Meet the shoal, a dedicated global team with world-class Challenger expertise

Adam’s seminal work, the global bestseller Eating the Big Fish, popularised the concept of Challenger Brands and, alongside subsequent works The Pirate Inside, A Beautiful Constraint, and Overthrow, provides marketers with the framework to fuel success with a Challenger approach. He founded eatbigfish to challenge conventional thinking, and has spent over 25 years working with clients to overcome strategic brand problems with a Challenger Mindset. 

His latest project The Extraordinary Cost of Dull has ignited a crucial conversation in the industry. Alongside collaborating with with marketing effectiveness experts Peter Field, Dr Karen Nelson-Field and Jon Evans, among others, to quantify the cost of mediocrity in communications, his podcast, Let’s Make This More Interesting, delves into diverse fields from beyond the marketing industry to uncover fresh perspectives. By exploring how to make mundane topics captivating, Adam aims to inspire marketers everywhere, offering innovative solutions to combat the pervasive stagnation that none of us can afford to ignore.

Based in Toronto but so often in the U.S. she’s on a first-name basis with customs, Anne Marie helps lead our work with clients on both sides of the border. She is also Head of People & Culture, where she applies the same mix of rigor and playfulness to the way we work together as she does to her clients’ toughest challenges.

Anne Marie started her career client-side, marketing some of the world’s most beloved brands, from toothpaste to cereal to beer. That experience taught her what it feels like to make moves that change the game, and how to help teams navigate both the thrill and the pressure that come with them. Since then, she’s challenged the status quo to create new opportunities in categories as diverse as beverages to banking, and hospitality to health care.

Beyond the workshop, Anne Marie is most likely chasing the buzz of live music, finding fun ways to fuel her competitive spirit, and trying to keep up with her Gen Z kids – without too many eye rolls being sent her way.

Originally a creative Toby joined the strategy team at eatbigfish over 10 years ago. Now, as Strategy Director and Head of Research, whether it’s digging deeper into a category he’s already familiar with or one he’s never previously given a moment’s thought to, Toby is fascinated by helping teams reignite their sense of ambition and passion for their brand.

Susie is a Strategy Director and our Head of Consultancy. She joined eatbigfish in 2021 as a media planner hunting bigger briefs and gnarlier challenges.

She's worked with some of the world's biggest brands - from finance to fizzy drinks and most things in between - and knows that the best strategies come from going deep enough to really understand the problem, then stepping back to see it differently. She's a left-brain and right-brain thinker who isn't afraid to challenge when it matters or roll up her sleeves to make things happen. And importantly, she believes great work should feel great while you're doing it, and brings the energy and a sense of humour when it's needed most.

Susie brings Challenger thinking to life for teams and audiences worldwide, in speeches, panels and our own eatbigfish webinars – and would love to do the same for yours.

Outside work, Susie's an aspiring chef who spends more time eating or watching Masterchef than actually cooking, and is currently on a mission to find the best chips on the South West Coast path.

Hugh is one of the Managing Partners. His career has mainly been in marketing and advertising – although forays into the word of skiing, commodity broking, and tennis instruction have made it interesting along the way.  

‘Schooled’ in marketing at Unilever, he then worked in in the US and the UK in brilliant advertising agencies like AMV-BBDO and Goodby Silverstein, before a stint as MD of Wieden and Kennedy, London. In that period, he worked on many iconic campaigns including the famous Guinness ‘Surfer’ commercial and the much loved (and parodied) ‘got milk? campaign.  

At eatbigfish, there are few categories that he hasn’t worked in. The diversity of clients includes a dairy in Saudi Arabia, the launch of the first injectable HIV drug, planning a new whisky distillery and visitor experience, making ETFs understandable, and articulating the next chapter of the GLP-1 phenomenon. (All while learning new acronyms!).

He loves to facilitate and despite a reputation for occasionally playing ‘bad cop’ in a workshop, he is really quite approachable. Trained as a qualified executive coach, he uses this skill to support and mentor senior individuals and teams. He wishes he was Harvey Specter but is more like Bill Bailey.

Peter is a qualified chartered accountant and has looked after the numbers at eatbigfish since 2013. Before he joined the company, Peter specialised in finance in the music industry, working at various music businesses, including the famous London nightclub Ministry of Sound.

In his spare time, Peter’s obsession with music continues as he regularly DJs at his own club night and on some of London’s biggest underground radio stations.

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Rosie first stepped through the doors of eatbigfish over 13 years ago in search of a bit of work experience. What she discovered instead was her true calling – organisation in all its glorious forms – and she’s been thriving at eatbigfish ever since. Over the years, Rosie has worn many hats, from Project Coordinator to EA, Office Manager to her current role as Operations Manager, gaining a deep understanding of every corner of the company along the way.

