Turning Point: Simon Davies, ad director, Evening Standard and London lite

It was a big step: to up sticks to Ireland and take on a business in need of a recharge. In Dublin, my family and I were thrown into the midst of an unfamiliar culture, I faced a completely different way of doing business and the Irish had this English guy running the commercial side of the paper.

Thirteen months later, I got a call from Murdoch MacLennan. He made me ad director of The Mail on Sunday, a role I enjoyed for five years, until I took up a new challenge as ad director for the Evening Standard and London Lite last month.