Distinguished friends
- Maria Adebowale-Schwarte
- Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia
- Rajesh Agrawal
- Riz Ahmed
- Sughra Ahmed
- Keith Ajegbo
- Claire Alexander
- Kitty Arie
- Julian Baggini
- Zelda Baveystock
- Haidee Bell
- Richard Beswick
- Dinesh Bhugra
- Karan Bilimoria
- Geoffrey Bindman
- Karen Blackett
- Nicholas Blake
- Ian Blatchford
- David Blunkett
- Hina Bokhari
- Mihir Bose
- Alain de Botton
- John Bowers
- Stephen Briganti
- Des Browne
- Mukti Jain Campion
- Paul Canoville
- Gus Casely-Hayford
- Michael Cashman
- Saimo Chahal
- Reeta Chakrabarti
- Shami Chakrabarti
- Stephen Claypole
- Robin Cohen
- Linda Colley
- David Crystal
- Angélica Dass
- Prakash Daswani
- Sandie Dawe
- Navnit Dholakia
- Sherry Dobbin
- Ibrahim Dogus
- Lloyd Dorfman
- Alf Dubs
- John Dyson
- Damien Egan
- Graeme Farrow
- Daniel Franklin
- Edie Friedman
- Jitesh Gadhia
- Manjit Singh Gill
- Teresa Graham
- Ann Grant
- Susie Harries
- Naomie Harris
- James Hathaway
- David Hencke
- Sophie Herxheimer
- Afua Hirsch
- Michael Howard
- Clive Jacobs
- Kevin Jennings
- Adrian Johns
- Shobu Kapoor
- Malik Karim
- Jackie Kay
- Ayub Khan-Din
- Francesca Klug
- Tony Kushner
- Kwasi Kwarteng
- Kwame Kwei-Armah
- David Kynaston
- Brian Lambkin
- Mark Lewisohn
- Joanna Lumley
- Michael Mansfield
- Sue McAlpine
- Neil Mendoza
- Nick Merriman
- Abigail Morris
- Hugh Muir
- Tessa Murdoch
- Sandy Nairne
- Bushra Nasir
- Susheila Nasta
- Eithne Nightingale
- John O’Farrell
- Kenneth Olisa
- Kunle Olulode
- Julia Onslow-Cole
- John Orna-Ornstein
- Sameer Pabari
- Ruth Padel
- Panikos Panayi
- Bhikhu Parekh
- Nikesh Patel
- David Pearl
- Caryl Phillips
- Mike Phillips
- Trevor Phillips
- Sunand Prasad
- Kavita Puri
- Charles Rix
- Trevor Robinson
- Aubrey Rose
- Michael Rosen
- Cathy Ross
- Salman Rushdie
- Jill Rutter
- Philippe Sands
- Sathnam Sanghera
- Konrad Schiemann
- Richard Scott
- Stephen Sedley
- Maggie Semple
- Babita Sharma
- Nikesh Shukla
- Jon Snow
- Sonia Solicari
- Robert Soning
- David Spence
- Danny Sriskandarajah
- Stelio Stefanou
- Dick Taverne
- Jane Thompson
- Robert Tombs
- Rumi Verjee
- Patrick Vernon
- Edmund de Waal
- Iqbal Wahhab
- Yasmin Waljee
- David Warren
- Iain Watson
- Debbie Weekes-Bernard
- Henning Wehn
- Nat Wei
- Janet Whitaker
- Gary Younge
Simply knowing where things originate from and better understanding the diversity of our country is so enriching. I was fascinated to learn that our national dish fish and chips came from Portugal! Everyone should go the Migration Museum.
Trevor Robinson
Trevor Robinson OBE is one of the most high-profile and highly regarded people in advertising, despite being told by his school careers advisor that he’d have more chance of being a bus driver. His background has enabled him to keep his feet firmly on the ground and to create populist ideas, loved by real people.
As a creative, he has been responsible for some of the most famous and talked about advertising of his era from the iconic and multi-award winning ‘You’ve Been Tango-ed’ Orange Slap to the more recent Haribo ‘Kids Voices’ campaign.
In 1995 he set up Quiet Storm, the first agency to write, direct and produce its own work. To this day it is still one of the few ad agencies where creatives direct their own work.
Beyond advertising, Trevor is renowned for his wider contribution to society. In 2020 he reignited the Create Not Hate initiative he originally set up in 2007 to open pathways for underrepresented young people to build creative careers, and mobilised a staggering amount of support. He won the UK Black British Business Award for top senior entrepreneur 2020 and was awarded an OBE in 2009 for his services to charity and advertising.
Trevor is recognised in influencer lists including Debretts 500, Campaign’s A-List, The Drum
Top 100 Adverati, the IPA’s iList, and won Oystercatcher’s ‘outstanding, lifetime contribution to the industry’ award. He is a regular main stage speaker at Cannes Lions, where he was president of the Titanium jury in 2021. He was President Jury of 2022’s D&AD Entertainment awards, was named a Campaign top 3 Changemaker of 2021, and was made a lifetime Fellow of the IPA last year.