MarComm News’ Legend Series

So here is a look at former Vice-Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Leo Burnett Worldwide and President of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership Switzerland, Michael Conrad:

Q) What is your morning routine?

A) Making breakfast and waiting for my wife to join.

Q) Do you have any pets? What are their names?

A) We don’t have a pet but a pet has us. Probably no human being touched him. He sleeps in a house we built for him. When he decides to show up for breakfast, lunch or dinner we deliver. We keep on working on closing our distance gap but so far we get some severe hissing for an answer. Since four years. We named him “Fauchi”.

Q) How do you relieve stress, if any?

A) Grab the guitar for a while or do something stress free.

Q) With what regularity do you exercise?

A) With the regularity of my wife’s call.

Q) What personal habit has had the most impact on your life?

A) Acting spontaneously.

Q) What is the most positive, life altering moment you have ever had?

A) Escaping from the German Democratic Republic in 1952.

Q) What inspires or drives you the most?

A) Comments on ideas like “will not work, can’t be done”.

Q) Three things that people don’t know about you?

A) I cook without any oven. I talk to trees. And the third thing I don’t know about myself too.

Q) Best advice you have ever received?

A) There is a difference between writing, talking and doing.

Q) What’s your favourite meal?

A) My “Shovel Dinner” – lamb legs simmered in the ground.

Q) What’s the best part of your day?

A) Dream-time.

Q) If you were not in this Industry, what would you be?

A) Salesman.

Q) What’s your favourite genre in film? What is your favourite film?

A) I don’t have a favourite genre in film. From comedy to documentary, the film matters. What about “Twelve Angry Men”, shot in 21 days on a shoestring budget of $350,000… provoking the Hollywood machinery?

Q) The favourite project created by you?

A) I can’t think of a project that was ever created by “me”. Projects were always created by “us”. One favourite: The Berlin School – probably the most complex, most influential and most rewarding of all.

Q) The one project you wish you had done?

A) Creating Ted Talks.

Q) Describe yourself in one word?

A) Collaborative.

MarComm News’ Legend Series

So here is a look at Lewis Moberly’s Mary Lewis:

Q) What is your morning routine?

A) Typically I get up and spend a precious couple of hours before the office swings into action at 9am. I use this uninterrupted time to solve, imagine, think, on whatever is outstanding from the previous day. I sit on the floor with work spread out around me, dressing gown and cup of coffee going cold, completes the scene. It alarms the cleaning lady but is very productive.

Q) Do you have any pets? What are their names?

A) Yes. Six horses – Flynn, Orliene, Cody, Brady, Shannon & Jester, and two dogs – Coco & Bumble. My very best friends.

Q) How do you relieve stress, if any?

A) Playing farming.

Q) With what regularity do you exercise?

A) Most days a bit of stretching. Riding at weekend in Shropshire.

Q) What personal habit has had the most impact on your life?

A) Smoking. And giving it up at the age of 30. How to have a call? An argument? Make a decision? Count to ten? Start the day? End the day?…without my trusty pack of Marlboro’s…

Q) What is the most positive, life altering moment you have ever had?

• Meeting my future husband, partner, mentor and critic
• Having my daughter Scarlett Rose, now studying drama in Los Angeles
• Winning D&AD Gold

Q) What inspires or drives you the most?

A) The thrill of the chase, professionally and personally.

Q) Three things that people don’t know about you?

• I’m hugely domestic
• I seriously don’t like frogs
• I am technically inept

Q) Best advice you have ever received?

A) I’ve received loads!

• From Robert Moberly, when I’ve had what I think is a great idea: “How much do you need of it?”

• From John McConnell when I joined the Royal Mail Stamps Committee: “Say one thing and make it good.”

• From an American Mad Man: “Tell me sweet and tell me true, or my dear to hell with you.”

True of most ideas

• From me: “Have an idea. Love it. If it’s not in my head when I wake up, bin it.”

Q) What’s your favourite meal?

A) Walnut soup, if I can gather the nuts before the squirrels do…an annual challenge. Followed by roast pigeon with big black fried field mushrooms, lots of fresh herbs and garlic butter. Then a little spinach salad with a dollop of Mont d’Or and perfectly plain crackers.

Q) What’s the best part of your day?

A) The beginning when all is possible…And the end when its all possible tomorrow.

Q) If you were not in this Industry, what would you be?

A) A barrister (rather grandly). I like preparing the case. I like a good argument and I like to persuade and to win.

Q) What’s your favourite genre in film? What is your favourite film?

A) My Film Genre is John Ford Westerns. And my favourite film is ‘Duel’ by Steven Spielberg.

Q) The favourite project created by you?

A) Oban. Designed in 1986 as benchmark of the pioneering Classic Malts range. Winner of countless awards including design, copywriting, illustration. It has remained, together with Lagavulin, untouched to this day. Quite a feat given different owners, and fast changing category.

Q) And the one you wish you had done?

A) The ITV identity. For its simplicity, appropriateness, engagement and confidence. Lovely.

Q) Describe yourself in one word.

A) Curious.

MarComm News’ Legend Series

So here is a look at Williams Murray Hamm’s Garrick Hamm:

Q) What is your morning routine?

A) Mint tea. Make my wife a ‘green bastard’, kale/spinach, fruit berry, ginger, turmeric, twist of black pepper smoothie. Have breakfast with my daughters. Cycle to work. Shower. Mint tea.

Q) Do you have any pets? What are their names?

A) Brother & sister cats, Henry Kissinger & Tottie Ann. (No I didn’t name them).

Q) How do you relieve stress, if any?

A) Run 10k or a couple pints of Guinness, both will certainly work.

Q) With what regularity do you exercise?

A) Everyday apart from Saturday.

Q) What personal habit has had the most impact on your life?

A) Addictive personality. As a design student I was not the best but I was obsessive. I still am.

Q) What is the most positive, life altering moment you have ever had?

A) The birth of my two daughters. I cried like a baby at both and I never cry.

Q) What inspires or drives you the most?

A) Never, never give up. Concentrate on the word, the step, the shot in front of you and the finish line will present itself.

Q) Three things that people don’t know about you?

A) I’m dyslexic and didn’t read my first book until I was 14. I have never taken drugs. I can identify birds by their calls & songs.

Q) Best advice you have ever received?

A) Do good things and good things will happen to you.

Q) What’s your favourite meal?

A) Whole Sea Bass stuffed with herbs, cooked on my Chapa (outdoor open wood fire) served with crushed garlic potatoes, green beans and a fine French Pinot Noir.

Q) What’s the best part of your day?

A) Reviewing creative work still gives me a buzz. I love seeing a good idea blossom. Equally I love arriving home after a hard cycle, smelling supper cooking and saying hi to my wife & daughters.

Q) If you were not in this Industry, what would you be?

A) Ornithologist.

Q) What’s your favourite genre in film? What is your favourite film?

A) I love a thriller. But favourite film is Sergio Leone’s “Once upon a time in the West’. A pure cinematic masterpiece.

Q) The favourite project created by you?

A) They are like my children, it would be wrong to have a favourite!

Q) And the one you wish you had done?

A) Production design on Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’.

Q) Describe yourself in one word?

A) Visual.