At Mediabrands, we are committed to creating a diverse global community based on excellence and equity. We pride ourselves in attracting and retaining the best in the industry, across all disciplines and specialties. We seek out the best talent wherever we can find it and embrace people looking for new paths to forge. We deliberately foster a diversity of experiences and backgrounds and cultivate the sharing of different ideas and viewpoints as a critical part of our promise of innovation to clients.
As part of our commitment to equity, we are honest about the conscious and unconscious barriers to success that people from diverse backgrounds experience. We are determined to eradicate those obstacles in our company and create a truly people-centered culture where everyone is able to flourish and succeed.
Christian is CEO of IPG Mediabrands across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He has over 20 years of global client leadership across cross-functional businesses, as well as regions and local offices, and he is a member of IPG Mediabrands’ global board.
Christian oversees all of the Group’s digital and media businesses across the region, including Initiative, UM, The Reprise Network, Rapport, MAGNA and Orion. His media and marketing capability spans all areas of the industry, including marketing and brand strategy, digital strategy and activation, advertising, experience marketing and media.
He has lived in Norway, USA, The Netherlands, and the UK and speaks Norwegian as a native, and English, French and Spanish fluently. He is married to Emily, and his two boys, Oliver and Charlie, are forever keeping him on his toes.
Adrian is the CFO for the EMEA region. He has extensive experience in the media, digital and creative sectors having held various Finance, Commercial and Trading positions with Dentsu and WPP agencies. Adrian’s role focuses on delivering results across the region by building partnerships with our clients, agencies and Global teams. He is responsible for helping to deliver the results across over 20 EMEA markets.
Debbie leads HR for Mediabrands across the EMEA region. With a degree in Law, CIPD qualification and extensive experience in HR for marketing and digital agencies, Debbie joined Mediabrands in 2011 as HR Director for UK & Ireland. In 2015, Debbie moved to oversee the talent function for EMEA, with responsibility for improving employee experience throughout the entire lifecycle. A commercially focused, strategic HR leader, Debbie has led the transformation of our EMEA HR function, which successfully supports our business to achieve its goal of attracting, developing and retaining the very best talent in the industry. She understands what makes a great leader and ensures our leadership strives to create a culture within which our talent can thrive. She’s passionate about health, fitness and wellbeing and is a qualified Pilates instructor.
Richard is CEO of Mediabrands UK and President of Initiative EMEA, committed to helping clients’ brands grow through strategic thought leadership and data-driven and digital activation. Most recently Richard was CEO of Initiative UK, transforming the agency’s scale and reputation through the creation of a powerful culture. Prior to that, he led global client relationships for DIAGEO and Burberry, and was Managing Director and Head of Planning for two other major UK Media agencies.
Richard was named on Campaign’s Hot List in 2019, and was previously named a Top 10 Planner for five consecutive years.
Richard is a founding partner of arteverywhere.org.uk, and sits on the IPA council.
Chris is President of UM EMEA, responsible for driving excellence in client service, team performance and talent across the regional network. His extensive international career has seen him working with some of the world’s most iconic brands across multiple continents – for whom he has consistently delivered brilliantly innovative work and real business growth. He has a unique visionary outlook that that has not only allowed him to transform clients’ businesses, but also turn UM EMEA into diverse, progressive and award-winning network in which all people can thrive. An avid runner and cyclist, Chris grew up in Cambridge and now lives in London with his wife and daughter.
Jimmy Schougaard is the President of EMEA for Reprise with over 20 years’ experience in performance marketing and customer engagement. A true champion of customer centric marketing and the integration of media and creative content, Jimmy is able to take the most holistic view of the discipline across media, strategy, technology and creative all while establishing himself as a true business partner for his clients.
Jimmy is based in Copenhagen but travels across the EMEA region, guiding and leading up client projects in markets. His education in marketing with a Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School flows through to his purpose driven team leadership skills which are exampled daily through his curiosity and consultative mind-set.
Howard is Managing Director EMEA of Orion and is responsible for leading Orion across the region, focusing on delivering results by building partnerships with our clients and agencies, working closely with the Global Orion team. He joined Orion in January 2016 and has served in prior roles as EMEA Growth Lead and UK Managing Director, leading the growth of the UK business across recent years and developing relationships to create significant value for our clients. Howard has worked in the media industry since 2003 and prior to working at Mediabrands held senior sales roles at Virgin Media, Disney and Channel 5. When not at work, Howard can normally be found with his wife, Mel, and his two kids, Eva and Jack.
Chris is Rapport MD, UK & EMEA and is our Out-of-Home lead across a media channel that is changing rapidly from static or classic posters to digital screens and the exciting and transformational opportunities that offers to clients. Chris joined IPG initially to set up an international Out-of-Home planning and buying agency for clients overseeing Boeing, Samsung and MasterCard and more recently has been responsible for the European roll out of Rapport offices in Italy, Germany, Spain, France and Belgium. Rapport’s latest initiative is the launch of Rapport Beyond, our scheme to offset 100% of digital screen carbon emissions with a target to be climate positive by 2022. Chris has a degree in Classics from Leicester University and started his career in account management at Grey.
Kevin is the Head of Magna for the EMEA region, and is responsible for managing Mediabrands’ media investment strategy for the region. Kevin’s role covers areas such as client partnerships, media standards, International trading, and he is heavily involved in the brokering and operationalising of the IPG global partnership approach. He is responsible for working with the local Magna leads in each market to ensure a consistent and forward facing approach to the ever changing world of media investment. Kevin brings 25 years of planning, buying and trading experience to his role, and has worked across multiple disciplines and client sectors in his previous roles at ITV and Zenith Optimedia.
