Who Are We? /

Paul Kemp-Robertson / Editorial Director & Co-Founder

After graduating with a master’s degree from Goldsmiths’ College in London, Paul started his career at corporate communications firm Maritz before helping to launch shots magazine in 1990. After a spell in commercials production, Paul returned to shots and became editor in 1994. Subscriptions trebled under his tenure.

In 1998 he succeeded Donald Gunn as Leo Burnett’s worldwide director of creative resources in Chicago. Reporting to Michael Conrad, Paul was responsible for the agency’s Great Commercials intranet site and its quarterly creative councils, known as the Global Product Committee.

Paul left Leo Burnett in 2004 to co-found Contagious, which sees Paul reunited with shots founder Gee Thomson.

Paul has written numerous articles for publications including Business 2.0, the Guardian, Hollywood Reporter and M&M Europe, as well as co-editing D&AD’s The Commercials Book. He has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s The Today Programme and 5 Live’s Wake Up To Money and is a member of the SuperBrands Council.

He is married with three children and lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Emily Hare / Managing Editor

Emily graduated from Exeter University in 2004 where she did an English degree, following a year spent teaching in China. Shortly afterwards, she became one of the first members of the Contagious team, and is now the company’s Production Editor. She has helped to build the Contagious consultancy, offering advice and insight to a number of clients from both agencies and advertisers.

Emily has spoken at international conferences, such as ad:tech, London and Meribel Ad Festival, and internal agency/client events including Lowe Worldwide, Publicis and Bacardi.

Gee Thomson / Co-founder and Editorial Consultant

After graduating from Central St Martin’s School of Art in London, Gee worked at several television companies, including the BBC and Thames TV. In 1990 he co-founded Shots magazine, a global resource for the commercials production industry.

Thomson was also a joint owner of Vinestone Developments, which successfully developed 21 Dean Street into luxury apartments, restaurants and a theatre in conjunction with the UK Lottery Foundation.

In 2004, Gee co-founded Contagious with Paul Kemp-Robertson. He is author of Mesmerization (Thames & Hudson 2009), a book that explores the ‘cultural spells’ that influence contemporary global behaviour.

Georgia Malden / Head of Operations

With degrees in Classics (‘useful for anything’) and Classical Art behind her, Georgia spent stints at Lastminute.com and Sotheby’s before trying to convince businesses in London to go green by using her electric van delivery service.

Georgia joined Xtreme Information, co-founders of Contagious, in 2002 as head of web strategy. In 2006, she launched Directory, the first quarterly showcase of the best in direct marketing from around the world, before joining the Contagious team in 2008. Georgia divides her time between editing Contagious’ series of special reports, project managing web developments and other special projects, and exploring new ways of extending Contagious’ service.

Gual Barwell / Contagious Australia

Gual began his career in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, working as a New Business Manager for Face VMG, a marketing and production company. Whilst actively developing Face VMG’s client base, Gual was also involved in project management. Contracts spanned across creative and production solutions for clients’ marketing and design needs.

In 2006, having arrived in London, Gual was quickly snapped up to head up business development for the launch of Directory, a quarterly showcase celebrating the best direct marketing ideas from around the world. Gual successfully grew Directory into the leading creative resource for the DM industry globally.

Gual spotted the opportunity to extend his knowledge of the marketing and communications sector by working with and selling the innovative and growing portfolio of services across Contagious Communications. He joined the team in late 2007. Whilst working across all of Contagious’ products on a global basis, Gual is now in charge of forging a stronger presence in the Asia Pac region.

Jess Greenwood / Director, Contagious Insider

Jess came to Contagious via several other industries, having spent a stint teaching music and drama in France and Italy before returning to London to work as a music producer and occasional writer.

One more career change landed her in the advertising industry as Editor of The Reel (a monthly publication showcasing the best global creative in advertising, music videos and short films), before helping to launch the award-winning Contagious.

She is now the Director of the Contagious consultancy, Insider, which offers advice and insight to a number of clients from both agencies and advertisers.

Jess is addicted to the radio and the internet in equal measure, and has a ravenous appetite for unearthing the dark underbelly of sport.

Katrina Dodd / Editor, Contagious Insider

Katrina began her career in publishing at Financial Times Management Reports in 1995, before joining the editorial team at Shots Magazine one year later as a researcher.

At Shots, Katrina worked for Paul Kemp-Robertson and Gee Thomson, who went on to co-found Contagious Communications in 2004. After four years writing about the best and the brightest in advertising and production, she left to take up a role as moving image editor at ZOO, a quarterly compendium covering the visual arts worldwide.

