was a successful entrepreneur – co-founding a public company with interests in telecoms, consulting and connectivity solutions. He has also been a key advisor for a number of companies including AT&T/Cingular, McKinsey and Company, Orange, Siemens, Telkom SA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.
As part of Sapient’s executive leadership team, he drove the evolution of the European business and helped to build Sapient into one of the largest digital professional services companies in the UK from a start-up in the space of a decade, including its expansion beyond the UK to be a significant presence in Europe. He went on to lead the Sapient business in EMEA and APAC and its evolution to SapientNitro, as well as playing a key role in the successful integration of Razorfish to create SapientRazorfish within the Publicis Sapient digital business transformation hub.
In his current role leading a business with expertise spanning technology, data sciences, consulting and creative, Nigel acts as strategic advisor on complex transformation initiatives that accelerate the businesses of clients including Lloyds Banking Group, BNP Paribas, Carrefour, M&S and Unilever.
Nigel is President of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and a board director of The Marketing Society. He is an inductee of the BIMA Digital Hall of Fame (British Interactive Marketing Association).
Michael Wall
Michael joined Mother in 2015 as Mother’s first Global CEO, and oversees its network of offices across London, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Singapore and Madre. In his role, Michael continues to develop Mother’s unique set of capabilities and portfolio of clients, all the while maintaining Mother’s fierce independence. Previously, Global CEO of Lowe and Partners, Michael spent six years returning the network to growth and overseeing the development of international clients, culminating in the successful merger of Mullen Lowe. Michael was also a founding partner of Fallon London, and was instrumental in launching and developing the Fallon brand into one of the most admired agencies in the world, with work for clients including VW’s Skoda, Sony Consumer Electronics, Cadbury and France Telecom’s Orange.
Last updated 01 May 2024