Amanda Mackenzie
Commercial & marketing director - British Gas
Amanda began her career at WCRS having graduated from London University in Psychology.
She then moved to DMB&B working with Mars, Procter & Gamble, Chanel, & St. Ivel. Amanda was group account director running the UK Mars confectionery business when she left to join British Airways Air Miles as marketing director. After 3 years Amanda moved to BT as director, marketing services and left as group marketing director. She became vice president marketing, EMEA for Hewlett Packard in 2004 and moved to British Gas as brand marketing director in 2005. Amanda now commercial & marketing director has responsibility for the British Gas brand, advertising, data, insight, online sales and marketing, marketing to energy customers as well as operational responsibility for the print centres which print 92m bills each year. She also has responsibility to lead and develop the marketing function for the Centrica Group.
Amanda is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the RSA. She is also a member of the ISBA council and a governor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Amanda is married to John Poorta who is vice chairman at Leo Burnett, London and they have 2 children. Amanda is a keen pianist and singer.
Chris Clark
Head of market planning and brand strategy
HSBC Holdings plc
In February 2001, Chris Clark joined HSBC Holdings plc as head of e-marketing, with responsibility for the development global e-marketing programmes and personal internet banking..
In Oct 2002 he moved into Group Marketing as head of market planning and brand strategy. He has been one of the team responsible for managing the HSBC brand globally and has a number of responsibilities that include Advertising, Marketing Planning, CSR Strategy, Acquisitions and Name Changes, Global Brand Tracking and Market Research, Brand Portfolio and I.P. Protection.
He is currently acting head of group marketing following the recent departure of Peter Stringham.
Prior to joining HSBC, Chris was executive vice president and Head of Strategic Planning for Bates USA and Latin America. His responsibilities included key client brand assignments for BellSouth, Chevron, Pfizer, Warner Lambert, Hyundai, Avis and brand consulting assignments for Unilever.
The bulk of his career was in the advertising business in the UK where he spent 8 years at Saatchi and Saatchi transferring from the head of client services role there to CEO of the organisations second agency Bates Dorland.
The initial first five years of Chris’s career was spent at Levis Strauss in brand management
Christian From
Global Marketing Director
Nokia Multimedia
Christian From is currently heading the Global Area marketing where he is responsible for the area and local market specific strategic planning and execution for Nokia Nseries marketing communication. Previously he was heading the Global Marketing Communications for Nokia Multimedia business group where he was responsible for the strategic brand and marketing planning, advertising and digital marketing for the newly established Nokia Nseries, a range of high performance multimedia devices. I his previous roles within Nokia Mr. From has been responsible globally for N-Gage, Nokia’s marketing communication within the games business as well as responsible for the European Marketing of Imaginging devices. Mr. From joined Nokia in 1995 as a Product Manager in the Special Products business unit and has since that held several marketing positions within Nokia Mobile Phones.. Mr. From holds Master of Science in Business Administration with emphasis on Marketing from Helsinki School of Economics.
Dan Cobley
Marketing Director, UK, Ireland and Benelux
Google
Dan Cobley joined Google as Marketing Director, UK, Ireland and Benelux in May of 2006, and is currently also acting as Head of Marketing for EMEA, covering a maternity absence.
Dan job is to show consumers how Google's products enable them to find the information they are searching for; and businesses how Google's advertising programmes help them connect better to customers.
Prior to Google, Dan was VP Brand and Marketing for Capital One Europe where he spent three years and helped make the company the UK's leading new card issuer. Before that was two years as Marketing Director at Ask Jeeves, working in the UK and the US.
Previously Dan spent 5 years with Pepsi and Walkers in various marketing and operations roles and he has also worked as a strategy consultant with Monitor Company, and an oil exploration engineer in Pakistan with Schlumberger.
Dan has a first degree in Physics from Oxford and a Masters in Management from Cambridge.
Outside of work he enjoys riding his mountain bike and playing football with his two young sons.
Hugh Burkitt
Chief Executive, The Marketing Society
Hugh became Chief Executive of the Marketing Society in April 2003. He began his marketing career as a Unilever trainee at Birds Eye Foods in 1967 and progressed via the Manchester Business School to Collett Dickenson Pearce in 1972. He spent the next thirty years in advertising, founding the agency Burkitt Weinreich Bryant in 1986, and retiring in 2002 as Chairman of Burkitt DDB. In 2005 he climbed Kilimanjaro to raise money for VSO projects in Tanzania.
Ian Armstrong
Manager – Customer Communications, Honda (UK)
Ian, 36, began his career in fast moving consumer goods working for Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd. Following his experience in Production, Logistics and Sales he has spent the majority of his career in Marketing. He has managed brands such as Tango, Pepsi and some development brands giving him a broad experience in one of the largest fmcg categories.
