Meet the Board   

We thought you’d like to meet the board behind The Marketing Society. The board meets monthly and takes all major decisions about the society. Our board is supported by a full-time professional staff at our head office in Teddington.  To help you get a sense of our board members’ perspectives, each one has answered the same question: What’s the biggest challenge facing marketing today?

President, Roisin Donnelly, Procter & Gamble


Chairman, Alex Batchelor:

“Distinguish between the task of marketing - understanding what consumers want and what the business wants and matching the two, and the department of marketing - charged with brand and communications. Remember your responsibilities to the task of marketing and growing the long-term profitability of organisations.”

Hon secretary, Suki Thompson, Oystercatchers, whose key focus is the Marketing Excellence Awards:

“Clients, who were obsessed with integrated marketing communications, are now asking ‘what should we be doing in the digital space?’ Clients need to restructure their marketing departments and change their budget allocation to make the most of this new communications era.”

Hon treasurer and chairman of finance, Chris Griffin, P I Global and chief executive Museum of Brands:

“Marketing has two objectives for survival: firstly recognition in corporate and political circles for what marketing can achieve and secondly focusing itself to deliver measurable results against corporate and long-term political agendas.”

Fiona McAnena, BUPA, whose key focus is membership:

“More than ever, the brand is a touchstone for the consistency and integrity of a business. Businesses which fall short will be found out. Marketers must be the conscience and the champion of their brand's promise, which in turn wins customers and grows the business.”

Fran Cassidy, Cassidy Media Partnership, who is responsible for programme and research:          

"The biggest challenge facing the marketing industry today is to make its contribution to business growth truly accountable. The more it focuses on the bottom line, the more we will find "marketing companies", rather than just "marketing departments".     

Grant Duncan, Spencer Stuart:

“With technology accelerating and converging, with consumers taking control of corporate agendas and demanding greater transparency, the ability for us to forecast future market behaviour is becoming less reliable. We need to create the context for some new rules.”

Chris Macleod, Transport for London, with responsibility for fellows

Nick Smith, Accenture Marketing Services

Kerris Bright, AkzoNobel, with responsibility for Marketing Capabilities

Dan Cobley, Google

Alan Giles, Fat Face, with responsibility for The Retail Forum