Agency Dealmasters Podcast

Charles has had a 30-year career in advertising. He initially wanted to be a 'suit' in any of the big ad agencies. But they all turned him down; repeatedly. Eventually, a small London agency, Connell May & Steavenson, offered him a job in the media department. He took it. From there he did get his 'big agency' break and joined Young & Rubicam. By the time WPP acquired Y&R in 2000, Charles was their EMEA Media Director. In WPP media was fully spun-out of the ad agencies and MEC (now Wavemaker) was born. Charles was the Global CEO of MEC for 14 years, responsible for 5000 people across 80 markets. He did that role for 7 years based in New York and for 7 in London. Over that time MEC quadrupled in size and became a $1 billion business and one of the world's top 5 media agencies. Charles was a founding member of GroupM. He left WPP in June 2017.