Everyone needs a helping hand when they’re starting out or taking on new responsibilities at work and getting the right mentor can transform someone’s career. Mentorship is key to addressing many of the challenges that the industry faces.
Getting people to stick around in our industries can be challenging. The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) census found that regrettable loss in staff turnover stands at 26 per cent (down from 32.6 per cent the year before). The Advertising Council’s Create Space census recently found that nearly one in five staff were likely to leave their company due to a lack of inclusion or discrimination experienced. At the same time, it found that the top three factors when choosing a new employer were more diverse leadership, flexible working and a fairer approach to pay and promotions.
Diversity in age and the role of experienced hands in the industry was even the subject of a fierce Debate Club session during Cannes in Cairns featuring the likes of Jane Caro AM, CEO of the AANA Josh Faulks, Affinity CEO Angela Smith, Nate Vella of Bench Media, The Monkeys’ Celine Dinant and Darragh Butler from Uber Advertising.
This Best of the Best list is more subjective than most. We’ve taken personal testimony from staff, looked at the initiatives that many are involved and studied their impact on the industry at large and the things they champion. We’ve also collected from our Best of the Best Nomination Form — nominated by the C-Suite, picked by B&T.
Over the coming weeks for Best of the Best, we’ll be looking at:
- Developers
- Industry entrepreneurs
- Strategists creative
- Media planners
- Consultants
So email [email protected] if you know anyone who is truly the Best of the Best in their field and deserves to be recognised.
So, without any further ado, here are your Best of the Best Mentors:
10. Stephanie Douglas-Neal, MD Sydney, EssenceMediacom
Stephanie Douglas-Neal joined EsseceMediacom post-merger to lead its Sydney office and has done so with aplomb. At the time, former CEO Pat Crowley said that she was “a key hire for our growing Sydney office and will work with our national and NSW team to bring to life the merger, develop our culture and continue our focus on award-winning work for our clients.”
To that end, she has certainly delivered. In December, it picked up Google’s $40 million-rated above-the-line account and it has snatched away some critical talent from rival agencies, including Alex Williams as its new head of planning. But there’s a lot more to Douglas-Neal’s work than simply winning work and keeping the Sydney office in order.
She has been instrumental in leading EssenceMediacom’s fundraising efforts for rural and remote mental health charity Dolly’s Dream. She also takes part in the MFA Leadership series, learning from the best how to coach the best talent. She has also been a vocal supporter of EssenceMediacom’s up and coming talent, saying she was “blown away” by its younger employees on the brink of B&T‘s 30 Under 30 Awards this year. She was also shortlisted for the Mentor category at B&T‘s Women in Media Awards previously.
9. James Wright, CEO, Havas Creative
James Wright might have a claim to being the busiest person in adland. He’s the Group CEO of the Havas Creative Group in Australia, the global CEO of Red Havas and the global chairman of the Havas PR Collective. He’s also the chairman of Sydney-based Gotcha4Life Foundation. But despite that rather intense schedule, Wright takes time to publicly congratulate his Havas colleagues on B&T’s Women in Media Power List saying he was “immensely proud” of them all.
However, his work for the Gotcha4Life Foundation, which provides preventative mental health campaigns, programs and services sets him apart from many other leaders. Working with the likes of Chemist Warehouse, Origin Energy, Telstra, Westpac and all 17 NRL teams, Wright’s connections give the Foundation an outsized impact on people in Australia and Havas.
8.Mark Coad, CEO, IPG Mediabrands
Mark Coad has been a central figure in Australia’s media landscape for many years and has been instrumental in bringing through a series of industry leaders in the four-and-a-bit years since he has had the top job at IPG.
Described by those who know him as a “genuinely good and caring person” who is “focused on the people in the team and the right outcomes for them,” it’s no wonder that some of his protégés have become the most in-demand staff in the industry. He is also a longstanding mentor for The Marketing Academy’s scholarship series.
7. Margie Reid, CEO, Thinkerbell
Last year’s number three, Margie Reid has been a central figure in finding and nurturing the talent that makes Thinkerbell one of the finest agencies in Australia. In fact, many of the agency’s staff have come straight from university and progressed up the ladder at Thinkerbell — showing that its efforts in coaching and providing opportunities to staff work.
