The A-List: 2008

Job

Chairman

Company

Lewis Silkin

Work Telephone

+44 (0)20 7074 8001.

Address

12 Gough Street, London, EC4A 3DW

Fantasy business partner

Steve Jobs.

How do you off-set your carbon footprint?

I plant trees in the garden.

Greatest influence

Sigmund Freud.

Clubs

Wembley and Crystal Palace FC.

Favourite gadget

Tongs for taking toast out of the toaster.

Desert island objects

The Collected Works of George Eliott, Madam Butterfly sung by Victoria de los Angeles, a beautiful weeping willow to provide me with shade.

Most-admired politician

Mikhail Gorbachev, Willy Brandt and Nelson Mandela. They all took risks to make their countries a better place to live in.

Favourite media

Financial Times, Time Out, BBC Ten O'Clock News, Radio4.

Biggest risk taken

Staying in the same company throughout my career.

Perfect day

Today.

Who should play you in the film of your life?

Daniel Day Lewis.

Career highlights

Working with Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO from its birth, growth, through flotation, building a group, to the sale to Omnicom and since.

Fictional hero

Yossarian from Catch-22.

Hidden talent

The ability to do very little and enjoy it.

Best job outside advertising

Non-executive director of Walker Books, the children's book publishers and trustee of the Employee Trust.

Lowdown

Adland's utimate consigliere for as long as anybody can remember. Whether a merger deal or a complex piece of industry litigation, you can bet your briefs he's been involved in it. With so many agencies looking for digital specialists to gobble up, he looks like being as busy as ever.

Most expensive purchase

A three-month sabbatical in the South Pacific, New Zealand and Australia.

Why are you good at what you do?

I ask questions and listen to the answers.