Kate Robertson

Kate Robertson

Founder at One Young World
Suresnes, France

About me

Kate Robertson is founder of One Young World, the premier global forum for young leaders, which she set up in 2009 with David Jones. Dubbed by CNN ‘the junior Davos’, the first annual summit was held in London in February 2010 and the next will be held in Ottawa in September 2016. The Summit is attended by 1,300 delegates from 196 countries - more than any youth event other than the Olympics – and luminaries such as Kofi Annan, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Sir Bob Geldof, Paul Polman, and Arianna Huffington among others.

Kate has Honorary Masters degrees from the University of Creative Arts and from the European Communications School. In 2012 she was named Advertising Woman of the Year by Women In Marketing and in 2014 was similarly honoured by Advertising Week Europe. In 2014 she also awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Lausanne Business School.

Kate has worked pro bono as a judge for the British Sports Industry Awards as well as for the Barclays Global Citizenship Awards with the CEOs of the Gates Foundation, of the Prince’s Trust and of the Clinton Global Initiative.

In 2009 Kate led Kofi Annan’s communications campaign, with former Havas CEO David Jones, to raise awareness before the COP15 (Climate Change) talks. The Tck Tck Tck campaign outperformed all the others with 18m online supporters by the time of the talks. She was also a non-executive director of YouGovStone from 2008 through to its sale in 2012.

Kate Robertson was formerly the Global President and UK Group Chairman of Havas Worldwide, where she was the highest place woman in the advertising industry worldwide.

The companies in her remit in this role included Havas Worldwide London, Havas Worldwide London PR, Havas People, The Maitland Consultancy, Conran Design Group and Havas EHS and the recently purchased Havas Work Club (Digital Agency of the Year 2012 and 2013 in Marketing Week and Campaign magazines respectively).

Positions

Founder
One Young World
January 2009 - Present (15 years 10 months)
Creating the Global Summit, recruiting and selecting scholarship candidates, recruiting Counsellors, leading delegate search and sponsorship team, event planning and production, media coverage
Co-Founder
One Young World
2009 - Present (15 years 10 months)
In 2009 Kate came up with the idea of bringing young leaders from every country in the world. Called One Young World, and dubbed by CNN ‘the junior Davos’, the first annual summit was held in London in February 2010 and the next will be held in Bangkok in November 2014 attended by 1500 delegates from 196 countries -more than any youth event other than the Olympics – and luminaries such as Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Bob Geldof, Arianna Huffington Richard Branson and Mary Robinson among others. To date over 6,500 One Young World Ambassadors have impacted over 6 million people around the world.
Global President
Havas Worldwide
2006 - May 2015 (9 years 4 months)
Kate was promoted to the new role of Global President in September 2013, having held the role of UK Group Chairman since February 2006. The companies in her remit currently include Havas Worldwide London, Havas Worldwide London PR, Havas People, The Maitland Consultancy, Conran Design Group and Havas EHS and the recently purchased Havas Work Club (Digital Agency of the Year 2012 and 2013 in Marketing Week and Campaign magazines respectively).

In January 2003 she joined Havas, formerly known as Euro RSCG, as Executive Vice President Europe, responsible for business development and network practice. From November 2004 to March 2006 she was EVP Global Brands reporting to David Jones, on the service and practice of the global accounts of for RSCG Worldwide including Reckitt Benckiser for which business she was Global Brand Director and which in 2006 aligned all its business with Euro RSCG in Havas’ biggest ever global win.

In 1998 she founded Scholz & Friends London on behalf of the German Group. Having started with 5 people eventually staff numbered 53 in 2002 and accounts included Cable & Wireless, DHL, Dow Jones Corporate, Wall Street Journal Europe, Siemens Household Appliances, British Eggs, Seven Seas, Pfizer, Fisherman’s Friend, Lagerfeld and Swedish Match. .

Education

Bachelor of Laws (LLB)

1974 - 1979 (5 years)
BA, Ll B

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