Anna Jones, Presenter, Sky News
Anna joined Sky News in 2005 and has anchored every programme on the multiple award-winning rolling news channel, as well as presenting live on location and in the studio on a range of breaking news stories. Before joining Sky, Anna was a presenter on the BBC News Channel. She joined the BBC in 1992 after working for four years as the editor of a business magazine. While at the BBC, Anna was a producer and presenter for the corporation’s Business Unit. In 1999 she joined BBC News 24 as a news presenter. Before joining the BBC, Anna spent four years working on business publications for Asia, editing a magazine for China. Anna has interviewed a huge range of political figures and business leaders, as well as sports and entertainment stars.
John Litster, Managing Director, Sky Media
John has worked in advertising sales for 30 years. He joined Sky in 1995 as a sales manager and rose to sales director before becoming Managing Director of Sky Media in 2014. John runs a team of 400 people responsible for selling advertising across 130 television channels. Sky Media offers the broadest range of advertising solutions across the media landscape and is the biggest sales house globally in terms of spots sold.
Stephen van Rooyen, CEO, Sky UK & Ireland
Stephen was appointed CEO, Sky UK & Ireland in 2016. He has been with Sky for 12 years and has delivered much of Sky’s product diversification strategy including Sky Broadband and Talk, Sky Fibre, Sky Q, Sky+HD, Sky On Demand, Sky Go, Sky Box Sets, Sky 3D, Sky Cinema, Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports Mix and NowTV. He also had overall responsibility for bringing Sky Mobile to market. Prior to CEO he was Chief Marketing, Sales and Digital Officer following three years as Managing Director, Sales and Marketing. Stephen also spent two years at Virgin Media and worked in both Group Strategy and Product Strategy. Prior to that he worked in mainly digital roles at News UK. Prior to that he worked at Accenture in London and in Australia in Strategic Services.
The Rt Hon Lord Hague of Richmond, former Conservative Party Leader, Foreign Secretary, and Leader of the House of Commons
William has been a prominent political leader for more than 20 years, serving as Leader of the Conservative Party and as Foreign Secretary. He concluded his political career as First Secretary of State and Leader of the House of Commons. As Foreign Secretary William dealt with wars in Libya and Syria, withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Ukraine crisis, the struggle against terrorism and relations with Europe. He expanded Britain’s diplomatic network and placed a renewed emphasis on export success. William also led the negotiating team that created coalition government in 2010. His mix of international and domestic experience has given him a deep knowledge of the inside of politics and the reasons for growing instability in world affairs. William is also an accomplished historian, author of two bestsellers and winner of the History Book of the Year Award.
Sophy Ridge, host, Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Sky News
Sophy Ridge is a Sky News presenter, fronting the flagship show Sophy Ridge on Sunday which launched in 2016. Her first interview on the show was with Prime Minister Theresa May. Previously Sophy was a presenter on Sky News Tonight and Senior Political Correspondent. While covering politics Sophy exclusively broke the news that Jeremy Corbyn had won the Labour leadership contest in 2015 and that Ed Miliband would resign as leader of the Labour Party after the 2015 election result. Before joining Sky News in 2011 Sophy worked for the News of the World focusing on political, business and consumer stories. Sophy has won numerous journalism awards and is the author of The Women Who Shaped Politics, a book on the history of women in Westminster.
Philip Collins, Founder and Writer-in-Chief, The Draft; columnist, at The Times
Phil was chief speechwriter to Tony Blair in 10 Downing Street. He is now a columnist at The Times and the author of five books: The Art of Speeches and Presentations, a how-to manual; When They Go Low, We Go High, the story of rhetoric and democracy; Start Again, a rallying cry for a new type of politics; and two novels. Phil is also the founder of The Draft which helps organisations think, act and speak more persuasively. As Writer-in-Chief he manages The Draft’s team of writers, researchers and analysts. Phil is a former chairman of think tank Demos, a former director of the Social Market Foundation, and a former equity strategist at two investment banks.
Rob Norman, Independent Director & Advisor, Former Chief Digital Officer, GroupM
A career at the nexus of the disrupters and the disrupted has given Rob a rare perspective on the evolution of media, commerce, communication and consumer behaviour across sectors and around the world. He was Chief Digital Officer of WPP’s GroupM until the end of 2017 and remains a senior advisor to the company. Working principally as an advisor to advertisers, Rob also sat on the client groups of Facebook, Google and Twitter and provides strategic input to the advertising groups of Amazon, LinkedIn, NBC Universal and News Corporation. Additionally, he is a member of the advisory board of BBC Global News and a director of Comscore, Knotch, Simpli.fi and an advisor to several other companies.
