Since joining as Chief Executive last year, Baroness Buscombe has begun work to restructure the Advertising Association to become a high-level think tank and the single voice for the advertising industry; representing advertisers, agencies and media owners. She has pledged to influence government and regulators at the most senior levels, both in the UK and Brussels, and to work to create a healthier climate of belief in the importance of the advertising industry.

Education:
Hinchley Wood School and the Rosebury Grammar School, Epsom Inns of Court School of Law; and Columbia Law School, New York 1977 called to the Bar at the Inner Temple

Career:
1977-1979    Director, R Buxton (textile marketing)
1979-1980    Legal Adviser, The Dairy Trade Association
1980-1984    Legal Counsel, Barclays Bank International, New York and Barclays Bank plc, London
1984-1987    Legal Adviser and Assistant Secretary, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising
1985-1997    Joint Managing Partner of Buscombe and Fiala (International Art Business)
2006 -          Non-Executive Director, Three Valleys Water plc
2007-           Chief Executive, The Advertising Association
2007 -          Director Asbof/Basbof
2007 -          Director CAP/BCAP

Politics:
1995-1999    Councillor, South Oxfordshire District Council
1997            Contested Slough in General Election    
1995-1998    Vice Chairman, South Oxfordshire Conservative Association
1997-1999    Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party, responsible for development
1997-2001    President of the Slough Conservative Association
1998            Made a Life Peer as Baroness Buscombe of Goring
                   Opposition Frontbench Spokesman in the House of Lords for
1999-2001             - Trade and Industry
1999-2001             - Social Security
1999-2005             - Legal Affairs, Deputy to the Shadow Lord Chancellor
2000                      - Cabinet Office Affairs
2001                      - Home Office
2002-2005              - Culture, Media and Sport
2005-2007    Shadow Minister in the House of Lords for Education and Skills
2008            President, Patrons, Henley Constituency

Hamish graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, with a degree in PPE in 1973.

During his twenty-six year period in the advertising industry, Hamish has worked for several leading agencies.  He started his career at Ogilvy & Mather as a graduate trainee in 1973.  After spells at Boase Massimi Pollitt (Associate Director), Publicis (New Business Director), Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO (vBoard Director), co-founder of Madell Wilmot Pringle, and Leagas Delaney (Board Director), Hamish joined KHBB in 1992, and became Chairman & CEO in 1995.  Following the merger in 1997, he became Vice-Chairman, and Director of Marketing of Saatchi & Saatchi.

In 2001, Hamish was appointed IPA Director General.  As DG, he represents the IPA on a number of key industry bodies including the Advertising Association (AA), the Advertising Standards Board of Finance (ASBOF), the Broadcast Advertising Standards Board of Finance (BASBOF) and the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB).  He is on the board of the National Associations Council (NAC) and the European Association of Communication Agencies (EACA).  He is a Fellow of the IPA, a Fellow of the Marketing Society and a member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain (MGGB).