Mrs Tess Alps Chairman, PHD Group UK

1. Mrs Tess AlpsChairman, PHD Group UK Tess is the current President of WACL. Her day job is Chairman of the PHD group, which, in addition to PHD, comprises Rocket, PHD Compass, PHDiQ, Drum PHD, PHD Confidential and Brand Science. After reading English at Durham and a postgraduate year at drama school, Tess started in TV sales by accident and ended up as an ITV Sales Director. After 15 years she switched sides by joining the young media independent Pattison Horswell Durden as their first Broadcast Director. In 1996 she became Executive Chairman of Drum PHD, where she used her knowledge of,and passion for, editorial to create exclusive properties for brands helping Drum PHD become the leading agency in their field. In 2000 she became Deputy Chairman, and in 2003 Chairman of the PHD group. Tess is a member of the RTS and is a Jury Chair of the 2004 RTS Awards. She also sits on the Executive Board of the Media Guardian Edinburgh TV Festival. In 2004 she is also a chair of the Sony Radio Awards. Clearly, chairs, and sofas, suit Tess down to the ground. When not sitting in a chair, Tess can be found digging in her garden, singing madrigals, or freezing to death watching her son play football. All done standing up.

2. Mr Stephen WhiteScotwork Stephen White is Managing Partner of Scotwork, Europe's leading Negotiating Skills training specialists. Raised and educated in Leeds, England, he read Commerce and Law at University, graduating in 1970. He acquired his business negotiating skills in sales and marketing management positions with Metal Box (now Carnaud Metalbox) and Reed International plc, over a period of 12 years. In 1984, Stephen joined John McMillan in Scotwork and has played a leading part in the rapid international growth of the firm since then. In the UK, Scotwork has over 400 active corporate clients from industry, utilities, government, the professions and financial services. Stephen and John have developed Scotwork's international business over the last 10 years. Scotwork now has offices in Paris, Munich, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Budapest, Bratislava, Stockholm, Dublin, Madrid, Moscow, Mauritius, Parsippany, Copenhagen, San Diego, Sao Paulo, Helsinki and Bangkok and runs programmes in over 35 countries each year. Stephen has acted as a negotiating adviser to a large number of corporate clients. He is 53 and lives with his wife Marilyn in Bournemouth. They have 2 daughters who keep his negotiating skills practice up to the mark! His interests include voluntary work with a number of charities, opera, theatre and exotic cars!

3. Ms Danielle Barr Joined the Club in 1972. Started in advertising in 1961, moved into toiletries for over 10 years then into senior advertising roles with Geers Gross, National Westminster bank, McCormick Publicis and finally to chairman of Publicis from 1989-92. Danielle launched 3rd Age Marketing in 1993, a consultancy specialising in the opportunities presented by people in the Third Age.   Since 2000  Danielle has qualified and worked as a Couple Counsellor  and is about to start a private practice.

4. Ms Clare SalmonManaging Director, AA Financial Services Clare Salmon is Managing Director of AA Financial Services with responsibility for Home and Motor insurance, travel and car-checking products and for its consumer lending business, which is a joint-venture with HBOS. Clare was previously Sales and Marketing Director of the AA accountable for business strategy and e-commerce as well as all marketing communications and NPD. She was responsible for the successful repositioning of the AA under the “Just AAsk” slogan. Clare joined Centrica in 2000 as Marketing Director of Home and Road Services, which included the British Gas Services portfolio and AA roadside. Prior to this Clare was European Marketing Director of Avis. Before this she spent eight years at Prudential Corporation, latterly as UK Consumer Marketing Director. She worked for both Sir Peter Davis and for Mick Newmarch and also spent time in the Pru’s direct sales force as a Regional Manager. Clare joined Prudential from Boston Consulting Group, having spent 4 years working as a strategic management consultant in Spain, Scandinavia and the UK. Her early career included the Industrial Society and Legal & General. Clare has an MA from Cambridge University in English and is a Fellow of the Marketing Society. Clare is an ex-racing cyclist who now rides horses. She lives in Mayfair and enjoys travel, literature, theatre and entertaining her eight year old daughter, Jessica.