Following a couple of years of freelance work writing on photography for Pictured Magazine and music videos for Promo, she joined the Contagious team in 2006 and worked on the launch of Contagious FEED, a bespoke intelligence service delivering targeted news and insight to a wide range of agency and brand clients. Katrina also contributes to the quarterly Contagious magazine and is occasionally released from her desk to deliver presentations to clients...

Lucy Aitken / Staff Writer

Lucy took a postgraduate diploma in Journalism at City University in London where, during a spelling test on day two, she met her future husband. She cut her teeth as publications manager for the UK magazines trade body PPA and news editor at Billboard’s European weekly, Music & Media, before joining M&M Europe as associate editor where she was introduced to the heady world of international advertising.

She was headhunted by Campaign to edit special reports, and was the launch editor for the magazine’s World section. She then spent four years as a freelance writer, co-writing Profitable Marketing Communications: A Guide to Marketing ROI (Kogan-Page, 2007) and contributing to Campaign, The Guardian, Management Today, The Independent and Business Life.

Lucy is extremely proud to have written for Contagious since it launched in 2004, and joined the team as staff writer in 2008, working across the magazine, website and Contagious FEED. She lives in North London with her husband and daughter, who should grow up to be damn good at spelling.

Mirage Islam / Contributing Editor

Mirage has a history of making things happen. He is Chair of the Education and Innovation Group at the British Interactive Media Association and has been actively involved with both the British Council as an advisor to the Creative Industries unit, D&AD and the IAB. Inspiring and nurturing future talent is his passion and he is a Fellow of the RSA for his contribution to Marketing and Communications.

Mirage started his career in the Financial Services industry before moving into FMCG at Cadbury’s and then into the heady world of new media, joining breathe.com - UK’s fourth largest mobile internet portal - in 2000. There he was responsible for developing a highly popular sports channel and online communities.

Headhunted by BSkyB, he became head of the first official Partnership Programme and then Future Media Lead with Executive sponsorship, responsible for the external media strategy to target Youth Culture and engage Future Talent. Mirage further established his entrepreneurial spirit by enabling strategic industry partnerships for Sky's mobile, online and TV platforms. While at Sky he was also picked out as a potential ‘television presenter of the future’ and trained at the National Film and Television School.

As a Digital Media Consultant, Mirage is now immersed in all things digital with advertisers and their brands, media owners, publishers and youth audiences - providing innovative and fresh approaches to targeting new and existing audiences.

Neeraj Nayar / President/India Region

Over 20 years in the Advertising and Marketing Communications industry, Neeraj has organised the Cannes Festival and the Eurobest Awards, and founded The FAB Awards in London, of which he continues as Chairman. He is now Contagious’ President/India Region.

Running creative awards is his passion, and ‘great fun’, he says – ‘I’m lucky enough to see around 20,000 pieces of great creative work annually, and interact throughout the year with some of the finest creative minds on the planet. Through Contagious, I am exposed to real Contagious ideas and trends that define the future of our business. So how could work not be fun? I love it!’

When not at work, Neeraj loves nothing better than hanging out with his Greek wife Anna, a classmate from Switzerland, and his two boys, Alexandros & Karan Stefanos, whose youthful pizzazz and free-ranging ideas are an inspiration in how to ‘think out of the box’.

Sharlene Murtagh / Circulation Marketing Manager

Sharlene graduated in 2007 from Brighton University with a 2:1 Honors Degree in Business Management. After university she took on a marketing role with David Lloyd Leisure working for sites in both her hometown in Eastbourne and then also Raynes Park, South West London.

Looking to progress her career in sales, Sharlene moved to Greater London where she worked for EF Educational selling international educational tours to schools and colleges.

At the beginning of 2009 Sharlene moved to work in the heart of London with Contagious and now manages the renewals business.

Smita Mistry / Production Coordinator / Designer

After graduating from Brunel University with a Multimedia Design degree in 2007, Smita began working as Team Secretary for Contagious.

The lynchpin of the editorial team, her responsibilities include getting members of the team from intercontinental A – B as well as the production and management of the Contagious weekly newsletter. In between helping to construct and distribute the Contagious bespoke intelligence FEED service, Smita also finds time to help with the design and layout of the marketing material which you may find on our website, in the magazine or even doing the rounds at Cannes!

Smita maintains that the variety of her role suits her down to a tee, as it covers just about all her favourite things: managing a sense of organised chaos, meeting new people and making things look nice and symmetrical!

Stephane Scheyven / European Sales Executive

After graduating from the European Business School, Stephane started his business career as an International Account Manager at Xtreme Information (co-owners of Contagious Communications) in 1997.

