Patrick Jephson

Former Private Secretary, Princess Diana And New York Times Bestselling Author

Born and raised in Ireland, Patrick has a masters degree in Political Science from Cambridge University. Commissioned into the Royal Navy, he served at sea and ashore all over the world before being selected for duty in the Royal Household. For eight years he was Equerry and the first and only Private Secretary (Chief of Staff) to HRH The Princess of Wales. He was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) for personal service to the Sovereign.His work for Princess Diana involved daily contact with officials at all levels up to head of state. He organised Diana’s public duties and journeyed with her to destinations on five continents encountering personalities as diverse as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President George H W Bush, Mother Teresa, Luciano Pavarotti and the Emperor of Japan. After Princess Diana’s death he took up full-time writing, his first book Shadows of a Princess becoming a New York Times bestseller. He has subsequently written widely for newspapers and magazines and contributed to leading TV programmes on both sides of the Atlantic. Brands and clients have included AirPartner, Beretta, Dubai Marketing, the European Azerbaijan Society, Ferrari, Harrods, Hawker Beechcraft, Holst Associates, Independent Decisionmakers Group, Jet Republic, Kendall Group, Luxury Marketing Council, Luxuria, Metamorphosis, PrivateFly, the UK Ministry of Defence, the Ritz, Family Office Advisors, and White Concierge.

Steffen Ruebke

Vice President And General ManagerHenkel Beauty Care

Steffen is Vice President and General Manager at HENKEL Cosmetics since September 2011, based in Düsseldorf, Germany. Before joining Henkel, Steffen was working within Procter & Gamble for about 12 years, where he held multiple roles in Sales and Marketing, such as Global Commercial Strategy Leader, Sector Business Development Manager, Customer Team Leader as well as Strategic- and Shopper Marketing Manager.

Marvin Liao

Former Commercial Director, Expansion MarketsYahoo!

Formerly of Yahoo! Inc. (10.5 years), Marvin Liao has held roles in the various departments of Sales, Business Development, Ad Operations and Marketing. Most of his roles were regional or global management roles giving him extensive experience across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States. His last position was Commercial Director for Yahoo! Inc’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Expansion Markets Business Unit in charge of all the Sales, Marketing and Business Development activities in the new Yahoo! markets of the Nordics, Central & Eastern Europe, Israel and Africa. Prior to this, he ran online marketing at e-Commerce start up www.alibris.com and had stints at the PR Marketing Agency Porter Novelli in their Consumer Technology Practice, Exxon International and management consulting firm IMPAC. Marvin presently is Vice President of North American Operations at China Search Int'l (Reseller of search engine Baidu) and serves on the boards/advisory boards of several internet advertising and ad technology companies across the globe. He is also an Advisor to the Nielsen Innovation Labs, adtech firm IPONweb, and a non-operating partner at Better USA, a digital adtech & advertising rep firm in SE Asia. In addition, he is a Mentor for several Startup Accelerator programs in Europe, Israel and the US, helping guide startup teams with their sales, marketing and partner development efforts.

Jonathan Wilson

Senior Lecturer, Course Leader Advertising And Marketing CommunicationsUniversity Of Greenwich UK

Jon is a Scottish Mancunian and alumnus of the Manchester Grammar School, with over 15 years of collective academic and practitioner experience across the full marketing communications mix – in both the private and public sector. Previously, he held senior management positions in advertising – specialising in print and online media. Jon has worked for amongst others: Emap [now Bauer Media]; Haymarket Business Publications; the Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) journal; Engineering and Technology Board (ETB) [now EngineeringUK]; 1&1 Internet Ltd; SAIPA automotive, culture and sport (Iran); and DMA/Rockstar Games (on Grand Theft Auto). His extensive travel, especially throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as an academic and speaker has also attracted media coverage and received awards. Collectively, Jon has published over 80 academic papers, articles, book chapters and case studies. Jon’s doctorate thesis: “The Brand, Culture and Stakeholder-based Brand Management phenomenon”, presents findings from a 16 month Delphi Study – investigating the views of an international panel of academic and practitioner brand experts. He is also the Editor for Emerald Group Publishing’s Journal of Islamic Marketing, an international journal examining the new wave of marketing to Muslim minority and majority markets.