5. Ms Ann Francke Member since May 2002. Ann joined Mars in October 1999 as Vice President, European Petcare Marketing, leading the development and deployment of a consumer-focused strategy for 16 brands in 22 countries . She also redesigned the European marketing organisation and created a new innovation pipeline. Ann’s role at Mars ended in July 2002 and she is looking forward to beginning her next role. Prior to Mars, Ann spent 13 years at P&G in the UK and Germany, ending as General Manager for Cosmetics and Skincare. Highlights of her career there include building the Olay brand across beautycare, repositioning Max Factor with Madonna as spokesperson, and launching the Always brand in Europe. Ann sits on the Advisory Committee on Advertising and is a member of The Marketing Group of Great Britain. An American, she holds a MBA/MS from Columbia University and a BA with Distinction from Stanford University. She speaks German and Russian. Ann lives in London with her husband and daughter.

6. Ms Fiona BrierleyBrand Strategy Consultant, Red Spider Fiona is a brand strategy consultant for Red Spider an independent brand strategy and training company. Fiona has only recently returned to the UK from Tokyo where she has been living and working for the past 2 years. She represented Red Spider in Asia working with both marketing clients such as Unilever, DeBeers and Audi and Advertising Agencies such as JWT, Hakuhodo and Bates Asia. Prior to consultancy Fiona was a UK & European Regional Director at McCann Erickson and J Walter Thompson.

7. Ms Morag BlazeyManaging Director, PHD Joined the Club in 1997. Morag Blazey graduated from Exeter university with a degree in politics and a natural aptitude for arguing. A career in media was therefore a natural choice.She spent 3 years as a TV buyer at CDP working on Boots and RHM Foods. Keen to expand her media knowledge she moved to BBH in the Winter of 1989 where she was media manager on a number of accounts including Audi, AG Barr, Cadbury and NatWest Bank. She joined PHD as Group Account Director in February 1994 and was involved in planning and strategy across the breadth of the BBC, Prudential (including the launch of “Egg”) and Dulux. She was promoted to the board of PHD in the Summer of 1995, and became Managing Director in Autumn of 1999. Morag’s passion is football, which takes her to Loftus Road every other Saturday to lament yet another woeful performance by Queens Park Rangers.

8. Mrs Merry BaskinPlanning Consultant, Baskin Shark Merry Baskin founded her own strategic planning consultancy, Baskin Shark (where brands move forward or die!) in 2000 where she enjoys working with a broad spectrum of blue chip clients. She is also a partner in Express Train, a group providing training for the advertising and marketing industry. She left J Walter Thompson after eight years as one of the industry’s top account planning directors (running what was then the UK’s largest planning department). Prior to that, she ran America’s (arguably) coolest planning department at Chiat/Day in New York. Other overseas assignments have included stints with market research and advertising agencies in Paris, Brussels and Stockholm. With planning protégés all over the world, she remains one of the leading lights behind the renaissance and expansion of the Account Planning Group both at home and overseas. (She was UK Chairman 1998-2000). Her planning efforts come highly decorated as a winner of consecutive IPA Effectiveness Awards in 96/98, the Market Research Society Conference/Incorporated Society of British Advertisers Best Paper in 2001 and several US Effies (86/87/88). She has been extensively published; most recently as co-editor and contributing author to a new APG book called Brand New Brand Thinking. Her quirky biographical footnote consists of a husband and dog and an organic allotment in Gloucestershire.

9. Ms Kate StannersCreative Director, Boy Meets Girl Kate left Liverpool Art College with a BA Hons 2-1 and joined Ayer as a Junior Art Director. In 1986 she joined GGT as an Art Director and worked on many award-winning campaigns: Access (Mastercard). Cadbury’s: Flake, Crème Eggs, Wispa. Holstein Pils. Seconda. Lurpak and Nurofen. She was subsequently invited onto the GGT board. Kate joined Bates as Board Director and Group Head. Running P&O, Woolworths, Bass and Heinz. In 1996 she moved to the fledgling agency St Luke’s as Creative Director. Personally producing work for the Government, BskyB, Boots, Clarks in conjunction with overseeing other work produced by ten creative teams. In 2000 she became Executive Creative Director and then vice Chairman of St Luke’s in 2002. In addition to the above, Kate is an active member of a number of organisations within the industry, WACL, D&AD Education Committee, she sits on the IPA Council and is also the vice Chairman of the IPA’s Creative Directors Forum. In 2002 she was a nominee for the Women’s Entrepreneur of the Year award. In 2004 Kate co-founded Boy Meets Girl alongside David Pemsel and Andy Law. She is the Creative Director of the agency, working with clients such Disney, DaimlerChrysler, Chrysler Jeep, Interbrew, Channel Four and London Zoo. Kate is the only female Creative Director in London.

