Tony Wood. Creative director, Lime Pictures. With Grange Hill and Brookie long gone, the Childwall operation has reinvented itself and 400 or so are still employed by the largest indie based outside London. Wood oversees all programming output. Despite a dip earlier in the year in ratings, Hollyoaks remains the cash cow and Wood and his Conker Media team are busily exploiting new digital opportunities for the series. Other new projects include The Season, for BBC2 and a profile of Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson again for the BBC.

 

Nina Webb (Wheeler). Owner, Brazen PR. Her spell away from the agency on maternity leave seems a  distant memory as the agency has once again grasped the brazen mettle to its exploitable full. After several years trying she is now also the sole owner and completed this with a recent management restructure.  The region’s most controversial PR agency is enjoying a purple patch with new business from Legoland, Hasbro and Vimto. Like or loathe, Brazen has more in common with a West End consumer-led agency than an apologetic regional agency.

 

Sue Woodward. Chairman, the Sharp Project. Granada's former MD is quietly making things happen at the one million sq ft former Sharp factory in east Manchester where the city council is desperately keen to create a creative industries hub to partly match the bigger ticket happenings just four miles away in Salford. The project appears likely to attract many companies for whom MediaCity is simply too big and corporate and overall it suggests a healthy regional scene which can sustain two such different creative hubs.

Neil Benson. Editorial director, regionals division, Trinity Mirror plc.  Based in Chester from where he oversees editorial development at the UK's largest regional publisher. Has edited titles in the North East and Birmingham. He works alongside a dedicated digital director in London but Benson is tasked with a broader role although increasingly this reverts back to digital interests. ‘Local Mole’ and exploring ideas and activities with PA are all progressing while a six figure contract with Northumberland County Council to partner 20 ultra local news sites suggests significant new (reclaimed) revenue growth.

 

Chris Bird. The Bird Consultancy - and other. Former sales director with Piccadilly Radio has been on the 'scene' for over 20 years but prefers to keep a relatively low profile. His PR and marketing agency keeps ticking over nicely with its niche in events, shows and personalities, allowing him to go off and undertake other projects such as running as MCFC and more recently managing projects for the Done brothers. One of the very few folk in the region who has successfully created complementary careers outside the media.

 

Tony Ingham. Managing director, IPB Communications. Ingham's seven year old agency focuses on public sector consultation, with a growing interest in related activities such as community affairs support and lobbying for private sector companies with a special interest in community issues, including Tesco. The agency’s circa £2.5m turnover makes it comfortably one of the largest PR agencies in the region. IPB opened a second office in the North East this summer.  Ingham, a former Piccadilly Radio programme director, cut his teeth in PR working with Phil Staniforth.

 

Rod Hyde. Chief executive, Hasgrove plc. A relatively quiet year for Hyde and Amaze but two modest acquisitions in October suggest the company is back on its acquisition trail. The digestion and subsequent consolidation of Amaze, Pavilion et al led to a decline in sales this year although the cost reductions helped substantially reduce the company’s debt. Headcount is down but office efficiencies combined with chunky recent new business wins augur well for a much better year ahead. Amaze’s digital foundation’s are particularly strong and help differentiate the broader agency.

 

Richard Maddock. Station director, Bauer Liverpool. The Sony award-winning programmer was given responsibility for Magic during the year.  He oversaw the launch of City Talk in January 2008 but despite initially encouraging figures, the station struggled to make its mark or find a commercial critical mass and a new format was adopted in June. A total audience of over 550,000 however between the three stations (Radio City the third) ensures plenty of clout on Merseyside. Maddock is known for his active participation in promotional initiatives and duly struck gold for a marketing initiative at a national radio awards gig in October.

Michael Taylor. Editorial director, Newsco Publications. A tough year for the business and particularly one which hitherto has been so reliant on print and events. Taylor oversees the group’s editorial output across the UK but in its home back-yard, where the company has dominated the regional business media scene for years, the title has now arguably been eclipsed by Crain’s while others such as The Business Desk, are also making in-roads into previously exclusive Insider territory. Interestingly though, despite revenue sliding sharply on the publication, competitors find Insider’s commercial legacy a tough nut to crack.

