The IPA is celebrating seven advertising industry greats for their outstanding service and for raising the reputation of adland at large.
They will be bestowed an IPA Fellowship (FIPA) or Honorary Fellowship (Hon. FIPA) at the IPA President’s Reception on Thursday 9 January.
Commenting on the awards, IPA Director General Paul Bainsfair said: "It is always special to announce the IPA New Year Honours as it is our chance to honour and recognise the extraordinary contributions that key individuals have made to the advertising industry. Annie, Belinda, Catherine, Chris, Josh, Keith and Matt have all had remarkable careers and played a pivotal role in driving adland forward."
Annie, Belinda, Catherine, Chris, Josh, Keith and Matt join 34 other industry stalwarts to be honoured in the IPA New Year Honours since 2019. The previous honourees are Rosie Arnold, Jenny Biggam, Karen Blackett CBE, Helen Calcraft, Damian Collins MP, Patrick Collister, Tony Cullingham, Magnus Djaba, Mel Edwards, Jan Gooding, Sarah Golding, Sir John Hegarty, Johnny Hornby, Pip Hulbert, Carl Johnson, Annette King, Vicki Maguire, Alex Mahon, Patrick Mills, Sebastian Munden, James Murphy, Mark Read, Mark Ritson, Nishma Patel Robb, Trevor Robinson OBE, Charlie Rudd, Aline Santos, Ridley Scott, Jeremy Sinclair CBE, Dame Cilla Snowball, Philip Thomas, Charles Vallance, Nigel Vaz and Michael Wall.
A further 41 individuals have been celebrated in the IPA Summer Honours since 2019 for their services to the advertising industry and to the IPA. The honorees are Dan Appleby, Adam Ben-Yousef, Michael Brown, Peter Buckley, Lindsey Clay, Phil Coverdale, Sarah Ellis, Rhian Feather (MIPA), Vicky Fox, Neil Godber, Simon Harwood (MIPA), Neil Henderson, Sera Holland, Jackie Holt, Kate Howe, Janet Hull OBE, Sarah Jenkins, Margaret Jobling, Simon Jones, Tim Jones, Jon Kershaw (MIPA), Valerie Ludlow (MIPA), Chris Macleod, Tony Mattson (MIPA), Dame Carolyn McCall, Sheila Mitchell, Marc Nohr, James Pais, David Payne, Sam Phillips, Andy Reid, Lynne Robinson, Richard Shotton, Harjot Singh, Lisa Thompson (MIPA), Amelia Torode, Sue Unerman, Nicky Unsworth, David Wheldon, Steve Wilcox and Orlando Wood.
Chris joined the IPA Commercial Leadership Group in 2020 and was its chair from February 2022 until September 2024. During his tenure as Chair, he helped IPA members navigate the huge amount of change brought about by COVID. The group reverted to face-to-face meetings, hosted the flagship Business Growth Conference once again in person and galvanised members generally to come to terms with ‘the new norm’.
Chris’ particular focus was on how agencies can become both more profitable and sustainable, to ensure agencies and the industry are fit for the future. By helping to drive conversations around how we can achieve long term sustainable growth and do things ‘right’, he paved the way for the creation of a dedicated IPA Sustainability Action Group to keep the conversation current and relevant.
As well as his responsibilities as COO at OMD UK he transitioned into a new role at OMG and throughout has always been very generous with his time. He remains a member of the IPA Council.
Annie is the recently appointed Managing Director of TBWA London. For the past 3 years, she has been running Deloitte Digital's creative agency ACNE London, which she joined from ENGINE (now House 337). Annie began her career at Leo Burnett, moving onto Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, and has worked both client and agency side of the industry leading multi-award-winning integrated campaigns for multiple organisations, including large international brands and public sector bodies. Prior to her role as managing director at ENGINE, Annie held leadership positions at Grey London and, on the client side, was Head of Marketing at Waterstones, launching their website and loyalty scheme.
Annie has been closely involved with the IPA for many years. She sits on its Council and Membership Committee, and was the chair of the Talent Leadership Group, focusing on diversity and representation in the advertising and marketing community from 2021 to 2023. She is a member of WACL.
Josh is responsible for managing GroupM’s business strategy, operations, and growth across EMEA. He has been part of GroupM since 2011 when he first joined MediaCom as Chief Operating Officer for EMEA. Since that time, he has held various leadership positions in the UK, Regionally and Globally within EssenceMediacom and GroupM/WPP.
