The A-List: 2008

Born

9th June 1943

Job

Free agent

Company

Work Telephone

Undisclosed.

Fantasy business partner

Roy Keane.

How do you off-set your carbon footprint?

Lots of little things, nothing clever.

Greatest influence

My father (for better or worse).

Clubs

Woking FC, MGGB, Pi Capital, E100, Solus.

Favourite gadget

My bottle opener.

Desert island objects

A pad and a pen, a mobile phone recharged by solar power, an instruction manual on building boats out of sand.

Most-admired politician

Winston Churchill. He was an egotistical, eccentric, obstinate, multi-talented visionary.

Favourite media

The Times, Christie's Magazine, Sky Sports, Classic FM, wokingfc.co.uk.

Biggest risk taken

Taking the grandchildren away for the weekend.

Perfect day

Bit of advising people I like, a bit of connecting; a bit of pro bono; a bit of LBS brain-stretching, then create a smart business-building opportunity and take a piece of it, then retire to watch a Western with a good bottle of wine.

Who should play you in the film of your life?

Clint Eastwood.

Career highlights

1) Messenger. 2) Ad agencies. 3) Media agencies. 4) Brand consultancy. 5) Free agent.

Fictional hero

Should be Superman, but it's Inspector Rebus.

Hidden talent

There aren't any. I gab about them incessantly.

Best job outside advertising

The best (and worst) is chairing Woking FC.

Lowdown

The grandfather of media had high ambitions for his strategic marketing agency, but found that clients were not as enthusiastic about paying for upstream advice as he'd hoped. Calling it a day was probably one of the toughest decisions in Ingram's illustrious career, but don't expect him to head for retirement any time soon.

Most expensive purchase

The Elizabeth Frink sculpture, "Walking Madonna".

Why are you good at what you do?

I join up the dots very quickly.