Brand Finance Global Forum 2017

David is the Chairman and CEO of Brand Finance Plc – the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy. He has worked in the area of branded business, brand, and intangible asset valuation since 1991. He specialised entirely in the field after becoming the Director of Brand Valuation for Interbrand in 1995. He subsequently left Interbrand in 1996 to launch Brand Finance which is celebrating 25 years in business this year.

David represented the British Standards Institution in the working parties responsible for crafting international industry standards: ISO 10668 on Brand Valuation in 2010 and ISO 20671 on Brand Evaluation in 2019.

David is a passionate writer and has authored many articles on brand valuation, published in numerous marketing and finance newspapers and magazines, such as: Financial Times, Accountancy Age, and Marketing Week. He has also lectured on the topic of brand valuation for Harvard, Chicago, and London Business Schools.

David graduated from Bristol University with an English degree, qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse in London, and obtained a postgraduate diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). He is a Fellow of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has a practising certificate with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

Before joining Brand Finance at the end of 2016, Roger led the GSK Consumer Healthcare integration with Novartis and was a founder member of the new JV Board, under the chairmanship of Sir Andrew Witty. This created a new global leader in consumer healthcare with sales of over £7 billion. He then created and led the new global marketing teams as global CMO for Consumer Healthcare, with a spend of over £1 billion. Before that, he had extensive regional leadership experience as president of North America, Europe Middle East and Africa, GM UK, Australasia. Each of these roles required strong performance management; new strategic choices: people, structure and culture change, Roger has decades of experience of building brands, acquisitions and disposals. Roger is based in London. 

Moderator

Christian May is Editor of City A.M., London's daily business newspaper with a readership of just under 400,000 professionals. Prior to this appointment he was Head of Communications and Campaigns at the Institute of Directors, the UK’s largest organisation for business leaders. He was responsible for the IoD’s public profile, campaigns and media activity, and took a leading role in shaping policy on areas including EU reform, immigration, infrastructure, innovation and tax reform. As spokesperson for the IoD, Christian appeared regularly across the broadcast media and in the national press, commenting on business on economic issues. He holds a degree in Politics from the University of Exeter and a Masters degree in Journalism from London’s City University. He has contributed to a wide range of national media outlets as a columnist and commentator, and was included in PR Week’s 2015 list of the 100 most influential PR professionals. He is a Freeman of the City of London and a Fellow of the British American Project.

Richard is the main founder of Arete (formed in 2000), the pioneer of the independent equity research space (prior to the Wall Street scandals of 2001-2003), based in London. For over 20 years he has focused on the wider mobile internet space, including smartphones, digital consumer products, advertising technology and other internet services. He is a frequent and highly-rated speaker at industry conferences, known for his frank dissection of industry hype and willingness to offer critical as well as positive comments on leading tech companies. Prior to founding Arete, Richard was ranked the #1 technology analyst  in Europe at Goldman Sachs for four years in a row. Prior to that, he worked for Nortel and at a prestigious Columbia University economics think tank.

Philip Gorham, CFA, FRM, is a consumer strategist for Morningstar, covering the European consumer sector. Before returning in 2014 he served as equity analyst and associate director of equity research for the consumer staples sector for three years. From 2011 to 2013, he was an equity analyst for Federated Investors, covering the consumer sector for the firm’s global core equity and mid-cap growth funds. Previously, he was a market risk analyst at the RBS Group in the UK. Before that, he worked in fund valuation at Skandia Life Assurance Company Ltd in the UK. Gorham holds an economics degree from the University of Sunderland and a master’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of North Carolina. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® and certified Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) designations. He is a member of the CFA Institute and the Global Association of Risk Professionals and an affiliate member of the Market Technicians Association.

Axel Löber is Head of Corporate Branding & Strategic Communication Projects of German science and technology company Merck. He led the company’s transformational rebranding in 2015 and is responsible for the subsequent digital brand campaign #catchcurious. Before joining Merck in 2011 he held corporate and financial communication positions at pharmaceutical wholesaler and pharmacy operator Celesio and strategic communications consultancy Hering Schuppener.

Conny Kalcher joined the LEGO Company in 1985, and has held key management positions in departments ranging from toys and software to publishing, theme parks, innovation and marketing. She is currently Vice President of Brand Development & Marketing Management, with a special focus on building the LEGO brand across the world. Before this role, Conny was Vice President of Marketing and Consumer Experiences. Prior to this, Conny was Vice President - People, Culture and Corporate Communications, orchestrating the turnaround of HR strategy in cooperation with the LEGO board.

Conny holds a degree in International Marketing and has completed various senior executive education programs at Insead, IMD, Harvard and London Business School. Conny is a Non-executive Director of the Council of the Danish-UK Chamber of Commerce Limited and is a renowned international speaker on the subjects of Consumer Engagement, Loyalty and Advocacy (NPS).

Abhinav Kumar heads up the Marketing and Communications divisions for Tata Consultancy Service's 45 country international market presence, comprising the North America, Europe, UK, Latin America, APAC and MEA regions.

Recognized with over 70 awards for excellence in communications and branding, his team has established the company as the #1 fastest growing brand in the IT Services Industry from 2010-2020.

Under his tenure, the brand value of the company has risen from US$ 2.3 billion in 2010 to US$ 13.5 billion in 2020. He oversees the company's strategic relationships with multilateral organization such as the World Economic Forum and the European Union.

In 2019, Abhinav was accorded the SABRE award in London, towards outstanding individual achievement in his career as a CMO.

Abhinav has previously served in several leadership roles, including as the CMO for Europe, the CCO for Europe and as the CMO of Latin America at the company. He holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and a degree in Economics.

He is based out of Brussels, Belgium.