Gareth Owen, MD
Who is your favourite fictional character of all time?
It’s changed a lot over the years, to be honest. It was He-Man for a long time but I think Maximus from Gladiator is my favourite because he didn’t care about anything other than killing the Emperor, in this life or the next, and THAT is commitment.
What piece of advice would you give to a young search professional who’s just starting their career?
Ask lots of questions. But about things that are not part of your core job. Ask those type of questions for about 3 months, then ask lots of questions about everything else around you – other channels, creative, how the business is run. If you’re surrounded by good people then this will help your career and you will progress quicker. If you’re not then you won’t and you’re better off leaving for somewhere else.
What’s your party trick?
I don’t really go to parties any more, unless they are Disney-themed in some way… But I can touch the tip of my nose with the tip of my elbow. It’s meant to be impossible.
If you had taken a completely different career path, what do you think you would have done?
I would have been an engineer like my dad, I was always quite good at Maths, Physics and Chemistry but I was also a very difficult child and wanted to do everything my own way, so I deliberately chose not to do those subjects at A-Level, milled around for a bit at University and ended up here.
When the humans fight the robots, who do you think will win?
The robots will barely notice we were fighting.
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