Mark Jones
Writer

Starting point… English teacher, Abingdon School (I had that Radiohead in the back of my class once...)

CV in a sentence Jacked in teaching, freelanced for Creative Review, hired by Campaign, poached by The Evening Standard, published a novel, sacked by The Evening Standard, hired by Campaign, sacked by Campaign, poached by The Evening Standard, then edited High Life and a few other mags, went to Hong Kong to launch a publishing agency, came back, now writing for Mail, FT,  Independent, Wanderlust etc. 

Career high: Won two travel writer of the year awards for pieces on Krakow and the Galapagos. 

Career low: Being told that Brad Pitt was organising a Hollywood boycott of British Airways after a High Life profile of him we published.

Favourite word: Evensong

Most overused word: Bollocks

He says: “I was a weird teenager who spent a lot of time engrossed in Eric Partridge’s Usage and Abusage. I still harbour a romantic dream that the world will one day stop using false comparatives like ‘totally unacceptable’. Over the years I have become bilingual in English and Marketing Bollocks (see above).  

They say: “I fear Mark Jones is right”. (Letter to the Evening Standard)

David Kean
Adman

Starting point… Cold caller on new title PC Week

CV in a sentence I worked at the best ad agency in the world (DDB London as voted by The Gunn Report), founded the specialist growth consultancy Caffeine in 2007, wrote three business books about how to win new business, numerous speeches for business leaders and have taught the art of written and verbal persuasion to tens of thousands of people around the world.  

Career high Winning over a $ billion of new business income for my clients and winning Best Agency Growth Consultancy for Caffeine.

Career low Having to sing ‘My Way’ in a pitch to Pizza Hut where the lyrics had been twisted to list all the ingredients, and reaching the emotional crescendo of the song, singing “for what is a prawn, what has it got?’ The client audience, Americans from PepsiCo, remained stony-faced throughout. We didn’t win the business. 

Favourite word? No (which is what I should have said when they suggested I sing ‘My Way’ about a pizza).

Most overused word Right…(my children know this is the signal to end what we are all doing that they are enjoying and do something else that I enjoy doing instead).

He says…“I learnt the art of persuasion by working with the best creative people in the world of advertising. I also learnt that you need to be the grit in the oyster if you want to produce pearls.”

They say…“Indispensable.” Miles Young, former global CEO Ogilvy

Kerry Smith
Editor

Starting point… PA to the Editor at Marie Claire

CV in a sentence Securing celebrity interviews for Marie Claire, real-life case studies forThe Evening Standard, and interviews with South American dictators forThe Independent before being poached to be editor-in-chief at British Airways’ High Life

Career high Working with writers such as John Simpson, Tracy Chevalier and William Boyd

Career low Being turned into a character for a boss’s newspaper column…

Favourite word? Petrichor

Most over-used word Actually…

She says… “I learnt a lot of what I know in a crash course from one of the most bonkers editors in the business (naming no names). On a daily basis, she’d scream about bad grammar, bad style, boring writing, split infinitives and how the facts should never get in the way of a good story.”

They say…“Your daughter’s a wonderful editor”, so wrote Michael Palin to Mr Smith.