Stephen’s interest in advertising came from his favourite subjects at school – art and economics – and so he looked for a career that combined the creative and the commercial. He also was an avid reader of the ads and used to make montages of the ads from magazines as part of his art course and this helped set his heart on working in advertising.
Stephen studied economics and graduated in 1980, at a time when the economy was in recession and jobs were scarce. He applied for agency and marketing graduate training roles and found his start in a marketing at Nestlé.
After a couple of years, he moved into the agency world, working at Lintas, then at a start-up agency and finally he joined WCRS for the first time in 1988. He left for Leo Burnett to be Deputy MD and then re-joined WCRS in 1994, becoming Managing Director and later CEO in 1998. The agency was something of a rollercoaster ride and he saw it through some lean and some great years, notably winning its biggest pitch ever, winning the National Lottery in 1998 and with an array of formidable campaigns for clients such as Carling, BMW, First Direct, 118 118 and Orange. The management team bought the agency from Havas in 2004 and relaunched it with a group of companies under the Engine brand.
Stephen was then approached to join DDB and become Chief Executive there in 2007. DDB and its forerunner, BMP was agency he had admired most throughout his career, but it had suffered from management instability, and he helped to secure its position and get back to something like its old form. In 2011, a small-hours conversation in Cannes with James Murphy and David Golding started the ball rolling for DDB to buy adam&eve. Months of top-secret negotiations followed, but not so secret that rumours leaked ahead of the deal being done. Finally in 2012 the agencies merged and Stephen became Chair of adam&eveDDB.
18 months later, Stephen left to pursue other ventures, starting a financial services business, along with working at Next 15 Plc (who years later bought Engine coincidentally).
Stephen became CEO of the Advertising Association in September 2016. The AA’s mission is ‘to promote the role and rights of responsible advertising - advertising that is trusted, inclusive and sustainable – and its value to people, society, businesses and the economy’. All the leading media owners and trade bodies are members of the AA.
Stephens's past board roles include Deputy Chair of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Chairman, Changing Faces, a facial disfigurement charity. He is also a past President of the IPA and of NABS. He is currently a Governor of Ravensbourne University, London and is on the board of the History of Advertising Trust.
To hear Stephen’s advice on getting your business through a recession, trying to change the advertising industry for the better and on how to get a good agency back on form, listen to this episode of ‘How I Became’.

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