Meet the speakers

Below you can find out about the people who are speaking at EIMF.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs

Born in Ayrshire in 1964, in her early years Fiona Hyslop was brought up in England before returning to Scotland and graduating from Glasgow University with an MA (Hons) in Economic History and sociology.

She completed a post graduate Diploma in Industrial Administration at the Scottish College of Textiles, before moving to Edinburgh to join the financial services company Standard Life where she held various positions in sales and marketing, latterly as Brand Development Manager.

Fiona Hyslop was elected a Lothians MSP in 1999 and was a member of the Parliament's Education Committee. In 2007 she was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, and was responsible for re-establishing the principle of free higher education in Scotland by abolishing the graduate endowment fee.

Appointed Minister for Culture and External Affairs in December 2009, Fiona Hyslop established the cultural development body, Creative Scotland, in July 2010, as part of the Public Services Reform Act. She also secured funding towards the Dundee V&A project, the new Bannockburn visitor centre, and the creation of the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayrshire.

As part of the Scottish Government's programme of international development, Fiona Hyslop launched strategic plans for engaging with India and Pakistan in 2010.

Following the Scottish Parliament Elections in May 2011, she was elected MSP for Linlithgow and was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs.

Her Ministerial portfolio covers External Affairs, Europe, Culture and the Arts, Broadcasting, Architecture, Built Heritage, Lottery Funding, Historic Scotland, National Records of Scotland and Major Events Strategy.

She is married with three children and lives in Linlithgow.

Dan Brooke, Director of Marketing, Communications and Corporate Relations at the Channel 4 Group.

Dan Brooke joined from documentary producer Rare Day, where he was Managing Director. Prior to this he was Managing Director of Discovery Networks UK, leading Discovery’s portfolio of channels through a period of change and innovation with the launches of six new channels and several digital media services.

Dan also worked at Channel 4 from 1998 to 2005, joining as the Head of Marketing & Development for FilmFour, rising to be Managing Director of Digital Channels. He was responsible for the development and award-winning launches of E4, Film4 and More4 and, in 2001, was elected Young Marketer of the Year by the Marketing Society for his role in the birth of E4.

He is a Trustee of the Camden Arts Centre and the Mass Extinction Memorial Observatory, a member of the Tate Patrons Executive Committee and on the Advisory Council of the Britdoc Foundation.

Ivan Lewis MP for Bury South and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

Ivan was elected to Parliament in 1997 at the age of 30 and represents the constituency where he has lived all his life. Prior to becoming an MP he was Chief Executive of two voluntary organisations, Contact Community Care Group and the Manchester Jewish Federation, for a total of eleven years and served as a Bury Councillor for eight years.

In October 2010 he was elected to Labour’s Shadow Cabinet and appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport by Ed Miliband.

During Labour’s period in Government Ivan served as a Minister in five Government Departments between 2001 and 2010: 2001- 2005 Minister for Skills, 2005 - 2006 Economic Secretary to the Treasury, 2006 – 2008 Minister for Care Services, 2008 – 2009 Minister for Africa (DfID), 2009 – 2010 Minister for Middle East (FCO).

Kenny Harris - Founder, Headsurfing

Kenny Harris is the creator of a radical programme of tools, techniques and behaviours to help teams and organisations unlock creative and productive thinking – a programme he calls HeadSurfing™.  Kenny spent 17 years working in advertising and marketing agencies, creating and delivering award-winning marketing campaigns and experiential events for the likes of Walkers Crisps, Kwik-Fit, Hilton Hotels, National Australia Bank and Abbey National.  Beyond the day job, he was a stand up comedian, performing at twelve consecutive Edinburgh Festivals and at well-known comedy clubs across the UK and Ireland.

Rob Brown – Fellow, CIPR  

Rob started his career in radio in the UK before joining Staniforth as a PR account executive.  In the 90s he founded a media PR business which he sold to Leedex Euro RSCG and became the MD of their Manchester office.  For over 10 years he has lectured on the subject of PR and the Internet and he currently advises several major companies on their online PR strategies.  He is an Executive Board Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and chairs the Institute’s Social Media Advisory Panel.  He is also the author of ‘Public Relations and the Social Web’.

Scott Gallacher - Chair, The Marketing Society Digital Network  

Scott is an expert in helping companies to grow through innovation – specifically through finding new ways for businesses to engage with consumers. He has assisted both multinational corporations and starts-ups. Organisations he has worked with include BSkyB, Lastminute.com, Facebook and American Express – he has engaged with these companies in a mixture of Director level line management and advisory roles and has delivered both business driving marketing innovation and organisational realignment.

In recognition of his expertise, Scott was appointed Chairman of the Marketing Society’s Digital Network – a group comprising of the marketing leaders of FTSE 100 brands. He is also a member of the Online Advisory Board for the BBC and is a Founding Advisor of Palindrome Advisors a group of technology entrepreneurs and executives who assist non profit organisations across the globe.
Scott’s commitment to developing innovation extends to angel investment and he is an investor in the SV Angel Fund, and he also advises a number of early stage companies on their international expansion and is currently working on a number of incubator projects in the mobile space.

Scott holds a Ph.D in “Innovation & Social Learning in Corporate environments” from Edinburgh University, M.Sc in Human Computer Interaction from Heriot Watt University and BCom in Business Studies from Edinburgh University.

Paul Bainsfair – Chief Executive , IPA

Paul Bainsfair become Director General Designate of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) on the 7th June 2011.  His 34 years of agency experience began at Saatchi & Saatchi in 1977 where he started as an account executive and rose to being its CEO within ten years. After successfully steering the agency through the recession, and with the agency at the top of the new business league table, he left to co-found Bainsfair Sharkey Trott with John Starkey in 1991. Widely recognised as one of London’s most successful independent agencies during the 1990s.  In 2008 he moved on again to become a Non-Executive Director at Lean Mean Fighting Machine. In January 2009 he joined Iris, the UK’s largest independent integrated agency, first as Partner and CEO of Iris Europe and then as Chairman of Iris Worldwide.

Hugh Baillie – Chief Executive , Ogilvy & Mather

Hugh joined Ogilvy Advertising London in January 2011.  Prior to Ogilvy, Hugh had spent nearly twelve years at BBH. He began there working with the Bank of Scotland and a collection of Italian chewing gum brands owned by Perfetti Van Melle.  Hugh was appointed to the BBH Board in January 1999 and in 2003 became Global New Business Director. After two years in this role, BBH was top of Ad Age’s Global New Business table and Hugh returned to run & build existing clients, focusing primarily on Unilever. Two years were spent building BBH’s portfolio of UL laundry brands before heading up Axe/Lynx for the next 3 years.