The Future of Diversity

Sarah Jenkins

Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi

Sarah joined Saatchi & Saatchi in December 2019. and drives the day-to-day agency as well as running client business including Britvic and GSK Previously a 9 year veteran of Grey London where she was responsible for some of the agency’s flagship creative accounts - including The British Heart Foundation and Lucozade. Sarah has worked in both global network agencies and start ups and across organisations as diverse as Mars, GSK, P&G and the Home Office. A staunch believer in the need for greater diversity of talent at all levels across advertising, Sarah helps lead the industry wide Advertising Diversity Task Force, She is also a Trustee of the Historic Royal Palaces so has a side hustle looking after the Crown Jewels.

Articles from Sarah Jenkins

Lydia Amoah

Black Pound Author & Business Coach

Lydia Amoah is recognised as Britain’s leading authority on diversity and cultural inclusion. An award-winning business coach, TV presenter and campaigner she has helped thousands of people transform their lives and improved many businesses. Her clients have included the BBC, ITV, Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph, Channel 4, Bank of Ireland, EY and the NHS. She is well known on the speaking circuit as a keynote speaker and frequently appears in other media. Lydia is also a researcher. She pioneered and authored The Black Pound Report, which explores the spending power of the Black, Asian and Multi-Ethnic consumers and how these communities are underrepresented in our current advertising landscape. Lydia is also the architect of the STOPIT Protocol, a new policy to protect employees from online and offline racism and hate crimes.

Articles from Lydia Amoah

Ete Davies

CEO (Creative), ENGINE Creative

With over 17 years’ experience working at some of the UK’s top agencies including AnalogFolk, AKQA, Tribal DDB, Modem Media (Digitas) and SixandCo; Ete’s gained experience across varying sectors from Financial Services, to Technology, Retail, Health, FMCG and Automotive; leading and working across innovative and award-winning projects ranging from global digital campaigns to business transformation, as well as digital products, platforms and services. Prior to joining ENGINE, Ete was Managing Director of AnalogFolk, hired to take the agency from “start-up to scale-up”, where he led the agency towards a period of unprecedented growth and built the agency’s recognition for innovation and creative excellence. He also took AnalogFolk London from a UK-centric business to a regional (European) offering and spearheaded the agencies expansion into Europe, culminating in the opening of AnalogFolk Amsterdam. Away from the industry, Ete is a leading protagonist in driving diversity, inclusion and equality across the creative industries, especially for the BAME community, he was one of the original co-founders of WeAreStripes, is the founder of CultureHeroes, both are initiatives whose missions are to create opportunities for Black ,Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) talent, across the creative industries. He also sits on the advisory boards of several other diversity initiatives. A Drum Digerati “Top 100 people in UK Digital” 2017 and 2018 Alumni, Ete was recognised in the BIMA 100 in 2017 (‘Champion for Good’) and in 2018 (‘Leaders and Visionaries), as well as Creative Pool’s ‘Top 100 Influencers’ 2018 and Campaign Magazines 'Top 10 Trailblazers’ in 2017 and 2018.

Articles from Ete Davies

Satmohan Panesar

Factual Entertainment Commissioner, ITV

As a Factual Entertainment Commissioner at ITV, Satmohan works across both main channel primetime and the digital channel portfolio commissioning a diverse range of programs including Inside Prison: Britain Behind Bars, What Would Your Kid Do?, Easyjet: Inside The Cockpit, Heathrow: Britain’s Busiest Airport, Sugar Free Farm and Call The Cleaners for main channel to Ibiza Weekender (ITV2), Dress To Impress (ITV2), Larry Grayson: Shut That Door (ITV3) and a plethora of fishing and motorbike shows for ITV4 for the ITV digital family. Satmohan got his first opportunity in television with a stint of work experience at Princess Productions, where he worked as a researcher on the first three series of The Friday Night Project. Continuing to focus on entertainment, Satmohan went on to work on Big Brother’s Little Brother and My Super Sweet. He moved from production to factual development in 2011 working at Silver River, Betty, Watershed and Boomerang. While at Silver River, Satmohan was part of the team responsible for developing the first of Nick and Margaret's BBC documentary series, The Town That Didn't Retire; he later worked on Nick and Margaret: We Pay Your Benefits. At Betty, he helped develop the second Baker Brothers series and Discovery’s Sex Hospital and at Boomerang helped secure the C4 one off Million Pound Movers.

Articles from Satmohan Panesar

Lauren Ogúndèkó

Head of Response, PHD Media

Lauren is the Head of Response and Board Director at PHD Media part of Omnicom. Lauren’s core focus in her role is helping clients with strategic digital media planning and activation in the performance space; Lauren’s role is also focused on supporting PHD Media with growing its digital capabilities, through leveraging technology, and intelligent use of data science in digital. Lauren started her career in digital 16 years ago after studying computing and deciding not to become an engineer but focusing on the marketing side of digital. She has worked client-side, as a consultant and agency-side and has been a practitioner across all forms of digital. Lauren is a huge advocate for digital transformation, innovation and re-engineering process through leveraging ML & AI. Lauren is passionate about paying it forward to help young underrepresented individuals discover and thrive in a career in advertising by recently joining MEFA; focused on growing diverse representation in the advertising industry. Lauren is also passionate about being a voice of change affecting policy that marginalises underrepresented individuals.

Articles from Lauren Ogúndèkó

Dino Myers-Lamptey

Founder, The Barber Shop

Dino Myers-Lamptey is the Founder of The Barber Shop, a strategy-led creative company that aims to solve the biggest business problems through data, distribution and disruptive ideas. They work with businesses that are driven by a purpose and which strive to enrich culture through the pleasure that they bring. Their clients include Karma Cola, The Athletic, Tobefrank and Parkinson’s UK. Dino is also a board member of the UK Effies and a NED for the Brixton Finishing School. In 2019 Dino was recognised as a Top 10 Media Planner by Campaign. Dino is also a founding member of MEFA (Media For All), and has recently founded Diverse Speakers.

