As M&M Global celebrates its 25th anniversary, Jason Webby, SVP sales at CNBC International, shares his experiences over the past quarter century.

If you turned back the clock 25 years what were you doing?

Well, since I was only 15 years old, I was probably skateboarding and enduring high school.

Who has had the biggest influence on your career in the last 25 years?

I’m fortunate in that there is no one person who has had the biggest influence on my career. The senior executives to whom I’ve reported at Ziff-Davis, The Economist Group and now at CNBC have been my teachers, mentors, leaders and closest friends. I wouldn’t be the executive I am today without them.

What is the best piece of advice – life or work – that you have been given?

The best piece of advice I’ve ever been given came from my first manager, in my first week, in my first sales role. He was an enormous guy—a former basketball player who was at least 6ft 9in tall. He stood over my desk, glared down at me and said, “If you’re going to come to work every day, you might as well kick-ass. Now pick up the phone and start dialling ‘cuz that thing’s not going to ring itself.”

What person, service, company and product do you think has had the most influential effect on media in the last 25 years?

Person: Sir Timothy Berners-Lee
Service: Broadband
Company: Google

Product: The smartphone

If you could turn back the clock 25 years what would you change about yourself or the industry?

In 1989 Apple stock was trading at less than $2.00 USD per share. I’d pull a ‘Back to the Future’ and make my parents buy as much of it as they possibly could.

If you were a betting person what or who do you think will have the biggest influence on global media in the next 25 years?

I think the biggest influence on global media in the next 25 years will be when everyone across the world has ubiquitous personal access to on-demand content– essentially having always-on access to any content you want to consume on whatever the future’s answer to mobile will be.

What is your favourite advertising campaign of the last 25 years?

The Economist’s ‘White Out of Red’ campaign (see below) – which has nothing to do with the fact that they’ve created an homage to it, and are running it exclusively with me on CNBC!