Earthlings
John Shaw
Partner & Principal Earthling
John's career has taken him to many different parts of the planet before his eventual landing in London.
Originally from Scotland, John initially worked in various market research and advertising roles, which included learning the fundamentals of account planning at JWT, and running market research for Mars' UK petcare companies. In the late 90s, he moved to Portland, Oregon, to join Wieden + Kennedy as global planning director on Microsoft, and subsequently worked on most of the agency's major clients, including Nike, Coca-Cola, and Amazon.
His next destination was Hong Kong as regional head of planning for Ogilvy, involving extensive travel around the region and work on clients such as Disney, Unilever, and Coca-Cola. Returning to London with Ogilvy, he joined the worldwide board and worldwide creative council and led the development of Ogilvy's 'Big Ideal' thinking on brands.
He later spent seven years as global head of strategy at brand agencies within WPP, which subsequently became part of Design Bridge & Partners, with clients including British Airways, BBC, Amazon, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
John has spent time as a board member at Photofusion, a non-profit arts organisation based in Brixton, served as a member of the IPA strategy group, and has carried out internal training for companies such as Vodafone, Nike and IKEA.
He’s been for a run almost everywhere he’s travelled, surviving heat in Hong Kong, cold in Canada, and the unwelcome attentions of a pack of dogs in Turkey.
Kim Podmenik
Partner
Kim spent the early part of her career as a senior account manager at some of the world's leading advertising agencies, including Chiat/Day, Kirshenbaum & Bond, and Wieden + Kennedy. While she has left the big agency world, she remains deeply involved in the creative industries. For many years, she worked as a photographer and her work has been exhibited at London Art Fair's Photo 50 (2020), at Soho Photo Gallery in New York City on three occasions, and at Jenny Blythe Fine Art at Art Jericho in Oxford as a solo show. Her photographic work has also been featured in the FT, BBC Online, Huck Magazine, and Uncertain States. She was nominated for the Royal Photographic Society's 100 Heroines.
Kim spent 10 years as the Director of Brixton-based Photofusion, an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation specialising in photography. She was responsible for delivering the organisation's objective of supporting those underrepresented in the arts and making connections between emerging artists and the creative industries. She secured funding of over £1M, including capital funding of £500k from the Future Workspace Fund to create a permanent home for the charity, a publicly accessible gallery, and a collaborative workspace for photographers, artists, film-makers and designers.
In 2024, Kim earned her MA (Distinction) in Contemporary Photography, Philosophy and Practice at Central Saint Martins. In 2025–26, she co-produced and curated thedoughnutwhole.com as part of The Wrong Biennale. The pavilion, adhering to the theme of the biennale ("Embracing a World Transformed by AI"), featured the work of 14 artists whose work explores Holes and Wholes in the age of AI. Kim designed and hosted a two-day experimental symposium that offered a balanced conversation on the challenges and opportunities AI has to offer the industry.
Kim has chaired a number of panels regarding the state of the industry (London Art Fair, The Photographer's Gallery), is on the board of advisors for the online arts learning platform [cloud], and was recently awarded an artist residency from Hosking Houses Trust.
At Earthling London, Kim mostly works behind the scenes as organiser, sounding board, provocateur, and artist/