Stephane moved back to Belgium after having spent 13 years in London and joined the Contagious team in 2004. He has since then been in charge of European sales and account management for all our European clients. Stephane travels between Brussels, London and the rest of Europe to spread the word about Contagious.

Stephane is fluent in French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and English and is passionate about new media.

Will Sansom / Writer/Consultant

After graduating from his degree in English Language & Literature from Kings College, London, Will spent a year with niche public relations consultancy Presslink Communications before jumping the fence in 2007 to begin researching with Contagious.

Will quickly began writing for Contagious Magazine, covering major brand case studies and company profiles, as well as contextual features on design, branding and emerging technologies. He also contributes to Contagious' bespoke intelligence feed service, delivering insight and analysis to a number of agencies across the world including JWT, Ogilvy and Havas.

Will now divides his time between these editorial duties and Contagious' rapidly-expanding 'Insider' consultancy arm. As well as speaking at conferences and award shows, he has also worked on creative and strategic briefs for clients including Nike, Fedex, Levis and Xbox.

Will is also a keen musician and motorsport enthusiast. Out of office hours, you’ll likely find him gigging around London with his band or gently salivating in the car park of the Nürburgring.

Nick Parish / North American Editor

Nick helps steward Contagious North America from New York, where he's worked in many forms of media since arriving in 2001.

After writing about sports for the New York Post and working as an editor at Silicon Alley startup Flavorpill, in early 2006 he joined Advertising Age's Creativity magazine and was quickly promoted to associate editor, specializing in digital and helping choose the site's top work. Most recently he was Ad Age's events content manager, curating and developing partnerships around events like CaT: Creativity and Technology and the IDEA Conference.

In addition to contributing magazine articles and FEED items, Nick flexes his head for Contagious Insider projects and attempts to roam the known universe from the end of an Internet connection.

Nick has lived in Spain and speaks fluent Spanish and likes any music that sounds like it could have come from Detroit. He has many hobbies, but his favorite is reading.

Amar Chohan / Sales Executive

After studying Law for over five years Amar decided that the legal world just wasn’t exciting enough and began his career in sales. A year in advertising sales followed by a stint as a senior account executive for a brokerage house led him to Contagious.

Since then Amar has been taking care of business development throughout Europe and the UK and also launched and heads up the education arm of the business, Contagious Academic.

When not selling, Amar has played every sport under the sun, including National League Hockey and club level tennis. When not playing sport Amar likes to frequent the many eateries and drinking establishments of London! Fact – Amar is the youngest member of the Contagious team!

Alex Jenkins / Editor, Contagious Feed

After graduating from Leeds University with a degree in English Literature, Alex went on to work as a business journalist in the Midlands before moving to London in 1999. Since then he has worked as a film coordinator, copywriter and obituarist, which is a lot less depressing than people would have you believe.

Most recently, he worked at the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising before joining Contagious in March 2010, where he writes for the magazine and Contagious FEED, as well as working on Contagious Insider projects.

Outside of office hours, Alex had his first book published by Transworld in 2008, produced an album which fleetingly delighted a Billboard critic, had his music used on BBC1, and occasionally attempts molecular gastronomy with varying degrees of danger to his family.

Noelle Weaver / Business Development Director, North America

Noelle is helping steer the Contagious mother ship in the US after a 15 year career in business development helping agencies and start-ups brand, market, and strategically grow their business and corporate reputations.

Most recently Noelle was Director of Sales and Marketing at CAA’s youth research and trends analysis firm, The Intelligence Group. Prior to IG, she was at the start-up Indabamusic.com, a global community for semi- and professional musicians as SVP of Business Development and Sales.

Having always had a passion for new business, Noelle has pitched everything from Beer to Beano. She began her career at large global agencies such as JWT Chicago, Publicis in New York and Euro RSCG. At the small boutique firm SS+K she was hired to build the agency’s first new business department and helped the agency grow 30 percent year over year.

A resident of Williamsburg Brooklyn, Noelle guest blogs at Beekman1802, is a self-professed geek and information junkie, and is in constant search of the path less travelled and the perfect glass of bourbon.

Dan Southern / Senior Consultant, Contagious Insider

Aside from a slow burning interest in public transport upholstery, occasionally reporting on his beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers and eclectic adventures in musical and culinary enlightenment (although sadly not at the same time), Dan works within Contagious Insider – where he aims to combine a passion for the new and interesting with quiet disdain for the over-hyped.

Having graduated with a first class degree in Economics, he started his career within a WPP sports and entertainment agency, which was followed by a role as creative consultant within Xtreme Information’s Insight team, where he helped double the business in three years.

