Peter Scott, Joint CEO and Chairman of Engine
Peter is Chairman and Joint Chief Executive of Engine, having conceived and executed the WCRS buyout from Havas in 2004.
Peter has spent more than 25 years in the advertising industry. His formative years were with Ogilvy and Mather: he opened the Scottish operation in 1973. He was a co-founder of Wight Collins Rutherford Scott in 1979 and subsequently oversaw group development from flotation in 1983 through to re–positioning the company as Europe’s largest media buying group — Aegis. He remained Chairman and CEO until 1992. Prior to leading the buyout of WCRS from Havas, Peter pursued interests outside the media and marketing services sector: along with his wife Jan, he dedicated much of his time to fundraising for various children's charities.
Debbie Klein, Joint Chief-Executive
Debbie became Joint Chief Executive of Engine in June 2008. She was Chief Executive of WCRS from 2005-2008 and continues to be involved as Chairman of the advertising agency. She was a founding partner in the management buyout of WCRS in 2004 and prior to that Head of Planning at WCRS for five years.
Debbie started her career at AC Nielsen. In 1993 she joined Saatchi & Saatchi as a Strategic Planner. She was promoted to the Board of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1996. She joined WCRS in 1997 and was promoted to Head of Planning in 1999.
She is the author of Women in Advertising: 10 years on, a study commissioned by the IPA. Many of the recommendations made in her report have since been adopted by the advertising industry. She is a past president of WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London), a network of senior women in the media, advertising and communications business.
Debbie was named one of the Sunday Times ‘Top 40 under 40 in Media’ in 2008.
Robin Wight, President of Engine and WCRS
As President of both Engine and WCRS, Robin was part of the management team that led the management buyout from Havas in 2004. Robin began his career by setting up a student advertising agency while he was still an undergraduate at Cambridge. After working as a copywriter in a number of agencies, including Collett Dickinson Pearce and Partners, he co–founded Wight Collins Rutherford Scott with Peter Scott in 1979.
Though Robin Wight has spent his whole career in advertising, he has always had a number of outside interests. From 1992 — 2002 he was Chairman of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Charter for Business, which has since raised over £40 million. From 1997 — 2005 he was Chairman of Arts and Business which encourages British businesses to invest £140 million a year in support for the arts. In the 2000 Birthday Honours Robin Wight was awarded a CVO for his services to the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Charter for Business. In 2003 he founded the Ideas Foundation, a charity which helps identify and nurture creatively gifted young people from ethnic minorities through the award of Creativity Scholarships.
For the last three years he has been working on a study looking at the way the brain processes communications built on the latest learning from evolutionary psychology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. Linked to this, in 2007 he published “The Peacock’s Tail and the Reputation Reflex: The Neuroscience of Art Sponsorship”.
Despite a 29 year commitment to marketing BMW, once a week he walks to work as his personal contribution to a cleaner planet.
Listen to Robin’s latest BBC Radio4 Programme, Advertising: The Most Fun You Can Have With Your Clothes On!
Julian Hough, Executive Chairman Altogether Digital
Julian is one of the Founding Partners of Engine. He joined WCRS in 1995 and worked across a broad range of accounts including Orange, BUPA, 118 118, Phones 4 U and took responsibility for business development. When the management buy–out of WCRS was completed in April 2004 Julian led the team that won the 3 mobile account and spent a couple of years on secondment to 3 as Marketing Communications Director. On his return to Engine Julian took responsibility for group business development. He took up the post of Executive Chairman at Altogether in Autumn 2008. Julian previously worked at Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA and CDP.
Peter Harris, Group Finance Director
Peter is Finance Director of Engine having joined the company in March 2010. His responsibilities include Engine-wide financial reporting, corporate governance and mergers and acquisitions.
Peter qualified at Price Waterhouse before spending five years in the City with Lloyds Merchant Bank and NatWest Markets. He then joined Capital Radio's strategy team in 1994 before being promoted to Group Finance Director in 1996 where he helped expand the group from its London base into being a national broadcaster. He then joined Simon Fuller’s media and entertainment company, 19 Entertainment, in 2005 and helped develop the business in London and Los Angeles into a creator and exploiter of global content. 19’s portfolio of products included the TV brands, American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, and the Group also managed the careers of David and Victoria Beckham and Andy Murray.
Peter is married with three children and is passionate about all sports, music and travel.
Leon Jaume, Executive Creative Director, WCRS
Leon is Executive Creative Director at Engine and WCRS. Although he has also worked at BMP, FCO and O&M he is rarely away from WCRS for long.
He joined the agency as a copywriter soon after it started and is now on his third stint there. In 2004 he was part of the team that bought out the agency from Havas, so is likely to stick around this time.
Dan Bobby, Managing Director, Dave
Dan is a co–founder of Dave, the brand consultancy launched in March 2003. Dave was the first non–advertising venture for Engine and works with a range of clients including Vertu, Cable & Wireless, Levi Strauss & Co Europe, Prudential and AOL on a range of strategic and marketing issues.
Prior to Dave, Dan spent 10 years working at Wolff Olins, the Omnicom owned brand consultancy, where he was responsible for clients including Orange, Booz Allen, Base (part of KPN), Sky, Goldfish and Hutchison Whampoa (3).
In October 2004, Dan was appointed to the Engine Board, then the WCRS Group, to help drive the diversification into wider marketing and communication services.
