Where are they now—Ad Age Leading Women Europe 2016
After being named to the first class of Leading Women Europe, here is a look into each woman's career trajectory over the past six years.
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Every year, Ad Age honors a class of women in the advertising, marketing and media world. Women in Europe were first recognized in 2016 for their expertise and achievement in their respective fields. Each of the 20 women awarded at the Ad Age Women to Watch Europe ceremony in London had made great strides for major markets located in the U.K. and Western Europe. Six years later, these women continue their legacies, having earned numerous promotions and accolades for their accomplishments.
As we continue to search the globe for inspiring female leaders, we recognize there are many unsung talents in areas we don't often have the opportunity to cover. With that in mind, we are inviting all agencies and brands with outposts in Ukraine to nominate a colleague so that we can shine a light on their great work. All submission fees are waived for Ukraine-based nominees. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
Ad Age Women to Watch was renamed Ad Age Leading Women in 2021. Look back at other past honorees and find out more about how to enter this year's program here.
The former chairwoman of MediaCom U.K. has since become CEO of GroupM U.K. Blackett replaced former CEO Tom George to oversee strategy and operations of GroupM’s agencies, including MediaCom, Mindshare, Wavemaker, Essence, and m/Six.
According to Group M, she also became the first country manager for WPP U.K. in 2018, “delivering growth and attracting, developing and retaining the best and most diverse talent” in the company’s second-largest market of 14,000 people. As country manager, she launched the cultural inclusion program, Your Bridge. Blackett has also been a chancellor at the University of Portsmouth since Oct. 2017.
After acting as the director of media partnerships and collaboration at Sky Media for six years, Bristow departed the broadcast media company in Nov. 2020. She has been a self-employed personal coach and associate for the recruitment company Conker Executive Search and Talent.
Bristow has also been treasurer of Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership since July 2020.
Culatti was managing director and director of the board at the global production partner, Unit9, until July 2018. The following month, she was named director of Creative Shop Northern Europe at Facebook, now known as Meta.
De Groose co-founded Brilliant Misfits, a company that offers brand advice and mentoring for aspiring marketers. Before starting the company in Jan. 2021, she was the executive chair at Newsworks, the marketing body for national newspapers. She also currently is the deputy chair for Cancer Research U.K.
De Groose was recognized when she was CEO of the marketing and advertising firm Dentsu Aegis Network U.K.
Anne de Maupeou
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
de Maupeou has maintained her position as creative chairman at Marcel Worldwide since she was named a Leading Woman in 2016. She has worked for the Paris-based marketing and advertising agency since 2007. Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards, including 70 Cannes Lions and 20 D&AD Pencils.
Tammy Einav
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Einav was joint CEO of Adam&Eve/DDB with Mat Goff at the time of her Leading Women honor. Einav became the sole CEO of Adam&Eve/DDB in London after Goff became CEO of the agency’s New York office in February. Since she joined the executive team, the agency has been named Ad Age International Agency of the Year three times and Cannes Agency of the Year twice.
Einav has worked for Adam&Eve/DDB since 2008, as business director, then managing partner before becoming CEO.
Penny Herriman
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
After working as the global brand director for clothing brand Boden, Herriman was then customer director for White Stuff from Apr. 2019 to Nov. 2020.
She is now the chief marketing officer for Pentland Brands, leading the company’s product and marketing teams, working across brands such as Speedo, Berghaus, Ellesse, Mitre and Canterbury.
Karen Heumann
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Heumann continues to be co-managing director of marketing agency Thjnk which she founded in Hamburg, Germany, in 2012, alongside Armin Jochum and Michael Trautmann. Thjnk operates as an independent agency under holding company WPP, which bought the shop in 2017.
Tanya Joseph
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Since she was director of business partnerships for the government agency Sports England working on campaigns including "This Girl Can," Joseph has held managerial and trustee roles with multiple consulting firms. Most recently, she became managing director of specialist service for PR agency Hill+Knowlton Strategies in London.
Joseph was appointed director of campaigning for Women in Advertising and Communications London in 2019. She also sits on the trustee board for London Sport; Liberty, a human rights advocacy group; and the Thomson Foundation, an international media development organization.
Debbie Klein
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Recognized while she was CEO of Europe and Asia Pacific at The Engine Group, Klein later switched over to Sky, a media and entertainment company she had worked closely with for 12 years. She took on the role of Sky's group chief marketing, corporate affairs and people officer in 2018.
After eight years as chief marketing and communications officer of financial services firm Aviva, Mackenzie became CEO of Business in the Community, a non-profit organization management consultancy based in London. She is also a non-executive director of Lloyds Banking Group and chairs its responsible business committee.
After stepping down as the global chief growth officer at Cheil Worldwide in 2016, Malm-Hallqvist was managing director at MDC Partners Europe from 2016 to 2019. She became CEO of LLandBrand in Nov. 2019.
Sandrine Plasseraud
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
The founder of We Are Social France stepped down from her position as CEO in Feb. 2021. She opened the Paris-based shop after spending more than a decade with We Are Social London. Plasseraud is an angel investor in companies Magma App, Mobile Club, Agricool and The Source.
Michelle Roberts
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Roberts, the former general manager for Mini U.K.’s brand communications, became head of international brand and communications management for BMW Group in Nov. 2016. She was named marketing director for BMW Group UK Limited in May 2018.
Following her Leading Women honor, Rochet remained a member of L’Oréal’s group executive committee as chief digital officer until 2021. She then became a partner at JAB Holding Co. LLC, where she sits on the boards of several of JAB's portfolio companies, including Keuring Dr Pepper.
Specht was managing director for the Global Zurich Insurance team, Interpublic Group and regional director of MRM/McCann Spain, back in 2016. She has since expanded her role within IPG's McCann Worldgroup, and is now CEO of MRM/McCann Spain, working on the global, regional and local levels.
Karen Stacey
Credit: Melvyn Vincent 2016 for Ad Age
Stacey has continued in her role as CEO of Digital Cinema Media. The London-based cinema advertising company is owned by Cineworld and Odeon.
Following her promotion to VP of marketing for PepsiCo Europe, Swarbrick became the commercial and marketing director for the Football Association. For two years, she was responsible for marketing across the Football Association’s international portfolio.
Swarbrick is now general manager and senior VP of Adidas U.K.
Toombs worked for Vice Media U.K. for over 11 years, including as senior VP of strategy and operations.
After leaving Vice in May 2019, Toombs worked as a content consultant for the mobile application Uptime before starting maternity leave in April 2020.
The founder and former CEO of the CTV and video marketing platform Unruly, Wood stepped down from the CEO position in May 2019.
Wood’s roots in tech have led to her current positions as non-executive director for Hambro Perks Acquisition Company and Signal AI, and independent director for Tech Nation. She wrote the business management book “Stepping Up: How To Accelerate Your Leadership Potential,” published in 2017.
