ASA Chairman, Lord David Currie, has announced the appointment of four new Council members – Mark Howe, Elizabeth Gordon, Murphy Cobbing and Monisha Shah. The Council is the body responsible for deciding if an ad has broken the advertising rules and therefore needs to be amended or withdrawn. It also operates as the Board of the ASA.
Excluding the Chair, the Council is formed of 12 members of whom two-thirds are independent of industry. The remaining third have a recent, or current, knowledge of the advertising or media sector. Collectively, the members offer a wide range of skills and experiences, representing the perspectives of a wide cross section of society, including young people, families, charities and consumer groups.
Mark Howe and Elizabeth Gordon will begin their terms as Council members in April 2023 replacing Tess Alps and Neil Stevenson who have both come to the end of their very successful terms.
Whilst Murphy Cobbing and Monisha Shah will begin their terms in April 2024, replacing Nita Patel and Aaqil Ahmed’s whose terms as council members will also end.
Later this year, they will be recruiting for the replacement of Zaid Al-Qassab who’s term as a council member will end in April 2024.
All members will judge complaints about both broadcast and non-broadcast ads.
Of the appointments, Lord Currie said:
“I am delighted to welcome Mark, Elizabeth, Murphy, and Monisha as members of the ASA Council.With their diverse backgrounds and expertise spanning multiple industries, I am confident that they will bring a wealth of knowledge and perspectives to the Council, and I very much look forward to working with all four of them.”
About new Council members:
Mark Howe
Mark has been recruited as the Media Industry Background Member of the Council. He retired as Google’s MD of Agencies & Ad Industry Relations EMEA in December 2022, after 17 years. During those years, Mark held numerous Senior Sales Management roles within the UK, Northern Europe & EMEA and was seen as the Media Industry face of Google. Before that he held senior roles in TV sales.
He’s also very well known to the ASA through his long-standing role as an Asbof Board member and, since 2020, EASA Board member. Mark was instrumental in arranging the deal with EASA, signed in late 2020 and renewed at the end of last year, via which Google funds European ad self-regulatory bodies, including the ASA.
Elizabeth Gordon
Elizabeth Gordon is a Non-Executive Director of NHS Lothian Health Board and a member of two Integration Joint Boards (Edinburgh and East Lothian), statutory bodies with oversight of health and social care.
Her past experience includes being a Director of a large independent provider of NHS dentistry in Edinburgh. Before that, Elizabeth was a Solicitor in a leading Scottish law firm, working in the field of occupational pensions.
Murphy Cobbing
Murphy Cobbing is a broadcast journalist from Gateshead. She spent more than 20 years producing BBC news and documentaries for both radio and television based largely in the North East of England.
She is currently Vice President of the British Board of Film Classification and has been a trustee of the Tyneside Cinema and the North East Circus Development Trust. She’s a school governor and a Commonwealth Scholar.
Monisha Shah
Monisha Shah has a professional background in media and intellectual property. She’s a serving member of the Ofcom Content Board, Chair of Wikimedia UK and has significant experience serving on a wide range of boards, including public bodies, regulators and industry.
Those include Chairing the Kings Counsel Appointments Panel and being a Senior Independent Member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UKRI). She was also a founding Board member of the Office for Students, the regulator for Higher Education in England and Wales.
To find out more about our Council, please see our Council page.
