The A-List: 2008

Born

1st February 1963

Job

Executive creative director

Company

CHI & Partners

Work Telephone

+44 (0)20 8462 8500.

Address

7 Rathbone Street, London, W1T 1LY

Fantasy business partner

Hugh Hefner.

How do you off-set your carbon footprint?

Number 33 bus, train, walk.

Greatest influence

My time at BMP DDB working for John Webster and Tony Cox.

Clubs

Manchester City FC and The Labour Party.

Favourite gadget

Portable DVD player. It keeps two three-year-olds content for hours.

Desert island objects

A plane. A pilot. An airstrip.

Most-admired politician

Jed Bartlet. The world would be a better place if he had really spent two terms in the West Wing.

Favourite media

The Guardian, Bert Trautmann's Helmet, The West Wing, Charlie Gillett, BBC Radio London, cricketinfo.com.

Biggest risk taken

Taking a helicopter to work for two years as a geologist in the North Sea.

Perfect day

Take the family to the Champions League Cup Final in Rome 2009 to see Manchester City beat Manchester Utd 7-0 (scorers: Dunne 2, Richards 2, Johnson 2, Neville own goal). Sir Alex Ferguson resigns.

Who should play you in the film of your life?

General consensus would say Tom Hanks.

Career highlights

Geologist, BP (1984; copywriter, Young & Rubicam (1990); copywriter, then joint creative director, BMP DDB (1995); creative director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty (2004); executive creative director, CHI & Partners (2006).

Fictional hero

Logan Mountstuart (the hero of William Boyd's Any Human Heart).

Hidden talent

I can play Stairway to Heaven on the bagpipes.

Best job outside advertising

Barman, Student Union bar, Manchester University from 1981 to 1984.

Lowdown

If evidence of Paterson's impact on CHI & Partners' creative department is needed, look no further than the agency's print output. Two years ago, it barely touched the medium. This year, it won at D&AD for its Prince's Trust work.

Most expensive purchase

Jaeger-LeCoultre Automatic.

Why are you good at what you do?

Having the knack of regularly working with very talented people.