Having once been reviewed in a Bristol listings magazine as looking like ‘a private school kid who’d escaped detention’, nowadays he keeps his guitar playing to his home, but can occasionally be found running around a muddy field in a corner of East London playing Sunday League football.

Ed White / Senior Writer, Contagious Feed

Ed White joins Contagious from trends forecasting agency The Future Laboratory, where he was editor of Future:Poll, the bespoke brand research division.

After studying art history at the Courtauld Institute, Ed started his career in journalism as a lowly editorial assistant on the main news desk at the Financial Times. From there he defected to shots magazine, working his way up to news reporter and staff writer before going transatlantic in 2007, joining fellow ad publication Boards, latterly as associate editor.

Outside Adland, Ed has written freelance about everything from rockabilly festivals to South American animators, and the inventor of the album cover, for the Guardian Online, Dazed & Confused and The Face, among others.

Matthew Porter /Sales Executive, North America

A world traveler with a stamp on almost every page of his passport, Matt graduated from high school at Munich International School in Germany and Bocconi University in Milan. Matt most recently came to Contagious from the Brent International School in the Philippines where he was an IB Business Management teacher helping junior and senior AP students understand the finer arts of accounting and marketing.

Having recently landed on American shores, and looking to find a career in the marketing and advertising industry, Matt will most surely use his business smarts and sales skills to help build a groundswell of Contagious subscribers and fans throughout the United States and Canada.

Matt is proficient in German and rusty in Italian, not to mention the fine art and enjoyment of a well-brewed Hefeweizen beer. When not drinking Weissbier, he can be found hanging out at New York comedy clubs, traveling the globe or seeing the latest movie.

John Ridpath /Staff Writer

After studying an MA in Shakespeare at UCL, John took to the digital stage as a developer at web agency El Mysterioso. At the same time, he began a complementary career as a writer, including an on-going editorial role at graphic design quarterly Eye Magazine. After working on Most Contagious 2010, John joined the in-house Contagious team as a staff writer.

In his spare moments John lectures at City Lit and London South Bank University, and keeps up his love for the bard with intermittent Shakespearean reviews for the Times Literary Supplement.

Chloe Markowicz /Writer / Researcher

Born and bred in the land of chocolate and waffles (i.e. Belgium), Chloe joined Contagious in July 2011.

She studied in Canada before moving to London, where she earned an MSc in Gender and Media from the London School of Economics, and then an MA in Magazine Journalism from City University.

Chloe started her journalism career as the tech reporter at business magazine PRWeek, and then went on to the weekly paper The Jewish News. Following a stint in China at the Shanghai World Expo, she worked as a freelance journalist, writing about a variety of topics, from the Pope’s cross for Vanity Fair magazine to the Chinese diamond industry and Elizabeth Hurley’s bikini preferences.

William Williams /Researcher

Will is a Management and Marketing graduate from the University of Lincoln. He quickly began exploring the world of communications after graduation, moving from an independent record label and trying his hand at designing posters, booklets and other promotions for the Hospital Arts Project charity in Norwich. Following months of volunteering he won the Vodafone Foundations’ World of Difference UK programme.

Following a research placement for a care agency, he decided to make the move to London and was quickly picked up by D&AD for the 2011 D&AD Professional Awards. He eventually moved from there to the research team at Contagious to satisfy his curiosity for the interesting.

Simon Wylie /CEO

With a degree in History & French from Goldsmiths University, Simon started his career in London with The Press Association.

He left to join a start-up media intelligence and insight businesses, The Register Group, working with FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 brand owners and agencies. Simon left London in 1990 to set up The Register in Italy and in NY in 1997.

With the sale of the business to The Financial Times, Simon left and co-founded Xtreme Information in 1998 along with John Gordon and Dan Levin, where he became Managing Director in 2006.

Following Xtreme Information’s merger with Ebiquity PLC, Simon joined Contagious as CEO in May 2011.

With an entrepreneurial spirit, a natural curiosity for innovation and insight, Simon’s remit is to grow the company, explore strategic alliances, acquisition opportunities and to make the critical transition from a small company into an international entity.

Jess MacDermot /Global Commercial Director

After leaving the University of Wales with a degree in English and Drama clutched firmly in her hand, Jess started her career in publishing at Centaur Media plc where she spent many years honing her skills across all areas of magazine brand- management and development.

Latterly she worked for 11 years as Publisher of Creative Review, developing the brand digitally in online and app formats, whilst still growing print subscriptions and copy sales, and launching the commercially successful creative events division with Sarah Cutler, with whom she joined Contagious in September 2011.

Jess heads up the commercial division of Contagious, and runs a taxi service for her 10 year old daughter. When doing neither of these she’s generally found with her head in a book and, perhaps, a glass of wine in her hand.