Russ Shaw Bio

Russ Shaw
Chairman
Marketing Group of Great Britain

Aligning Marketing and Business Strategy

Did you know that less than 8% of CEOs have marketing backgrounds, and less than 10% of boardroom discussions are centred around marketing?

In today’s economy, where customers and consumers have more control than ever before, marketing must be driving the direction of business strategy and growth - yet all too often marketers are simply seen as implementers, not decision makers. So whether marketing is already at the heart of board decisions within your organisation, or you are on your journey toward this point, this session allows you to benchmark with your international peers, share best practice, exchange war stories, and test your next moves for better aligning marketing with the wider business. Led by a panel of Board Members, CEOs and CFOs, key issues to be discussed include:

• What can you do to optimise marketing’s influence?
• Do you have to be on the board to ensure your opinion counts?
• What does it take to create and ensure individual accountability?
• Are CFOs really from Mars and CMOs from Venus? How to speak the CFOs language

Markus Kramer Global Marketing Director Aston Martin	Dean van Leeuwen Co-Founder TomorrowToday International
Paul Galligan Managing Director Comparethemarket.com	Luca Paderni Vice President, Principal Analyst, Marketing Leadership Forrester Research
Russ Shaw Chairman The Marketing Group of Great Britain

Russ Shaw
Non-Executive Director and Investor
Current Chairman—Marketing Group of Great Britain

Russ is currently a non-executive director for three companies: Cupid plc, an AIM-listed online dating services company, Dialog—a publicly traded semiconductor company, and Unwire--a Danish, venture-backed mobile commerce and digital wallet business. He is also a limited partner in Ariadne Capital’s ACE Fund and an investor in and advisor to Amazing Media Group. Russ is the current Chairman of the Marketing Group of Great Britain until July 2012.

Previously, Russ was Vice President & General Manager at Skype with global responsibilities for its mobile division globally, responsible for Skype’s mobile apps as well as carrier and OEM relationships; he also had geographic responsibility for Europe, Middle East & Africa. Russ exited when Skype was sold to Microsoft.

Before Skype, Russ was at Telefonica, where he was the Global Innovation Director. This included managing a venture fund and an internal ‘incubation’ initiative. Prior to this role, he was with Telefonica’s O2 mobile business, as Marketing Director, responsible for initiatives such as The O2 venue in London.

Before joining O2, Russ was the CEO of Mobileway, a venture-capital backed start-up sold to Sybase. Before joining Mobileway, Russ was a Managing Director at NTL (now Virgin Media).

Prior to moving into telecoms, Russ spent many years in consumer financial services, both with American Express and Charles Schwab, in a variety of marketing, advertising, and brand management roles.

He has a BS from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He lives in London with his wife Lesley and his three sons.