Jon’s career has spanned four decades, three continents, and more than a million miles on each of five different airlines. He’s a writer and strategist who has solved problems for commercial brands ranging from Nike, Coca-Cola, eBay, Porsche, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, Starbucks, Unilever and Vodafone, to the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Cricket Australia and Fulham Football Club.

He was the strategic architect behind the globally-acclaimed ‘got milk?’ campaign, and between 2012 and 2014 worked, with former US Vice-President Al Gore and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on a global climate change campaign in advance of the 2014 UN Climate Change Summit. His environmental and conservation passions are currently focused on positioning and fund-raising work for the Kenya-based David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which successfully rescues orphaned elephants and reintegrates them into the wild, while protecting the wild populations and ecosystems.

Jon has published two best-selling industry books: ‘Truth, Lies & Advertising’ (1998) on how to develop strategically focused and creatively distinctive ideas, and ‘Perfect Pitch’ (2006) on how to persuade others that those ideas are right. His proudest achievements relate to his work as director of the WPP Fellowship, an elite global graduate recruitment and training program, designed to create future leaders for the WPP Group. Between 2005 and 2018, Jon hired and mentored more than 130 Fellows, most of whom have subsequently been appointed to senior industry positions at a ridiculously early age.

He retired from WPP at the end of 2018, although he still takes on consulting projects for people he likes, and on subjects that interest him. (This means he doesn’t take on very many.) He now spends most of his time writing, painting and travelling. His wife of 35 years, Lynda, is an interior designer; their son, Cameron, is a professional cricketer, based in London, and daughter, Hannah, is a veterinary doctor, about to move to Cameroon to work in a chimpanzee sanctuary. Dull moments are few and far between.

A Message from Jon: Although my entire career has been spent in the advertising industry, my role as a strategic planner has given me a unique insight into numerous different industries. I have helped to create, build and manage brands in the airline, automotive, beer, sports, healthcare, finance, entertainment, food and beverage, technology, consumer electronics, e-commerce, energy, and retail industries, and many more besides.