VCCP ADVERTISING (SHANGHAI) - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Chairman
- Founding Partner
- Director of Chime Communications
Adrian is a Director of Chime Communications and is a member of the Marketing Society. Adrian Coleman co-founded VCCP around Charles Vallance's kitchen table, united in a desire to challenge the bad habits of the industry. Over the past 21 years, in his capacity as Group CEO, Adrian has grown VCCP from an agency of four to over 1100 people, with 8 offices across the Globe and 19 specialist capabilities. As one of the UK's most in demand agencies, VCCP reached a huge milestone in 2023, being named the UK's biggest creative agency by billings. Adrian continues to drive VCCP's challenger spirit helping brands such as Virgin Media O2, Cadbury, comparethemarket.com, Domino's,TfL and easyJet to transform their business.
Job Titles:
- Head of Strategic Planning
Álvaro has extensive international experience leading strategy teams where he has had the opportunity to work for brands such as EE (leading telco brand in the UK), Nestlé, Heineken global, Samsung, and Sky. Prior to joining VCCP Spain, he worked in London in strategic management positions at Publicis • Poke, Engine Group, and The Mill. His work has been recognised by awards such as WARC, The Drum, BIMA, The Lovie Awards, and YouTube Works for Brands for ‘Best Long-Term Effectiveness ". He has a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Navarra, a diploma in Digital Media from Hyper Island Stockholm and has completed several strategic training programs at the London APG.
Antonio studied law and postgraduate studies at IESE. Before going into advertising, he founded the company Fun Science-Ciencia Divertida, which he sold in 2001. He has worked at MKM, Creactiva, Draft, DRAFTFCB, FCB and Manifiesto for clients such as Heineken, Mapfre, MINI, Ron Barceló, Hendrick's Gin, Mahou, Coca Cola, Repsol, Havaianas, Larios, Netflix, Trapa, etc.
Job Titles:
- Executive Creative Director
Beto began his career at the Argentine agency Agulla y Baccetti. Following on from that, he worked for several multinational agencies in Spain before becoming the Executive Creative Director and Innovation Lead at DraftFCB. Beto has developed award-winning advertising, digital, experiential and branded content campaigns at Cannes Lions, El Sol, FIAP, El Ojo de Iberoamérica, Caples, Laus or ECHO Awards, among others. He is a Media Technician, studied Film and Advertising in Buenos Aires and, in his spare time, writes and directs short films.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer, North America
As a North American industry veteran, Edgar is famed for delivering results. Before joining VCCP in 2022, at 72andSunny she led the NY office to a record-breaking year - increasing revenue growth by 47% in 2021. She expertly steered the agency through the pandemic and drove success with a focus on team-building, organic growth and winning new business across a variety of modern businesses including sports apparel, business and virtual services alongside developing powerful creative work for iconic international brands.This led the agency to be awarded Entertainment Agency of the Festival at Cannes Lions last year and most recently the accolade of Standout Agency on Ad Age's 2022 A-List.
Prior to 72andSunny, Edgar was at BBH New York as Managing Director and helped define roles for brands including Playstation and GrubHub. She has also held senior positions at Droga5 and TBWA Chiat Day. She has worked across a variety of brands such as the highly-awarded Mars business including Skittles and Starburst alongside Samsung, Cover Girl, Pizza Hut and Honey Maid.
