Andrew Marsden (Chairman)
Andrew Marsden is one of the best known and well respected marketers in the UK.
After an early career in Unilever, Vileda and Danone he joined Britvic and was part of the team that floated the business in 2005 valued at some £800m.
He is a former Chairman of the ISBA Executive and the ISP. He served on the Government's Advisory Committee on Advertising from 2002 to 2008 and has served on the boards of BCAP and the ABC.
In 2007 Andrew became Non Executive Chairman of the ASA Code Review Working Groups which are updating the codes which govern marketing communications in the UK.
Andrew holds Fellowships from a number of organisations together with an Honorary Doctorate from Anglia Ruskin. He was recognised as The Daily Telegraph Jaeger Le Cultre Marketing Director of the year in 2004.
In 2006 Andrew was appointed President of The Marketing Society.
He set up Andrew Marsden Consulting in 2008 and now advises internationally on business and brand strategy.
Branwell Johnson Editor - Mad.co.uk
Branwell Johnson is a journalist of 20 years standing with wide experience including time on publications in the regional press and the video industry. He joined Marketing Week in September 2001 as deputy features editor and in May 2005 transferred to online news site www.mad.co.uk as news editor. In July 2007 he became editor of the site. He writes regular editorials and blogs on marketing industry issues.
Chris Russell Director - eDigitalResearch
Chris is a founding Director of eDigitalResearch with responsibility for business development, account management and financial operations. The organisation was founded with Michelle Fuller in 1999.
Chris has a business degree from Kingston University, one of the first courses that provided truly valuable insight into business management, including employment law, accountancy and, crucially, marketing. On graduating, Chris moved into sales and marketing and later formed his own company in 1986, the lessons from which have helped form the structure of eDigitaResearch. His experience in sales, marketing and company management has proved critical so far and has allowed the organisation to grow as a result.
Outside of the office, Chris is a keen sailor, both on large and small boats and eDigitalResearch has become a longstanding corporate sponsor of Cowes Week.
Anton Dominique Strategy Director - London School of Marketing
Anton Dominique is an expert in Marketing and the tools require supporting the Marketing and Business Development functions within companies.
Anton Dominique has extensive experience in the training and development of sales and marketing professionals from Junior Market Analyst to Head of Marketing in large Multinationals. In addition to his lecturing Anton is the Head of Strategy for the London School of Marketing and has been helping over 600 marketing and business professionals and company develop their marketing and market research capabilities for many years.
Anton has been interested fro many years on how to best use the skills and expertise in developing countries seamlessly in the UK using modern technologies and sophisticated communication and managerial approaches.
Anton is a Chartered Marketer and holds a MA in Financial Analysis and BA (first class) in Marketing Management. He is also a regular speaker on business strategy focusing on value innovation.
Jacques de Cock CEO - BQu
Jacques has over 20 years' experience of consulting, business development, technology, business creation and management across the world. Jacques has developed new business and product strategies for various companies as Vice President of Mercer Management Consulting, Principal of Booz.Allen in the UK, France and USA and with McKinsey in the Netherlands.
He was also the CEO of Patsystems plc where he took the company from a startup, through a London Main market flotation growing it into a £200m market capitalized company in 3 years. Product development, pricing and channel to market were the three main challenges he faced in this role. In addition Jacques has also led with the development of 14 companies in his own right as a Director, Partner or Business Angel in a variety of industries and geographies.
These combined experiences provides Jacques with a unique insight not only in how to create, manage and use market and business information but also the problems and importance to have the right information available at the right time in commercial organisation to accompany and better direct business decisions.
Jacques has an MA in Physics from Oxford University and a MBA from the London Business School. Jacques is married with three wonderful daughters.
