"One Thing You Should Be Achieving Every Day Is That You’re Learning Something New"

Wavemaker’s, Anna Hickey, oversees some of the agency's largest global clients, including industry giants like Paramount and Tiffany. In addition to this, Anna leads Wavemaker's Global Consultancy, a vital arm of the agency dedicated to driving transformative growth for clients. 

Anna's journey to her current role has been characterised by diverse experiences and continuous learning. With over 25 years in the media industry, she's accumulated knowhow in market leadership, strategy, client leadership, and planning. This varied background equips her with a well-rounded perspective and plays a crucial role in her position on the global executive committee, where she helps determine the strategies and decisions that impact the agency worldwide.

Wavemaker wanted to learn more – and asked her what she loves about her job and working at Wavemaker: 

Q> Tell us about your role at Wavemaker? 

Anna> I have two roles, I am global client president for some of our biggest global clients and I also run our global consultancy. I oversee growing global clients such as Paramount and Tiffany.

I always say client leadership is a specialism in its own right. It takes a lot of skill, training, empathy and intelligence to do it well. 

Our global consultancy is a combination of our transformative growth practices, which we deploy for clients who are looking for new ways to unlock growth within their marketing strategies.

The global consultancy has seven practices. These include e-commerce, data strategy, tech consulting and content which involve our deepest experts globally and in our local markets. 

Q> How did you end up in your current role? 

Anna> I ended up at Wavemaker after studying marketing at university, I decided I want to work in agencies. I've worked in a number of different roles, and I always talk about the importance of a zigzagging career because I think it's really important to get a breadth of experience. 

So throughout my 25 plus years in media, I've had market leadership roles, strategy roles, client leadership and planning roles, which has given me a really rounded set of experiences. These are important when it comes to not only the job that I do now, but also having a position on the global Exco where we're making decisions on behalf of the business across the world.

Q> Why do you love your job? 

Anna> I love my job at Wavemaker because I learn every day. Whenever I speak to people who are coming up in their careers and I do quite a lot of mentoring with people both inside and outside of Wavemaker, I say the one thing you should be achieving every day is that you're learning something new. And if you're not, that's the time when you should be looking around to the next opportunity. And in this role, I definitely learn something new every day. 

So, working with amazing clients who are pushing us to do our best work consistently and constantly. Also working as a consultancy lead where you get asked the biggest, most crunchy questions by clients who really are coming to you with a big business challenge. And that's what I love because it's pushing me every day to think of new ways to unlock opportunities within our business and for our clients. I love that challenge. And that's what I think is really important for all of us in our roles.

Anna Hickey is global client president and global consultancy lead at Wavemaker. To hear more from Anna in her own words watch here and for more information visit here.