Home » It’s B&T’s Celebration Of Adland’s Over 50s! Meet Havas Media CEO Mike Wilson

18 November, 2019

It’s B&T’s Celebration Of Adland’s Over 50s! Meet Havas Media CEO Mike Wilson

It’s rare that B&T has too many brilliant ideas, but we certainly hit on one with a feature in our last print edition that profiled Aussie adlanders who’ve cracked the half-tonne.

Such was the overwhelming response to our “15 Over 50” profiles we did it all again in the latest issue that should’ve hit agency desks last week.

Did you miss it? Not on the subs list? Well, you can subscribe super easily right here.

Heading this month’s stellar cast of legendary adlanders who’ve celebrated their 50th birthdays is none other other than Havas Media CEO, Mike Wilson.

Despite wanting to be an astronaut when he was four years old, Wilson went on to be a founder and chairman at Naked Communications. He’s also held various roles at MEC, Warner Music Group and BMP DDB in the UK.

Here’s his experience in his own words:

It’s the young people that keep me enthused about this business. They’re smart, honest, ambitious and genuinely passionate about interesting stuff. They think the work is more interesting than holding company politics, and they’re driven to produce the best work that they can. At Havas, everyone is so naturally committed to delivering our #meaningful values. It’s both impressive, and quite humbling. And thankfully they don’t bang on interminably about school fees, or property prices (yet). They make me laugh a lot, even if they think I’m a bit of a dinosaur (surely not?) Weirdly they do play a lot of Fleetwood Mac and ABBA though, and could do with a bit of a classic punk injection. But they are the main reason that I (still) love the job.

I’ve been really lucky to have worked with some proper legends in my career. The London agency where I started my career, BMP, was voted Campaign Magazine’s Agency of the Century or whatever, and was an amazing place to work, genuinely chock full of industry legends (I’m not exaggerating).

It was there that I worked with and became very good friends with Jon Wilkins, who subsequently founded Naked Communications, an agency that has played such an important role for me. As well as being Chelsea (essential), Jon always had the anti-establishment punk gene, that’s so important for industry disruptors. Adam Ferrier, and Mat Baxter, my partners in crime at Naked have it too.

What makes you happy?

Super Frank, Kamasi Washington, heavy metal, reggae, Islay single malts. Most of all, seeing my boys smile.

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