Brian Jacobs

Brian has 35 years experience at advertising and media agencies, including Leo Burnett, Carat International and Universal McCann.

Prior to establishing BJ&A in 2006, Brian was Executive Vice President at the research agency, Millward Brown, where he set up and ran that organisation’s Global Media Practice.

He has held management positions in the UK, Europe and globally (out of the USA), working on clients such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, VW, Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola, Unilever and McDonald’s. Brian has co-authored two books: ‘Spending Advertising Money’ (in 1984) and ‘Social Media Marketing’ (in 2009).

Louise Cretton

Louise has worked as a researcher and marketer on both the agency and client side, including NOP, McCann Erickson, Coca-Cola, Leapfrog Research and Planning, Kellogg's, Unilever and Bayer.

She has also taught strategic planning and the role of research as a marketing and business tool at Bournemouth University where she later took up the post of Marketing Director.

For many years, Louise chaired the Awards Committee for the Market Research Society Annual Conference.

Charlie Thelu

Charlie has 17 years international experience in procurement across a variety of sectors. He was Global Head of Procurement for EMI before starting his Procurement consultancy firm in 2006.

He has extensive experience of commercial negotiation across the full range of goods and services, including media, print, marketing services, packaging, raw materials, IT, outsourcing and travel across a range of companies in the media, petrochemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Charlie is bilingual (French).

Jean McDougall

In her 30-year career, Jean has held senior management positions in market research, marketing and communications in the UK and South Africa.

Jean has worked for, or handled business for, Nestlé, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Kraft, Diageo (United Distillers), Cadbury and Levis as well as Becta, Barclays, Sterling Health and global research agencies Millward Brown and Research Surveys.

At Millward Brown Jean had responsibility for the integrity and development of the Link pre-testing approach, established the company’s global Knowledge Management system and set up and led a global marketing communications function. She has also taught in further education.

Sarah Walker

Sarah has been in the media industry for 20+ years. Since becoming a consultant in 2011, she has worked with agencies, media owners and marketing services consultancies to deliver media management projects.

Building on her agency experience in global strategy, planning and network operations, Sarah’s focus is now pitch and transition management, media operations and relationship auditing. She has worked across many sectors and is passionate about helping clients find a better way of working.