Cannes Lions awards Sir John Hegarty with first Lion of St Mark

The Lion of St Mark trophy is based upon the original Lions awarded at the festival, which were modelled on the lion statue in St Mark's Square in Venice, location of the first festival in 1954 and alternating host city with Cannes before the latter became the festival's permanent home in 1984.

This new award recognises a long and outstanding contribution to creativity in communications. Cannes Lions will present the first-ever Lion of St Mark to Sir John Hegarty, worldwide creative director and founder of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH).

Sir John started in advertising as a junior art director at Benton and Bowles, London, in 1965. In 1967 he joined the Cramer Saatchi consultancy which became Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970, where he was a founding shareholder. Sir John left in 1973 to co-found TBWA London as creative director. The agency was the first to be voted Campaign's (reputed to be the UK's leading advertising magazine), Agency of the Year in 1980.

In 1982 he started Bartle Bogle Hegarty with John Bartle and Nigel Bogle and it soon became one of the most talked about and awarded advertising agencies in the world. The agency has won every Agency of the Year accolade and every creative award possible and has been at the forefront of the industry for 29 years. BBH was Cannes very first Agency of the Year in 1993 winning the title again the following year.

The agency now has offices in London, New York, Singapore, São Paulo, Shanghai and Mumbai and Sir John oversees the creative output of all these offices. This global structure also contributed to the company winning the Queen's Award for Export Achievement twice, in 1996 and 1997.

Sir John was given a knighthood by the Queen in 2007 in recognition of his services to the advertising and creative industries.

Delegates will have the opportunity to attend the BBH seminar on Friday 24 June at which Sir John will be speaking together with BBH's Group Chairman, Nigel Bogle.

Important dates:

Delegate registration: open
Entries: now closed
Festival dates: 19-25 June 2011