DISTINGUISHED Exmoor advertising executive Robin Wight was named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list as a new Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to diversity in the creative industries.

Robin was a co-founder of the advertising agency Wight Collins Rutherford Scott in 1979 and was president of its parent company Engine until 2019.

He created the Ideas Foundation over 20 years ago, to encourage young people from different backgrounds to join the creative industries, having seen that they were under represented.

Since 2000, more than 50,000 young people have attended creative learning sessions, facilitated by the Ideas Foundation, in schools and colleges in Cumbria, Leeds, Manchester, Somerset and London.

These are supported by brands including Burberry, Canon, Nike, BBC and ITV, and creative input from leading agencies such as Ogilvy & Mather, Engine, Adam&Eve DBB, BBH, Karmarama, and Saatchi and Saatchi.

For the last couple of months the Ideas Foundation has been working with 13 schools across the country including four around Taunton, where young people have been coming up with ideas to celebrate the special qualities of Her Majesty the Queen.

One of the final ten was produced by students at the Bridgewater College Academy when they were working on an all-day session with 100 students from four Somerset schools, and will be displayed at various Adshel poster sites this week around Taunton.