Affectionately known as The Beloved, Rosie’s superpower is staying calm in the face of chaos – a skill that’s proved invaluable in both high-stakes poker games and the daily circus of office life. She lives for lists, logistics, and throwing a cracking party. And when she’s not at work, you’ll find her wrangling two small children and a spirited Dalmatian through the leafy wilds of SW London.

Sam has spent the past 14 years at eatbigfish, where she’s now Director of Business Development and Operations...the person who thrives on solving tricky problems and keeping things running smoothly, no matter how fast they change. With a background in both Finance and Art, she brings a rare mix of structure and creativity to everything she does.  

Originally from London and now happily settled in Connecticut, Sam’s life outside of work is just as full...whether she’s taxiing her 8-year-old son Finley to his many sporting events or heading out on long walks with Pepper, her amazing dog.

Ellie isn’t a typical strategist. With a background in product design, she brings creativity into the way we work at eatbigfish. Her role focuses on helping the team navigate the fast-changing world of AI while uncovering new approaches to try across projects – from beauty brands to tequila. When not wrangling Post-its, Ellie can be found losing her voice at festivals, learning new recipes, negotiating with her 6ft cheese plant, or getting cosy and watching a zombie film.

Jono (rhymes with Bono) has crammed quite a lot of weird and wonderful experience into the last decade, having worked and lived in London, New York, LA and Manchester alongside PR people, event producers, advertising bods, and design studio folk. He’s loved advertising since he was a little boy, so he’s basically doing his dream job and would probably do it for free (though don’t tell the eatbigfish Partners that). He works across categories but has a particular focus on CPG food brands in the US and Europe.

Oh, and he’s raising six kids in Cheshire, UK with his spectacular wife Siân.

With a calm, structured approach and a knack for keeping things running smoothly, Emily helps teams stay focused and aligned. She works in the ops team as Project Manager at eatbigfish, where she’s known for being reliable, detail-oriented, and thoughtful in how she supports strategy teams and manages logistics. Her strengths—Woo, Communication, Responsibility, Consistency, and Empathy—shine through in her collaborative style and ability to build trust across teams.

After a 7-month sabbatical exploring the world (with New Zealand as a standout), she’s returned with fresh perspective and energy. Outside of work, she’s passionate about hybrid training at the gym and brings that same discipline and drive to every project she touches.

Ruth leads the research for the Let's Make This More Interesting podcast, and has previously been lead researcher on much of the research into Challenger Brands included in our publications. She is also an ardent proofreader for eatbigfish output.

Outside of work, she’s very keen on jazz, history of art, the Rambert School of Dance and…cats.

Liv was the first employee to join eatbigfish in a broom cupboard back in 2000. Starting out as a researcher she spent her early days on the road interviewing iconic noughties founders for Adam’s second book The Pirate Inside. She then established The Challenger Project as an online resource before beginning her career facilitating workshops and running brand projects as an eatbigfish strategist and freelance brand consultant. While Liv works with a wide range of global clients she specialises in startups, scale-ups and businesses at crucial points of transition where team building, bold marketing and compelling creative are essential to support change, reach new audiences and drive rapid growth.

When not growing brands Liv likes growing vegetables. She also loves Victorian literature, slow fashion, fast horses, cheap crisps and good shoes

Tony is an expert in innovation, brand strategy and consumer insight with over 25 years of industry experience.

As an associate of eatbigfish, he mostly works with the principles of A Beautiful Constraint, equipping teams with the practical tools to put the theories into practice.

Liston is a brand strategist based in Austin, TX. He’s built a career around making brands useful for the whole of companies – not just inspiration for communications, but a lens through which broader business problems are solved and opportunities seized.  

He’s worked on brand, advertising, and design for organizations big and small across a range of verticals everything from rideshare to retail, off-price goods to premium spirits. He’s also been a schoolteacher and sold medical insurance for cats and dogs.  

Outside of work, you’ll generally find Liston in a record or bookstore or supporting a handful of consistently mediocre sports teams.

As Commercial Manging Partner Teresa is the lynchpin of the business and all of our operations. She makes sure we’re profitable, on time, in the right place, and have everything we need to do good work.

She lives in between London and Brighton, and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the most fabulous places to eat in both cities.

With over 20 years under her belt at eatbigfish, Helen works across the business bringing our thinking and approach to life. As well as being well-versed in all things Challenger, creative and production, she has a masters degree in Brands, Culture & Communication, so spends a lot of time thinking about contemporary consumer culture, discourses of identity and belonging, and whether she should do a PhD on the TV show 'The Repair Shop'.

Based in Folkestone but regularly in the London office, if she isn’t plotting a new project or wrestling a to-do list, you will find her staring at the sea or eating crisps in a pub.

Joining eatbigfish from the world of advertising in 2010, Nick has worked with clients on five continents and in international waters. He now works as an independent consultant and Challenger associate on strategic projects.

Ben helps our clients apply a Challenger Mindset to their brand and beyond. He has a soft spot for working with food and drinks brands but for him, there is nothing tastier than a brief to work with a large established brand looking to make the leap into the world of Challenger.