School of Communication Arts 2.0

Lord Bell

Tim Bell is one of the best known figures in the United Kingdom communications industry. He helped found Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970, and as International Chairman he took Saatchi & Saatchi into its position as the first British number one worldwide advertising agency in 1981. He successfully ran the publicity campaigns for the Conservative Party for the general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

He was appointed deputy Chairman of Lowe Howard-Spink & Bell plc in 1985 and remained in that position until the formation of Chime Communications in 1989. He advises the chairmen of many of Britain’s leading companies and organisations, as well as foreign heads of state and international business leaders and politicians. He was awarded a knighthood in 1990 by Lady Thatcher in her resignation honours and a peerage by Tony Blair.

Sir John Hegarty

John Hegarty is one of the world’s most famous creatives.

His awards include the D&AD President’s Award for outstanding achievement in the advertising industry and The International Clio Awards Life Time Achievement award for outstanding achievement in the industry. In the same year he was inducted into The One Club of New York’s Creative Hall of Fame.

In 2007, John received a knighthood in the Queen’s birthday honors for services to industry.

Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland read Classics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before joining Ogilvy as a Graduate Trainee in 1988. After 18 months spent as the world’s worst account handler (as a desperate remedial measure he was once booked onto a time management course, but got the date wrong) Rory became a copywriter in June 1990.

He has worked on Amex, BT, Compaq, Microsoft, IBM, BUPA, easyJet, Unilever, winning a few awards along the way. He was appointed Creative Director of OgilvyOne in 1997 and ECD in 1998. In 2005 he was appointed Vice Chairman on the Ogilvy Group in the UK in recognition of his improved timekeeping.

By an amazing stroke of luck (his brother is an academic) Rory first used the Internet in 1987. Hence he had the advantage in 1994 of knowing what it was and what it might do a few years ahead of many colleagues. Most people would have combined this knowledge of marketing and technology to make a fortune; not Rory. Instead he became the first Briton to have his credit card details stolen online, thereby losing £22.45.

In his spare time, Rory collects self-aggrandising job titles. He was President of the Direct Jury at Cannes in 2007, and was elected President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising in 2009. He is also the Technology Correspondent of the Spectator, the world’s oldest English language magazine. At quiet moments in the proceedings over the next few days you may like to pay a furtive visit to his blog at http://snipr.com/da9bq

Chris Gorman OBE

An entrepreneurial path that started in the early nineties saw Chris investing in the fledgling mobile communications business, DX Communications. He and his partners grew this business to a massive 190 retail stores and £170million turnover before selling to Cellnet (now O₂).

Chris went on to found the internet services company, Reality, selling innovative and highly complex ecommerce solutions to a wide range of businesses across the UK and beyond. This was a highly successful venture that resulted in a lucrative sale to GUS.

Highly regarded, Chris has received many business awards for his entrepreneurialism over the years, including Ernst & Young Scottish Entrepreneur of the Year, UK E-Business Entrepreneur, Young Business Leader of the Year, Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland in Business, and SBAAT Businessman of the Year Award.

In June 2005 Chris was delighted to receive an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to business.

PY Gerbeau

PY Gerbeau started out in 1984 as a professional ice hockey player, playing in several championships and becoming a member of the French national team, before a severe ankle injury curtailed his sports career in 1989. He then turned to business, first with TPS Conseil, then in 1991 joined Disneyland Paris, rising rapidly to become Vice-President of Park Operations and Attractions in 1997.

In February 2000 PY was appointed Chief Executive of the New Millennium Experience Company, the operator of the Millennium Dome in London. He was brought in to turn around the fortunes of an attraction struggling in the face of major financial problems and negative publicity. Under his leadership it was to become the UK’s most successful paying visitor attraction.

Saul Klein

Saul Klein is a partner at the leading venture capital firm, Index Ventures. He brings over 15 years of experience successfully building and exiting companies in both the US and Europe as an entrepreneur, operator and seed investor. Most recently he was the co-founder and original CEO at what is now Lovefilm International and part of the original executive team at Skype (eBay).

Saul loves working with seed and early stage companies and is a passionate believer that Europe is only scratching the surface in terms of its potential for entrepreneurs to create great startups. To support this vision, since 1999 he has been a Founding Partner of The Accelerator Group (TAG) and in 2007 he also started Seedcamp and OpenCoffee Club, which is now active in over 90 cities around the world.

For more info, you can follow Saul on Twitter or check out his not very active blog at http://localglo.be/

Seb Bishop

Seb Bishop, a former student of the original SCA, is the International CEO of (RED), the organisation created by Bono and Bobby Shriver to get money from business to The Global Fund to invest in AIDS programs in Africa.

Seb is one of Britain’s leading young entrepreneurs. He first made his mark at the age of 26 when he founded Espotting – the company that brought search marketing and the successful paid search (also known as pay-per-click) online advertising model to Europe. Seb began Espotting with his school-friend Daniel Ishag in a basement flat in 2000. He expanded the business across Europe before merging with US based FindWhat.com in June 2004 in a deal which valued the company at $186m. Seb is also the Chairman of Steak, the search-inspired communications agency. Steak were named Media Agency of the Year in 2007.

David Howe

David Howe has had an extensive career in arts education and further education. His education roles have included teacher, examiner, arts advisor, inspector, enterprise project manager, and college principal. As a teacher in the 80’s he set up a thriving and  innovatory music centre in Essex that drew students from all over South Essex before they went on to prestigious scholarships at major universities and music colleges. The students’ creative outputs regularly featured on radio and television. Later in the 90s he led developments on the educational use of digital solutions for cross performing arts work as well as one of the first large scale uses of a self developed virtual learning environment in further education. David has been a very keen campaigner and advocate of open learning environments and the smart use of digital technologies. He has contributed over a long time towards national policy groups on curriculum and quality including the development of qualifications. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Rosemary Forsyth

Rosemary has been the General Partner of the Forsyth Group since she founded the company in 1981. Recognizing the potential growth of Information Technology within business, the Forsyth Group was the first Executive Search Consultancy to focus on this emerging technology market.

Rosemary has developed extensive search experience across all technology sectors and conducts “C”, VP, Director and Board level assignments for technology companies across the UK, Europe and the United States. The Forsyth Group opened its Californian office in 2004 to extend the company’s trans-Atlantic search capabilities and strengthen its position in Silicon Valley.

Rosemary has also been a key contributor and advisor to the investment community in relation to the establishment of their corporate pre- and- post IPO infrastructure. Rosemary has also made a number of angel investments including www.net-a-porter.com ,  www.sokoz.com , www.johnharwooddesign.com and is a Limited Partner in www.seedcamp.com .

Rosemary holds a Master’s degree with honours in Psychology and an M.Litt degree in Education Psychology, both from Aberdeen University in Scotland. Rosemary sits on the Board of Aberdeen University Sixth Century Campaign Board and the Board Of Governors for www.schoolcommunicationarts.com and is also an advisor to www.talentpuzzle.com and www.bravenewtalent.com .