Marketing likes to think we know how to spot a winner. Back in 2007, the magazine’s staff named Andrew Bailey (then president of Proximity Canada) to its Ones To Watch list. Now, at the age of 37 and after recently changing his career up a bit, the Ontario native has made Advertising Age‘s 40 Under 40 list.
Andrew Bailey started dreaming about a career in advertising at 8 years old, and by the time he was 12 he was painting signs for products in his grandfather’s supermarket in Niagara Falls, Canada. On the creative path, he moved into high school with an apprenticeship at Canadian shop Tri-Media. Then he set off to business school to explore the other side of the industry, beginning his professional career at Leo Burnett Canada. Since joining Leo, he has worked across global offices for an agency called Deepend, bought and sold a digital agency he started with partners and served in a number of roles at BBDO’s Proximity.
In 2011, six years after joining Proximity, he was appointed North American CEO. “The theme across my career is, I like building things,” he said.
He recently left Proximity to build The&Partnership, a new U.K.-based and WPP-backed holding group. He’s currently CEO of North America.
Read Bailey’s Q&A and see the full 40 Under 40 list at AdAge.com
