Awards judges
Mike Driver
Marketing Director, ex Director of Muller Diary UK
Mike has over 20 years experience in marketing and has worked for a range blue chip brands in the newspaper, health and beauty, dairy and bakery industries. In his most recent roles he has been the Marketing Director for Muller Dairy UK, Marketing Director for Fox's Biscuits and Business Sector Director for Northern Foods. He also holds a Masters degree in eMarketing from Cranfield University.
Harry Drnec
Pilot, Marketer & Farmer
Harry Drnec is a world renowned marketing specialist with an illustrious career in building and establishing brands. From launching Bud Light in the USA and Budweiser and Michelob throughout Europe, to directing the world's largest winery - Ernest and Gallo, to re-inventing Red Bull in the UK.
Born in Chicago, he served as a US Air Force pilot in Vietnam before gaining an MBA degree in Marketing & Finance from Rutgers University. Harry began his career by joining Anheuser Busch. He became Brand Manager in the team that introduced what is today the largest selling beer brand in the world, Bud Light. Subsequently, he was recruited into a senior marketing position at Ernest and Julio Gallo before re-joining Anheuser Busch to launch Budweiser across Europe.
Harry then became involved with a drinks distributor and made brands like Sol and Becks famous in the UK. Then came the challenge of heading up a struggling new soft drink company called Red Bull. Harry is credited with boosting sales of Red Bull in the U.K. from 3 million cans in 1996 to 300 million cans in 2006.
Joanna Elliott
Head of Brand Marketing, Sage (UK) Limited
Joanna has worked for Sage since 2007. She is responsible for leading Sage’s Brand Marketing team which includes brand, customer insight, online presence and public relations. She specialises in the management of the UK brand on a strategic and operational level. Last year she helped bring back The Krypton Factor to UK television as part of the business brains campaign.
Originally from Poland Joanna has a degree in Finance and Marketing. She began her career in London, where she helped re-launch the Rimmel brand, repositioning it as Rimmel London, with a new face - Kate Moss. Following the success in the UK she moved to Frankfurt and then Paris, working for various cosmetic brands, before settling in the North East.
Bryan Hoare
HDirector, BQ Magazine
With a background in professional marketing, Bryan has a passion for sales and marketing and strategic business development and has an entrepreneurial flair for taking new ideas forward into the commercial world. With an energetic and motivational approach to business he is recognised as a supporter of entrepreneurship.
Owen McCabe
Associate Partner, Happen
Happen, a creative innovation agency that works collaboratively with client teams at a product, consumer and brand marketing level to dramatically improve a business' innovation success rate. We have long-standing relationships with a broad range of clients, including Reckitt Benckiser, Cadburys, Arla, and Ministry of Sound.
Having played senior marketing and sales roles at Procter & Gamble and Nestle Rowntree, Owen's passion is for the business end of bringing new products/services to market. As a Marketing Manager at P&G, he was at the forefront of the dramatic growth of the Pringles brand in the UK and northern Europe. While as Head of Brand Marketing at Nestle, he oversaw the successful relaunch of Aero (doubling sales within two years) as well as the acclaimed Yorkie Not-for-Girls campaign. He is an experienced conference speaker on issues of brand strategy, innovation, portfolio management, and venture marketing.
Having started his career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in New York, Owen now lives in olde York where he is a recent convert to weekend walks in the Yorkshire Dales/Moors with his partner, Jane and his daughter Lucy (6). Owen holds an MA in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin and an MBA from INSEAD.
Prof. Fraser McLeay
Professor of Marketing at Newcastle Business School
Fraser has over 20 years of leadership experience in marketing, strategic management and international business. He has assisted businesses in more than 50 countries to develop and implement successful start-up, international business expansion, marketing and new product introduction strategies. These range from SME’s to multinationals as well as organizations such as the World Bank and EU. Fraser has also held positions at the Montana World Trade Center (the business outreach arm of the University of Montana) at Macquarie University (Australia), Newcastle University (UK) and Lincoln University (New Zealand).
Prior to his appointment as Professor of Marketing at Newcastle Business School, Fraser was the CEO of Kiwi Trade and Business. In this capacity he successfully managed marketing and growth efforts for businesses in a variety of industries from renewable energy to technology, agribusiness and healthcare. His focus was on providing hands on business development support, managing international marketing efforts, conducting feasibility studies, developing and implementing business plans and positioning companies for equity, debt and government enhanced loan financing.
Nick Ramshaw
COO EMEA Elmwood
Having started life as a chartered surveyor, Nick made the imaginative leap into branding and design, and developed a real flair for strategic account direction, specialising in brand, digital and corporate work. He joined Elmwood in 2003 as MD of the Edinburgh office. He’s now MD of the Mothership in Leeds and Head of Operations in Europe. His clients have included HBOS, Glenmorangie, PZ Cussons, Nestle and Carphone Warehouse. Nick is also President of the Design Business Association, a director of Leeds Media, a Common Purpose graduate and die-hard Hull City fan. Of the many visited, he counts Papua New Guinea as his fave country visited and wishes he had worked at Sun Studios Memphis in 1955.
Ian Scott-Bell
Head of Group Marketing
Since joining Ian has led the development of the international brand of Nigel Wright across Europe.
Ian joined from a career with Procter and Gamble where he had responsibility for a number of brands before becoming the country lead for the newly formed Strategic Alliance Team, reporting in to Cincinnati on a number of new global technology projects. This role has helped when aligning Nigel Wright with a selection of international strategic partners, ranging from global consultancies to specialists in the international M&A market.
Prior to this Ian completed an MBA at the historic university of Durham City focussing his dissertation on the role strategic marketing plays in defining new markets. Ian studied his MBA following a ten year career as an officer in the British Army serving in Germany, Cyprus, Bosnia, New Zealand as well as in the UK.
Claire Stockton
Director, West Marketing Communications
A member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Claire has spent 15 years working in the marketing industry in the North East of England, both client side and for various agencies. She initially worked extensively in the leisure sector, for Newcastle Breweries, Newcastle Arena and the Swallow Group, and also in retail for Conroys, a regional furniture retailer. Claire then moved on to agency, working primarily on below the line projects for a variety of clients including Formica, Bellway, Bakers Oven, Hays Travel, Stagecoach, Warburtons and Gentoo Homes.
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