Brian Wieser, Global President, Business Intelligence, GroupM
Brian leads GroupM’s thought leadership practice, ensuring that WPP’s clients receive actionable marketplace intelligence on markets, audiences, partners, platforms, and supply and demand dynamics. Brian is highly-regarded in the marketing, media, advertising and technology fields, having been called ‘Madison Avenue’s de facto Chief Economist’. In his prior role as Senior Analyst at Pivotal Research Group, Brian led the firm’s coverage of agencies, video and other digital content platforms, advertising and marketing technology, measurement companies and more. Previously Brian was EVP, Global Director of Forecasting for Interpublic’s Magna Global, CMO for venture-funded Simulmedia, investment banker at Lehman Brothers, and research analyst at Deutsche Bank.
Richard Shotton, Behavioural Scientist, Author
Richard is the founder of Astroten, a consultancy that applies behavioural science to marketing, and author of The Choice Factory, a best-selling book on how to apply findings from behavioural science to advertising. Richard started his career as a media planner 18 years ago, working on accounts such as Coke, Lexus, and Compare the Market, before specialising in applying behavioural science to business problems. Until recently Richard was Head of Behavioural Science at Manning Gottlieb OMD. Richard regularly runs training session with brands, big and small, using insights from behavioural science to help solve their problems.
Rachel Botsman, Trust Expert & Author, Oxford University
Rachel is a leading authority on trust in the digital age. Her latest book, Who Can You Trust? How Technology Brought Us Together – And Why It Might Drive Us Apart, was named one of the Top 5 Tech Books of the Year by WIRED magazine. Rachel is a frequent contributor to leading international publications and speaks at numerous global events. She’s a Trust Fellow at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School where she designed the world’s first MBA course on the collaborative economy. Rachel is a former director at the William J. Clinton Foundation and former partner in the Collaborative Fund, supporting creative entrepreneurs.
Harry Redknapp, Football Manager & King of the Jungle
Legendary football manager Harry Redknapp is one of the beautiful game’s most famous faces with a background as a midfielder (his playing career started at 11 when spotted by a Spurs scout) and managing career spent at Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth, Southampton, Spurs, QPR and Birmingham City. Harry is the author of two autobiographies and It Shouldn’t Happen to a Manager – How to Survive the World’s Hardest Job, published in 2017. His latest book The World According to Harry, due to be published late May, follows his 2018 crowning as King of the Jungle in I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!
Jamie Redknapp, Presenter, Sky Sports & Team Captain, A League of Their Own
Jamie started as a youth player for Spurs. In 1990 he joined Bournemouth under his father, Harry Redknapp. Jamie went on to become one of the most popular and talented footballers of his generation, playing for Liverpool, Spurs and Southampton. He was capped for the England team 17 times. Jamie retired as a professional player in 2005 and became a soccer pundit for the BBC and Sky Sports. In 2010 he fronted Sky 1 show Football’s Next Star, then in the same year joined A League of Their Own, later becoming captain of the reds. In 2013 Jamie became presenter on the Sky Sports show Saturday Night Football.
Laura Woods, Presenter, Sky Sports
Laura Woods is fast-becoming one of the UK’s leading female sports broadcasters.
Having completed her BA Hons in print journalism at Kingston University she joined Sky Sports as a runner in 2009 after a stint of work experience and worked her way up to producer. She then began reporting on various different sports including the NFL International Series Wembley and Sky Sports’ children’s TV Show Game Changers. Laura anchors Sky Sports’ Super Sunday game and hosts Sky Sports’ Debate show on Mondays.
Brian Skerry, Photojournalist, Author, Explorer
Brian Skerry is a world-leading photojournalist specialising in marine wildlife and underwater environments. Since 1998 he’s been a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine covering a wide range of subjects including the harp seal’s struggle to survive in frozen waters and the alarming decrease in the world’s fisheries to dolphin intelligence, all cover stories. In 2014 he was one of five photographers named as a National Geographic Photography Fellow. In 2015 he was named a Nikon Ambassador and in June 2017 he was awarded the title of Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year. Brian frequently lectures on photography, exploration and conservation issues having presented at venues such as the United Nations General Assembly, The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, The Royal Geographical Society in London and the Sydney Opera House in Australia.