Articles from Dino Myers-Lamptey

Marvyn Harrison

Founder, Dope Black Dads

Marvyn Harrison, Founder of Dope Black Dads created his digital safe space in June 2018 which became a podcast in October 2018 which aims to change the narrative around black fathers through the lens of parenting, marriage, co-habiting, mental health, physical health, politics and more. The podcast has also featured on BBC 1xtra and BBC Sounds and is currently touring providing Q&A’s for parents of all backgrounds.

Articles from Marvyn Harrison

Tony Effik

SVP, Client Strategy, NBCUniversal

Tony Effik is SVP, Client Strategy at NBCUniversal, where his focus is on helping clients and agencies develop solutions that fully harness the power of NBCUniversal’s Platforms. Prior to NBCUniversal, Tony held senior roles at major agency networks including R/GA, JWT, M&C Saatchi, Wunderman, and Publicis. For the last five years Tony has also been on the faculty at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, as Adjunct Assistant Professor, where he teaches a course on digital business models. Tony has worked extensively around the world, and managed global teams – as well as contributed to setting industry-wide best practices and standards in both the US and UK with the Internet Advertising Bureau in viewability and social media. He has been a speaker at the ANA, 4As, AdAge, and a judge at key industry awards, such as the Effies and Jay Chiat Awards.Tony is also the founder of the #BlackandBrilliant network, which is a unified effort, from people of all backgrounds to get more Black people into leadership roles in business.

Articles from Tony Effik

Jeremy King

CEO, C Squared Networks

Jeremy is currently CEO of C Squared Networks and an advisor to a family investment fund on businesses looking for investment in the media, entertainment, music, adtech and sports sectors. As CEO for C Squared’s portfolio of Festival of Media and M&M Global global events programmes Jeremy is immersed in the advertising and media sector with key relationships with brands, media owners, media agencies and adtech companies around the world. This role involves him curating an inclusive culture and working environment, and creative strategies for the company’s products and travelling around the world to chair various industry events. Prior to this he was communications and marketing director for The O2 with responsibility for creating and implementing a communications strategy for the venue, its assets and partners to ensure it maintained its position as the world’s most popular music space, and the number one entertainment destination for both domestic and international visitors. Before this he was editor of Media Week and Event, the leading titles for the UK media and event industries, for ten years. Prior to this he was the entertainment editor for the Evening Standard’s inaugural digital arm thisislondon.co.uk having been a news and entertainment editor for a number of Trinity Mirror regional newspapers.

Articles from Jeremy King

Collette Philip

Founder/Managing Director, Brand by Me

Collette Philip Keen runs award-winning brand and strategy consultancy, Brand By Me, helping leaders build brands that drive social change. And right now that has never felt more important. Collette has spent nearly 20 years creating strategy and communication for a multitude of brands. She spent the first half of her career working at leading London agencies, such as Grey, Leo Burnett and Euro RSCG on major household names, like Starburst, McDonald’s, Always Ultra and Clearasil. She then moved “brand side” to work for Barnardo's, T-Mobile, EE and World Animal Protection (formerly known as WSPA) building and leading brands from the inside. This breadth of experience, her love of brand and strategy and her passion for social justice and making a difference led her to set up her brand and strategy consultancy, Brand by Me in 2016. Their purpose driven clients cover a breadth of great causes – from animal welfare to peace-building, to women’s rights and healthy eating for kids! Right now Brand by Me is helping charities, corporates and changemakers lead through this turbulent time. And on a personal level, Collette is a mentor for Media for All, helping BME talent thrive in the media and creative industries. You can find Collette on most social media as @brandbycollette and find out more about Brand by Me at brandbyme.co.uk

Articles from Collette Philip

Naren Patel

Founder, MEFA

Articles from Naren Patel

Dorcus Matomby

Politics & International Relations Graduate

A politics and international relations graduate, passionate about international feminism and social mobility. I’m very new to Adland but hope to bring my political knowledge towards the goal of increasing diversity and promoting inclusion in Adland.

Articles from Dorcus Matomby

Ally Owen

Founder and Digital Fixer, Brixton Finishing School

Diversity Activist and Founder of Brixton Finishing School, The AD-Cademy and Hoxton United. Ally's on a mission to rewrite the industry's 'talent blueprint' so it includes all voices, and designs projects that plug into the existing ecosystem so it's easy for companies to enact change. Named by Campaign's as one of the "Women that inspire them" (2019), as 'A Woman to Watch' in Europe (Ad Age 2020) and as "A Change Maker' in the BIMA 100 (2020).

Articles from Ally Owen

Gen Kobayashi

Chief Strategy Officer, ENGINE Creative

Gen is a forward-thinking strategist who has worked in both media and creative agency roles. Starting life as a comms planner, working at network agencies such as Mindshare and smaller independent agencies like Goodstuff. Gen then moved into Account Planning and brand strategy at creative agencies such as adam&eveDDB and more recently Ogilvy where he was Head of Strategy for five years. Gen is now Chief Strategy Officer at ENGINE Creative where he is responsible for leading one of London’s most diverse set of strategic minds in the business.

Articles from Gen Kobayashi

Jay Richards

Founder, Imagen

Jay Richards is the Co-founder of DivInc and Forbes 30 under 30 entrepreneur. DivInc is a Gen Z agency based in Shoreditch, East London. They help agencies and brands collaborate with Gen Z for brutally honest insights about branding, marketing or products. No more guessing, they crowdsource the best talent from their pool of over 200,000 Gen Z to enables brands to build all of the above with Gen Z in the room.

