In a career spanning nearly three decades, Elizabeth Baker has been a driving force for Zenith’s client success and growth. Baker is not only a role model for high-performing female leaders, but she is also a true champion of diversity in all its forms, including gender, cognitive, older professionals, returners, and career-break re-entrants.
For this reason, and so many more, Baker took home the 2025 B&T Women In Media Award in the Media Planner/Buyer category.
Speaking with B&T after the win, Baker confessed that the win had been “a long time coming”.
“I absolutely love working and doing what I do, and to win this award just means a hell of a lot to me,” she told B&T.
In 2023, Baker co-launched ZenAcademy, an initiative to futureproof talent in a rapidly evolving media landscape. She has also taken a leadership role in enabling traditional buyers to develop digital capabilities under Zenith’s new Marketplace structure. This has led to 37 women being promoted, 52 receiving merit increases, 16 receiving junior star bonuses and an agency gender pay gap that has closed to 2.7 per cent.
For Baker, this is so important because “everyone has just so many different qualities to give”.
“When you have everyone that’s a cookie-cutter copy of each other, you never achieve anything. I think it’s so important to have representation whether it’s gender, age etc”.
Baker is an important mentor; two of her mentees who had experienced hardship now serve as heads of investment, while she tackles age bias by hiring senior female professionals struggling to re-enter the industry.
In 2024, Baker’s team achieved 100 per cent of its buying KPIs, she launched an opt-in investment product that redirects trading savings to media supporting DEI charities, and delivered $7.7 million in pro-bono media for charity partners. She is truly leading the sector.
