Gav Thompson was responsible for combining bookmaker Paddy Power’s “mischievous and generous” sides last year with the launch of its ‘You’re Welcome’ campaign, which saw it firing football shirts featuring betting offers from a cannon. He is former global director of innovation at Telefónica and the founder of mobile network giffgaff. “Doodling in my book, sitting at the back of a Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco in August 2008, I suddenly had this idea for a web-enabled community-run mobile phone network based around a spirit of ‘mutuality’. It was an exciting moment,” he says. Having moved from advertising to client side after 14 years, he says having courage in his convictions has always been important. “Back yourself and back good ideas. Sometimes you will be right. Sometimes the idea will be right. Occasionally both.”