Chris Ingram (born 9 June 1943) is a businessman, entrepreneur and art collector with strong benevolent links to Woking. Early life Chris Ingram is one of four children and the only son born to Thomas and Gladys Ingram. His father was a Police Inspector in the Surrey Constabulary which, at that time, involved many relocations around West Surrey. He attended Woking Grammar School; having obtained six O'Levels of mediocre grades, he left sixth form abruptly after only six months to become a messenger boy at a London advertising agency. Advertising career Ingram started his advertising career in 1960, aged 16 at Pictorial Publicity. Six months later, after the agency was taken over by John Pearce and Ronnie Dickenson, Collett Dickenson Pearce ("CPD") was formed. CPD rapidly became world-famous for its creative advertising. The media department in which Ingram then worked as a junior was a service department to the main creative agency. Ingram then moved between several advertising agencies (including Greenlys where he met his wife, Janet). In 1964 he joined KMP, one of the hot agencies of the 1960s. The freedom and encouragement of the principals resulted in his becoming a board director aged 26 years. KMP was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1969 and subsequently embarked on a hasty acquisition spree. At Ingram's prompting, the by-then group of ad agencies (KIMPHER) formed a stand-alone media company, 'The Media Department', in 1972, which was to be the forerunner of the modern media agency, splitting for the first time, the media and creative functions of the full-service advertising agency. The KIMPHER Group was badly hit by the three-day week and Ingram left in 1976 to start Chris Ingram Associates (CIA). After a shaky start, when there was very limited demand for the concept of a specialist media agency, the company later gained traction and expanded rapidly through the 1980s. CIA floated on the Stock Exchange in 1989. A series of rapid acquisitions commenced in 1993 to create a European network of agencies reflecting the emerging 'Single Market'. During this period the idea of a stand-alone media company became gradually accepted as the norm. The Financial Times((')) analysis in 2000 of the previous decade showed that CIA was the world's best performing advertising stock of the 1990s. Ingram was judged 'London Entrepreneur of the Year' in 2000 in the Ernst & Young awards and later, Business Services UK Winner.