Gordon Brown started life as a would–be Physicist at Oxford, but switched to PPE as Physics became boring and, after teaching in Nigeria, drifted into market research as a trainee at Marplan in 1967.
He moved into the Research Department of General Foods in 1969, later becoming Research Manager.
In 1973, he founded Millward Brown with Maurice Millward. The agency expanded steadily, carrying out a full range of ad hoc projects, but with a particular interest in advertising tracking studies. Millward Brown was the first pure ad hoc research agency to go public’; they acquired a US subsidiary, Ad Factors, in 1986; and total turnover last year exceeded £10m.
He is currently Deputy Chairman of Millward Brown Plc, and Chairman of Ad Factors/Millward Brown in the US (where her currently spends much of his time).