Guest
Fredrik Borestrom
World President & Chair, International Advertising Association
Two decades across advertising technology and industry leadership, from a mobile ad startup to LinkedIn to leading the IAA, and an advocate for creativity, responsibility and trust.
About
Fredrik Borestrom is World President and Chair of the International Advertising Association, the only global body that, by his account, represents brands, agencies, media, publishers and academia under one roof. He is known for building industry institutions in the real world, from UK chapters to global boards, while holding a day job in technology and advising early-stage businesses.
Borestrom moved to the UK in 2004 and has spent two decades in the industry since. With his business partner Chris he founded and sold a mobile advertising business to an American software company, then stayed on for a year in a global sales role to see the deal through for his team, partners and customers. He joined LinkedIn, where he has been a power user since signing up in 2005, and he advises early-stage technology businesses alongside his current work.
He has built the IAA in the UK and then taken on the global role of World President and Chair, helping publish industry work including Ad Pays Six and Deeds Not Words. Under the leadership team he describes, with a new global managing director in Kirsty Giordani, the association has moved its headquarters from New York to London and, he says, opened in Qatar, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Brazil in the last 12 months, while continuing to serve established markets such as Lebanon, where he says the body has been present for 64 years.
Career15 years
- 2025 to now International Advertising Association World President & Chair
- 2024 to now IAA UK Chairperson
- 2024 to now OSSA Special Advisor
- 2021 to now LinkedIn Director, International Agency Development EMEA & LATAM
Show earlier roles: International Advertising Association, Effie Worldwide, IAA UK, LinkedIn
- 2022 to 2025 International Advertising Association Senior Vice President
- 2018 to 2024 Effie Worldwide Member of the Steering committee for Effie UK
- 2017 to 2024 IAA UK President
- 2019 to 2021 LinkedIn Head of Agency, International
- 2018 to 2019 LinkedIn Interim Head of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions DACH
- 2017 to 2018 LinkedIn Market Development Partner, EMEA
- 2016 to 2017 LinkedIn Agency Partner Lead EMEA
- 2016 to 2017 IAA UK Vice President
- 2011 to 2016 IAA UK VP Activities
How Fredrik thinks3 convictions
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Build long-term value
Borestrom argues that founders most often get the commercial side wrong by thinking too short term. In a startup it is tempting to cut corners or maximise profit on one project, but he says the real question is how to build durable value, even if that means turning down a deal that is wrong for the brand. He treats durability as a discipline, not an afterthought.
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Go further together
Borestrom frames the IAA as a convener that cannot achieve its goals alone. He leans on the African proverb to explain why the body partners across brands, agencies, media and research bodies rather than acting in isolation. For him, the industry only improves for good when its members are galvanised to move together.
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Do well by doing good
Borestrom believes commercial success and responsibility belong in the same place. He points to the real carbon cost of campaigns, the need for ethical media choices and better creativity that needs fewer impressions. If you sit in the middle of that Venn diagram, he argues, you are in a good space.