People
Find out more about some of Publicis Chemistry's key people
Joe Garton
Chief Executive
Joe Garton
Chief Executive
Joe oversees the group’s direction, overall strategy and senior client relationships.
His past successes include being Direct Marketing Director at Osprey, co-founder and Managing Director of KCJB Data Limited and a founding partner and Managing Director of Manifesto, which merged with Fusion Interactive to form Chemistry. He is skilled in mergers and acquisitions and in building successful management teams.
Joe expects the best. This ideal is reflected in his approach to business, his staff and his choice of Michelin-starred restaurants for lunches. He says it’s also why a man from Surrey is allowed to support Manchester United.
Diane Charlton
Managing Director
Diane Charlton
Managing Director
Di leads the agency’s management team and provides thought leadership to all staff so that there is consistency across all Chemistry’s work.
A former editor of consumer titles at Emap and Dennis Publishing, Di has extensive new media experience. In 1996 she launched digital agency Fusion Interactive, which merged with Manifesto in 2000 to create Chemistry. She has an MBA from the Open University.
One of the best things about working with Di is her Northern sense of humour and the fact that she can always find something to laugh about. Her bubbly personality is not always apparent at first, although it doesn’t take long to filter through.
David Prideaux
Executive Creative Director
David Prideaux
Executive Creative Director
David joined Publicis as an Executive Creative Director in 2007 and became ECD of Publicis Chemistry in May 2011. Prior to joining Publicis, David spent five years as Creative Director at Rapier, where he helped the agency become Campaign’s Direct Agency Of The Year two years running. Previously he was a creative partner of Circus, the brand consultancy and before that a senior writer at Bates Dorland.
David’s work has been recognised at awards schemes all over the world. Last year, he won a Gold at Campaign Big and a silver nomination at D&AD for his work on the Army Start Thinking Soldier Campaign.
Jason Foo
Managing Director
Jason Foo
Managing Director
Jason has spent over 15 years working in agencies after starting off client-side while based in Toronto. He has been involved in many award-winning campaigns on a local and international level and is one of those people who can breakdown complex matters into manageable tasks. This, coupled with his boundless energy, explains why he’s got such a talent for running a business and dealing with clients at all levels.
A Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing, he says his mission is to help people produce the best work of their careers. His Chemistry colleagues say he’s got a penchant for designer brands and that he’s good at golf.
Patrick Hanson-Lowe
Chief Marketing Officer
Patrick Hanson-Lowe
Chief Marketing Officer
As Chief Marketing Officer of Publicis Group UK, Patrick has responsibility across all Publicis' UK entities Publicis Chemistry, Publicis London and Publicis Modem.
Patrick has worked globally across all aspects of marketing communication disciplines, including working directly on client accounts and agency management.
Prior to joining Publicis Chemistry, he was CEO of Notorious, a global media-neutral communications agency.
Patrick has held senior roles including Director of Publicis Dialog Worldwide; Bates Europe Client Director and CEO of Cordiant Group agencies in Russia; he also set up Saatchi & Saatchi Strategy and the digital agency network X/M.
High profile clients and campaigns include Jim Beam brands, Britvic brands, British Airways, Allied Domecq, Barclays Wealth, Société Générale, ABN global and Guinness.
He is a keen skier and is married with two daughters.
Mike Welsh
Managing Partner
Mike Welsh
Managing Partner
Mike studied French at Goldsmiths’ College before taking his first direct marketing agency job in 1989. Since then he has worked at some of the country’s most well-known shops including GGT Direct, Lowe Direct and EHS Brann.
In 2002 he joined Claydon Heeley to run the Guardian and Observer business and was part of the team that led the agency to win Campaign’s Direct Agency of the Year 2004.
In May 2008 he joined Craik Jones Watson Mitchell Voelkel as CEO before taking the same role at Publicis Dialog five months later.
Mike lives in Blackheath, South London and has two teenage children.
