Marketing Festival : Speakers 

Back to the Marketing Festival Event Page. Click on the speaker to view their biography.

Hugh Burkitt
chief executive, The Marketing Society

Hugh is Chief Executive of the Marketing Society. The Society provides a forum for senior marketers to exchange ideas and share best practice. Each year it runs over 60 events throughout the UK including the Marketing Society Awards for Excellence. It also publishes Market Leader and the online magazine Think.

As Chief Executive, Hugh has been responsible for the launch of the Society’s Manifesto for Marketing, the Marketing Fast Track professional development scheme, and the Marketing Leaders Programme for aspiring marketing directors.

He began his own career as a Unilever trainee at Birds Eye Foods and progressed via the Manchester Business School to Collett Dickenson Pearce. He spent the next thirty years in advertising, founding the agency Burkitt Weinreich Bryant in 1986, and leaving in 2002 as Chairman of Burkitt DDB. He has served on the Council of the ASA, the AA and IPA, and is a past President of the Solus Club.

He is co-author with John Zealley of Marketing Excellence: a review of the lessons to be learned from the winners of the Marketing Society’s Awards for Excellence.

Roisin Donnelly
corporate marketing director and head of marketing, 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..

Peter Fisk
founder, The Genius Works

Peter is an inspirational author, speaker and business advisor. He brings together the best new ideas about customers, brands and innovation from all around the world, and articulates it based on years of practical experience working with the likes of Coca Cola and Red Bull, Microsoft and M&S, Vodafone and Virgin.
His new book "Creative Genius" explores innovation from the future back. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci, it fuses the creative potential of artists and musicians, designers and business leaders in a practical and inspiring approach to creativity and innovation. His previous bestselling books include "Marketing Genius", on the left and right-brain of business success, and "People Planet Profit" on the potential of sustainable innovation.

He is founder of the GeniusWorks, the accelerated innovation business. He also leads The Marketing Fast Track, the Marketing Society’s professional development programme, the best new ideas in marketing fast, relevant and practical. Business Strategy Review describes him as "one of the best new business thinkers"..

Glen joined the company in September 2008 as Managing Director for Vets Now Emergency. Named as Marketer of the Year 2008 in the Marketing Excellence Awards Scotland, Glen joined the company from CharteredBrands, the Edinburgh based brands management company where he was MD. Glen joined the company with a solid business background having worked in senior UK and international sales and marketing roles across a wide range of blue chip businesses including BP Oil, Mars Confectionery, Colgate Palmolive and Jim Beam Brands. As Brands Commercial Director he was part of the management team that acquired the Whyte and Mackay spirits business from Jim Beam Brands in 2001, a deal that was Scotland’s largest ever management buy out. Prior to joining Vets Now, Glen was Managing Director of brand turnaround business, Charteredbrands. Under his management, the business had a number of noteable successes including developing the Pomegreat juice brand in to one of the most successful UK soft drinks launches of the past 10 years.

Ken Grier
director of malts, The Edrington Group

Ken heads up the global marketing team responsible for The Macallan and Highland Park and is a director of The Macallan Distillers, Highland Distillers and the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre.

Under Ken’s stewardship The Macallan has become a global luxury icon, through initiatives such as: The Fine & Rare collection, The Macallan in Lalique and the Fine Oak range, for which Ken was awarded the Diageo Outstanding Achievement in the Scotch Whisky Industry trophy in 2007.

In the last year The Macallan brand has out performed the single malt category by 5 percentage points*, winning The Distiller of the Year trophy from Wine Enthusiast Magazine and topping The Ultimate Spirits Challenge rankings. A host of groundbreaking initiatives have been launched, including the award winning Masters of Photography Rankin Edition; The1824 Collection in Duty Free; the world’s first live Twitter tasting and the Masters of Spirit visitors experience.

In the last 12 months the Highland Park brand has become the fastest growing single malt Scotch whisky in the USA*; a new Vintage range has been introduced to the Duty Free sector; 1964 and 1968 uber premium lines have been launched and the Magnus Eunson and Hjarta limited editions sold out within 48 hours of launch.

*IWSR/Neilsen and internal data 2009

Jo Kenrick
brand director, Start

Jo is the Brand Director for Start, the Prince of Wales’ initiative on sustainability, and is also the chair of the Marketing Society’s sustainability workstream. She is also a Non Exec Director of the Principality Building Society.

