Once again, we present 40 of Europe's high-flyers, all of whom are under the age of 40. They work in all areas of media and advertising, but have one thing in common - inspiring talent.
EDDIE D'SA
Age: 33
Title: Director/founder
Company: OMD Ignition Nordic
The opportunity to set up a unit dedicated to strategy - and a love of snowboarding - first took Eddie D'Sa to the Nordic region in 1998.

D'Sa cut his teeth as a strategic planner at PHD's boutique hot-shop Rocket, and he now admits to being fanatical about media neutrality, as it is the "salvation of marketing". His experience took him to Synergy Norway, where he introduced this new approach to planning to the region.

In 2000, OMD lured D'Sa to Denmark, where he founded Ignition. The agency has since gone on to work on a client list that includes Icelandair.

A Media Lions winner at Cannes and a finalist at the M&M Awards for his work with Discovery Networks' Animal Planet channel, D'Sa is a firm believer in eradicating boundaries.

A tie-up between Icelandair, MTV and Sony was "a win-win stituation", says D'Sa. "All partners gained, and there was no demarcation between who was the client and the other partners."

Colleagues agree. One says: "He sees things from several angles and finds ways around issues that might occur when several parties are involved. He's also professional, creative and a great bloke."

Excerpts:

Naked has been busy spreading its gospel. It has officially opened in Oslo and Sydney, complementing offices in London and Amsterdam. Naked in North America is under way and rumours about Naked Paris are circulating.

Naked is also striking up relationships with some heavyweight clients in local markets. In Oslo, it has won business from the drinks giant Ringnes, Norway's sixth biggest advertiser.

The agency launched in August this year and is headed by Eddie d'Sa. It recently hired Ronny Kjeserud, the head of planing at McCann Norway.

Excerpts:

In the summer of last year, the communications planning agency Naked launched an office in Scandinavia under the leadership of one of the region's star performers, Eddie D'Sa.

His success at OMD Ignition in Denmark, when the agency won more than one Cannes Media Lion, helped to blaze a trail for Nordic clients to demand more creative thinking from an agency with a reputation for innovation.

Seven months down the line and Naked is still just D'Sa plus one, but there are plans to recruit two more to the team, and the company has pulled in a number of clients through its Norwegian office. Its highest-profile account is Frisk, Norway's top-selling mint brand, and the agency recently won an assignment for the country's largest advertiser, the telecoms company Telenor. Naked Nordics has also established working relations with the leading Norwegian creative agency, Dinamo, as well as Lowe in Sweden.

But despite having won awards for his creative media work there, D'Sa doesn't see the region as particularly open to creative suggestions. 'Clients everywhere are quite risk-averse because of the recession. The way to sell creatively is to be sound,' he says.