Friday ROASTing – Annie Coles
Annie Coles – Finance Director
What’s your claim to fame?
I’m famous for my mince pies and for my baking in general. I once had a former team mate on coming to work with me again insisting that as part of his contract of employment that I make him mince pies at Christmas and a chocolate cake on his birthday – not sure how they fulfilled that obligation when I left that Agency.
Having a background in finance gives you the opportunity to work across a huge spectrum of sectors; why did media take your fancy?
I did my degree in Business Studies, I nearly went the Marketing route as my specialism in my final year and so I’m very lucky that I have been able to combine the two – I’m a people person and Marketing services/Agencies as an industry is all about the people & it’s a lot of fun.
We all spend a lot of time at work & Finance can be very stressful, so you need to love the environment that you are in & if you don’t you are not doing the right job.
You’ve been working with ROAST’s CEO and Founder, Ollie, for almost a decade now. What was your first impression of him?
I’d been warned by my friend that put me forward for the job that both he and his brother were incredibly handsome, what I wasn’t necessarily expecting was the charismatic, intelligent, motivated and engaging person who I met, which considering he actually signed the paperwork with Dentsu for the sale of STEAK on that day was pretty impressive. I wanted to work with him straight away and that impression has never changed, its great to have been involved from near the beginning of ROAST (joining when they were 6 months old) & I’m now very lucky to also call him my friend.
The recent GDPR update has resulted in a big change within the industry, and you’ve carried TIPi through it heroically; after the dust has settled do you think the new regulations will have a positive effect on the industry?
There’s been a lot of data hanging around for some time and its regulation was overdue. Data is key to our industry though & on a personal level if as a result of it that means that brands are communicating with people who want to hear about them and can more easily remove themselves from hearing that communication this has to be a good thing.
If you could choose one superpower what would it be?
The ability to clone myself & be in 2 places at once, or teleportation would be great.