Tess is the Executive Chairman of Thinkbox, the central marketing body for commercial TV in all its forms and on all platforms. Thinkbox’s shareholders are Channel 4, ITV, Sky, Turner and UKTV who represent over 90% of UK broadcast TV revenues through their owned and partner channels. She took up the challenge of becoming its first Chief Executive and setting up the organisation in 2006. Thinkbox’s role is to help advertisers get the best out of today’s TV, by proving its enduring effectiveness and helping marketers navigate the developing technologies that are contributing to TV’s expansion. Immediately prior to this she was the Chairman of the PHD Group in the UK, a communications agency. In her 13 years with PHD she played a variety of roles - joining as Broadcast Director and founding Drum PHD - and ended up as Group Chairman in 2003. After reading English at Durham, a postgraduate year at theatre school and a spell in theatre in education, Tess started in TV sales by accident; she ended up as an ITV Sales Director before hopping over the fence to join PHD. Her career has been dominated by a belief in TV’s cultural and commercial importance and by trying to bring the two worlds of brands and TV closer. Tess is a past President and Honorary member of WACL, a Fellow of the Marketing Society and a member of the MGGB. She sits on advisory boards for the Advertising Standards Authority and BBC magazines and was a trustee of NABS for 3 years. She is a Fellow of the Royal Television Society and a member of BAFTA. In 2007 she won the Outstanding Achievement award from Women in Film and Television. Apart from watching lots of telly, Tess grows turnips, sings Tallis and is regularly thrashed at table tennis by her husband of 36 years and 17 year old son out in the Chilterns.