Former Saatchi & Saatchi advertising director awarded honorary fellowship from the University of Northampton

The former director and deputy chairman of global creative agency Saatchi & Saatchi has been awarded an honorary fellowship from the University of Northampton, today.

James Lowther worked at Saatchi & Saatchi for 21 years before co-founding M & C Saatchi in 1995, as creative director, before progressing to the agency’s chairman and then a founding partner.

During his career, James was responsible for campaigns for many products, including Schweppes and Fosters and Castlemaine XXXX lagers.  He also worked on many government campaigns for the Army, Department of Health and The Millennium Dome. James also directed campaigns for the launches of The National Lottery and the London Bid for the 2012 Olympics.

Watch our video interview with James, below:

As advisor to The Leonard Cheshire Fund for Disaster Relief, James helped organise the Wall Concert in Berlin in 1990, which was attended by 450,000 people and broadcast live to 55 million.  In 2002, as a Director of Children in Crisis, he created and co-produced ITV’s Britain’s Brilliant Prodigies, a programme dedicated to discovering children of prodigious talent, whilst raising funds and awareness for the charity.

James was born in Northamptonshire and has lived at his family home, Holdenby House, since he was three years old.

In the 1980s he started a living history education programme at the house, for school children, which has now seen more than 200,000 take part.

After retiring from advertising in 2015, James became a Deputy Lieutenant.  As a passionate advocate of the beauty of Northamptonshire, he has mainly concentrated on promoting the county to the outside world, and created the campaign Northamptonshire. Britain’s Best Surprise, which was launched in April 2017. He plans to continue and expand this work as the Vice Lord Lieutenant.

Professor Nick Petford, Vice Chancellor of the University of Northampton, said: “I’m delighted that James has joined the roll call of inspirational recipients of honorary fellowships from the University of Northampton. He has enjoyed a distinguished career at the forefront of the creative industries, and is a true champion of his home county of Northamptonshire.”