Debbie Klein, Group Chief Marketing, Corporate Affairs and People Officer, Sky
Debbie joined Sky in 2018 as Group Chief Marketing and Corporate Affairs Officer and has recently extended her remit to include People. She has responsibility for overall brand and marketing development, as well as leading corporate communications, public affairs, internal communications, Sky’s Bigger Picture (corporate social responsibility) programme and human resources. Prior to joining Sky, Debbie was Chief Executive Europe and Asia Pacific at The Engine Group, an integrated marketing services business where she worked closely with Sky for 12 years. Earlier in her career she worked in Strategy and Insight at Saatchi & Saatchi and Nielsen.
Emily Penn, Ocean Advocate, Skipper and Artist
Emily Penn is an oceans advocate, skipper and artist. She splits her time between running eXXpedition – a series of all female voyages which focus on the relationship between plastics, toxics and female health – and working on solving the ocean plastics issue with Parley for the Oceans and other corporate clients. Prior to this, Emily co-founded Pangaea Explorations, to enable scientists, filmmakers and everyday people gain access to the most remote parts of our planet; collecting data on global issues and along the way discovered previously unknown oceanic gyres – huge areas of plastic pollution accumulation.
Laure Cucuron, General Manager, TerraCycle & Loop Europe
Laure Cucuron is the General Manager of TerraCycle Europe, a global leader in the collection and repurposing of otherwise non-recyclable post-consumer and post-industrial waste. TerraCycle is pioneering a new waste management process across its 12 European markets. This involves manufacturers, retailers, governments and consumers, to create circular solutions for materials such as food packaging, laboratory waste, coffee capsules, cigarette waste and even beach plastics that otherwise have no other path to be recycled. In January 2019, TerraCycle announced a new e-commerce shopping platform called Loop that will enable consumers to shop for some of their favourite brands in durable, reusable packaging. Loop will launch in May 2019 in the US and France, and in Q4 2019 in the UK.
Mark Evans, Marketing Director, Direct Line Group
Mark’s marketing career began at Mars. Over 10 years he worked on a number of global brands across sectors and geographies. Subsequently Mark worked at 118118 and then HSBC. He joined Direct Line Group in 2012. In the past six years he has overseen the transformation of DLG’s brands and marketing approach, including the multi-award-winning reinvigoration of the flagship Direct Line brand. Mark is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and was voted the Financial Services Forum Marketer of the Year in 2015 and the Marketing Society Marketing Leader of the Year in 2018. In 2016 Mark founded the Sprintathon in support of Stand Up To Cancer. Mark is Chair of the Advertising Association’s Front Foot and Non-Exec for LearnEtAl, an EdTech digital learning company.
Larissa Vince, Managing Director, Saatchi & Saatchi London
A member of the Saatchi & Saatchi London executive team, Larissa is responsible for business growth at the agency, including marketing, new business, events and PR, as well as leading agency partnerships and acquisitions and development of new products and services for existing and prospective clients. She is also executive sponsor on key accounts including Britvic and Direct Line.
She is passionate about people and culture and leads a number of the agency’s people strategies, including the diversity and equality scheme.
Sir John Hegarty, Co-founder, The Garage Soho, and Creative Founder, BBH
Sir John is one of the world’s most awarded and respected admen. His creative career began in 1965 as a junior art director at Benton and Bowles advertising agency. In 1967 he joined the Cramer Saatchi consultancy, which became Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970. He left in 1973 to co-found TBWA London in the position of creative director. In 1982 he started Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) which went on to become one of the most talked about and awarded advertising agencies in the world. In 2007 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to the advertising and creative industries. He’s the author, in 2011, of Hegarty on Advertising – Turning Intelligence into Magic, and Hegarty on Creativity: There are No Rules (2014). In 2014 Sir John co-founded The Garage Soho, an early-stage investment company.
Andrew Mortimer, Director of Client Strategy, Sky Media
Andrew is Director of Client Strategy at Sky Media, leading the team responsible for building stronger relationships and helping deliver business objectives for clients. He joined Sky is 2010, initially working in the sales and marketing team as Director of Media, responsible for managing Sky’s advertising spend and key media agency and media owner relationships. Prior to Sky Andrew worked agency side at Manning Gottlieb OMD, Vizeum and Saatchi & Saatchi.