Vicki Maguire, Havas London

Vicki joined Havas as Chief Creative Officer just eight weeks before the global pandemic hit. Yet in 2020 she managed to steer the agency to its best ever year creatively, attract a diverse range of new brands to its portfolio, deepened client relationships and produce work that built commercial resilience for clients.

Creative highlights included a campaign for Durex sparking a cultural conversation during lockdown by urging consumers not to go back to normal; a campaign for the Laura Hyde Foundation to raise awareness around the looming mental health crisis for frontline workers; the Department for Education’s recruitment campaign “Tuesday”, which earned a Thinkboxes Award for TV Creativity; the “Busy Doing Nothing” campaign for EDF, championing the brand’s workers and its eco-credentials; and the rousing Carling “Support Your Local” work. Meanwhile, Heinz tapped into the buzz around Veganuary with the “Beanz Meanz Vegan” campaign.

Vicki is a renowned diversity and inclusion champion, appearing on the IPA’s inaugural iList of the 30 most outstanding inclusivity game-changers in the industry in 2020. She was also named a Campaign Female Futures honouree for her groundbreaking achievements in the industry.

Vicki worked hard to support a diverse new generation this year, as founder of One Girl at a Time, a mentoring programme that encourages successful women to do just one small thing to improve a young girl’s life chances and as a mentor to inner-city youth for the Create Not Hate initiative, as well as supporting under-represented talent as chair of the Creative Foundation.