Rory Sutherland was born in Usk, Monmouthshire, in 1965 and educated at the local Haberdashers’ school and at Christ’s College, Cambridge.
At this point, parallels with the life of Martin Sorrell begin to break down.

He joined OgilvyOne as a graduate trainee in September of that year. After six months cross training, and thirteen months spent as the world’s worst account man (in a last remedial effort he was booked on a time management course, but got the date wrong) he confessed an interest in copywriting to his line manager, who agreed this was a jolly sensible move. Though by this point any proposed new career (in duck-farming, say) would have met with his enthusiasm.

The experience downstairs had not been altogether wasted. A spell in Planning that introduced him to online information systems accessible over a squeaky thing called a modem (then operating at a “blistering” 14.4Kbps). If only they could consumerise this technology, he thought, direct marketing could really take off.
Of course, had his firing taken place in 1999, fate would have seen him joining a dot.com start-up and writing this from his oceanfront house in Santa Barbara. But, sod it, this was 1992.

So, two weeks after leaving Planning, Rory joined the creative department as a junior copywriter. At this point things went a bit better. Working first for Steve Harrison (now CD of Wunderman) and partnered with Mike Simm (now a CofE vicar in Norfolk) and then Cordell Burke, Rory was promoted to Head of Copy in 1995 and Creative Director in 1997.
Rory is now Executive Creative Director at OgilvyOne Worldwide, and creative partner and vice Chairman of The Ogilvy Group in the UK. He is married with twin daughters, Hetty and Millie, and lives in Brasted in Kent

Likes: Indian food, Chicago, Cars, Vancouver, New Mexico, Bach,

Is proud of: Spotting the Internet in 1992
Is ashamed of: making no money from the prediction.