Mike Hoban Customer & Brand Marketing Director - Scottish Widows
Mike Hoban is Marketing Director for Scottish Widows, the UK's most popular pensions, investments & protection provider. He is a classically trained marketer with more than 20 years experience across FMCG, retail, leisure and financial services as well as B2B and international markets. Mike has had both client side and consultancy experience and worked for internationally renowned organisations including British Airways, Scottish & Newcastle and Barclays. A sought after conference speaker, Mike is regularly listed by Marketing Magazine as one of the UK's top 100 marketers, was highlighted by The Marketing Forum as one of the UK's top 30 marketers and shortlisted for Marketer of the Year 2007.
Rod Wilkes Chief Executive - The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Rod Wilkes is chief executive of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the leading international professional marketing body with some 50,000 members worldwide. The Institute exists to develop the marketing profession, maintain professional standards and improve the skills of marketing practitioners, enabling them to deliver exceptional results for their organisations.
No stranger to The Institute Rod took up his latest role as chief executive in January 2007 although he has been a member for many years and was its chairman in 1994, which followed the posts of vice chairman and treasurer. He also continues his membership of The Institute's academic senate and benevolent fund.
During his career Rod has gained a wealth of commercial and marketing experience having been managing director of Phoenix Metal Products, and group marketing director at Ellison Group. Prior to this he worked for some fourteen years in the commercial sales engineering operation of The GKN Group.
Born in the Black Country Rod left Kingshill school for boys in Wednesbury at 15 but went on to gain an HNC in Business Studies from Sandwell College and a Diploma in Marketing at night school. He has been visiting speaker at Birmingham University, visiting lecturer to Wolverhampton Polytechnic, and an external advisor to Aston University. Rod is an honorary Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Fellow of The Chartered Management Institute, and also a Fellow of the Institute of Directors.
Rod enjoys village life, home improvements and Crown Green Bowls, and is a member of Bridgnorth Bowling Club. He is also interested in outdoor activities, having gained his day skipper qualification in 2002 from the Royal Yacht Association.
Sarah Howe Chief Marketing Officer - Bupa
A business degree graduate, Sarah joined Great Universal Stores in 1987, the then UK market leader in home shopping. She moved to join Otto Versand the world's largest home shopping organisation as Brand Marketing Manager for Grattan until joining Bupa in 1998 as Head of Marketing.
An experienced direct marketer, Sarah set up a new marketing department in Manchester for the UK division of Bupa and was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer in 2004.
Sarah has many years experience working both across both B2C and B2B sectors with her practice and knowledge spanning a wide range of disciplines from direct marketing, brand and customer communications, product development, customer segmentation and database management.
Sabine Popp Global Marketing Director - Mintel International
Sabine has over 10 years' experience in marketing, consulting and business development in publishing, digital media, the automotive sector and market research.
A business degree graduate majoring in marketing, Sabine joined Mintel International in 2007 to manage European marketing capabilities and is now Global Marketing Director. She is in the process of revolutionising Mintel's approach to online marketing starting with a total redesign of the central website mintel.com and improved Search Engine Optimisation, the redevelopment of email campaigns and extended online PR activities.
After restructuring both the UK and US marketing teams to generate a more product focused set up she is now establishing Mintel's Asia marketing.
Andy Edge Sales & Marketing Director - Park Resorts
Having graduated with a 1st Class Honours degree in Business Studies, Andy started his career in FMCG marketing in 1992 working at Kraft General Foods, St Ivel and then Scottish and Newcastle (in a joint venture with Holsten Brauerei) where he reached the position of UK Marketing Director for Holsten in 2000.
When the Holsten brand was sold to Carlsberg in 2004, he transferred his FMCG skills and training into the world of Venture Capitalist funded companies joining The Tussauds Group which operates attractions such as Alton Towers, The London Eye and Madame Tussauds amongst a variety of others. He was part of the leadership team that then sold the company to Blackstone for £1.2bn in March 2008. His second VC backed company is a holiday park company called Park Resorts which is number 2 to Haven in the UK, it was bought by GI Partners for £440m in March 08. He is on the board as Sales & Marketing Director.
