Campaign has named Philippa Brown, CEO of PHD Worldwide, Agency Leader of the Year:

Philippa Brown spent 12 years as Omnicom Media Group’s UK CEO, before being promoted to her current worldwide role in July 2019, becoming the first female global CEO of the agency. She leads a network of more than 6,500 people in 100 offices across 74 markets and also plays a key role in building and strengthening PHD’s global client relationships.

Her vision – set out in the first few months of her new global role, is to ensure that PHD is ‘the most strategic and creative media network in a data and tech world’. Brown introduced a number of initiatives, including ‘Global Creativity Week’, where teams from across the globe showcase their best work. In 2020, with the impact of Covid-19 felt across the world, Brown encouraged her leadership team to focus on delivering a strong strategic planning product, enabling client teams to identify the right approaches to help their clients in challenging times. She was also instrumental in the launch of PHD’s content and digital commerce offerings, DRUM and Transact, and identified new opportunities to drive growth for clients.

Judges were impressed by Brown’s output in her first year in her new role, praising her leadership skills, performance, creativity and culture building. They said: “She should create a master class on how to run a successful global agency network.”

Brown has also developed a new approach to talent management and is an advocate for more female representation across the network. This has resulted in the creation of a talent management community, aimed at sharing best practice and creating new initiatives to nurture and develop talent across the world.