Centre Stage Speakers
Syl Saller, Global Innovation Director, Diageo
Biography:
Syl Saller is the Global Innovation Director for Diageo, the world’s leading premium drinks business. She is responsible for Diageo’s innovation strategy, which includes all new product development, launch programmes and R&D worldwide. Syl also runs the Design function as well as Global Licensing. Prior to this, she was Marketing Director for Diageo GB, heading up a team of 140 people including Consumer and Commercial Marketing; Planning; Innovation and the Reserve Brands Group. Before joining Diageo, Syl worked for Allied Domecq Retail, Holson Burnes and Gillette and graduated from the Harvard Business School
Matt Brittin, Managing Director UK and Ireland, Google
Biography:
Matt is Managing Director of Google in the UK & Ireland – the biggest market for Google outside the US and the most advanced major country in terms of e-commerce and online advertising spending.
Google’s products are enjoyed by millions of people throughout the UK and help thousands of businesses succeed online. Matt and his team aim to help UK consumers and businesses make the most of the internet.
Before joining Google at the start of 2007, Matt spent much of his career in media and marketing, with particular interests in strategy, commercial development and sales performance. This included Commercial and Digital leadership roles in UK media.
Matt has an MBA from London Business School and an MA from Cambridge. In 2008 New Media Age readers voted him the greatest individual contributor to New Media and in 2010 he was voted Wired magazine’s ‘Most Influential Person in the Digital World’. He rowed in several boat races for Cambridge and has won medals for Britain in the World Rowing Championships. Matt lives near the Thames with his wife and two energetic sons.
Hema Nagar, Head of Marketing, holiday autos 
Biography:
Hema Nagar joined holiday autos in April 2007 as Head of Marketing for UK and Ireland, responsible for all areas of marketing communications, digital marketing, CRM, PR and much more focusing on direct to website channel.
Before joining holiday autos, Hema has worked in a number of marketing roles including Marketing Manager at BUPA, Product Manager at Mortgage Express (formerly part of Bradford & Bingley group) and Head of Partnership Marketing at London mortgage broker, John Charcol.
Hema’s background is in Marketing with a BA in Business Studies (specialism in Marketing), Chartered Institute of Marketing Diploma in Marketing and a recognised Chartered Marketeer.
Hema is a keen traveller – New York being her favourite city break and a lifelong fan of David Beckham. Working for a car hire firm she has a keen interest in cars and hopes to drive a formula racing car one day.
Spencer McHugh, Brand Director, Everything Everywhere
Biography:
Spencer McHugh is Director of Brand at Everything Everywhere. He is responsible for the company’s brand strategy, and all marketing activity within Orange UK and T-Mobile UK including sponsorship, direct marketing, digital, retail marketing, media and advertising.
Spencer has led the charge on some of the most successful and high profile brand activity across both Orange and T-Mobile including the Welcome Home campaign, the Royal Wedding viral for T-Mobile as well as Glastotag, the worlds most tagged photo, and the current Orange cinema spots featuring the likes of Jack Black and the A-team
Before that Spencer was Brand Director at Orange and a planner at various agencies including GGT, Publicis and BBH. He is married with two children and loves playing with the latest gadgets and technology
Luke Mugliston, Global Brand Director, Aviva
Biography:
Luke started his career 15 years ago in advertising, with five years at Publicis as a board account director across a number of accounts. One of those accounts, the global investment company Fidelity, lured him over to become Marketing Director, with responsibility across all UK distribution channels, as well as brand and advertising development internationally.
Luke was subsequently appointed to a global role at insurance giant Aviva, to help deliver what The Times described as the ‘slickest rebrand in corporate history’ across three major markets and the ongoing challenge of building a global brand. ‘You are the big picture’ was Aviva’s first such global, integrated campaign, and has received much credit, notably from Facebook and Youtube, in its ability to create and leverage social media engagement. Luke is also a founding trustee of a charity that has been giving grants and support to young entrepreneurs for the last ten years.
Ashley Stockwell,Marketing and Brand Director, Global Ethics
Biography:
Ashley started his career at British Airways before jumping ship to Virgin Atlantic, where, amongst other things he introduced the original UpperClass Clubhouse lounge concept. He then helped set up Virgin Drinks as well as branding and launching Virgin Cinemas in the UK. He then joined Eurostar working in the UK, France and Belgium, before joining Virgin Trains and led the rebrand/cultural transformation and design of the new Pendelino rolling stock.