Articles from Jay Richards

Lisa Goodchild

Founder & CEO, Digiwoo

Technology is everything to me, I remember the local library, our haven as a kid, getting its first computer and my brother and I sat searching for every book in the building. That is where it all began and my realisation of the power of founding my first agency creating websites back in the early 2000s. Building some of the first ecommerce websites for the likes of Panasonic, Ted Baker and gaining investment for the first female online publishing group with over 11 blogs and 2 shopping portals, walking away, understanding what my business ethics are and going on to build my current digital agency Digiwoo. We work with some of the coolest brands and people on the planet; Hewlett Packard, British Airways, Goldman Sachs, Panasonic & Ted Baker, from June Sarpong CBE, Shaa Wasmund MBE to MOBO Awards founder Kanya King CBE. I have a passion for inclusivity and in particular females co-founding WIE with June Sarpong in the UK and founding Digital Leading Ladies, a group of forward thinking ladies in the technology and in particular adspace. Growing up the poorest kid on the council estate has been my greatest asset but only when I was brave (always be braver as Gemma Greaves would say) enough to believe. If you marry a masters on the street and how to fight your way to the top with digital skills the only way is up and that is why I am so very passionate about young people realising what they have and where they can go, hence creating and founding Digilearning my social enterprise and our Digilearning Foundation charity. We want to build one the biggest edutainment brands in the world ensuring inclusivity and digital skills to build a better future for our young people and in particular from underserved communities. I want young people and the people around them to understand the power of digital and how they can use it. Yep life's a hoot and I am also lucky enough to mentor for Google & Virgin as well as being a Marketing Academy Alumni and a Marketing Academy Apprenticeship Charity Trustee. I am very proud to have been named British Entrepreneurs Top 100 last year (2019) and I loved taking part on ITV’s Primetime TV show The Big Audition as a judge. My mantra is “Lets Make Wealth Common” as Anthony Joshua would say.

Articles from Lisa Goodchild

Michaela Jefferson

Editor, Mediatel News

Michaela is news editor at Mediatel News. Contact: michaela.jefferson@mediatel.co.uk / 020 7420 3252. Twitter: @mejefferson_

Articles from Michaela Jefferson

Ellie Edwards Scott

Co-Founder, The Advisory Collective

Ellie Edwards-Scott is Co-Founder of The Advisory Collective, a digital consultancy working alongside innovative technology companies supporting their launch and growth strategies as well as market acceleration projects. She is passionate about emerging and disruptive technologies, helping companies to ‘amplify their voice’ in the industry. Ellie started her career over 22 years ago in press and has been working in digital for the last 15 years. She launched QUISMA, GroupM’s leading performance marketing specialists into the UK in January 2012 and has also held senior management roles at Amnet, Dentsu Aegis trading desk, as well as ad network Hi-Media. An ambassador for the online industry, Ellie is also a champion for inclusivity sitting on the AdTECH London advisory board and co-founder of Digital Leading Ladies Group which was created as an informal and inclusive group in 2018 and currently comprises 180+ of the most senior and entrepreneurial women in the digital advertising industry. In 2018 Ellie was appointed Non-Executive Director of Look Ahead Housing & Care Ltd, a position that enables her to take her digital knowledge and understanding into the public sector.

Articles from Ellie Edwards Scott

Amy Kean

Brand & Innovation Director, Partner, &us

Amy Kean is Director of Brand and Innovation at the change consultancy &us, working with local and international brands to overhaul their consumer products, strategies and culture. She’s worked in strategy and innovation for 15 years, and was previously global head of strategic innovation and creativity at Starcom, responsible for driving positive change across every client’s business. Prior to that she led strategy for Mindshare across APAC , launched the UK’s first media lab for the Havas Media Group, and ran marketing, PR and social media at the Internet Advertising Bureau. On the side, Amy is a university lecturer, columnist and co-founder of DICE: a self-regulatory framework that promotes diversity and inclusion at conferences and events across every industry. She’s also author of the number 1 bestselling feminist fairy tale The Little Girl Who Gave Zero F*cks and her second book, House of Weeds, is out in May 2020 with Fly on the Wall Press.

Articles from Amy Kean

Anthony Crocker

Chair, InterMedia UK

Working in digital advertising for nearly 15 years, Anthony is currently focused on aligning The Telegraph's advertising offering to a reader first, subscriber strategy through #metricsthatmatter, demonstrating that attention in a quality content environment delivers brand lift and long term commercial outcomes without relying on short term metrics such as click and attribution. He also launched and currently chairs The Telegraph's LGBTQ+ group Out Loud. With over 100 members, focused on creating an inclusive working environment through visibility, education and support. Finally, he is the current chair for InterMediaUK, a network group of over 25 media organisations, working to build a more inclusive LGBTQ+ media industry, plus support and celebrate authentic representation and visibility in media output. When he's not doing this, he loves London’s live music and theatre scene and unwinds at the weekend by baking bread, snuggling on the sofa with his cat Buddy and taking long muddy walks in the country.