10. Mrs Helen CalcraftManaging Director, MCBD Helen joined ad agency AMV BBDO in 1989 as a trainee account manager, after gaining a degree in Drama and Theatre Studies at London University. She spent the best part of ten years at the agency, working on a wide range of business. She was promoted to the board in 1996 and then to New Business Director in 1997. Helen embarked on a part time MBA course at the London Business School alongside her New Business responsibilities in 1998. In exchange for her sanity and her social life, she was awarded scholarships two years running and graduated with a distinction. In June 1999, Helen left AMV BBDO with some close friends to found Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy. The agency counts Bell's Whisky, COI, Aristoc, Thorntons and Travelocity amongst its clients, and has become a top 30 agency in under 5 years. Helen has 2 daughters, Rosa age 3 and Maya age 2, and is shortly to become president of WACL.

11. Ms Karen Hughes Karen Hughes started her career in advertising as an account management graduate trainee in 1980 working on Unilever, United Rum Merchants and the RAF and retained an appetitie for variety of professional challenge ever since. Moving on to the then fledgling Gold Greenlees Trott in 1982 she worked on Hedges and Butler, Wings travel, London Weekend Television and Cadbury before a short spell at Island Records where she learnt about tough negotiation in addition to the pure development of consumer propositions. Her career as an account 'man' continued for the next decade through HDM, FCB and DMB&B working on international business such as Peugeot, Proctor and Gamble and Nestle before she was seduced to the client side in 1998 becoming Head of Brand Management for Visa International for the EU region. Karen held this position until April of this year, when she felt she had seen enough airports to last a lifetime. She can currently be found in her garden with her two year old daughter whilst contemplating her next corporate challenge. Karen claims that her own personal proposition is that she can persuade investors to part with capital that they didn't know they had and can build consensus amongst sworn enemies - particularly over a glass of local wine.

12. Ms Kate HarrisDirector, NABS Joined the club in 2000. Having spent 10 years at KHBB, in its many guises and in varying roles, Kate followed Bruce Haines on his return to Leagas Delaney. There she spent four hard-working but happy and creative years working on adidas, Porsche and the BBC. In 1998, she was reunited with her friend and first boss, Carol Reay, at Mellors Reay, just before the merger with Grey. Appointment to the Board followed swiftly but Kate needed a new challenge. Then Wendy Braverman called her to see if she might be interested in running NABS. She was and very much still is.

13. Mrs Sly BaileyChief Executive, Trinity Mirror plc Sly Bailey was appointed Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror (the UK's largest newspaper publisher) in December 2002, and joined the Group on February 3, 2003. She began her career in newspapers before joining IPC in 1989 and was part of the Board team that undertook the buy-out of the IPC business and consequent sale of the company to Time Inc, the publishing division of AOL Time Warner. Sly has been shortlisted for the Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year Award and has been given the PPA Marcus Morris Award for her outstanding contribution to the publishing industry. She has been variously described as: one of Management Today's 50 Most Powerful Women in Britain (Management Today), one of Britain's most influential women (Daily Mail) and Motivator of the Year in an internet poll of businesspeople. She has been listed in Time magazine's "Worldbeaters: People to Watch in International Business", Marketing magazine's Power 100, the top twenty of MediaGuardian's 100 most influential figures in media and Fortune magazine's top 50 most powerful businesswomen outside the US. In 2004 she became a new entrant to Who's Who, and featured in Marketing Week's Top 30. She also attended the Queen's "Women of Excellence" lunch at Buckingham Palace.  Sly is the current of President of NewstrAid.

14. Ms Rita CliftonChairman, Interbrand President 97/98. Rita graduated from Newnham College, Cambridge University with an honours degree in Classics. She started her career in advertising, working at DMB&B and J Walter Thompson. She then moved to Saatchi & Saatchi, and became Vice-Chairman and Executive Planning Director in 1995. Her clients included Procter & Gamble, British Airways, Campbell’s Foods, COI, The Army, PowerGen and British Telecom.In November 1997, Rita was invited to become Chief Executive of Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy. She has recently edited Interbrand’s most recent book on The Future of Brands, and introduced a range of new services.She currently sits on the Board of Advisors of The Judge Institute of Management Studies at the University of Cambridge and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Brand Management, and most recently has been appointed a member of the DETR’s Sustainable Development Commission and the CBI’s E Business CouncilRita writes and lectures extensively on all aspects of brands and communication – including innovation, corporate and service branding, and the role of brands in society. She is also a regular commentator on TV and radio programmes.She has two children and lives in South London.

