Stephen Allan

Steve is simply a marketing industry pioneer. He was part of a wave of UK agency trailblazers who helped to develop media planning and buying as a stand-alone discipline in the 1980s and 1990s, when media agency entrepreneurs broke away from creative shops and went on to turn them into global networks.

In 1982 he joined The Media Business, an independent shop, which listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1995 before being acquired by NASDAQ quoted Grey Inc. in 1999. During the following three years under Steve’s leadership, MediaCom UK became the largest media agency and the first to bill over £1billion. Grey/MediaCom was sold to WPP in 2004 and shortly after Steve established GroupM UK as its first CEO.

In 2008 he returned to MediaCom as its Worldwide Chairman & CEO transforming it into one of the world’s largest and most awarded media networks with over $30 billion in annual billings, employing over 8,000 staff and serving global clients including Adidas, Coca-Cola, Dell, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Sky and Uber.

Throughout his career, Steve’s achievements have been recognised by his peers and press alike, and was voted Media Achiever of the Year by Campaign Magazine. He is also Chairman and co-founder of Rays of Sunshine, a charity organisation that grants wishes to terminally ill children.