 

Cheryl Taylor (no relation). Controller of comedy commissioning, BBC.  Although previously already based in Manchester as the Beeb’s executive editor for out of London comedy commissioning, it was announced in the summer that she was to have a broader and larger role and this autumn took up the new challenge, electing to remain based in the North. Her growing influence is hard to understate. Recent credits include Gavin & Stacey. Before joining the BBC, she was head of comedy at Hat Trick.

 

Jane Luca. Head of Stakeholder Relations, ITV plc. Will have been with Granada/ITV for 30 years come 2010 – one of the broadcaster’s longest-lasting survivors.  Has managed to keep a job amidst several changing roles while most of her peers in Manchester and latterly London have lost theirs. Her current position is now broader than her previous regional role with an Ofcom twist.  Divides her time between London and Manchester. Her legendary contact book elevates her to almost grandee status among the broader community.

Rob Morrice. Managing director IAS. Made his initial fortune selling his Scottish PR agency to Media Square before he was asked to relocate to the North West. Having spun off the PR agency (Smarts), his focus has since been on the larger IAS B2B broader agency and despite the economic climate, IAS has continued to grow. The agency believes that its long-lasting claim (originally staked by IAS founder Tim Hazlehurst) to be the UK’s biggest purely B2B agency is more valid than ever. Sixty plus staff in Bollington but as yet no news of his planned acquisitions.

 

Adrian Dunleavy. Chief executive, Ten Alps Communications. Organic growth has slowed markedly this year but still almost two thirds of the company’s £80m plus sales are generated by Dunleavy’s Communications division run out of Macclesfield. Publishing, digital, video production - all report to him. The spate of acquisitions in his division has slowed this year but the much heralded launch of www.link2portal.com, which essentially combines the company’s huge output (generated from 600 plus clients) into a single service, will have required significant management time. During the year, the company was named as the UK’s largest B2B customer publisher.

 

Ian Savage. Editor, The Bolton News. Editor, The Bolton News. 42 year old Savage was appointed editor of the daily paper in January 2008. Circulation in common with all regionals has slipped and is currently selling around 25,000 copies a day. Previously editor of the substantial Bury Times group of papers for which he retains editorial responsibility. Has also worked at the MEN. In January the Bury Times news team was merged into Bolton, a move which generated disquiet in Bury and in June Savage was faced with his subs on the daily relocating to Newsquest’s Blackburn hub which in turn created a stir in Bolton.

 

David Croft. Regional sales director, ITV regions. A(nother) tough year for Croft as ITV battles economic and structural viewing challenges although the year seems to be finishing on a brighter note amid the recent resumption in ad sales growth at the broadcaster and some long-awaited management stability. His team has lost a dozen or so staff since last year and the headcount is now 72 who between them sell £223m of air space. Croft still runs by some distance the largest broadcast sales operation outside London.

 

Cat Lewis. Chief executive, Nine Lives Media. Acclaimed and extremely well-connected award-winning film-maker. Founded indie producer Nine Lives following previous spells as a producer with the BBC and Granada.  Began her career as an on screen reporter with North West Tonight. Nine Lives has a very good year with new commissions including two returning series, Nightmare in Suburbia and It Pays to Watch and four documentaries for the Extraordinary People series. In her spare time, she is also the founder and chair of the North West's IndieClub.tv. Her husband is the editor of Tonight at ITV/Granada.

 

Nick Howe. Managing director, Uniform. A great year for Howe and Uniform – they were voted Design Consultancy of the Year at the How-Do Awards in April. With the arrival of yet more staff taking staff numbers to well over 20 and turnover through the £1m barrier, Uniform is now widely regarded as Liverpool’s leading design agency. Capitalising on its home base, in August the agency picked up the coveted brief to create the Liverpool Pavilion at next year's six-month long World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Jonathan Lee. Editor, North West Evening Mail. 41 year old Lee was appointed editor last year and in common with his regional press peers is fighting sharply declining sales. In the Mail’s case however, the paper’s strong south Cumbria community engagement has cushioned the decline from last year’s 18,000 circulation to the present 16,747.  It is rumoured that the CN-owned paper achieves almost 50% household penetration in Barrow alone. Has previously worked at the Westmorland Gazette, Blackpool Gazette and the Shetland Times.

 

Next page - Numbers 31 to 100 - unranked part three