In 2003 Ian moved from fmcg to Honda UK to lead the Communications Team producing all of Honda’s UK car Communications Strategy including: Advertising, Dealer Marketing, Brochures and Prospect and Customer Relationship Marketing and Digital output. Most recent accolades include the “Impossible Dream” TV ad voted Best TV Commercial of the Year, with Civic “Choir” and the brand ad “Dreams” also picking up a range of Silver awards at the British Television Advertising Awards in March 06. Honda was also awarded Advertiser of the Year 2007 earlier this year in Cannes.
A member of ISBA’s TV Action Group Ian is also a member of The Marketing Society. With a developing passion for Clay Pigeon shooting and helicopters Ian can also be found on the roads around Buckinghamshire at the weekend sampling the range of 2 wheeled ‘toys’ that Honda also make.
Ian Crook
Marketing Director – Internet Tesco
Ian joined Tesco in 1996 having worked previously for both Marks and Spencer and Early Learning Centre as well as working in Retail Consultancy.
On joining Tesco, he was responsible for helping to set up the new non food business and the Extra format. After various roles in commercial buying, he moved to Marketing in 2002, and ran Local Marketing and Brand Communications before moving to UK Marketing Director for the stores business in 2005. In 2007 he moved to Tesco dot com with overall responsibility for how Tesco uses the internet as a business as well as the marketing for the Grocery and Direct trading sites.
Keith Weed
Group Vice President Homecare, Unilever
Keith has been Group Vice President Homecare for Unilever since April 2005. He was previously Chairman of Lever Fabergé. He has worked for Unilever in the UK, France, the United States, and globally in a variety of marketing and general management roles. He is a Non-Executive Director of Duchy Originals and a Fellow of the Marketing Society and Institute of Mechanical Engineers.
Mhairi McEwan
Managing Director, Brand Learning
Mhairi left university with a First class BSc honours degree in Psychology and Industry to join the Unilever Graduate Management Development Scheme in 1982. She spent over 18 years in international Marketing and Sales with Unilever, as VP Marketing for Pepsi-Cola (Europe), VP Marketing Walkers (PepsiCo) and in Marketing Capability Consultancy before setting up BRAND LEARNING with Andy Bird in 2000.
Mhairi has worked in the UK, France & in Egypt in senior UK, pan-European and overseas Marketing positions on brands such as Persil, Comfort, Sun, Pepsi Cola, 7-Up, Walkers and Doritos. She also spent 2 years in Sales as a National Accounts Executive for Lever UK responsible for customer relationship management with retailers including Tesco, Asda, Kwiksave, Waitrose and Boots.
As one of the founding partners of BRAND LEARNING, Mhairi has a passion for building Marketing Capabilities and has led a wide range of client initiatives across a number of different industry sectors. She has played a key role in the development of a number of international capability development programmes including the Diageo Way of Brand Building (DWBB), the Frito-Lay Marketing Excellence programme, the Sara Lee Communications programme, the Tesco Marketing Excellence Programme & the Hewlett Packard Marketing Renaissance programme.
Mhairi is married to Phil Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas on the board of Centrica plc and has two children aged 15 and 12. Her hobbies include riding, skiing, sailing and walking.
Michele McGrath
Operating Board Director, Brand Learning
Before joining BRAND LEARNING Michele spent 16 years in marketing within blue chip FMCG companies, Colgate Palmolive and PepsiCo (Walkers/Frito-Lay). Working both in the UK and internationally. Michele has led the development of leading brands such as Colgate Toothpaste and Walkers Crisps, driving them to new levels of success. Her most recent line role was as Frito-Lay Marketing Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa where she successfully rolled out the learnings from Walkers into 17 of the markets.
Michele has been at BRAND LEARNING for nearly 5 years and in that time has led several global marketing capability programmes for clients such as Nestle and Coke. She has been involved in the development of the Tesco Marketing Excellence programme and also the diagnosis, development and delivery of an comprehensive toolkit for FritoLay. Michele is on the Operating Board of BRAND LEARNING.
Michele graduated with a Business degree from Liverpool University. She enjoys working and playing hard, and relishes any kind of challenge. Much of her energy has been directed at juggling her work, managing family life and bringing up her two children, who are both sport mad! Michele enjoys entertaining and sport, and her latest personal achievements were completing her first half marathon last year and the Moonwalk this year.
Patrick Barwise
Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School.
He joined the School in 1976, having spent his early career with IBM. His latest book Simply Better (HBS Press, 2004), co-authored with Seán Meehan, won the American Marketing Association’s 2005 Berry-AMA Prize for the best recent book in marketing. His previous publications include books on Television and its Audience, Accounting for Brands, Strategic Decisions, Predictions: Media, and Advertising in a Recession as well as numerous papers and articles, mainly on brands, consumer and audience behaviour, marketing expenditure trends, and new media. In 2004, he led an independent review for the UK government of the BBC’s digital television services. He is a Fellow of both the Marketing Society and the Sunningdale Institute, a government think tank on public service management. He is also a Council member (and previous deputy chairman) of Which?, the UK’s leading consumer organization, and an experienced expert witness, having worked on commercial, tax, and competition cases in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington. His main current project is another book with Seán Meehan, Customer Insights That Matter, to be published by HBS Press in 2009. He is also working on a project for the Cabinet Office on civil service reform.