Carlota started her professional career more than 9 years ago at MCCann Erickson Madrid after winning the first ‘Creatividad en Vivo' award. Here she had the opportunity to learn how to manage a brand such as Repsol YPF. Later, she spent almost two years at PS21 (formerly dommo) as Brand Manager, working for clients such as Shiseido, Nars, Buckler 0'0 or Ikea. Since 2013 she has been part of the VCCP team and has had the good fortune to continue developing her career with major clients such as Plátano de Canarias, Nike, Worten, Alsa and Grupo Liberty Seguros. She has a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, New York
Prior to joining VCCP in 2022 as Managing Director overseeing accounts including Google, White Claw, T-Mobile for Business and SoulCycle, Grayson was Group Brand Director 72andSunny New York where she led the Comcast, Etsy and Spotify businesses. Previously at Adam&Eve she led the John Lewis account as Business Director and within her 5 year tenure was also named Campaign magazine's ‘Face to Watch' at age 26. A VCCP returner, Grayson started her career at VCCP's headquarters in London on the Chime graduate training program, and then joined the brand team on the O2 account.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Founding Partner
- Brand Strategist
Charles is a brand strategist who began his advertising apprenticeship at Burkitt's, working subsequently at BBH and WCRS. In 2002 he decided to start working for himself and, along with his three partners (Rooney Carruthers, Adrian Coleman and Ian Priest), set up VCCP. Their founding client was O2, to whom they are eternally grateful. Over the last two decades, Charles has worked on and, in some cases, helped launch a diverse range of brands including O2, ING, Hiscox, easyJet, Canon, Cadbury, Domino's, Dyson, Vitality, and Virgin Media.
Outside of work Charles doggedly pursues a variety of sports including cricket, tennis, football, golf, skiing and snooker, all at a consistently low standard. Charles is a Trustee for The Fred Foundation, is co-author of a book called The Branded Gentry, and has been a regular columnist for Campaign Magazine for a number of years.
Darren started his career at WCRS creating award-winning work for Speedo, funny work for Butterkist, and launched Sega Dreamcast across Europe. He then moved to DDB London. But not for long. Next was a seven-year stint at Mother. Pimm's, ITV Digital, PG Tips, Schweppes, Magic FM and Yellow Pages were all hits.
In 2008 Darren moved to be the creative lead of VCCP with the desire to create more famous and much loved advertising that populated culture.
VCCP's comparethemarket.com launched in 2009 and is still the nation's favourite campaign. He encouraged everyone to ‘be more dog' for O2. Nationwide Building Society lets the nation speak about the issues that matter most with our ‘Spoken word' work. And more recently he's put Cadbury back in the nations hearts with ‘there's a glass & a half in everyone'. The Cadbury work is rolling out around the world to great effect.
David started out in advertising at Young and Rubicam, working on accounts such as Heinz Baked Beans, British Gas, Smirnoff, Royal Navy & Royal Marines Recruitment and Legal and General. After seven years he went to McCann-Erickson where he became a Managing Partner of the London office for nine years and won and ran clients such as Esso, Bacardi, Coca-Cola and the Irish Tourist Board, as well as working on Nestle, CGU and Bacardi.
He then joined Lowe worldwide for five years, where he was the Global Business Director on Nokia and Electrolux before joining VCCP, where he is the Group Managing Director. He is married and has three teenage children.
David went to the University of Durham where he studied Greek & Roman Civilisation, Russian Studies and Anthropology.
Portugal, Greece, Slovakia, or Serbia… Dejan has wealth of international experience in CEE having lived and worked there for many years. Before opening VCCP Prague with Helena, he was a creative leader at a number of highly prestigious advertising agencies.
As a result he has won many of the major Czech and international advertising awards including Eurobest, EPICA, Cannes short lists, London International, NY Festival, Golden Drum, Art Directors Club of Europe, Moscow International, EFFIE amongst others and finaly ADC CZ - award for personal life contribution to the ad industry in Czech Republic.
He always aims to be the best - be that on the basketball field or playing his beloved guitar.
Eliana Cantonati joined the VCCP Spain team as Client Business Director in 2019. Ellana came from Yslandia and is responsible for leading the management of many of the accounts such as O2, Grupo Mahou-San Miguel, Cadena 100, Innoenergy and Larios, among others, reinforcing the digitalization of these accounts and the development of the agency's business. Eliana began her professional career as Marketing Manager before moving to the world of advertising. She was an Account Executive at Young and Rubicam working for brands such as Movistar, then Supervisor at Dommo for the Yoigo account; and Account Director at Yslandia where she worked for several accounts such as: Netflix, Telefonica Foundation, Warner Bros, DIA supermarkets, Pepsico, Casa Tarradellas, Deutsche Bank, Baxi, Merck Group, among others.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director
- New Business
Prior to joining VCCP and opening its Prague office, Helena worked for several communication agencies in the Czech Republic, Mexico and the UK.
