Monday
My day starts early at 5am, with a quick drive to Stockport station accompanied by 5 Live's 'Wake up to Money' and Mickey Clark. For the three years I have been making this journey, the story hasn't changed – I don’t think it's as bleak a picture as he paints.
I always check out the competition's ads at the station and fire off a few emails if I think we might be missing out. The journey is two hours – enough time to catch up on the FT and The Guardian and have some breakfast and a snooze.
It's straight into a 9am meeting with our international franchise director who manages our Westfield relationship and we discuss exciting plans for Meridian Square at the booming Westfield Stratford City. Our vision for the site fits perfectly with the #platformforfame strategy, which is about offering advertisers the right audience in the right mindset, in the right (dwell-time) environment.
Next up is a catch-up on trading. We examine the numbers from the weeks just gone and coming up. The good news is we have hit the Q2 target and we can now ensure that we leave no stone unturned for Q3 and the run-up to Christmas.
I then review the latest Work.Shop.Play insight called 'Summer in the City' – 46% of our urban panel say that they pay more attention to their beauty routine as warmer weather approaches. So true!
Today’s lunch meeting is with one of our largest asset partners. We discuss future plans and aspirations for their estate. The vision is exciting and could fundamentally change the way outdoor advertisers engage with audiences.
This afternoon, I'm in discussions about how we will be supporting the Year of the Bus (being launched in 2014 for TfL). This one’s close to my heart, since my out-of-home roots are in bus advertising.
Tuesday
A run along the canal: the perfect start to the day. After some fruit and a bucket of coffee, I make my way to the office for 7.30am. I'm a morning person and prefer an early start to get ahead of the day.
I have my weekly catch-up with my CEO Antonio Alonso – he is as always sharp and challenging. We discuss our current trading, forecasts and the October staff conference.
Next chat on the agenda is with Glen Wilson, managing director at Posterscope. Glen is a key trading partner – it's important that we work together and create an open dialogue.
Jump on the Tube to my next meeting, with the contract manager for our London Underground (LU) contract (I always try to use buses or the Tube so I can check out the quality of our displays and keep our delivery teams on their toes – the quality of the display on the Tube journey to St James is top class). We discuss the impending launch of our new digital estate at King’s Cross, which is our first investment in the LU estate for some time.
Lunch is a get-to-know-you session with our lawyers – topics of conversation include procurement in media services, making technology work for media companies, and changing legislation regarding data capture, which are pertinent to our Work.Shop.Play panel, so we will follow up more on this.
My afternoon is spent reviewing our new corporate social responsibility programme. I am particularly inspired by Karen Landles, our behavioural insight director who is incredibly passionate about CSR and is leading this project.
I finish the day with our sales director for the UK Direct sales team. Malcolm leaves with a million-pound task for Q3. I am not sure that was his intention at the start of the meeting, but I know he will deliver.
In the evening, I have Facetime my wife and children and then watch 'Game of Thrones' on Sky Go. It's then time to hit the sack with a good book (Anthony Beevor, 'The Spanish Civil War').
Wednesday
Today is the OMC quarterly board meeting, attended by the great and good of the OOH industry. We discuss a long list of topics including the next stages for Route – the ground-breaking industry audience-measurement system and the Outdoor Works conference on 18 September. There is a fantastic line-up of speakers and we debate who will be our headline act.
I have to get across town sharpish for a midday meeting with Marc Mendoza, chairman at Havas Media. My next meeting is with a leading mobile marketing agency and we discuss how CBS Outdoor assets coupled with mobile interactivity drives greater levels of engagement amongst our audiences. The creative juices are flowing.
The afternoon is busy. I head to Starcom to meet Craig Barber and review the Heineken H1 ads. Our account manager does a top job, I am very proud of our team. I walk to Kinetic taking in the wall-to-wall bus advertising. We take the Zone team through the London Worker Planning Tool and Work.Shop.Play insight. This seems to encourage them to upload the planning tools onto their desk top.
Inevitably I answer questions on the impending sale of CBS Outdoor.
After finishing with Kinetic, I nip around the corner for a beer at Nick Mawditt's leaving do and then head to Leicester Square for the 'Man of Steel' movie premiere.
Thursday
After my morning run, I have a breakfast meeting with Roy Jeans, CEO at Rapport. We are at Balthazar, which I understand is a big hit in New York. There are a few other media faces in there.
Then it's back to Camden for a series of meetings to review our E6 forecast (we forecast our year-end position every month). As expected, we're on target. Simon Harrington, marketing director, shares his strategy for improving how we collate and share the 4,000 images we capture every month from our campaigns. Next is a meeting with the team leading our negotiations with the RMT union – this job is varied if nothing else.
The last meeting of the day is in Victoria with the commercial director of one of our asset partners. We discuss everything from copy approval to sales performance and the inevitable question about the sale of CBS Outdoor.
And to finish the day, I enjoy more Facetime with the family and the penultimate 'Game of Thrones' – the red wedding was well portrayed.
Friday
Last run of the week followed by a meeting with one of the potential new owners. Later in the morning I meet with their wider team and we discuss the vision for the business. It's an intense but productive discussion.
I then head to Euston and take the train back to Manchester, using the time to catch up on emails, review weekly sales and say thank you to the team. It's been a busy, satisfying week.
Age: 44
Favourite media: Bus advertising
Biggest inspiration: My family
Dream Job: Jeremy Clarkson’s replacement on 'Top Gear'
One thing not a lot of people know: I was a lifeguard on Bournemouth beach
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