Our People

About

Michael Epstein, Global CEO of Starcom, is a distinguished leader with a proven track record of pushing boundaries, fostering growth and championing diversity in the industry.

Since joining Starcom in 2021, Michael has secured significant media agency of record victories, including AB InBev, McDonald’s, Aldi and Frontier Communications and expanded capabilities with long-standing clients, such as Kellogg’s. His leadership has driven the agency's impressive financial performance, with new business growth skyrocketing.

About

As Starcom’s Global Chief Marketing Officer, Robert leads the brand strategy & narrative development, visual identity & communications, and all marketing across core paid, owned, and earned channels. He joined Starcom in mid-2022. 

Previously, Robert was the Vice President, Brand Transformation at IBM, where he led and launched the global repositioning and branding efforts for IBM's services unit, IBM Consulting. Prior IBM, Robert was Global CMO of both Carat and Dentsu Media, re-launching multiple brands during his tenure.

About

With over 24 years at Starcom, Kim Einan is a proven leader known for strategy, creativity and operationalizing change. She helps teams think differently and partners with them to create impact through action. As Global Chief Strategy Officer, Kim is responsible for Starcom’s global strategic discipline, supporting markets all over the world to share best practices and tools, identifying the most compelling insight-led opportunities for clients and integrating Starcom’s strategic community to provide more access and opportunity to the agency.

About

Dan Plant is the Executive Head of Strategy at Starcom UK where he is responsible for turning Starcom’s Human Experience philosophy into real world experiences that consumers value. He is passionate about uncovering real insights into how consumers feel about brands in order to better connect with them and drive business results. Prior to his role at Starcom, Dan was the Global Strategy Partner at Wavemaker (formerly MEC) working on a wide range of globaland local accounts, including Netflix, Vodafone, Compare the Market, EE, Lloyds Bank and more. One of his biggest achievements was driving the media strategy for the launch of EE, the UK’s first 4G network –now the biggest one in the UK. Across the 20 years that Dan has been in the media industry, he has developed and rolled out a number of planning processes (at MEC and Vizeum) and has worked on over 100 different brands in over 20 categories as both a strategist and communications planner. Once upon a time he even did a bit of regional press buying!

About

Emma has the pleasure of leading Starcom’s UK Investment team for Samsung across both Publicis Media Exchange (PMX) and Performics disciplines. Emma started her media career at ITV in a sales role over 20 years ago. She then moved across to the agency world and joined Mediacom in her first TV buying role working with the Universal Records portfolio in the main. When joining the Starcom family in 2002 as the only female in the TV team, her infectious energy, passion and determination to deliver exceptional communications for clients saw Emma’s role evolve and in 2011, she became Starcom UK’s first ever female Head of AV. Emma has worked across numerous categories and various brands over the years -from leading Barclaycard’s TV campaign ‘Too Much Month at the End of the Money’, Honda’s live skydiving ad on Channel 4 back in 2008, and more recently several successful handset and TV launches across all mediums for Samsung UK. Emma’s focus on delivering remarkable value and quality for clients has led to outstanding results across the board with recognition from clients, media partners and auditors for her contribution. When she’s not leading the good ship Samsung Investment you’ll find Emma with either her family or friends organising various trips and outings -living up to her nickname as Judith Chalmers and more often than not, being an incredibly mischievous Auntie (a duty she takes VERY seriously!).

About

Isabelle Baas is Starcom UK’s Managing Partner of Digital, Data & Tech Strategy. She is responsible for underpinning Starcom’s Human Experience positioning with data and technology to help Starcom understand people better than anyone, design the right experiences and drive business growth for clients. Working alongside client leads, Isabelle works with agency clients to define and deploy marketing and business transformation agendas so brands deliver effective meaningful connections with consumers at the right ROI. She has 20 years’ experience as a digital marketer, spanning both agency and client side across digital marketing, data analytics and technology strategy. Prior to her tenure at Starcom, Isabelle was part of the leadership team that launched the iProspect brand in the UK –part of the Dentsu Aegis Network –where she led operations and product development and drove the tremendous growth of the agency’s SEO, Social, Data and Technology divisions. Earlier in her career, Isabelle held roles at leading brands including Tesco and T-Mobile.

About

John has been in his current role as Head of Investment since March 2018. Previously, John worked at PMX negotiating the AV deals across Zenith, Spark, Starcom and Blue 449 (now Spark Foundry). Previous to this John worked at Zenith where he was Head of Investment.He cut his teeth working in the TV department at Zenith where he worked on L’Oréal, Reckitt Benckiser and KFC. He became Head of TV in 2004 and was then made Head of Investment in 2010.John is very competitive and loves a challenge. He has completed three London marathons and several triathlons. His recent achievements of which he is most proud is climbing Mont Blanc and completing his first Ironman. He is happily married with two teenage children.John understands the media market place and puts a lot of emphasis on his trading relationships ensuring clients have best in class in terms of deals and innovation.

About

As CEO of Starcom UK, Nadine leads an integrated media team charged with delivering transformative models and ways of working. Prior to this, she spent nine years in New York, initially at Mindshare and then as CSO at Vizeum. Nadine has a proven track record of building and inspiring winning teams, and driving innovative agendas for clients at the highest level. Nadine is most driven by the chance to shape people’s careers; she loves mentoring whether in formal settings or one-to-one. She is a huge champion of gender equality and has been vocal on panels and in the trades on topics such as Top Strategies for Working Mothers. Nadine is mum to a gorgeous eight year old boy and spends most of her free time being told by him that that is not the correct way to build a Lego helicopter.

About

As Managing Partner of Performance and a results-driven specialist, Paul leads a world class UK Performics practice (a team of 100+ specialists) for Starcom in the UK, encompassing all digital performance marketing channels (PPC, Social, SEO and Acquisition). He has been with Publicis Groupe in various digital roles across the agency board for over 14 years across most verticals and client sizes (local start-up through to global). As part of his journey in driving a world class practice and proposition, Paul and his teams have won an impressive 18 specialist awards including the prestigious Grand Prix at the Performance Marketing Awards and continue to accelerate growth and capability as demonstrated across UK agency client wins; Ancestry.com, Trafalgar Travel Group and Dominos.Paul has recently found a passion for HIIT and reading Harry Potter along with his six-year-old daughter.

About

As Managing Director of Starcom UK, Richard is responsible for driving growth for the agency, alongside leading an integrated media team with CEO Nadine Young. Appointed in 2020, Richard has a wealth of experience leading large teams and is a great addition to Starcom’s leadership team. Prior to this, Richard was managing partner at Mediacom, where he was responsible for leading the UK planning function and brings multi-disciplinary experience across brands including TUI, Mars, Bayer, Groupe PSA and VW Group. His previous roles include Business Director at Vizeum UK leading accounts including BMW and Channel 5.

Richard is driven by the opportunity to help both Starcom’s clients and its people grow. He loves immersing himself in client business and building extensive knowledge of the challenges and opportunities that can lead to more effective marketing solutions. He is also a huge champion of future talent and believes the best work can only come from a truly diverse and empowered workforce. When not focused on Starcom, Richard’s time is dominated by his three favourite things – his family, his guitars, and the mountains.