Outside the walls of Thinkerbell, Reid works with the industry mentorship group The Aunties and is a board member of Inclusively Made, which helps provide employee opportunities for people living with disabilities in the creative and film industries.
6. Trudi Sampola, director, people and culture, Nature
Trudi Sampola might not be the most familiar name to people in adland but her role as the people and culture head at research agency Nature means she has an outsized impact on many people within the industry.
Last year, Nature won the B&T People and Culture Award for agencies with under 100 staff. Over the course of 2023, the agency grew its team to 60 people and says that its use of office rituals — including a weekly town hall meeting with updates and shoutouts — and an in-depth in-house training platform that gives every employee a customised growth plan were central to its success. All of these initiatives have been driven by Sampola. Many would do well to learn from her.
5. Chris Savage, The Savage Company
After leaving STW in 2015 and setting out on his own with The Savage Company, Chris Savage has helped many industry leaders grow personally and professionally.
His eponymous company specialises in offering authoritative advice on business growth, reputation management, marketing, and brand communications and Savage’s sessions are noted for his inspiring leadership style. He also serves as a Mentor for The Marketing Academy’s Scholarship program.
4. Esther Clerehan, founder and CEO, CLEREHAN
Esther Clerehan is a legend within the advertising industry and while The Aunties have many mentors, she stands apart as the OG Auntie, having helped women and men in the creative industries grow their careers for more than three decades.
Her successes include placing a then 26-year-old David Droga at Saatchi & Saatchi Asia as regional ECD and Ned McNeilage and Linda Knight at Wieden + Kennedy in 1994 — the shop’s first international creative hires. More recently, she’s helped bring Elle Bullen back into adland as ECD at Bullfrog.
Many, many people owe a lot to Clerehan — though you wouldn’t know it from meeting her.
3. Cathy O’Connor, CEO, oOh!media
Last year’s number two, Cathy O’Connor has been a regular fixture on B&T‘s Women in Media Power List and regularly helps staff in her company through difficult spots.
What’s more, oOh!media was one of the few companies to come out of the very hotly debated Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) gender pay gap rankings smelling of roses. It found that at oOh! women were actually paid more than men, as well as comprising 48 per cent of oOh!’s workforce of 800-plus and 50 per cent of senior leadership.
O’Connor is also a mentor for the Independent Media Agencies of Australia’s (IMAA) Future Leaders of Tomorrow program and said that she loves to impart the advice her mentors gave her — reassurance, refraining from being reactive and being useful — to the next generation of leaders. Plus, as a female CEO of one of the largest listed companies in the industry, O’Connor’s leadership in the space also serves as an example to many in adland.
2. Peter Vogel, CEO, Wavemaker
It can be tricky to pin down what being a mentor means. For some, it might be a one-to-one session once a month with a younger person. Vogel, on the other hand, sees it as his job to support every single employee at Wavemaker.
Back in 2021, Vogel told B&T that his job was to hire people better than him. Now, we can’t comment on that, but what we can say is that Vogel’s vocal support of all his staff has led to one very happy and productive workforce. Plus, whenever a Wavemaker employee is on a stage, collecting an award or anything else, you can almost guarantee that Vogel will be there and will be the first to offer his congratulations.
When asked by Greg ‘Sparrow’ Graham how his staff would describe his leadership style, Vogel said “Hopefully, the following words would be mentioned: supportive, involved, committed, authentic.” We can’t think of a better way to empower and show up for staff in a competitive world.
1. Sarah Scott Paul, head of people and culture — Australia, global head of learning and development, Enero
Sarah Scott Paul has become something of a fixture in the pages of B&T of late.
She won the Mentor category at last year’s Women in Media Awards, hailed for her work setting up Enero’s global ADVANCE Leadership program that sees future leaders go through more than 20 hours of collective leadership mentoring and also work with Scott Paul one-on-one to grow their skills.
Enero-owned agency BMF also won the People and Culture Award for agencies with more than 100 employees at the B&T Awards last year. The agency was noted for its long tenure of staff with more than a third of BMFers having been with the agency for more than five years. It also has a range of initiatives to encourage traditionally marginalised communities to thrive in its workplaces.
