Harold Mitchell

Harold Mitchell was born in 1942 in the remote west Gippsland town of Trafalgar. Wanting to work in radio, he successfully applied for a job at an advertising agency in Melbourne. Rapidly working his way up the ranks, Harold soon became successful in the media-buying operation of several agencies before starting out on his own in 1976 with just $2000. He pioneered the idea of taking the buying and placing of advertisements for clients out of the advertising agencies into a separate operation, and today is an icon and market leader of the media-buying industry. He set up the Harold Mitchell Foundation, which disperses money to an array of causes, and is the Executive Chairman of the Mitchell Communication Group. In 2004 he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.