Robert H.

Robert was inspired to get into the world of Sales and Marketing skill building following his involvement with the Diageo Way of Brand Building, a capability program that he facilitated around the world of Pillsbury International. His FMCG/CPG career began with a stint at the UK cookie company, United Biscuits, after which he allegedly only just missed making his fortune in a start-up, before joining Diageo where he created the ‘Death by Chocolate’ brand. Moving to Minneapolis, he joined what became General Mills as International Marketing Director, where he launched Green Giant into markets as diverse as China and South Africa, taught the Pillsbury doughboy how to speak Hindi, Australians to embrace fajitas from Old El Paso, and the Japanese to eat Green Tea ice cream in Haagen Dazs shops. Moving to the service sector, as VP of Brands EMEA, he introduced Brand Management to InterContinental Hotels and established Holiday Inn as brand leader. Later moving to B2B he led Product and Brand alignment at Carlson Wagonlit Travel, as SVP Global Marketing. Rob has subsequently levered his vast marketing experience into the area of capability building and over the past 10 years has inspired some 10,000 marketers at over 500 workshops for clients in Healthcare (Astra Zeneca, Bayer, BUPA, GSK, J&J, Merck, Novartis, Nova Nordisk, Pfizer & UCB) , CPG/FMCG (Carlsberg, Lindt, Philips, Kellogg’s, Pepsi, Reckitt Benckiser & SAB Miller) Financial Services (Aviva, Barclays and HSBC) Media (Star TV, Aegis & Mediacom) Retail (Shell & Tesco), and Telecoms Verizon, BT, Skype & Nokia), encompassing topics as diverse as Insight, Segmentation, Customer Centricity, Strategic Planning and Activation, Brand Positioning, Leadership, Digital Marketing, and Communications in over 50 countries. He is particularly adept at facilitating teams through genuine live business problems, coaching and guiding them to solutions, and is consistently scored highly by clients and attendees alike as a most engaging and energetic moderator. Rob has more recently run masterclasses in the Gulf region for locally-based organizations with attendees from ADNEC, GOSI, Mitsubishi Electric KSA, Mobily, AlMajdouie and Dubai RTA. Rob graduated in Business Studies, is a past regional director of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Marketing Society. When not travelling on business he loves Formula 1, Skiing and Sailing, and is currently designing and managing the renovation of his home in S.W. London.