Her extensive experience includes FMCG Practice Leader at Euro RSCG Prague, developing strategies and integrated campaigns for Opavia, Kraft Foods, Danone Baby Food, Bongrain. She coordinated the global strategy and communications for Roche pharma brands out of D'Arcy London, and worked on a number of P&G brands across Latin America from D'Arcy Mexico City.
In her free time she loves coaching, travel and yoga.
Job Titles:
- Strategic Planning Director
Henri brings over 20+ years of Account Management & Planning experience with a strong combination of international and local Czech experience. He has worked on a wide range of categories including FMCG's, Health and Beauty, Tourism, Retail, Banking, Telecoms, Energy and Automotive. Henri holds a Masters Degree in International Business and Marketing. He has worked around the world including Germany, Latin America and the UK which has helped him master five different languages.
Henri joined VCCP from Mark/BBDO Prague, where he was Strategy Planning Director, Board Member. During this time he also joined the International BBDO University Faculty from 2005 to 2010. Henri has deep passion for music and plays drums whenever possible.
Javier Suso has more than 20 years of experience in the communication industry in Spain. He is a renowned professional with extensive experience in agency leadership, highlighted by his strategic vision and sensitivity for creative work. Before becoming CEO of VCCP Spain, Suso worked in senior positions at agencies such as Shackleton where he was Managing Director of the Madrid office (2007-2012) and CEO of Gray Spain (2015-2018). In addition, he was also part of the founding team and Managing Director of VCCP Spain (2012-2015). Javier Suso has a degree in Business Administration, an Executive MBA from IE Business School and an Executive Master in Relational Marketing CRM and e-commerce from ICEMD. He has been Co-Director of El Sol (2017 and 2018), collaborates with numerous business schools as a speaker and has been a jury of El Sol, CdeC, FIAP, Inspirational, Imam, IMC European Awards and Aster Awards.
Jed Grossman is the Chief Creative Officer for VCCP in the US responsible for architecting the agency's creative vision within North America. Jed brings over 20 years of experience on the world's largest and most iconic brands, including award-winning campaigns for the likes of Google, MINI Cooper, Tanqueray and Oscar Health Insurance.
Job Titles:
- Group COO & Group CEO, VCCP Business
Jo started off training as a speech therapist but was introduced to the world of marketing and decided that was where her heart was. Following a couple of client roles, she moved agency side and after a few years joined a start-up which she was instrumental in building until sold to Chime when she became its' CEO.
Jo is Group CEO of VCCP Business which includes a collective of four award winning agencies and one of the fastest growing parts of the Group. She also works closely with and advises a broad base of clients in the UK and internationally. She is Group COO of parent company Chime and has chaired and led the Group's youth board, its' women's network, Grapevine, and most recently its' sustainability strategy.
A Trustee of Park Theatre in London, Jo is a member of the Women in Business board for the DofE and a member of WACL.
Jonny Shaw - Chief Strategy Officer
In his role as Chief Strategy Officer, Jonny oversees all strategic thinking and output for VCCP NY. Jonny has a uniquely broad and deep strategic perspective. He's led teams in London, Tokyo, San Francisco and New York, and across the spectrum of strategic disciplines - from business strategy to innovation, creative strategy to comms and media planning.
He has delivered award winning work for organizations such as Audi, Paddy Power, Axe, YouTube, Georgia Coffee (Coca Cola Japan), Impossible Foods, Viceland and the ACLU. Outside of work he likes to play video games, watch video games and try to make his daughter love video games.
Dougie (as he is called by everyone except his parents) has over 25 years experience in the industry, cutting his teeth at WCRS, BBH, TBWA and Grey before joining VCCP in 2008 to lead the agency's founding account, O2.
Today, as Group CEO, Dougie spearheads VCCP's international expansion, opening offices in New York, Singapore and Shanghai to service regional and global clients including White Claw, Mondelẽz, Canon, Google and PepsiCo.
A passionate believer in advertising as a force for good, he is the Chair of the UK Advertising Export Group (UKAEG), an active member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Council where he was IPA President 2021-2023, sits on the Meta Advisory Council and is Chair of Black Representation in Marketing (BRiM).
