The A-List: 2008

Born

13th November 1953

Job

Chief executive

Company

Thinkbox

Work Telephone

+44 (0)20 7630 2320.

Address

Manning House, 22 Carlisle Place, London, SW1 1JA

Fantasy business partner

George Bailey (It's A Wonderful Life).

How do you off-set your carbon footprint?

I grow vegetables, plant trees and generate my own hot air.

Greatest influence

Kay Boot (my mum).

Clubs

Wacl, Blake's 7, MGGB, Marketing Society, Aldbury Garden Club and Bachaholics Anonymous.

Favourite gadget

Sky+.

Desert island objects

A piano, a bath (complete with hot water and Jo Malone bubble bath) and an endless supply of ginger beer.

Most-admired politician

Clement Atlee less talking, more doing.

Favourite media

The Guardian, Country Life, I'm a Celebrity?, Green-winged Soprano in the Shameless Simpsons House (coming soon), Radio 4, rhs.com.

Biggest risk taken

Buying a trampoline.

Perfect day

It's early May, I'd start with a spot of gardening while listening to the Goldberg Variations on my iPod, cook lunch for friends and close family, take them walking in the local woods followed by daft, but stimulating, parlour games. I'd end the day on my comfy sofa watching Peep Show with a glass of Pinot Noir in hand .

Who should play you in the film of your life?

Gwyneth Paltrow.

Career highlights

Thirteen years selling telly, 13 years at PHD; now back full circle.

Fictional hero

Will Ladislaw (Middlemarch).

Hidden talent

I can play the French Horn (that's not a euphemism).

Best job outside advertising

Working in a hotel on the shores of Loch Tay for four consecutive summers; Ben Lawers, eightsome reels, salmon-fishing, skinny-dipping and romantic sunsets more than made up for cleaning a million loos.

Lowdown

Everyone's favourite TV salesperson, and not just because she's not negotiating airtime rates, the cultured Alps has held steady in what could have been a politically traumatic role trying to align the interests of her broadcaster stakeholders. But Thinkbox needs to come out fighting in 2008 to justify its role.

Most expensive purchase

A chunk of carved granite.

Why are you good at what you do?

If I am, it's because I love TV, care about it, believe in its effectiveness and future, and like talking about it.