Jackie [Mills] Stevenson (College, 1984-1986)
Founding partner of The Brooklyn Brothers, a creative agency, Jackie [Mills] Stevenson, a former pupil in College who left King's in 1986, visited King's on Thursday, 17th March 2011 and became the eighth member of the Barnabas Group.
During her address to pupils in College Hall, Jackie recalled how she had assumed that school was a place to learn how to pass exams but had realised in hindsight that King's had taught her about life. She particularly valued her History lessons with Alan Stacey (Hon OV 58-91) who taught his pupils to think. Her advice to current pupils was to be brave and be yourself; be positive and work hard to create a positive environment around you; and finally in the words of Padre Pio "pray, hope and do not worry". Download a copy of the address by following this link.
After addressing pupils in College Hall, she recorded her memories of the school for the oral archive and took part in a Duke of Edinburgh Award Meeting and Key Skills lesson. She also met her former Biology teacher, Bob Allum (Hon OV 69-96).
After graduating from Exeter University Jackie started her career at Ogilvy and Mather Direct, later moving to Collett Dickenson Pearce to help launch one of London's first integrated agency models. In 1995 she joined Craik Jones where she ran the Rover, Orange & Boots accounts before progressing to Deputy and then Managing Director growing the business and building its reputation as one of the UK's most awarded direct marketing agencies.
In 2008 she started her own creative agency 'The Brooklyn Brothers' with partners George Bryant and David Watson. With offices in New York and London the agency looks to bring a bit of East Coast thinking to London's West End, working with clients such as Land Rover, BBC Worldwide, Grazia, Apple & Virgin, as well as creating and marketing their own products such as Fat Pig Chocolate and a bio-tech protein serum which is due to launch later this year.
Jackie features in Campaign's 'A' list and is a member of WACL, the UK's top 100 women in media. She sits on The Duke of Edinburgh's Award Women in Business Committee and is working with Theresa May's team to set up a cross-party Professional Women's Network to encourage more senior women in business to participate in politics.