Archaeologist turned journalist turned global president of Advertising Week Ruth Mortimer has had quite the career. She tells us about her wide-ranging career, and why you shouldn’t stay in your lane, in this week’s Square Mile and Me

CV

• Name: Ruth Mortimer
• Job title: Global president at Advertising Week
• Previous roles: Archaeologist, editor at Marketing Week, director at Festival of Marketing and managing partner at Econsultancy
• Age: 46
• Born: London
• Lives: North London
• Studied: Ancient History & Archaeology at University of Manchester
• Talents: Speed reading and never lost a music quiz yet
• Motto: Advertising Week’s slogan is ‘Great Minds Think Unalike’ and I can’t imagine a more exciting philosophy
• Biggest perk of the job? Meeting people and learning new things
• Coffee order: Two lattes, eight shots minimum
• Cocktail order: Mojito
• Favourite book: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

What was your first job?

My first job was to photocopy academic papers at the local university. I often mixed up the pages so I’ve potentially caused the educational downfall of a whole generation.

What was your first ‘serious’ role?

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