Josh is known across the industry more broadly as a champion for cultural change and mental health awareness. He is a trustee of Transformation Trust, advancing career development opportunities for children from underprivileged backgrounds. He is a Founding member of the MS Society Appeal Board, raising £100m for MS Research, and a Founding Member the World Wellbeing Movement. In December 2022, Josh was nominated to serve as President of the IPA, taking up the post in March 2023.
As IPA President, Josh launched a People First Agenda to open people’s eyes to the ad industry and open the hearts and minds of those working within agencies, to boost the overall health and wealth of the agency business. This included development of a pool of mental health resources through Adland’s Wellbeing Lab and the creation of the People First Promise Badge of Honour for companies that demonstrate their commitment to their people’s mental health and wellbeing. To date, more than 100 companies are fulfilling the People First Promise, meaning that thousands of industry people are being supported and empowered by their employers to prioritise their mental health and wellbeing.
Belinda retired from her role as Research Director at the IPA at the end of 2024. She joined the IPA in 2007, assuming responsibility for the day-to-day running of the TouchPoints survey which had been launched in the previous year. Under her expert stewardship TouchPoints has grown into a multi-million-pound research project with over 75 subscribers spanning a diverse range of agencies, media owners and industry bodies.
Belinda became IPA Research Director in 2018, when Lynne Robinson retired. In this role she represented IPA agencies in major industry media research contracts, including ABC, BARB, JICMAIL and Route, ensuring agency interests were always considered. She has also been an active and much respected voice within the Media Research Group, serving as Chair as well as Head Judge for the Adwanted Media Research Awards. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Market Research Society, celebrating her efforts to evolve audience measurement methodologies.
Belinda’s impact on the IPA and the broader media industry will be felt for years to come. Her advocacy for collaborative industry efforts and her leadership in groundbreaking projects like TouchPoints have shaped media research into what it is today.
Across ten years at Thinkbox as their Director of Research and Planning, Matt has been both a voice of reason and occasional provocateur in the contested world of advertising effectiveness. An inspired commissioner of best-in-class research and persuasive storyteller in his own right, Matt is committed to finding and telling industry truths in an era of claim and counterclaim.
There can't be many creative or media agencies in the UK that haven’t benefited in some way from his smarts and generosity of spirit. Matt deserves his Fellowship for his contribution to Thinkbox’s ‘nickable slides’ alone. Matt started a new role at Sky Media as Director of Insight and Measurement in January 2025.
Catherine Kehoe is a trailblazer in financial services marketing. Over a remarkable 15-year tenure, Catherine propelled the Lloyds brand to new heights and now, as Chief Customer Officer at Nationwide, she continues to redefine excellence in the field.
A passionate advocate of marketing effectiveness, Catherine was the natural choice to serve as Chair of Judges for the 2024 IPA Effectiveness Awards. Her unwavering belief in the transformative power of effectiveness shone through at every stage of the judging process. Under her considered guidance, the panel of brand marketers identified five gold winners, representing the best of the best.
Catherine delivered an inspiring speech at the Awards ceremony in October 2024. Addressing an audience of industry-leading minds, she celebrated the magic of the big idea, the importance of lifelong learning and the joy of collaboration.
Keith joined Unilever in 1983 as a marketer, working for the company in various roles in the UK, France, the United States and globally. He served as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer between 2010 and 2019, during which time he pioneered new ways of integrating sustainability in business and led the creation of Unilever’s "sustainable living plan", which sought to grow Unilever while reducing its environmental footprint and increasing its social impact.
Keith is committed to tackling stereotypes – gender and beyond – in advertising through Unilever's #Unstereotype initiative and is the architect behind the #Unstereotype Alliance, co-created with UN Women.
Outside Unilever, Weed has served as President of both the Advertising Association and The Marketing Society, of which he is a fellow. He is also a Board Director of WPP plc and Sainsbury’s plc, Senior Advisor to AlixPartners, Advisor to McLaren F1, President and Chair of the Board for the Royal Horticultural Society, Chair of the Unstereotype Alliance UK, Board member of Business in the Community, Trustee of the Leverhulme Trust and Board member of Grange Park Opera.