Roger Wilks
Roger Wilks
Personal statement
With over 30 years’ professional experience, I’ve achieved progressively senior positions and built a reputation for increasing profitability, facilitating sustainable growth and delivering business turnarounds. My career includes both B2B and B2C, across diverse sectors including automotive, finance, travel, luxury goods, lifestyle goods, technology, FMCG, wines and spirits and pharmaceuticals.
I have a special interest in AI and marketing automation, and my introduction of a marketing automation platform recently enabled me to contribute over £7million in sales for a key client. Other clients have also benefitted from my expertise in this area, as I am able to inform them of the latest technologies and developments and explain how they could positively impact their business. I use data science to inform strategy development and am passionate about engaging people with brands by using compelling digital experiences and innovations.
As the Head of Marketing Operations at SevenC3, I had full accountability for the transition of a £20million business from a traditional agency to a full-service content marketing agency. As a result of my work, the business was profitably sold and I stayed on to support the transition. During this time, I continued to reduce costs and improve processes and also implemented global centres of excellence. Previously, at Publicis, I increased annual turnover from £2million to £4.5million through successful client project delivery and organic growth, with an additional £1million generated by removing the external production house.
Having worked in senior leadership roles for 10 years, I have extensive experience in chairing management meetings and setting organisational targets, objectives and KPIs. I aim for them to be challenging yet achievable and provide the support necessary to ensure success. Strategy development has been part of my career for many years. Most significantly, whilst at Publicis Chemistry, I oversaw the merger of 4 businesses and set the strategic direction for the new division. The division went on to be extremely successful and secured numerous multimillion-pound clients. I have also collaborated on the development of both national and international brand strategies.
As a leader, colleagues would describe me as knowledgeable and focused, with a willingness to share my expertise. I’m confident recruiting, training and mentoring both teams and individuals, as well as integrating new businesses into existing structures. I’m committed to achieving performance excellence and have managed teams of up to 167 staff to achieve results in line with business objectives.
With a strong background in client services, I am confident in building robust relationships with key clients. I am particularly proud of a multimillion-pound campaign I delivered for EE on the launch campaign of their 4G network. This involved developing extensive and diverse marketing collateral, in both print and digital format, ensuring the utmost confidentiality whilst achieving completion in line with their expectations and within an exceptionally demanding 4-month timeframe. I have also had significant input into client pitches. Having worked in account management early in my career and later overseen the account team, I am confident in managing client projects, troubleshooting issues and ensuring delivery in line with briefs and budgets.
My commercial acumen enables me to implement optimal business structures to enable growth. As a Marketing Consultant, I restructured a small business to ensure it had the capacity to accommodate rapid, sustainable growth. As a result, its turnover increased from £500,000 to £1.5million.
I am financially astute and held P&L responsibility in my last role and also as Interim Managing Director at Publicis. This involved ensuring that all divisional budgets were on track and were achieving acceptable profit margins. I also oversaw financial activities such as client billing, and authorised budgets prior to estimates being sent to clients. By monitoring project progress I was able to ensure that budgets stayed on track.
Supplier negotiation was also part of my remit at both SevenC3 and Publicis. I reviewed contracts and successfully negotiated rate reductions, delivering in excess of £200,000 in savings. I additionally implemented a purchase order system that prevented staff from raising purchase orders for more than the budgeted value of any project and personally signed off costs of over £1,000.
I have an excellent record in increasing productivity, notably in my most recent role where I was able to eliminate duplication by remapping workflows. As a Marketing Consultant, I also reduced the time a client took to produce pitch documents from 2 weeks to just 48 hours.
As you can see, I am well equipped in terms of both experience and success to perform effectively within any organisation and would welcome the opportunity of working with you to drive business growth.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with me on 07803 544 599 if you have any questions.
Roger Wilks