Adele Biss, Non–Executive Director
Adele is an entrepreneur/businesswoman who is also a strategic communications adviser with a background in advertising, brand management, PR and public affairs.
She founded Mandate – formerly AS Biss and Co — in November 1996 which under her leadership grew to become one of the UK’s foremost public affairs consultancies.
Adele is one of Engine’s non–executive directors. She is also a non–executive Director of Eurostar and has been a non–executive Director of the British Rail Board, Bowthorpe plc (now Spirent plc) and Harry Ramsden’s plc. She is a Fellow of University College London (UCL) where, as a member of its Council, she chaired the Audit Committee and has been a Governor of Middlesex University. She has an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration (University of Lincoln) and is a Women Advertising Club of London (WACL) “Woman of Achievement.”
Having been head of Communications at Thomson Travel for many years she co–founded Biss, Lancaster in 1978. Under her direction it grew rapidly to become a top ten consumer public relations consultancy.
Matt Wreford, Non–Executive Director
Matt is a director of IPGL Limited, a private holding company in which Michael Spencer, CEO of ICAP plc, together with his wife and family trusts, are majority shareholders. Matt co-manages IPGL’s portfolio of investee companies, which includes Engine, and leads its new investments and exits from mature companies.
He is currently a director of Exotix Holdings Limited, the emerging market securities broker; Probability Plc, the AIM listed mobile gambling operator; Origin Asset Management, the global equities fund manager; Ri3K, the paperless trading service for the insurance and reinsurance industry and Insparo Asset Management, the specialist Africa & Middle East fund manager. He was previously an investment director at venture capital firm MMC Ventures and has held a number of other directorships including Neoss Limited, the developer of dental implant solutions; Connect Mortgage Group Limited, the mortgage processing outsourcer; and Ibis Project Services Limited, a specialist in the affordable housing sector. He is a qualified chartered accountant. Matt read Chemistry at Brasenose College, Oxford.
Ed Eskandarian, Director, Havas Chairman, Arnold Worldwide
Ed Eskandarian has spent over thirty years in the advertising business and currently holds the titles of Chairman and CEO of Arnold Worldwide Partners; however, his career did not begin in advertising. A Villanova engineering graduate, Ed Eskandarian changed course and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and then went on to Compton Advertising’s account management training program. He managed a major portion of Compton’s Procter & Gamble business during his seven years at the agency.
In 1971, Ed Eskandarian joined Humphrey, Browning, MacDougall, a Boston agency with about $6 million in billings. He held the titles of Senior Vice President, Director of Marketing, Executive Vice President and then was named President and Chief Executive Officer of HBM in 1981.
Richard Wyatt, Member of the board
Richard has worked for the past 27 years in London’s financial markets; having trained as an investment analyst with James Capel & Co. He was one of the founders of the UK securities business of Schroders, which was sold to Citigroup as part of its purchase of Schroders investment banking business, upon this acquisition he became Head of European Equities for Citigroup. He retired from Citigroup to serve on the Regulatory Decisions Committee of the newly formed Financial Services Authority in London. In 2004 Richard joined the partnership of Lazard to purchase Panmure Gordon from WestLB, he chaired this business through its listing on AIM and early life as a public company.
Richard chairs the management companies of two publicly traded venture funds; Loudwater Trust is the leading publicly owned London crossover fund. He also chairs the management company of Low Carbon Accelerator plc an AIM listed cleantech venture firm.
Phil Andrews, CEO, Partners Andrews Aldridge
Phil is Chief Executive and co–founder of Partners Andrews Aldridge.
He set up Partners in 1998 with Steve Aldridge following a career path which saw him work for and run both UK and International direct marketing shops. His management roles have also spanned b2b, conference, incentive and events agencies. Phil is a fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing and sits on the IDM Education Council. He has 24 years experience in Marketing Services and has a wide range of experience in almost every sector. He is widely respected as an astute businessman who recognises great creativity that delivers commercial advantage.
Partners Andrews Aldridge became part of Engine in February 2008.
In November 2008, Phil became a Director of Engine and in December 2009, he was made COO of Engine.
Simon Clift, Non-Executive Director
After university he joined Unilever in 1982 as a management trainee in marketing. Over the next nine years, he held various marketing positions in the UK, Portugal, Austria and Mexico.
From 1997 to 2000 he was Managing Director of Unilever’s personal care business in Brazil and then Chairman of Unilever’s Latin American personal care category.
In January 2001 he was appointed President of Marketing of Unilever’s Home & Personal Care Division, and subsequently Group Vice-President for Personal Care where he was directly responsible for the worldwide strategy marketing, innovation and advertising of Unilever’s €12B personal care business.
In June 2008 he relinquished his category responsibilities to become Unilever’s first global Chief Marketing Officer, responsible for how Unilever develops and executes its core function of marketing across all categories – incorporating worldwide advertising agency policy, marketing research, media planning and buying, marketing capability and talent development. He is also responsible for the development of the Unilever company brand.
He is a non-executive director of BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC.
He is interested in music – particularly of the Baroque period – and the arts in general and is a season ticket holder at Chelsea. He lives in London with a counterfeit Brazilian Dalmatian and, for part of the year at least, with his Brazilian foster son, but escapes more frequently than is decent to his home in Paraty, a fine colonial town on the coast in the state of Rio de Janeiro.