Articles from Anthony Crocker

Caroline Forbes

Specialist Partner, Clear Channel Outdoor

Caroline has worked in Out of Home for the last 15 years. In her current role as a Specialist Partner for Clear Channel Outdoor, Caroline builds and maintains strong influential relationships within OOH Specialist agencies, identifying key stakeholders and instigating communication that supports the consideration of OOH amongst media agencies and clients alike. Alongside this Caroline works as Fairness Exec Sponsor at CCUK, elevating Clear Channel’s Fairness value internally and externally to the wider media community. She is sits on the Boards of Brixton Finishing School https://brixtonfinishingschool.org/and 56 Black Men https://www.56blackmen.com/with a focus of developing these relationship into meaningful projects within the scope of the companies Fairness pillar and beyond. She is a Role Model for MEFA – https://www.mediaforall.org.uk/ which supports and mentors underrepresented groups in media and has recently been named in Pitch Franzine’s top 100 Superwoman and Superman list 2020 for someone who gets things done in the creative industry. https://www.thepitchfanzine.com/pitch-superwomen-and-supermen/the-list-2020

Articles from Caroline Forbes

Saad Al-Saraf

CEO, Mediareach Advertising

Saad has been the ultimate driving force and the visionary behind the development and growth of integrated advertising and marketing in the UK. His agency Mediareach Advertising has been behind the promotion and successful development of some of the leading brands and services. Saad is the CEO of Mediareach Advertising, an integrated ad agency with more than 30-year experience in marketing, Digital & brand communications and has clear understanding of the diversity in our society. Saad served as a council member of the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) & Chair of IPA Ethnic Diversity Group for 6 years. Saad speaks in conferences on diversity and multicultural communications and manages the world’s leading multicultural marketing blog www.thinkethnic.com Saad has written and published a number of white papers and the recent publication for the IPA (Multicultural Britain in March 2010, 2012 & 2014). Saad was awarded Iraqi parliament shield in 2008 for his effort in organising and convening an international conference that brought 300 Iraqi talents and experts from 28 countries to Iraq to help in the construction and development of Iraq. Saad was awarded the Jewel award in 2009 by Lloyds TSB for Entrepreneurial Excellence. As part of my commitment to digital innovation, Saad has set up a fund to invest in tech ventures.

Articles from Saad Al-Saraf

Guy Sellers

CEO, Total Media

After graduating with a business studies and marketing degree, Guy's early career started at ITV. He joined Total Media shortly after it was formed in 1982 and has helped it grow from a team of 3 working from a converted Mews garage, to a staff of 120 across 3 offices based in London, Solihull and Manchester, with a mission to drive marketing effectiveness for their clients through behavioural planning. Total Media partner with the Young Westminster Foundation to help create brighter futures for young people in the borough.

Articles from Guy Sellers

Curtis Weir

OOH Group Director, Publicis Media

Curtis has spent last 14 years working as a Channel Specialist and as Comms Strategist. After specialising in Digital Display, Video, Mobile and Social Media, he moved into OOH in 2011 around the influx of innovation into the channel driven largely by digitalisation and data. He’s the OOH Group Director across Publicis Media UK, reporting into the Head of OOH. His role is focuses on driving OOH innovation and integration across the Publicis Media’s Agency brands (Starcom, Spark Foundry and Zenith) and Group Practices. He’s recently joined ‘Media For All’ (MEFA) as a mentor Young Media Talent from BAME backgrounds and to support efforts that campaign for a more diverse and inclusive media sector.

Articles from Curtis Weir

Afua Basoah

Vice President, Rabin Martin and Co-Chair of Omnicom OPENDisability Business Resource Group, Dphil

Afua has over 15 years of health consulting experience focused on designing strategies and developing partnerships to help clients strengthen their leadership position and elevate value provided to stakeholders. Through the provision of strategic, scientific and creative counsel and the unwavering passion for transforming clinical insights into compelling health stories that inspire action, Afua has supported pharmaceutical clients engage multi-stakeholders through educational and commercially-driven domestic, pan-European and global medical communications and corporate responsibility programs. In addition to supporting clients with programmatic design, implementation and evaluation, Afua leverages her deep understanding of market opportunities to provide counsel to clients looking to enable greater more sustainable access to their medicines. Her expertise includes market analysis, development of robust access and partnership strategies, organizational redesign to strengthen external affairs, corporate communication to elevate reputational equity and leadership positioning, and navigation of the Access to Medicine Index (ATMI) submission process to ensure recognition of client’s societal and business value. Having worked with a number of multilateral agencies and Foundations, including the World Health Organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum, she also has a wide range of emerging market health policy experience. Afua leads Rabin Martin’s European operations, serves as Rabin Martin’s Diversity and Inclusion lead and is Co-chair of Omnicom’s Disability Business Resource Group. Before joining Rabin Martin, Afua held roles as Managing Director and European Business lead at ApotheCom and Client Service Lead at Ogilvy Healthworld, UK. Afua holds a DPhil in Neurosciences from the University of Oxford.

Articles from Afua Basoah

Christopher Kenna

CEO & Founder, Brand Advance

Articles from Christopher Kenna

Mihir Haria-Shah

Head of Broadcast, Total Media

Mihir joined the media industry in September 2013 as an AV assistant at MEC. His current role is the Head of Broadcast at Total Media – The Behavioural Planning Agency – where he is responsible for overseeing the planning and buying of TV, radio, cinema, VOD and OOH across all Total Media clients. Mihir is also heavily involved in industry initiatives frequently commenting and contributing his opinions to industry and national publications on the Future of TV Space. In 2019 he was named in the 30 under 30 list in media and also won Rising Star of the Year (agency) at the Mediaweek awards. He is also a mentor/role model for MEFA (Media for All) an organisation aimed at improving diversity within the media industry