15. Ms Stevie SpringChief Executive, Clear Channel UK Ltd Joined the Club in 1989. President 1994/95. Stevie graduated in law and spent four years in marketing and two years launching breakfast television before starting a 16 year career in advertising agencies. During that time she worked in national and international management and business development at various agencies including Young & Rubicam – where she was Managing Director. In February 2000, Stevie was headhunted to be Chief Executive of Clear Channel, the UK’s largest outdoor advertising company which includes Adshel Street Furniture, Clear Channel Billboards and Taxi Media amongst its portfolio.  In addition to being on the boards of all Clear Channel UK’s operating companies, Stevie is non-executive Chairman of the Groundwork Federation which incorporates 50 trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and is the UK’s largest organisation delivering sustainable community regeneration projects. She is also a Fellow of both the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and the Marketing Society and sits on the boards of NABS, Postar and The Outdoor Advertising Association. She was voted one of the 75 Women of Achievement in Media, Advertising and Marketing in the past 75 years and was named in Campaign’s 10 nicest people in media. In what little spare time she has, Stevie swims, runs and socialises!

16. Ms Syl SallerDirector, Global Brand Innovation Group, Diageo Syl is responsible for the global innovation strategy, and management of the R &D function and innovation programmes across all brands, worldwide. Diageo’s portfolio includes 40 plus brands including Guinness, Smirnoff, Gordon’s, Baileys, Bells, Tanqueray, and Johnnie Walker. Prior to her promotion to the innovation role, Syl was Marketing Director for Diageo Great Britain, heading up a Marketing department of 140 people which includes consumer marketing; planning; commercial marketing; innovation and the Reserve Brands Group. Before joining Diageo, Syl was Director of Marketing Development for Allied Domecq Retail. Reporting to the Chief Exec of Retail, she was responsible for marketing strategy, new concepts, planning and food development for 3500 pubs, bars and restaurants. Allied had promoted Syl into this role from their US Retail business and moved her from Boston to London. Syl graduated with high honours from the University of New Hampshire and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. She started her career in brand management with Gillette, in both US and global roles. After 6 years with Gillette she left to follow her more entrepreneurial instincts, joining the Holson-Burnes Group heading up NPD, eventually becoming the General Manager of the Holson Division, the country’s largest manufacturer of photo albums. Syl is married, has two children ages 10 and 15.

17. Ms Amanda MacKenzieDirector, Marketing Services, BT Retail Amanda began her career at WCRS having graduated from London University in Psychology.She then moved to DMB&B working with Mars, Procter & Gamble, Chanel, & St. Ivel. Amanda was Board Account Director running the UK Mars confectionery business when she left to join Air Miles (part of BA) and was promoted to Marketing Director. After three years, Amanda moved to BT as Director, Marketing Services.Amanda oversees all the marketing communications, and marketing buying for BT Retail and the centralised media, and research, for BT group. BT is largest single brand advertiser in the country. Amanda also runs the Marketing community for BT, an initiative to share and improve marketing knowledge and skills across the BT group.

18. Ms M T RaineyChairman, RKCR / Y&R A native of Glasgow, M T (Mary Teresa) was a Founder and Managing Partner of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, which she built from scratch in 1993 to a top 20 advertising agency in 6 years. She is now Chairman of Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, the sixth biggest Agency in the UK and part of the WPP group. Current agency accounts include Land Rover, Logo, Jaguar, Quaker, Times Newspapers Group, Virgin (Atlantic, Direct & Mobile), Marks & Spencer, Lloyds TSB , Powergen and COI. A planner by training, MT was one of the pioneers of the discipline in the US while at Chiat/Day in the 1980's, and at Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe she championed the move away from commission income to agencies charging for ideas and intellectual property. A graduate of Glasgow University, MT is an honorary member of the Account Planning Group and a Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow Business School. She is also a Trustee of the innovative charity Timebank, and of the think tank Demos, and a non-executive Director of WH Smith plc."

19. Ms Miranda KennettFirst Class Coach Joined the Club in 1992 and pioneered the WACL Forum in 1996.Involved with The Coaching House since its inception in 1991, Miranda became Managing Coach in 1996, and CEO in 2001. She coaches individuals and teams at the most senior level to achieve clarity on professional and personal goals and to harness their unique talents to achieve their purpose. Her work also encompasses helping brands become more powerful through the people who represent them. The majority of her clients are in media, entertainment or marketing communications. Her monthly column First Class Coach appears in Management Today. Miranda was Director of Training and Development at the IPA between 1992 and 1999, where she doubled the number of courses and delegates. Her previous experience spans publishing, advertising, consumer exhibitions and marketing consultancy.She has an MA (Hons) from Edinburgh University and has studied the use of psychology in coaching at an advanced level.