B2B

EMEA marketing director, Dexcom

John Bernard

John Bernard is EMEA marketing director for diabetes management company Dexcom. Joining the firm in 2016 as its first hire in Europe, he was responsible for setting up and now maintaining the marketing strategy, processes and team. Dexcom’s strategy includes search, CRM and website development, as well as traditional PR, advertising and events. Bernard has put the focus on demonstrating ROI and underpinning marketing decisions with data, a strategy that has helped grow awareness of Dexcom “a lot” and boost interest in its products among consumers and healthcare professionals. Bernard describes his role as “a mission”, not a job, as it looks to help the one in 11 people globally who have diabetes. He says: “We get two or three letters every week from people who say they love Dexcom and it has saved their child’s life. “Every new app is out there to save people’s lives, but we genuinely see this happen.”

Paul Bolt

CMO, Microsoft

Making technology make sense to business has been Paul Bolt’s strength at Microsoft, both internally and to its B2B customers. Bolt joined Microsoft in October 2016 as director of small- and medium-sized businesses before taking on the UK CMO role almost two years later. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the tech sector and is a non-executive director at a SaaS startup. Microsoft UK is going from strength to strength, with much of that success attributed to the enduring appeal of its Office productivity suite and Microsoft Azure cloud-based business offering. Bolt has focused on how to manage disruption, both at Microsoft and for its clients, with the impact of AI a particular focus. Bolt understands the importance of working with the right providers and has brokered a partnership between the British Interactive Media Association and Microsoft to provide the UK’s digital community with market-leading creative technologies. This will provide education, funding and early access to software development, including AI.

Joshua Graff

UK country manager and VP of EMEA and LATAM, LinkedIn

As a powerful platform for making connections, Joshua Graff believes LinkedIn should practise what it preaches. He is at the forefront of fostering links between industry and upcoming talent, and an advocate for both women in technology and the LGBT+ community. In three years, Graff has hit his target of an equal gender balance at the company, with half of the roles in marketing, sales, account management and operations held by women. He is working on tools that will help other companies make diverse hires. LinkedIn is also developing an AI academy programme to help people in STEM fields make the move to careers in AI. This is part of the wider Women in Tech initiative, which is championed by the site’s employees to address the gender imbalance in the technology industry. Graff is a founder of Open for Business, an LGBT+ advocacy group. He is also one of the Financial Times’ Top 50 LGBT+ leaders, an adviser to Founders4Schools and a member of the Development Council for Stonewall.

Zoe Hominick

Head of business marketing, O2

Connectivity is so vital for business that every owner wants to be sure they can have confidence in their provider. Zoe Hominick attributes O2’s significant success in the B2B sector to a personal, target-driven relationship with each customer to make sure they get the best from the arrangement. Hominick believes the future for O2 lies in making business relationships more personal, according to an interview with B2B Marketing. A huge advocate of account-based marketing (ABM), she credits this technique with delivering sustainable – and significant – growth by bringing sales and marketing together. These tactics have already earned it the Sainsbury’s Supplier award for delivery of information and communications technology and mobile services. Despite technology figuring so highly in O2’s B2B success, Hominick notes that ABM demands strong investment in people and so she is prioritising investment in personalisation rather than the technology itself. A member of the ITSMA European Advisory Board, Hominick also speaks at events advising O2’s B2B customers on how to make the most of their marketing and technology investments.

Conor McKechnie

CMO, Life Sciences, GE Healthcare

Delivering a complex message to multiple stakeholders in a niche industry can be a challenge, but it’s one Conor McKechnie relishes. Recently spun off from parent company GE, GE Healthcare has been showing strong growth as a provider of health solutions and medical technology. The CEO of GE said at the time of the spin-off that it was an “excellent example of GE at its best – anticipating customer needs”. A partnership with Clustermarket, the UK’s online scientific equipment-sharing and booking platform, is an initiative helping the innovators, as it gives early-stage ventures access to specialised life sciences and biotech equipment. By getting GE customers to go through the Clustermarket platform, it means startups like MediSieve can transform the treatment of blood-borne diseases. McKechnie continues to work on the public affairs side of communications, delivering a broader understanding of health issues to government and the public and, in his words, “supporting public and civic understanding of, and engagement in, science, medicine and biotechnology”.