Beyond the industry, he is an Independent Trustee at the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and Co-Founder of Lucky Voice, the UK's premier private karaoke company that he launched with VCCP's Global CSO Jonny Shaw in 2006.
Luis Alberto has an Engineering degree from the Polytechnic University in Madrid and has studies in Business Administration and Management from the UOC. He also brings training and experience in Project & Operations Management and Specialization in Digital Marketing.
Before holding the position of Head of Digital at VCCP, he has been Digital Global Account Manager and Digital Project Manager at Lola MullenLowe and at DDB / C14torce.
Michael Lee - Chief Strategy Officer
Michael Lee has been Chief Strategy Officer of the VCCP Partnership since 2013. He has played a major role in the dramatic growth of the agency to become the UK's Number 1 agency, with an exceptional roster of clients including Cadbury, O2, compare the market, Walkers, Canon and easyJet. In January 2023, he was ranked the UK ad industry's No.1 Strategist by the trade publication Campaign.
He has won numerous creative and effectiveness awards including the European Effie Grand Prix, and the Marketing Society's Long Term Effectiveness Award for his work on transforming the commercial fortunes of easyJet. He now oversees a team of over 70 strategists across 8 offices worldwide, with a diverse range of skillsets ranging from brand strategy to data analytics and performance marketing.
Job Titles:
- Founding Partner
- Co - CEO
Michael joined VCCP on its first day of business in 2002, becoming VCCP Managing Director in 2006, VCCP CEO in 2012 and VCCP Group CEO 2024.
During his time at VCCP Michael has been privileged to work with many of our client partners including O2, Virgin Media, Google, Telefonica, Sage, T-Mobile, Microsoft, Formula E, Coca-Cola and Macmillan among others. The proudest part of his career is being part of the team that built the VCCP Group from an idea to a 1,500-strong agency in eight offices around the world.
Michael has deep experience in the tech and telco sectors in addition to establishing and growing VCCP's digital specialisms. Michael is also founder and CEO of faith, the VCCP Group's AI capability. In addition Michael is a Director for the charity Health Improvement Project Zanzibar.
Outside of work and family Michael has raced motorbikes across the Sahara, trekked to the magnetic North Pole and led expeditions across the Himalaya, Andes and Tanami desert.
Raj Dadra is the Group CFO. He joined VCCP in 2018 having previously worked at GCI, Cohn & Wolfe, Fleishman Hillard, G2, Geometry Global and Ogilvy. With over twenty years' experience he has worked in UK, Regional and Global finance roles in addition to being the client finance lead for one of WPP's biggest clients. Raj is the Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee for the British Science Association, the BSA is a charity, founded in 1831 and incorporated by Royal Charter. The mission of the BSA is to transform the diversity and inclusivity of science; to reach under-served audiences; and increase the number of people who are actively engaged and involved in science.
Job Titles:
- Board Member of the Marketing Society
- Global Chief Growth Officer & CEO, EMEA
- New Business
Stephanie began her career in Marketing and PR specialising in the luxury travel and property industry. After 6 years she left her position as business director at travel PR agency Mason Rose to focus full-time on the marketing consultancy she co-founded in 2009, Cicada Marketing. Later in 2010 Stephanie raced to the North Pole, becoming the fastest woman ever to do so while raising £50,000 for Mencap.
It was on this trip that she met Michael Sugden and Andrew Peake, CEO and MD of VCCP. Stephanie joined the global independent advertising network in late 2010 as Marketing and New Business Director and is now CEO of Europe and Global Chief Growth Officer. In her dual role Stephanie is accountable for all things new business, marketing and PR across VCCP's eight global offices and driving growth for its client list that includes founding client o2, Google, Cadbury, LinkedIn, TfL and White Claw, among many other household names. In addition to her role at VCCP, Stephanie is also the Managing Director of VCCP's parent company, Chime.
Stephanie has been a board member of The Marketing Society since 2016 and recently joined the board of trustees for The Prince's Countryside Fund; the only UK-wide charity that empowers family farms and rural communities to ensure their future, which was founded by HRH The Prince of Wales.