Ashley also became Managing Director of Virgin.com before being asked to manage the Virgin Brand/Marketing globally, where he sat on the board of Virgin enterprises Ltd, as being involved in a number of new Virgin start-ups. Having been involved in brand licensing discussions Ashley then join Ntl:telewest the UK's sole cable entertainment and communication provider and led the entire rebrand of that business with Virgin Mobile and Virgin.net to become Virgin Media in Feb 2007. Following the rebrand he ran all brand and marketing activities for Virgin Media.
Tim Harford, Head of Donor Care, Depaul
Biography:
Tim came to the charity sector in 2003, having been a Vicar in a leafy Hertfordshire for the previous10 years. He thought he’d been talking about making a difference for long enough and needed to start doing something about it instead. He was first employed by The Children’s Society as a regional fundraising manager based in the North of England but was rapidly promoted to become Head of Community Fundraising, responsible for an annual income budget of £5m.
Tim joined Depaul UK in May 2010, where he is responsible for donor care and community fundraising. He very much enjoys Depaul UK ’s have-a-go attitude and has been excited to be involved in the iHobo initiative, which has introduced the charity to an entirely new audience.
Gary Horsfall, Head of Consultancy Services, Canon Europe Ltd
Biography:
Starting this position in January 2010, Gary’s role involves a dedicated focus on shaping Canon’s service-led approach. Prior to this, Gary was Director, Global Sales and Professional Services, since 2007.
Earlier In his career Gary worked in the IT Industry holding a number of technical hardware and software roles before moving on to various senior management roles in Unisys EMEA.
Gary ran his own IT Services Company before joining Canon UK Ltd in 2000.
Catherine Shuttleworth, CEO and Founder, Savvy
Biography:
Catherine opened Savvy’s doors in 2006 and her extensive brand and retail experience has helped to create a dynamic agency, renowned for great creative ideas that deliver effective commercial results. With her drive and determination, Savvy has continued to exceed client expectations and expand far beyond its start up of just 3 people.
With its work touching the lives of millions of consumers, offices in Leeds and London and a team of over 70 talented people, it’s amazing to think that the organisation still retains what has made it so successful. Its entrepreneurial and creative spirit is something that makes Savvy stand apart. It’s not just Catherine that’s Savvy; it’s about everyone that works with her.
Lucy Houghton, Customer Marketing Manager for Asda, Unilever
Biography:
After graduating with a business degree Lucy started her career at Del Monte Foods as a Customer Marketing Executive. She then joined PepsiCo where she enjoyed a varied and rewarding 6 years. Her roles at PepsiCo included Point of Purchase executive, account executive in sales before then making the move to shopper marketing which is where her passion for instore execution really came alive.
Working across impulse and 2 top grocery accounts, she developed a number of key instore campaigns on Walkers, Tropicana and Quaker - the highlight being the programme on ‘Do Us a Flavour’. Lucy then joined Unilever in August 2010 as the Customer Marketing Manager for Asda, where she continues to fulfil her passion for excellent instore execution. Lucy oversees the activation for Unilever’s total portfolio, which includes amazing household brands such as Persil, PG Tips and Flora.
Kirsty Ward, Head of Financial Services, Asda
Biography:
Kirsty joined Asda in 2009 and leads the Financial Services team managing a broad range of products including Payment Cards, Insurance & Protection, Travel Money and ATMs. Asda was the first supermarket to offer electronic Gift Cards in the UK, and has launched innovative saving solutions including the Christmas Savings scheme and Monkey Bank to help customers find easy and rewarding ways to save.
From her previous time at Boots, where Kirsty expanded the Advantage Card scheme to 15 million cardholders, and then at M&S where she developed the Credit Card into the fastest growing card scheme in Europe, Kirsty is well known for her energy, commitment and creativity.
In a results driven, fast paced retail environment that's constantly changing, it's important to take time out every now and then, and Kirsty enjoys spending time with her family in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside. Kirsty has a passion for contemporary art, and is a mentor to Business in the Arts Northwest in her spare time.
Jonathan Rigby, Head of Marketing, Manchester United
Biography:
Jonathan has global responsibility for the Manchester United brand as well as key responsibility for worldwide sponsors including Aon, Nike, Audi, DHL, Smirnoff, Epson, Hublot, Thomas Cook, Turkish Airlines and Concha Y Toro.
Manchester United is the biggest football club in the world with a global fanbase of 333 million fans including over 190 million fans in Asia. The last 3 years has witnessed sustained commercial growth and the club is set to be the first in the UK to break the £100m barrier from commercial income.
The media platform includes ManUtd.com, MUTV, Inside United magazine, mobile partnerships in over 40 countries and one of the fastest growing Facebook pages in history with over 15 million 'likes' since launch less than a year ago.