Articles from Mihir Haria-Shah

Louise Twycross-Lewis

Head of Insight, PHD Media

Louise has over 20 years’ experience in media research, having held positions at Granada, Mirror Group Newspapers, IPC Media, MEC/Wavemaker and has recently joined PHD. She has led key projects including award-winning work on IPC’s Origin Panel, MEC’s research on personalised product placement (Project Slipstream), and WM Momentum; Wavemaker’s proprietary framework for understanding purchase journeys. Louise is experienced in delivering quantitative and qualitative research solutions, and championing the use of digital, search, social and research data to generate insights to better understand consumer motivations and decision-making. She has worked across a wide range of new business and client projects over the course of her career including research for Proctor & Gamble, Nestle, Chanel, Beiersdorf, the Metropolitan Police Service, BMW, the Royal Navy and Magnetic. As PHD’s newly-appointed Head of Insight, Louise leads a team of highly talented researchers, to redefine the role of insights in modern communications planning. Louise’s industry commitments include the IAB Research Awards, the IPA’s Advanced Certificate course and the Media Research Group, of which she is Co-Chair. Her work to champion cultural and ethnic diversity was recognised in the 2019 and 2020 EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists.

Articles from Louise Twycross-Lewis

Rupen Shah

Head of Planning, Thinkbox

Rupen joined Thinkbox almost 2 years ago having spent 20+ years working across a range of national and international clients in media agencies. As Head of Planning, he is responsible for developing and strengthening relationships with advertisers, as well as their agencies, and spends most of his time presenting Thinkbox’s fantastic telly-related research to marketing teams to help deliver improved marketing effectiveness. He also helps run Thinkbox’s “New To TV” training programme for those that are new to TV advertising. Rupen recently became a Mentor for Media For All, an organisation set up to help encourage more BAME talent into the media industry and to provide a support and mentoring network to ensure that it flourishes. Outside of work, he is a husband and a dad of two boys, and Rupen has been a Cub Scout leader for the last three years.

Articles from Rupen Shah

Pippa Glucklich

CEO, Amplify UK

With her final year dissertation at University of Manchester entitled ‘Women in Advertising’, it was perhaps inevitable that Pippa would end up in the marketing and communications industry. She joined creative agency DMB&B as soon as she graduated and has since loved every minute of the challenge, pace and variety it brings. She spent 8 years at Initiative Media, part of Interpublic Group, followed by 11 years at independent media agency BLM, part of the senior leadership team who eventually sold the business to global network, Havas. After five years at Publicis Groupe as Chief Executive of Starcom, in 2018 Pippa became CEO of Amplifi UK, the investment and innovation platform of Dentsu Aegis Network. She stepped down in December 2019 and is now enjoying exploring her new adventure. As well as her business career, Pippa is very active within the industry – she is a long-standing trustee of NABS and in 2018/19, was proud to be President of WACL (www.wacl.info) Pippa has 2 sons, a dog called Digby and lives in Wimbledon. The family are Chelsea FC nuts.

Articles from Pippa Glucklich

Rhys Edward

Student, Brixton Finishing School

Rhys is 18 years old and has just graduated from The Global Academy, where she studied Creative Media Production and Technology. She is a current student of The Brixton Finishing School and is passionate about Storytelling and creating content that'll affect an opinion, especially via Audio. She is enthusiastically open-minded, and is always up for taking new opportunities along with experiences.

Articles from Rhys Edward

Supriya Dev-Purkaystha

Commercial Director, EMEA, ForwardPMX

Supriya Dev-Purkaystha is Commercial Director at ForwardPMX, Leading Digital Brand Performance Agency and has been in Digital Marketing for over 15 years. Currently a member of the EMEA Executive Management Team at ForwardPMX as well as a member of both the Global D&I Board at ForwardPMX and Stagwell Group DEI board. Over the past 9 years, Supriya has been the catalyst who has created roles and departments within ForwardPMX and has actively contributed to building her current agency from 30 people to 1,000 and a successful merger. Named one of UK’s Top 100 BAME Leaders in Tech (2018), Supriya drives the New Business agenda for the Agency and spends her spare time as a member of the Board of Trustees for Agate Momentum Trust serving the multicultural community in Canning Town, as well as Mentoring up and coming leaders within both the digital and BAME community.

Articles from Supriya Dev-Purkaystha

Maria McDowell

Head of Mentorship, Brixton Finishing School

Maria is a digital delivery consultant working with a vast array of digital agencies and brands spanning the past 20 years. Working hands on as well as operationally in senior roles she has spent her career building and nurturing teams which deliver exceptional results. Cultivating teams over the years led Maria to develop a deep passion for mentoring and coaching. Outside of her day job she is a member of the BIMA mentoring council and is also head of mentorship for Brixton Finishing School where she is responsible for mentoring students, recruiting and developing the mentoring schedule.

Articles from Maria McDowell

Jess Mally

Consultant

Jess Mally is a London based writer, speaker, podcast host, creative and events producer, consultant and more. With a passion for Social Change, Mental Health, the Arts and Spirituality she hopes to use any and all means available to her, to tell stories that shape a better world. Jess grew up in Germany as the daughter of an African American military man and a mother born in the Czech Republic. As a third culture kid and growing up as one of the only Black kids in her world, she has always been passionate about racial equality, justice and a better future for all. After studying political science and sociology in Germany for a while, she chose to change paths and moved to the UK where she worked as a creative and events producer in the charitable sector for 8 years. During that time, she has honed her creative, organisational and leadership skills and decided to go freelance in May 2019. Today Jess works as a writer for various publications, consults and produces events for organisations aligned with her values, runs workshops, co-hosts a podcast and is actively involved in advancing the betterment of the Black Community in the UK and worldwide.