Ben Rhodes

Group marketing director, Royal Mail

Ben Rhodes tackles the mammoth task of marketing Royal Mail with aplomb, delivering new approaches and initiatives to keep the brand fresh and relevant in highly competitive and challenging times. While the rise in home shopping delivery has been a boon, there is also a rise in people communicating via email and text, and in companies using independent logistics providers or creating their own network. To counter this, Royal Mail is investing £1.8bn, part of which will be a next-day parcel delivery service. This will be supported by investment in the brand, which Rhodes insists is vital to maintaining market share. Beyond novelty stamps, it can be hard to inject more ‘experience’ into a seasonally-driven delivery service. But the use of sensors allowed Royal Mail to develop ‘singing’ postboxes, which play Christmas jingles – plus, it launched an Alexa skill to remind customers of last posting dates for Christmas. Rhodes is a frequent speaker and media commentator at events as well as a member of ISBA’s executive committee.

John Rudaizky

Global brand and marketing leader, EY

Demonstrating the financial power of human collateral has always been a challenge but John Rudaizky wants to make EY and its clients invest in this vital resource. He has, therefore, been as involved in marketing EY internally as he has been in marketing the brand to the outside world as he believes employee engagement drives organisational success. This focus on employees and ensuring they understand the company’s motivations and purpose has had a major impact on the business. EY’s annual Global People Survey found a seven-point lift in employees motivated by the organisation’s vision, for example, and a 22-point rise in people understanding the strategy and what they have to do to achieve it. Rudaizky now wants to spread word of EY’s success to the City, where he would like the company’s health to be based both on financial performance as well as metrics like employee engagement and satisfaction.

Philippa Snare

EMEA head of global business marketing, Facebook

Philippa Snare is responsible for bringing digital marketing education to firms across the UK to help them make the most of Facebook’s resources. As part of this drive, the platform has created Facebook Community Boost to help a million people across Europe acquire digital skills by 2020, enabling them to sell, scale and recruit via the platform. Despite the threat of Brexit, Facebook also continues to invest in the UK and is about to open its third London office, adding 500 new technology jobs, 20% of which will be related to AI. Snare is a member of Women in Advertising and Communications, London (WACL) plus a non-executive director for Redgate Software, a professor at Coventry University and an adviser to its board. She is also a member of numerous societies and she actively participates in the campaign #whatwomenwant.

FURTHER READING

CMO, IBM Global Markets

A powerful voice for the disenfranchised, Caroline Taylor is on numerous committees and boards, fighting for change. She is also an advocate of purpose as a driver of business success. And with the market at saturation point, she believes this is the only yardstick for differentiation. Taylor is also chair of the board of trustees for Stop the Traffik and is heavily involved in IBM’s anti-modern slavery campaign, using IBM’s technology to spot patterns that could signal illegal behaviour. Taylor was awarded an OBE for her services to marketing, diversity and the prevention of human trafficking in 2017. She is also an adjunct professor at Imperial College Business School, a director and trustee of the Oasis Foundation and a Fellow of The Marketing Society.

Annabel Venner

Global brand director and partner, Hiscox

It is no small feat making a B2B brand a household name, but Annabel Venner achieved this with a holistic approach to marketing. Hiscox has grown apace and its profile as a significant player has been rising steadily. It has continued to diversify from standard business lines of property and liability, to emerging risks such as cyber and the internet of things. To help it stand out further, Venner’s team accompanied the launch of its online tool, the Cyber Exposure Calculator, with an experiential campaign, in partnership with Brompton Cycles. This featured a mirror image store opening opposite the genuine outlet, copying everything the store did to hammer home what it would look like if fraudsters cloned your business. Venner also hosts internal events at Hiscox to share marketing knowledge and best practice, as well as welcoming board members and non-executive directors to ensure the whole organisation has visibility and buy-in to her future plans.

B2B CHARITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR CONSUMER GOODS CONSUMER TECH AND AUTOMOTIVE MEDIA, TELECOMS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE AND DISRUPTORS REGULATED INDUSTRIES RETAIL SPORT, GAMING AND GAMBLING TRAVEL, TRANSPORT AND HOSPITALITY

B2B

CHARITY AND PUBLIC SECTOR

CONSUMER GOODS

CONSUMER TECH AND AUTOMOTIVE

MEDIA, TELECOMS AND ENTERTAINMENT

ONLINE AND DISRUPTORS

REGULATED INDUSTRIES

RETAIL

SPORT, GAMING AND GAMBLING

TRAVEL, TRANSPORT AND HOSPITALITY

media, telecoms & entertainment

meet the judges

TOP100 hOME

methodology

The top100 list

hOME

meet the judges

methodology

analysis

TOP100 hOME

meet the judges

methodology

analysis

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Caroline Taylor