Who we are
Irving Samwell
After reading economics at Leeds University, Irving Samwell began his marketing career in the motor industry at Lucas Industries and then the Lex Group. He became Advertising Manager and then Director of Marketing for Renault in the UK from the late 70s to the mid 80s where he was responsible for strategy, planning and marketing communications and for one the UK's largest communications budgets of that time.
In 1986 he was invited to join the Lowe advertising agency group to handle primarily the General Motors (Vauxhall) business becoming Vice Chairman of the London agency (where he first worked with co-Vice Chairman Mary Stewart-Hunter) before moving to run Lowe's international accounts including Braun and Zanussi as Vice Chairman- Europe.
From the mid 90s he ran his own international strategic marketing and communications consultancy with clients such as Castrol (in Europe), BMW (in Germany and Japan) and Chevrolet. He joined FCI Consultants in the late 90s as a partner in the business, M&A, and marketing communications consultancy. With FCI 360 he has recently managed major communications effectiveness and insight-led strategic planning projects for Nissan Europe and Goodyear Dunlop.
Mary Stewart-Hunter
2007 saw the formation, with Irving Samwell, of FCI 360, a brand communications strategy consultancy.
Mary started her career in market research but switched to account planning in the 80s. She worked with Irving Samwell at Lowe Howard-Spink, where she was Planning Director (88-97) and latterly Vice Chairman. Following that she spent 5 years (97-02) in strategy consulting, working on some very prestigious projects for amongst others, John Lewis, Hutchinson Telecom (later branded 3), Saab, Corus Steel and a number of leading design consultancies. Most recently she worked as Consumer Insight Director EMEA for OMD (02-06) her major clients included Vodafone, Sony, Nissan and GE.
Mary is active in various industry bodies as an author, reviewer and trainer. She has published a number of articles and speaks on industry platforms. In 1997 she was made a Fellow of the IPA (the UK's ad agency association) and is a member of Marketing Research Society and ESOMAR. Mary read Geography at Cambridge University.