Articles from Jess Mally

Sagina Shabaya

Career Coach, 60Min Career Coach

Sagina Shabaya is a London based certified career coach, workshop facilitator and speaker. She is a highly experienced, collaborative and dynamic coach working with a diverse range of clients within the creative industry. Sagina offers a bespoke service and specialises in transition coaching across the following areas: • Progression + Promotion • Shedding Imposter Syndrome + Building Confidence • Stepping up into Leadership • Pivoting industries • Education to employment • Maternity/Paternity leave • Redundancy bounce back To date Sagina has worked with clients from the BBC, UKTV, Channel 4 Television, BNY Mellon, Watson Farley Williams, The Telegraph, Lewis Silkin, Google, Credit Suisse, CNN, TP ICAP and many more. Additionally as a passionate Diversity + inclusion practitioner she has been a keynote speaker on the subject at international law firm Watson Farley Williams, the FISD Women’s Group, Essence, Havas, The University Arts London (UAL) and Facebook. Prior to establishing her coaching company - 60Min Career Coach – Sagina spent 10 years working for UK broadcaster, Channel 4 Television as a Commissioning Editor within the Content Creation team. She 2 managed a portfolio consisting of over 200 hours of programming and an annual budget of £8 million pounds. Sagina has an undergraduate degree in History from University of London, SOAS. She also studied law at BPP Law School and spent time at law firms CMS and Reed Smith.

Articles from Sagina Shabaya

Elizabeth Anyaegbuna

Co-Founder, sixteenbyninemedia

Elizabeth or ‘Buna’ to her industry friends, is a popular and respected media executive with years of experience gained in commercial, operational and management roles in the TV and digital advertising industry across the UK and Africa. She has super strong commercial credentials approaching all her endeavours through an entrepreneurial lens supported by grounded lateral thinking and a huge laugh. She’s passionate about the need for diversity and inclusion in the media industry and currently mentors for Creative Access. Having worked at big broadcasters such as Viacom, Sky Media, Turner & A+E Networks she has built up a reputation of being a tough and accomplished negotiator while still doing so with creative vision and a smile. She has delivered high value commercial solutions growing business across TV partnerships, digital, social & branded content. Elizabeth has spear headed inventive partnerships for a variety of clients from Masterfoods and Fox to ad-funded programmes for NFL, Nike and Adidas and has extensive kids market expertise. Elizabeth applied her entrepreneurial desire as Sales Director for GTV - an African Broadcaster of premiership football where she set up a commercial department and is now Cofounder of Sixteenbynine – a TV and video centred media planning, buying and production agency backed by Goodstuff. She has recently helped develop the strategy and creative campaign for new to TV Jules Verne Travel

Articles from Elizabeth Anyaegbuna

Shanandore Robinson

Partnership Administrative Assistant, Mail Metro Media

Shanandore Robinson, who attended the Brixton Finishing School last year and now works as a partnership administrative assistant at Mail Metro Media, said: “When I saw the Brixton Finishing School advertised I thought it was too good to be true - a school for people like me! It was so refreshing to sit in a class with people who had faced the same barriers and were motivated to push through and work in the media and advertising industries. BFS certainly provided that opportunity. We were able to share stories of our own personal and professional struggles which is so important. For many people of colour, the barriers start at the application process. We check to see how diverse a company is - and if it’s not, you find yourself asking the question ‘Am I just tokenism?’ When you don’t get feedback after an interview, the question of race does cross your mind. When the BFS gave us the opportunity to go into agencies, we could see first-hand what the culture was like rather than simply what the website said it was. I once went for an assessment day and the office was largely white and the three of us being assessed were black. The music they played in the room where we worked was offensive rap music - I couldn’t believe it. When I went back there as part of an open day with the BFS, despite being a global established agency, the person they had talk to us about working there was a black female intern who had barely been there a month. It felt really wrong and like they were simply ticking a box. I firmly believe that unpaid work experience placements are morally wrong - it’s so discriminatory and blocks vital access to opportunity for young people, regardless of background. If i hadn’t at least had my travel covered I would have never been able to gain experience which is so vital, especially if you have no contacts in the industry. I hope this culture starts to change - luckily the likes of the BFS is working hard to do just that.”

Articles from Shanandore Robinson

Jordan Jarrett-Bryan

Sports Journalist, Broadcaster & Online Creator

Jordan is currently a Sports Reporter for Channel 4 News, Presenter on TalkSport and creator of YouTube show It’s All Blakademik. He was a Reporter and Presenter for Channel 4’s award-winning coverage of the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games, reporting on the Wheelchair Basketball. In 2018, Jordan started up a YouTube show It’s All Blakademik, to have honest, needed and intelligent discussion around issues affecting the black community. YouTube show It’s All Blakademik is a debate show with an all-Black panel of guests, debating issues relating to the Black community. It’s an honest, engaging and progressive discussion with the intention of giving Black people a platform they might not have otherwise, but also challenging why people think what they think. This is an important show for the Black community, but also wider audiences and communities. It’s important that Black people, especially young black people, see intelligent, successful, aspirational figures from a variety of industries. In order to be it, you have to see it and seeing our guests give their expertise from a position of expertise, will hopefully inspire our Black viewers that they can be Doctors, Lawyers, Business leaders, entrepreneurs, Athletes, Newsreaders, Nutritionist, Artists and Social Workers. It’s equally as important to show our Black audience the art of debate and navigating your opinion through a difference of opinion, with intelligence and maturity. But it’s essential that people who aren’t Black see this show as well. Firstly, because where else will you see smart and successful Black people debating issues of politics, business or culture? There are also many people who aren’t Black who want to hear a perspective on a particular subject from articulate and academic people. He also noticed, I knew so many talented creatives, that weren’t given the platform to showcase and improve on their skills and talents. We’ve been inundated with camera operators, Videographers, editors, producers, photographers, graphic designers, sound men and more and all have said they’ve noticed a difference in their ability.

