Paul Knight, CEO

The year that Knighty delivered for PHD would be a phenomenal achievement in any year. To do it in his first year of leadership of the agency makes it even more remarkable.

Within 12 months of taking on the PHD UK CEO role, he created new benchmarks of success for PHD and the industry to chase, giving the agency focus and renewed energy. Across the past year, PHD UK won its biggest ever UK pitch (the £90m Entain account), was named by Warc as the world’s most-awarded media agency and the agency won three different Media Agency of the Year accolades, including Global Media Agency of the Year at the Campaign Global AotY Awards in 2026. It was a stellar leadership year for Knighty that became an even more stellar year for PHD.