Mike Horne
Managing Director & Partner
One of the partners of ASHA & Co, Mike has enjoyed a 25-year career in marketing and brand development.
After seven years on the client-side, working with the financial services brands of BAT (Eagle Star, Threadneedle and Allied Dunbar), Mike moved to Brann – where he became the Managing Director.
Building the successful Financial Services offering of the agency, he worked with The Barclays Group across Current Accounts, Savings, Barclaycard and Barclays International, and also with Zurich and Alliance and Leicester. Mike also oversaw award-winning work for clients including Tesco, Diesel, Debenhams, Volvo, the AA, National Savings and Barnardo’s.
As well as developing the agency skills in web-based marketing and winning online accounts such as Egg and Adidas, Mike took the agency into a merger with Evans Hunt Scott, and ultimately ran the flagship London office of EHS Brann.
An accomplished speaker, with engagements ranging from International CRM conferences to events at the Houses of Parliament, Mike is a Fellow of the University of Gloucestershire. In his spare time, Mike enjoys playing and coaching basketball.
“Basketball has always been one of my great loves. The exploits of Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley captivated me in my teens, and I’ve played ever since. In fact, in the early days, my team appeared in some of the first programmes on the newly launched Channel 4 – they played music in the advertising breaks because no one wanted to buy the space!
One of the things I love about basketball is that it feels as though it has a different ethos from many other team sports; players have to acknowledge their fouls, and other people’s successes and skills are celebrated. Alongside that, there’s something so exciting about a sport where the little man can win against the big, as long as he has the right skill and technique.
As a Trustee at my local YMCA, I coach a group of 12-18-year-olds at the club I set up many years ago. Several of the players in the club have gone on to play in senior and national leagues. A few of them have used the sessions as part of their Duke of Edinburgh’s award programme, and it always makes me smile when they arrive proudly sporting the mark that we developed at ASHA & Co.”
