Minutes of the 2026 AGM
Minutes of the 2026 AGM
The Winter Meeting and AGM at Worplesdon was extremely well attended, with a field of 47 golfers. Congratulations to John Farrell who took the stableford and scratch prizes - for a full report please click here.
After presenting the prizes for the Winter Meeting, the Captain called the AGM to order.
In attendance 47 member of the IPAGS
Niel Bornman, the outgoing captain, reviewed the past year’s season recalling the events, the matches played and the various winners. All the details can be found on the website here
Niel then thanked the committee for the efforts during the past season to ensure the health and ongoing success of the society. He made special mention of Dan, Ed and Jon who’ve all helped him tremendously during his captaincy, ensuring that the events went off mostly without a hitch, ensuring all the last-minute changes and challenges were not faced alone.
He commented on the rude health of the society, with the continued support of the committee and the members, and of course the new members. He then introduced the new members who joined in the last two years by asking each of them to stand. They each got an applause as a welcome from the members. Each new member also already had their society ties.
Niel then handed over to Mark Young for Royds.
Mark updated on the status of the 2026 Royds field as being closed, and slightly less players than the previous year. Some members have mentioned a desire to register after the closing date, and the draw having been done, and Mark suggested he’ll look into this, but stressed first matches must be played before Easter to ensure the final and plate finals can be completed in time. Mark then proceeded to award the winner’s trophy to Dan Hocking and Nick Smith, and the plate to Jim Brigden and Andy Stevens.
Jim addressed the members reminding them that he and Andy don’t only win plates, whilst thanking the committee, and the members for a wonderful Royds event. Jim also dedicated their win to the memory of David Seabrook who, with Past Captain Steve Henderson, had won the Royds in 2013 & 2015 and been runner up in 2022, David had passed away in 2025, the membership were unanimous in their support of this.
Mark mentioned that he’s organised a new match against the Solus Club. This event will take place on 21 July at Ferndown GC. Mark called for anyone interested to get in touch with him.
Niel then presented the Scorange trophy, the yearlong Stableford competition where the best 4 scores count towards a members’ yearly average. Dan Barnett came 3rd with an average of 34.75 and Ed Glover was in 2nd position with a remarkable average of 36.25. Niel remarked that during the last 8 years, a score of 36.25 would have won each year, unfortunately just not this year.
Niel announced that John Farrell had won the Scorange with a tremendous yearly average of 39.25. John having played exceptional golf during the season, having won more events than any other member, including the Winter Trophy on the day, and now also the Scorange.
John thanked his playing partners on the day, he thanked the society and commented on how wonderful it is to see the society in such rude health with a mix of long standing and new members.
Niel reminded the society that as per the Scorange rules whichever member wins it will be cut one shot and capped on their handicap for the next season.
Niel then thanked Andy Byrd for his leadership, support and guidance during his year of captaincy. He also remarked on the wonderful ambassador that Andy has been for the society and nominated him to remain as Chairman.
It was unanimously accepted that Andy would again stand as Chairman, and with that Niel stepped down as captain and handed the floor to Andy.
Andy Byrd thanked the outgoing Captain Niel Bornman for his kind remarks and for proposing him for another year as Chairman of the society. He also thanked the membership for their support of this nomination.
He went on to thank, on behalf of the Society, the outgoing Captain for his excellent leadership over the last 12 months. He advised the meeting that Niel had started the year as Chief Executive of Publicis media UK, a significant role. During the year he had been promoted to an even larger role which significantly increased his workload and demands on his time due to the need to spend many days abroad. His year had been a great success having won all the new business he had pitched for including the global media business for Mars. All of this had been achieved with only one IPAGS event being missed. The Chairman, in jest, suggested this may have had something to do with his less than perfect golf.
The Chairman went on to advise that the incoming Captain -Philip Hunt, had sent his apologies for not being able to attend the AGM due to a prebooked holiday in Portugal. He then read out a brief resume of Philip’s career in the world of advertising & IPAGS.
Philip has been an enthusiastic member of IPAGS for some seven years. He had run the full-service digital agency Wheel in the late 90’s early 2000’s before selling to LBI, and then on to Publicis.
Since then, has been a serial NED/Investor in many businesses across the digital advertising, communications, and technology sectors.
He is an active member of Woking GC playing of a handicap of 14.4
The Chairman asked for support from the membership for this appointment which was received unanimously.
The Chairman then went on to advise the membership that 2027 would be the society’s centenary and as a result the decision had been taken to focus over the next 12 months on reconnecting with the major IPA member agencies to seek new members for the society. He explained that over the last few years, due to the changing face of agencies through the rapid expansion of digital agencies and add tech; the society had expanded its membership profile beyond that of just Advertising agencies to cover all agencies in the world of communication. He thanked Jim Brigden for his excellent contribution to this expansion advising that in the last two years 60 new members had joined the society taking our membership numbers above 200. He went on to thank Paul Bainsfair for his recent efforts in writing to the major IPA agencies to remind them of the existence of the society and seek new membership. This has already resulted in several applications.
As a result of this the committee has decided to look backwards rather than forwards regarding selecting a candidate to fill the role of Vice Captain for the forthcoming season and to Captain the society in its centenary year. It was explained that the significance of the year warranted a candidate who had previous experience of Captaincy and was a senior member of an IPA agency.
The Chairman proposed Ed Glover who had been Captain in 2023 and who is the CEO of the Not Normal Group.
He advised that there was precedent for this and it had happened as recently when Steve Henderson had been Captain in 2020 & 2021 and on 5 other occasions in the early years of the society. He informed the meeting that Ed was a member of Pyford Lakes GC with a handicap of 12.2
This nomination was supported unanimously.
The Chairman then passed the meeting over to Ed.
Edward Glover thanked the Chairman for his kind words and said he was delighted to stand again as Vice-Captain and as Captain during the centenary year.
Edward also thanked Niel Borman for his year as Captain before resuming the AGM with the election of the committee.
The Vice Captain started by thanking Dan Hocking for his five years on the committee. He explained how Dan had driven the society's digitisation and had been an integral part of the committee during his term, but Dan has now decided to step down.
He then introduced Richard Wheaton as a new committee member, noting that Richard was previously CEO of NEO@Ogilvy for 9 years and is currently MD of Fifty Five a leading global data agency which is part of the Brandtech Group. He shared that Richard had been a member of IPAGS since 2019 when he we proposed by the then Captain Jim Brigden and that he was looking forward to working with Richard over the coming season.
The Vice Captain then asked the quorum for a simple majority by a show of hands to elect the current committee plus Richard Wheaton and the motion passed unanimously.
The Vice Captain then reviewed the fixtures for the current season:
Spring Meeting - 24th April - The Berkshire
Match vs SW1Gs - 26th May - West Hill
Captains Day - 9th June - New Zealand
Match vs NAGS - 29th June - Burhill
Summer Meeting - 7th July - Woking
Match vs Solus Club - 29th July - Ferndown
Past Captain & Committee - 9th September - Swinley Forest
Tour - 17th - 18th September - Links Golf (tbc)
Autumn Meeting - 7th October - Royal Wimbledon
Winter Meeting - 18th Feb - Worplesdon
The Vice Captain updated the room that any IPAGS merchandise could be purchased directly via a bespoke online shop on the Glenmuir website - https://www.glenmuir.com.corporate/ipags
The last item on the agenda was AOB with a suggestion raised from the floor by Paul Smith that the Society should adopt WhatsApp to help communication on event days. The Vice Captain said he would take the point and discuss it at the next committee meeting.
With no other business with AGM was closed