From February 2006 to December 2008 she was Marketing and Customer Proposition Director for B&Q, and prior to B&Q, she worked for Camelot and was Marketing Director for the National Lottery.

From March 2001 until joining Camelot in 2002, Jo was Group Sales and Marketing Director at Wilson Connolly, then among the UK's top five house builders.

Prior to joining Wilcon Homes Jo spent two years as Brand Communications Controller at Woolworths. In November 1996 Jo joined Asda Stores Ltd as Head of Regional Marketing. After a year in this role, Jo moved within Asda to become Marketing Director of George Clothing where she reported to George Davies, managing all internal and external brand communication. Before joining Asda Jo held sales and marketing roles within PepsiCo and Mars Confectionary.
Jo has a degree in Law from Nottingham University, and whilst at college she was one of the first women ever trained to fly by the RAF. She lives in Buckinghamshire and gardens, when she’s not partying.

Ali McGregor

Ali McGregor traverses the worlds of opera and popular culture like no other, either as an award winning principal Soprano with Opera Australia; as a regular cabaret performer in The Famous Spiegeltent around the world; or as a regular guest on ABC TV’s 'Spicks & Specks'.

As an actress her most recent role was Polly Peachum/Grace Madden in the 'Convict's Opera' for The Sydney Theatre Company and Out of Joint directed by Max Stafford Clark.

'...I don’t think there was a woman in the audience who didn’t want to be her, nor a man who didn’t just want her.' Independent weekly.

Gerry O’Donnell
director, The Famous Grouse

Gerry is currently the Director of The Famous Grouse, managing the global brand team in Perth. He also leads the Corporate Social Responsibility team at The Edrington Group, and sits on both the Scotch Whisky Association Government & Consumer Affairs Committee and the Alcohol Education and Research Council.
In his fifteen seasons with the company he has always had a special interest in The Famous Grouse and is proud to have played his part in retaining the brand's position as Scotland's favourite whisky over the last 30 years.

Pipe Stein
founder and director, Notable Publicidad

Pipe Stein is founder and Director of Notable Publicidad, one of the largest and most successful agencies in Uruguay. He started his career 20 years ago after a chance meeting at a party with the CEO of Ogilvy Uruguay and is now one of the key figures behind the Uruguayan Advertising Business.

In 2010 he received the Grand Prix at “DESACHATE”, the most popular Advertising Festival of the country, the Grand Prix award at the Latin-American Wave Festival in Brazil, and a Bronze at the San Sebastian El Sol Festival, in Spain. He has also been a lecturer at Congresses and Universities throughout Uruguay, Argentina, Spain and Columbia.

Jimmie Stone
partner, chief creative strategist, Green Team

Originally from Venezuela, Jimmie began his career at McCann-Erickson Uruguay as an Art Director, leading the charge on brands such as Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Conrad Hotels. He has won numerous awards throughout his career, including the United Nations Integrity in Advertising Award, and the prestigious International Design Review from ID Magazine.

For over a decade, Jimmie has helped shape Green Team’s mission of awakening brands – such as Johnson & Johnson, WWF, Lindblad Expeditions, KIND Snacks and VisitScotland – and positioning them to succeed in a new world that demands authenticity and responsibility. His most recent projects include a global oceans awareness campaign for National Geographic and a groundbreaking academic partnership with the Minneapolis School of Art and Design that fuses education and sustainability.

As a Planetarian, Jimmie understands the urgency of waking up to the interconnectedness of our economy, our environment and our well-being. At his core, he is an insightful conceptual thinker and devout student of Sun Tzu, drawing inspiration from Marcel Duchamp, Marshall McLuhan and Tibor Kalman. He is also the proud owner of a 21st Century Kilt.


Roger Williams
deputy director, marketing and digital, Scottish Government

Roger’s career in PR, media relations, public affairs, and marketing spans both the private and public sector. He started in public relations in 1973 before moving to Westminster City Council’s press office in 1976. He joined the Civil Service in 1979 as a press officer at the Manpower Services Commission, moving to the Department of Energy in 1982, and then to the Department of Trade and Industry as a Chief Press officer in 1987. In 1989 he joined US oil major, Chevron, in Aberdeen and latterly London becoming Public Affairs Manager. He moved to Clydesdale Bank as Public Affairs manager in 1996, and in 1998 he was recruited to the then Scottish Office on the eve of devolution. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife Alli.