Given the frenetic pace of life in most agencies – indeed, life in general these days – it’s somewhat reassuring to learn how Fergus McCallum begins his day of work.
“I read the Racing Post every morning for 20 minutes before I do anything,” he says. “I don’t think you should start work as soon as you get in every day, I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for people.”
Gently lowering himself into the day seems to have served the TBWA\MCR chief executive well. This year he turns 60, but his enjoyment of the job is so undimmed that any chance of him riding off into the sunset anytime soon seems to be a long shot at best.
“I’d be very disappointed if I’m not doing exactly the same thing in 10 years’ time, frankly. If you love what you do, I don’t think age really matters.”
McCallum still speaks with a strong Scottish accent but he’s now spent most of his life in the North West of England. Born in Kilwinning on the east coast of Scotland, he was raised up the coast in Fairlie before his father’s sales job moved the 16-year-old Fergus, his older sister and younger brother south of the border to Chester.
He moved back north for his university years, but despite his mother’s fervent wish for him to become an accountant, it was the latter part of his Business and Marketing degree that excited McCallum.
Having initially accepted but then rejected the opportunity to work for a bank – “I just thought a small part of me will die if I do that” – McCallum drove south to a recruitment fair at Manchester University.
Perhaps unsurprisingly for a student, it was a recruiting brewery that caught his eye. Wilson’s Brewery – the then well-known Newton Heath-based brewery that eventually ceased trading in 1986 – was looking for a marketing person, and McCallum fitted the bill.
