Media Headliner: From Tory drag queen to IAB chief executive.(Interactive Advertising Bureau)(Guy Phillipson)

Guy Phillipson is a born frontman - as a cross-dressing stand-up, for bands and now for online advertising.

They don't make them like Guy Phillipson any more. Or if they do, they certainly don't allow them anywhere near the media and advertising industries. This business used to be the last refuge of lovable rogues and scoundrels; now it is seen as the natural habitat of MBA graduates, many of whom have a worrying tendency to flip into incomprehensible marketing speak, almost despite themselves.

We're not implying that Phillipson is a rogue or a scoundrel - far from it, in fact - but he certainly graduated from a more old-fashioned finishing school. Classically trained in piano and composition at London's Trinity College of Music, he embarked on a colourful career as a gigging musician in West End pubs and clubs.

An accomplished frontman and piano player (with guitar as an optional extra) he was, during one exhausting period, in three working bands. Now that's what you call moonlighting. And how many people in this business can say they've fronted at Ronnie Scott's?

We're not even going to mention the fact that at one stage he was also developing a drag stand-up act, a less-than-conventional Conservative Party stalwart called Gooseberry Tart.

But the long and the short of it is that he's always been an accomplished presenter and frontman. After all, he's been showing off since the age of ten. 'By the time I was 22, I knew no fear, no matter how big the audience,' he says. 'In fact, I get far more nervous standing up in front of five or six.'

It's a talent that is coming to the fore again in Phillipson's career.