The Courageous Leaders Club

057 Sam Hawkey opens up about professional loneliness and learning to lead as your true self

April 13, 2023 Joanna Howes Season 8 Episode 57
The Courageous Leaders Club
057 Sam Hawkey opens up about professional loneliness and learning to lead as your true self
Show Notes

In this week’s episode I speak to Sam Hawkey, CEO at AMV BBDO.

Join us whilst we talk about how reaching the top can also result in experiencing profound professional loneliness and the advice that Sam would give to anyone else in the same situation.

Sam also shares his thoughts about how to create a culture that embraces challenge, pace and disruption, whilst maintaining a nice place to work and high staff retention.


Key takeaways include:

  • The art of challenging your team whilst also leading with empathy
  • Remembering we are all salespeople
  • Having a company culture that comes from the core

Sam Hawkey is 15 months into the position of CEO at AMV BBDO. He carries over 15 years of industry experience. 

He worked at Glue London, now Isobar, working across Bacardi, News Group News Group Newspapers, Adidas and Aviva.

Sam joined Saatchi & Saatchi as a freelance Account Manager moving up to CEO after ten years. During this time Sam worked across Kerry Foods, EE & BT, Guinness, IAMS and Weight Watchers. He was also responsible for the agency’s growth into new technologies in self-serve content, the Saatchi Store and agency workflow technologies.

Outside of work Sam lives in Harpenden with his wife Catherine, children Archer and Maisie, dog Harry and three cats Mabel, Fred and George.

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