Management Team

Steve Vranakis and Darren Bailes

Steve and Darren are the joint Creative Directors at VCCP.

They’ve worked at some of the world's best agencies, including WCRS, DDB, FCB (San Francisco) and Mother.

They've also produced creative work for some of the world's biggest brands, such as Sony Playstation, Lynx, Amazon.com, BMW, Taco Bell, CNN, Orange, Speedo, Pimms and PG Tips (with Al and Monkey).

Their approach is simple: to create famous work that gets talked about. TV, digital, press, mobile; whatever. Stuff that people chat about over a pint; advertising with cultural currency. Campaigns that contribute to popular culture and make people love brands.

Michael Sugden

Michael Sugden is Managing Director of VCCP.

Michael started his career in 1995 as a management trainee in Hong Kong with Swire Pacific. On his return to London he moved to Claydon Heeley before joining HHCL in 1999.

At HHCL he was Account Director on Pot Noodle, Bacardi-Martini, Yahoo, FIFA and UEFA. Michael joined VCCP in 2002 on its first day of business and became Managing Director in 2006. His proudest career moments are winning the IPA Grand Prix for the launch of O2 and helping grow VCCP from five to 180 people in seven short years.

Michael is trekking to the Magnetic North Pole in April. Click here to find out why and follow his progress on Twitter by clicking here.    

Dominic Stinton

Dominic Stinton is Group Managing Director. He joined us from TalkTalk, where he spent 18 months as Marketing Director, with an integrated marketing budget of £20 million. Notable successes under his watch included 'theforeverstory.com' (which won the IAB's 2008 'Unthink Your Brand' award).

Before this Dominic worked agency-side as a Director and Head of Account Management at BBH. During his nine years there, he ran Levi’s, KFC and various Diageo accounts. He also spent five years at HHCL, where he worked on the launch of Egg with Ian Priest, in addition to running the accounts for Pot Noodle, Russian Standard Vodka and various Bacardi-Martini brands.

Dom is a lover of folk music and once spent £100 on a Christian folk record.

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Amelia Torode

Amelia Torode is Head of Strategy & Innovation at VCCP and leads planning on pure-play digital projects.

She has been responsible for bringing a unique digital and Social Communications methodology to brands such as London 2012, comparethemarket.com and comparethemeerkat.com, O2 and the COI.

Prior to VCCP Amelia divided her time between London and New York. She lived and worked in New York for six years where she was a digital Partner at Ogilvy One and then Senior Planner at Berlin Cameron/Red Cell. She was also Strategy Director at Naked Communications in London and was one of the very first WPP Marketing Fellows hired by Sir Martin Sorrell in 1997.

In her spare time Amelia enjoys writing/blogging/tweeting and has been published in The Spectator, Mail on Sunday, Campaign and the Financial Times. She judges creative work and talks regularly at conferences in the UK and the US on social technology, culture, advertising and digital innovation.

Peter Polster

Peter Polster is a Managing Partner at VCCP and oversees our European offerings. Peter graduated with an MBA in his native Vienna and has worked ever since in the communications industry, mostly on the agency side. He is a true cosmopolite who has lived and worked in Vienna, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris and London where he managed numerous global and pan-European brands. Not least because of his background, he has a great knowledge of what it takes to succeed as a brand when crossing borders and transcending cultures whilst being relevant to local markets. Peter joined VCCP in 2004 and is responsible for the international business of the agency

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Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler is a Managing Partner at VCCP and oversees our International and Middle Eastern ventures.

Jonathan has been working in the communications industry for over 16 years, and has an enormous amount of integrated experience both Agency and Client side, including partnership stints at Saatchi & Saatchi and HHCL. 

A strong entrepreneurial spirit has seen Jonathan run his own businesses and his skillset is being put to good use within the VCCP Group expanding its International portfolio. He is a good manager with a commercial and business focus, developing work that creates a step change in the commercial success of his Clients.

Jonathan loves sport, both participating and watching his beloved Arsenal play `the beautiful game` as it should be played.

Sophie Maunder-Allan

Sophie is Group Head of Planning. Sophie joined VCCP as a Planner in 2003.

Sophie started working life on the WPP fellowship, working in the UK then Sydney in PR, research and planning. The first female Shareholder and Partner at VCCP, Sophie is proud to have been part of such a rapidly growing agency. Sophie was the main planner on the O2 account for 4 years and very proud to pick up the IPA Effectiveness Grand Prix  and Gold awards in 2004 and 2006. She was recently named as one of the "35 most successful women under 35" in the UK in the Sunday Times in 2009. Her proudest achievement is giving birth to a little boy called Huxley.

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