Mallory Simmonds

Originally from New York, Simmonds began her career after deciding financial services was not for her, landing in a marketing consultancy doing customer segmentation and data analytics. That took her into marketing proper. She joined the Kepler Group as its 21st employee, a paid performance agency she says has since grown to almost 900 people globally, and launched its marketing analytics practice in New York. In 2018 she moved to London to open Kepler's first international office, arriving with no clients and a few contacts, reaching profitability in roughly 18 to 19 months and growing the business to around 100 people overseeing EMEA clients by 2025.

Simmonds became CEO of Jungle Creations in April, crossing from data and paid performance into a more creative environment. She frames the agency's advantage around what she says is 13 years of performance data across eight social brands and 165 million followers, used to test content on the agency's own audiences before a client spends. Away from work she is an endurance athlete who, by her account, has represented GB twice in triathlon and qualified four times, and who credits early morning training with making her a calmer, clearer leader.