Articles from Jordan Jarrett-Bryan

Maria St Louis

4Sales Diversity Taskforce Co-Chair & C4 Collective Chair, Channel 4

Maria St. Louis works as an Agency Sales Manager within the commercial department of Channel 4 Television. Maria has worked across a variety of Agency portfolios and is extremely experienced within her field. Maria is dedicated to creating positive change within the advertising industry and is a driving force for inclusion, diversity and representation in advertising output. Maria is the Chair of Channel 4’s Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) employee network group ‘The Collective’, which is committed to creating positive change for BAME employees within the organisation by celebrating cultural diversity and lobbying senior management to advance the employee life cycle of BAME staff. Maria also Co-Chair’s the 4Sales Diversity Taskforce, which develops commercial opportunities linked to inclusive and diverse representation in advertising and has a key role in defing the theme for the ‘Diversity in Advertising Award’. Involvement in this particular group has motivated Maria to initiate ‘Project Empress’, which aims to educate diverse brands on the power of TV and BVOD advertising, navigate them through the TV process and creating bespoke airtime packages to empower ethnic enterprise using mainstream media. Maria is also the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility on the PromxBDA UK Executive Board, which involves managing a mentor programme, creating opportunities and offering support for young people and rising stars within the media industry. In 2018 Maria received the WACL Future Leaders Award, which recognises her ability to be a successful leader of the future. This award enabled Maria to attend Cambridge University, to complete, ‘The Rising Women Leaders Programme’, which provided her with a clear vision of the steps needed to shape her future, in the short to long term plus on a personal and community level.

Articles from Maria St Louis

Sereena Abbassi

Independent Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Consultant, M&C Saatchi London

Sereena Abbassi is committed to creating organisational transformation that is grounded in a deep-seated belief that all our liberations are tied to each other. Her approach is both creative and strategic – and done with lots of heart. Sereena is an Independent Equity, Inclusion & Diversity Consultant and Facilitator, an Activist, Public Speaker and Writer, and she was the Worldwide Head of Culture & Inclusion at M&C Saatchi Group, though still works with the organisation as a Consultant. Sereena was also the Founder of All Here, a social enterprise that connected individuals, brands and agencies; supporting them to think more critically about the world and the work that they create. Having gone to The Brit School as a teenager, and later continuing her studies as a Visual, Performance and Sound Artist at The University of Brighton, and then later pursuing an M.A. in Postcolonial Culture & Global Policy at Goldsmiths University; her practice is deeply holistic. This year Sereena was shortlisted for the IPA's iList; a partnership with Unilever and Campaign recognising Ad Practitioners who are helping to make adland more inclusive, as well as being nominated as one of The Dots IWD 2020 community choice of trailblazing women who are redefining the creative and digital industries. Last year Sereena was listed as one the most influential D&I Leader by Hive Learning, as well as being nominated as a top ten workplace hero by the Ethnicity Awards. In previous years Sereena had been named as one of Campaign's 50 Trailblazers of the Future and Stars of 2018, Pitch Magazines 100 Creative Superwomen, and The Dots 100 top Black Creatives. This year Sereena was asked to become Jury President for the D&AD New Blood category: Teen Vogue & The Case For Her. Where last year she too had the honour of judging the category: Mckinsey Design & The Case For Her. Sereena has worked with organisations such as Airbnb, Facebook, ICA, Kew Gardens, The Mill, Ustwo and Creative Equals, and has spoken at D&AD, Campaign 360, UCL, LSE, Liverpool University, Creative Brief, Creative Pool, Glug, Bloom, THE ARTS +, Royal Albert Hall, Oxford Media Convention, Viacom and Monzo to name but a few. She has written for Campaign Live, Communication Arts, The Drum, has featured in The Observer and has appeared on CNBC, Foundation Radio, It's Nice That's podcast Lectures in Progress and Fiverr's podcast Nine Twenty Nine. She is a Board of Trustee for the charity Sour Lemons, is a Board Member for the non-profit Ok Mentor and sits on the Advisory Board for the social enterprise The Other Box. Having had previously sat on the Advisory Board for Masculinity In The Workplace and the Diversity in Marketing and Advertising Summit (DIMA). Sereena was also one of the few Diversity & Inclusion experts advising the U.K. Advertising & Media Industry Diversity Taskforce and the IPA's Leadership Talent Group. Sereena is British, Persian-Iranian, Jamaican and has lived and worked in the U.S., the Netherlands, Iran and Spain. She lives and works between Bristol and London.

Articles from Sereena Abbassi

Demi Abiola

Publishing Director, PHD Media

Demi Abiola is a Publishing Director at PHD media, where he joined in September 2005. He started his career in finance as an accountant for KPMG. Before joining the sales house Carlton Television and then ITV where he spent two years. Demi has a wealth of experience across a range of different sectors. His current client portfolio consists of amongst others; Warner Bros, HSBC, VW brands and Diageo. Demi is passionate about diversity in the advertising industry, he’s been panellist at adweek discussing race in the industry. In addition to involvement in OMG diversity initiatives. In his spare time, you will find Demi playing poker, in the boxing gym or practising Yoga.

Articles from Demi Abiola

Cephas Williams

Founder, 56 Black Men

Cephas is the photographer and founder of the 56 Black Men movement, after taking a series of 56 portrait images he launched the campaign in December 2018 focusing on changing the narrative of black men in the media as an introduction to a much wider conversation. Utilising his degree in Architecture, Cephas also started working on Drummer Boy Studios in December 2017, his aim was to establish a creative hub in the community. Upon doing this Cephas was confused as to why things like this were not being spotlighted, after all the work and money he and his team put into creating this space within the community, he had also secured a partnership with BDP to become his official development partner for the business. Despite this, he was still facing opposition from people in authority and not being spotlighted for the positive work being done. This pushed him to think about how many more black men are doing great things but are never heard or spotlighted. Cephas started to question further, why is it that things like this never make headline news? Over the years Cephas has been instrumental in galvanising support for his business’ from key partners and high-level contacts including FTSE 100 Companies, GLA, The Guardian, Somerset House, Clear Channel, and others.

