Wally began his working life in advertising. In the early 60s, he ran Ogilvy & Mather in what was then Bombay, living there for five years. In 1965, Wally co-founded Wolff Olins with Michael Wolff, a groundbreaking brand consultancy. In 1999 Olins was appointed CBE. In 2001 he sold Wolff Olins to Omnicom, the US-based global conglomerate, one of the world’s three largest “marcoms” businesses. There was a general assumption that he might semi-retire, becoming a part-time academic and follow his interests of buying books, looking at architecture or travelling. Or just write some more books. But soon afterwards he joined the Spanish-based international brand consultancy Saffron, started by a Wolff Olins alumnus, Jacob Benbunan, as a hands-on chairman. In his 70s and 80s he became branding’s tireless global senior statesman, explaining and persuading from platforms around the world and taking on the exciting but controversial business of country branding.