Morgan Cox
Managing Partner
Morgan Cox
Managing Partner
Morgan runs Chemistry’s Nottingham office. One of his many jobs is to develop the business while maintaining its consistency with the London agency.
Morgan’s background is in media and more recently at a film production company in Manchester. He’s bringing this expertise to add online measurement and high quality online video to the agency’s offer alongside its web development and digital production capabilities.
Morgan’s waist is fortunate that his love of food and wine is matched by his devotion to exercise. When not running, eating or working he is chasing round after his two young children.
Malcolm Cotton
Executive Planning Director
Malcolm Cotton
Executive Planning Director
Malcolm is Chemistry’s executive planning director. He oversees the Orange account providing strategic planning across customer acquisition and base management communications.
Malcolm’s pragmatic. He’s capable of running large scale projects and teams to enable them to deliver impressive results for clients.
He relaxes by fulfilling his passions for skiing, scuba diving and cricket. He’s a qualified English Cricket Board coach, he enjoys dinghy sailing and supporting conservation projects in the world’s tropical rainforests.
Neil Cowan
Business Development Director
Neil Cowan
Business Development Director
Neil has seen both sides of our industry having worked as a client, at Boots and the Burton Group, and as an agency man for many years.
“It’s the business of new business to know about business”, says Neil, a self-confessed information junkie whose desk is usually stacked with half-read copies of the FT and marketing mags. It’s the issues which come out of that, he argues, is what marketing exists for.
A member of the IDM, the DMA, an occasional blogger and a fully paid-up Chelsea supporter, you won’t find Neil numbers amongst ‘the great ignored’.
Ingrid Purcell
Client Services Director
Ingrid Purcell
Client Services Director
Ingrid oversees the integrated accounts for Premier Foods and SCA with a focus on experiential, promotional and digital strategy.
One of Chemistry’s Australian contingent, Ingrid’s 14-year career has been spent on both sides of the world, agency and client-side, including setting up an office of an Australian agency in New Zealand.
She loves dining out and retail therapy as well as defending or celebrating her homeland’s sporting achievements.
Philippa Bolton
Client Services Director
Philippa Bolton
Client Services Director
Philippa’s career in Relationship Marketing stretches back over 12 years, including stints at agencies in South Africa and in the UK.
Philippa joined Chemistry in 2007 and heads up the agency's Aviva, Unilever, Kraft and McNeil’s Johnson & Johnson accounts. She has experience in the retail, financial services and transport sectors, having previously worked on accounts such as VW and Audi, Old Mutual Insurance, Citibank and Land Rover.
She loves hiking and horse riding and she does yoga often, she says, in an attempt to stay sane and even-tempered. It’s no wonder she is always the picture of calm and serenity.
Rob Trono
Interactive Creative Director
Rob Trono
Interactive Creative Director
Rob oversees the digital creative output across all of Chemistry’s clients such as Aviva, Diageo, Dove, SCA Hygiene and Tesco. He has a natural instinct for knowing what works and an impressive way of articulating why. He’s a rare creative in that he can hold a meeting together, present ideas in a compelling way and use humour to diffuse potentially heated situations. He also has a no-nonsense attitude that gives him an ability to get issues resolved and moved on, but without appearing heavy handed. In addition to all these people management skills he’s an outstanding award winning creative.
Seb Hill
Creative Director
Seb Hill
Creative Director
An award-winning art director, Seb is responsible for overseeing Chemistry’s direct marketing output and for ensuring that the work is eye-catching as well as effective. Seb has been responsible for some high profile campaigns at Chemistry, including Transport for London’s London Eye vinyl wrap and the multi-award winning Oyster iTunes activity. He’s won the ISP Grand Prix as well as DMA Golds and a Campaign Direct Silver, among others. He also developed an iPhone App, which measures how many calories people burn off during sex. It was written about in The Sun and shot to the top of the iTunes App chart.