Articles from Cephas Williams

Gary Rayneau

Co-Founder, Project 23

Gary Rayneau is the co-founder of Project 23, an organisational culture consultancy. As a leadership and culture expert; Gary works with organisations to make them fairer, happier and more productive. A huge part of the work Project 23 does is focused on diversity, inclusion and equality; enabling companies to realise the value and importance of difference whilst increasing representation and belonging for all. Their clients include Haymarket, Google, MailMetroMedia, Nesta, the Banking Standards Board, Unruly and beyond. Gary co-founded Project 23 in 2018 following a 17 year career in advertising and media, most recently as the Commercial Managing Director at Dennis and chair of the Association of Online Publishing Commercial Board.

Articles from Gary Rayneau

Sara Axelbaum

Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity, MiQ

Sara Axelbaum is our global head of inclusion and diversity. Before joining us, she held a dual role as the SVP of client services for the Digital Advertising team as well as the executive partner for diversity and inclusion at 21st Century Fox. She pioneered and built Women@21CF New York, an Employee Resource Group, and helped launch other ERGs for the East Coast offices. As Executive Partner for D&I, she was responsible for fully integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives into the fabric of the workforce. Sara has a wealth of experience on both the buying and sales side of advertising media and ad tech, on the front-lines and as a champion for employee belonging. She is also an entrepreneur and Mom to two joyful little boys. Sara's pronouns are she/her.

Articles from Sara Axelbaum

Haydn Corrodus

Social Media Tech Champion, Arts Council & Co-Founder, We Are Stripes

Working in and around music since I left University, first in a band that I managed and put together called The Stow, then behind the scenes organising live events for the best new bands and acts in the UK this lead to me working on showcases at festivals like The Great Escape and SXSW with Blackjack Ldn. As part of The Stow, I won an unsigned national competition with the Metro Newspaper and Nissan and went on tour around the UK supporting VV Brown. After releasing 2 Eps and supporting the likes of Jessie J, Rizzle Kicks, Giggs, Miles Kane and playing at festivals like Glastonbury, I decided it was time to take a break from the music industry and I embarked on a career within digital and social media marketing which has seen me work both agency and client-side. Since my change of career, I’ve worked with brands such as Coca Cola, Unilever, Superdrug, Enterprise and more working on award-winning experiential, social and digital marketing campaigns. I currently work for The Arts Council as a digital Tech Champion covering the South East of England, where I consult on digital strategy, social media strategy and best practise to their funded organisations. My work with ACE has allowed me to work with organisations such as the ICA, Brighton Dome, Donmar Theatre, Google Arts and Culture, Tik Tok and many more. It was while working within agencies that the lack of diversity and inclusion within the industry became more and more apparent to me and together with Ete Davis, Nene Parsotam, Akama Davis and other industry colleagues we created WeAreStripes - a UK based initiative whose purpose is to create opportunities for both entry-level and senior-level talent, from diverse ethnic backgrounds, across the creative industries. My work with We Are Stripes has led to me being named as 1 of the 50 male advocates for diversity by DIMA and more recently I was named a D&I Superman by Pitch Magazine for their 2020 Superwomen and Superman List. My love for music and the entertainment industry never truly left, and I currently work with and manage a UK MC named Realz.

Articles from Haydn Corrodus

Akama Davies

Director, Global Solutions and Innovation, Xaxis

Akama Co-founded We Are Stripes and is Director, Global Solutions at Xaxis part of GroupM, the world's largest media investment group. Prior to that he was Head of Brand Performance at Oath and Global Lead for Oath’s Multicultural Employee resource group. Akama has been awarded multiple industry accolades in his career to date. Recently, Akama won MediaWeek's Rising Star Media Owner, was listed in Campaign Magazine's 30 under 30, and won Future Leader of the Year in the Tech Leader Awards. Alongside judging at several media industry recognition bodies including; M&M Global, Festival of Media, DMA, Performance Marketing, and MediaWeeks Awards amongst others. In regards to diversity and inclusion Akama was one of the founding members of Media For All has also been listed in the Dots 100 Black Creatives Inspiring Change, Campaign Magazine’s 50 Trailblazers, The IPA’s iList, and a finalist for the UK Social Mobility Awards Rising Star category. He was also instrumental in creating the Black Is The New Black exhibition at The National Portrait Gallery

Articles from Akama Davies

Avelon Thompson

Future Talent, Diversity and Inclusion Manager, MediaCom

Avelon is passionate about people, equity and inclusion. In her role as Diversity & Inclusion Manager for MediaCom London she focusses on making MediaCom a place where people feel included, heard and valued. She runs the company’s early talent scheme and manages its employee resource groups and mental health ally programme, and is a mental health ally herself. Avelon started her career at MediaCom in 2008 as a PA to the Heads of Planning, moving into the role of EA for the Chief Operating Officer before transitioning into her current role in 2017. Prior to MediaCom she worked as a merchandiser in the retail industry and studied Fashion merchandising in London and New York. Avelon loves spending time with her husband and two young sons. She wants her children to grow up in a world with equitable opportunities for all and without prejudice, and is passionate about driving this change – not just for them – but for everyone.

Articles from Avelon Thompson