Jonathan joined the club from Netplay TV PLC, a leading TV/Online/Mobile gaming brand, where he was Brand and Marketing Director. Prior to this he worked in advertising.
Keith Moor, Director of Brand and Communications, Santander
Biography:
Keith started his career in the fledgling direct insurance market in the very early 90’s. He joined Abbey, as it was then in 1995 and worked his way up through the Marketing Division to lead the team in 2008. During his time he’s headed up the Advertising & Branch, Market Research, Sponsorship, Brand and Planning functions; giving him a fully rounded appreciation of the elements required to deliver market leading communications for the bank.
He was also responsible for the Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester Brands and there integration, along with Abbey into Santander as it is now.
Vince Kerr, Marketing Director, UK and Ireland
Fujitsu
Biography:
Vince joined Fujitsu in July 2001 as a Business Consultant and soon thereafter became a Practice Manager in the Strategic Consulting Group. He worked in this role for about 2 years until he joined Marketing in 2004 as the Head of Strategy and Market Intelligence. In April 2006 he moved to become Director of Marketing for the Government Business Unit. In April 2009 he moved to his current role as Marketing Director on the board of Fujitsu, UK and Ireland.
Before joining Fujitsu, Vince worked for 11 years at British Airways. Whilst at the airline, Vince undertook a number of different roles in the IT, Marketing and Commercial departments. These included short periods in the USA on a variety of projects. He also spent 3 years managing in-flight entertainment and satellite communications. Eventually he became the Director of Business Development for a joint venture subsidiary where he led concept and brand development as well as sales.
Kristof Fahy, Group Brand and Marketing Director, William Hill plc
Biography:
Kristof Fahy is Group Brand and Marketing Director for William Hill plc. He is responsible for development and control of the William Hill brand across all the channels in which the business operates and is a member of the Executive Management Team.
Before joining William Hill, Kristof was Vice President of International Marketing for Yahoo! He was responsible for driving the marketing and brand strategy for all Yahoo! operations outside of the US. His previous role at Yahoo! was VP, Marketing Yahoo! Europe where he was responsible for driving marketing across all parts of the business as well as leading research, insights and PR.
Nick Eades, Chief Marketing Officer, Psion plc
Biography:
Nick Eades is the Chief Marketing Office at Psion plc, the company that arguably invented the PDA/smart-phone device, and is now reinventing rugged mobile computing.
Nick’s marketing career has primarily been in technology & telecoms, and now spans more than 20 years. At Psion, Nick has been deeply involved in the development and implementation of the new company strategy, business model and brand; all designed to transform the growth and future direction of the business.
Prior to Psion, Nick spent several years at Nortel, as VP Marketing EMEA, across the Carrier, Wireless and Enterprise businesses. This was preceded by marketing leadership roles at BT Global Services, Avaya and in a Fujitsu/Siemens joint venture
Thomas Brown, Head of Insights, The Chartered Institute of Marketing
Biography:
Thomas is Head of Insights for The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) - the world’s leading professional body for marketing. Here he heads up CIM’s industry professional development strategy and accreditation, and leads a series of high profile benchmarking and research projects. A recognised thought leader in development of best practice in marketing capability, Thomas regularly advises brand, marketing and capability leaders on world class marketing.
Sarah Hawkins, Marketing & PR Director, La Senza
Biography:
Sarah Hawkins is Marketing & PR Director for La Senza. Sarah created
customer segmentation and instigated thorough research in the lingerie
market to gain a clear understanding of her targeted consumer base. To
further the public’s awareness of the brand, Sarah spearheaded creative
campaigns such as interactive viral ads on YouTube, as well as a unique viral online lookbook
accompanied by a Facebook store, which in turn helped to double the
market share on their newly launched swimwear range. Before joining La
Senza, Sarah worked for Marks and Spencer, the widely popular 10 Years
Younger television programme, Capital, Gold, Hit Music Network and Heart
FM and graduated from The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
Tom Rainsford – giffgaff, Head of Brand and Proposition
Biography:
Prior to joining giffgaff Tom was the Propositions Manager at T-Mobile within the Pay as you go team. During his career at T-Mobile Tom developed, delivered & managed T-Mobile’s top up incentive proposition and reward portfolio.
Since joining giffgaff Tom has developed a real passion for the brand and its ‘doing mobile differently’ ethos. His role has evolved over the two years from a focus on giffgaff’s propositions to accountability for brand positioning and strategy, ATL campaigns and responsibility for product and communication roadmaps.
Tom is 30 and lives in London