Ms. Tess Alps Thinkbox, UK

Tess is the Chief Executive of Thinkbox, the central marketing body for commercial TV. She took up the challenge of becoming its first Chief Executive and setting up the organization in July 2006. Immediately prior to this she was the Chairman of the PHD Group in the UK, a communications... read moreagency. In her 13 years with PHD she played a variety of roles, joining as Broadcast Director and ending up as Group Chairman in 2003. In 2005 PHD won three ‘Agency of the Year’ awards – a first for any agency. After an English degree from Durham she worked in theatre in education and completed a post-graduate year studying drama at a London theatre school. She started in TV sales by accident; she ended up as an ITV Sales Director before hopping over the fence to join PHD. She is a past President of WACL (Women in Advertising and Communications London), a Fellow of the Marketing Society, and a member of the MGGB (Marketing Group of Great Britain). She sits on the General Media Panel for the Advertising Standards Authority and is a trustee of the DfES’s Creative and Cultural Skills Council. She is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a member of BAFTA. She is on the board of the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival and the editorial advisory board for the Radio Times. In 2007 she won the Outstanding Achievement award from Women in Film and Television.