"Step forward Mr Active. Here we have a highly charged individual... who constantly seeks a challenge." That's how Diane Simpson, the graphologist who analyses the characters of marketers on the Diary page of Marketing magazine, summed up Tim Bonnet a few months ago.
Those who know him say Simpson was spookily accurate. Bonnet was promoted from managing director to chief executive of top ten marketing services agency Tequila\London at the start of this year. He describes the constant challenge of being with an agency as the most attractive factor. "I have a low boredom threshold," he says. "The reason I joined an agency is because of the variety."
Bonnet has been with Tequila since 1998, when Option One was merged into it, and it moved to its current Charing Cross Road site.
He reports to Tom Wass, president international of Tequila\Worldwide.
And when he says he is "passionate about Tequila, its people, its philosophy, its future", he's absolutely sincere.
In interview, almost everything refers back to the agency, even himself.
"I'd describe myself much as I'd describe Tequila," he says. "Discipline-neutral, strategic and problem-solving."
That's not to say Bonnet has no sense of self: he's also absolutely clear about what's kept him at Tequila for so long.
"For the past six years, I've been allowed to do what I want," he says.
"As long as you're performing well, the likes of Tom leave you alone to get on with it.
"Once you reach a certain position, no one tells you what to do. You can make it happen."
Certainly, the Tequila team was making it happen in 2003. It won nine new accounts, including the Army, and it claims it delivered $10million (拢5.3million) to client HP's bottom line with the streamlining of a multi-language e-CRM programme. And Bonnet says more than 60 per cent of Tequila\London staff have been with the agency for longer than two years.
Bonnet, sincere as ever, says it's all been a team effort. "We deliberately don't have a name above the door because Tequila is a collective effort with lots of strong personalities," he says.
But he can separate work from his home life. "When I leave on a Friday, I don't think about work until Monday morning," he claims.
CV
1997: Board director, managing partner, chief executive, Tequila\London
1992-1997: Account manager, board director, Option One; included a year at John Menzies in Edinburgh (1995, head of loyalty project) and six months at Shell (1994, national promotions manager)
1988-1992: Account manager, Kate Murphy and Associates
1986-1988: Commercial and comms manager, Aer Lingus.
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