Sherif Kader, Managing Partner, OMD EMEA has over 12 years’ experience across agencyland, from the indies to the big agency networks. We asked him who his digital hero is.
Who is your digital hero?
Ann-Marie Loughney – someone I have been lucky enough to work alongside for several years.
What has she done to win hero status in your eyes?
I could talk for days about how Ann-Marie has amazed me (and many others) but her stand out quality that makes her my hero is her ability to not be another “online” expert – but a true digital expert who understands how the digitisation of all channels has had (and continues to have) a profound impact on people and businesses.
I have seen her talk about TV reach curves just as well as any TV planner….
I’ll add one more point, she makes it all so simply to understand, even for idiots like me…
3.How has her heroism helped drive digital?
Ann-Marie has made a lot of people look good.
Ann-Marie makes the incredibly complex seem so simple. I’d say her way of helping drive digital has been through educating huge numbers of clients and colleagues for over a decade
What the biggest challenges in digital we need another hero to solve?
What is an easy way to get up to speed after some time out?
Digital moves so quickly and I think about all those people who take time away from the ‘hustle’.
For example, parents on maternity leave or someone who decides they want a career break. How on earth do you catch up on 12 months of developments without drowning yourself?!
It feels like you need to do an MBA each year just to keep up.
What is your most heroic personal achievement so far in digital?
When I was in my early 20s I was fortunate enough to be asked by my boss to audit programmatic suppliers to create a recommendation for an in-house solution for our agency.
At the time, my recommendation was an up and coming business called The Trade Desk as our #1 pick. They seem to have gone on to be ok.
Reason that’s my achievement? I feel like I was ahead of the curve back then… now… well, see my answer to question 4!