Phil Bentley
Managing Director, British Gas
Phil Bentley, 48, has been Managing Director, British Gas, the Number 1 energy provider to British homes and businesses since March 2007. Previously, he was Group Finance Director and Managing Director, Europe of Centrica plc, the Energy and Services Group and owner of British Gas and Direct Energy in North America.
Phil joined Centrica in November 2000 from Diageo where he was Global Finance Director for Guinness-UDV. Prior to that he was Group Treasurer and Director of Risk Management of Diageo plc.
Phil was previously at BP, where he spent 15 years in senior finance roles, 6 of which were spent in BP’s exploration businesses in China, the US and Egypt.
He holds a Masters Degree from Pembroke College, Oxford University and has an MBA from INSEAD in France. Phil is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and is a member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
He is also a non-Executive Director, and Chairman of the Audit Committee, of Kingfisher plc, the international home improvement retailer.
He is married, with two teenage children and his interests include rugby, sailing, golf and horse-riding.
Rod Connors
Managing Director, The Branded Sport Group (Ex Marketing Director, Nike UK)
Rod kicked off his Marketing career in Unilever where he spent 12 years working in various European and Global Marketing roles across a number of different product categories.
Following Unilever Rod joined adidas as Head of Consumer Marketing and then Nike as Marketing Director UK & Ireland overseeing UK and various European marketing campaigns. Rod left Nike in 2003 and set up The Branded Sport Group.
Roisin Donnelly
Corporate Marketing Director, Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland
Roisin Donnelly is Corporate Marketing Director and Head of Marketing for Procter & Gamble UK and Ireland. She is responsible for marketing on all P&G brands, including the Gillette portfolio.
Her previous roles include Marketing Director for Fine Fragrance in North and South America where she launched Hugo Boss, now global market leader. Before this she was Marketing Director for Cosmetics and Fragrances for Western Europe, Eastern Europe , Middle East and Africa.
She has also led the UK and Western European haircare business launching Wash & Go and then Pantene which both achieved market leadership across UK and Europe.
Under Roisin’s leadership P&G UK& Ireland marketing organisation has won a record number of marketing awards including 10 Product of the Year awards in both 2006 and 2007. She was also recognised as FMCG Marketing Employer of the Year and elected Marketer of the Year in 2007. Roisin is passionate about innovation and has led P&G’s increased marketing in new media.
Roisin is on the Board of Cosmetic Executive Women, a fellow of the Marketing Society, a member of the Marketing Group of GB, a member of WACL and a school governor. She is also on the business committee of Glasgow University.
Simon Darling
Simon Darling left eBay UK in July this year to work with a small team supporting clients on customer-led organisation transformation, digital change management and modern marketing leadership.
Simon joined eBay UK four years ago. He initially headed up the Internet Marketing team and then spent nearly three years as Marketing Director building a team that helped fuel the growth of registered users from 4 million to over 10 million. In October 2005, he was appointed Customer Development Director responsible for strategy and budgets, analysis and research, business extension and the motors business.
Prior to joining eBay, Simon was European Business Development Director for Bolt, a US youth community website. He joined Bolt after the sale in 2001 of the startup company he co-founded, Fonepark. Fonepark developed youth-focused SMS applications.
Simon spent five years at Unilever from 1993-1998 starting in Finance in Lever UK. He then became Unilever's first interactive marketing manager after asking for the job. He coordinated the development of internet and interactive TV initiatives globally.
Simon graduated with First Class Honors in Economics from Cambridge University and is a Passed Finalist and Sir Ian Morrow prizewinner with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
He is a Trustee of Common Purpose, a cross-sector leadership development charity. He is married with one son and lives in South West London.
Stephen Lehane
Director of HR and Organisation Development, Boots Group
I was born in Ireland, but grew up in London. After graduating from the LSE and Cambridge, my career has been in three large companies – Unilever, ICI and for the last five years at Boots. I have enjoyed the diversity of working for U.K., pan-European and American companies, and the opportunity to live abroad. I have led HR functions along the way - the main emphasis of my work has tended to be in business transformation and organisation change. For the last year, I have been leading the people activities of the merger between Boots and Alliance Unichem to create a £14bn turnover international health and beauty business. I am particularly interested in the areas of culture change and leadership development. I am married, with four young children.
Steve Radcliffe
Partner, Steve Radcliffe Associates
For 15 years, Steve has been coaching and developing senior leaders in the fields of business, government and education. He has worked with Marketing Directors of many brands including Boots, Persil, Dulux, Fisher-Price and the BBC. Previously he has been a Marketing then Managing Director after excellent grounding at P&G and in the ad agency world.