Brand Finance Global 500 2020 Launch at Davos

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).

In July 2017, Becky Frankiewicz joined ManpowerGroup as the President of ManpowerGroup North America. She brings high energy and passion, coupled with strong P&L experience from a large and complex global business.

Prior to ManpowerGroup, she led one of PepsiCo’s largest subsidiaries, Quaker Foods North America.  In that role she was responsible for the $2.6B business, leading all functions, sales and manufacturing.  Under her leadership, Quaker Foods delivered impressive growth as she led the transformation of that brand to be known as America’s ‘best start to everyday’. She was also named by Fast Company as one of the most creative people in the industry, anticipating and adapting to fast changing consumer demands.

Prior to her success leading Quaker Foods, Becky held a variety of senior leadership roles at PepsiCo across the portfolio of brands. Her experience in these roles, which included leading Innovation, Finance, Strategy, Sales and Marketing across the PepsiCo portfolio, positions her well to lead ManpowerGroup’s strong and connected brands -  - Manpower, Experis, Right Management and ManpowerGroup Solutions.  Prior to joining PepsiCo, Becky worked in strategic consulting with Deloitte and Andersen Consulting.  She began her career at Procter and Gamble.  She is a passionate team builder and people developer. Becky has a great educational track record, attaining top marks at the University of Texas, where she earned an MBA in finance, and a BA in Marketing.

Becky is dedicated to her family, health and helping others succeed.  She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and three daughters Parker, Payton and Piper. She starts each day with a morning workout and just completed her first marathon.

Nicolas is globally responsible for the company's worldwide operations. Throughout his career at RI Nicolas has advised multinational companies, city and country representatives on areas of reputation management, global affairs, country and city reputation, corporate branding, employer branding, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and human resources.

Drawing on his extensive experience in practicing reputation management and public affairs globally, Nicolas speaks and writes regularly on best practices in public relations and reputation management for corporate and government audiences. He has been featured on CNN, in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Bloomberg, as well as on local radio and TV around the world. Nicolas earned his MS in Intercultural Management from Copenhagen Business School and holds an MBA from UADE, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

He speaks English, French, Spanish, Danish and German.

Bernd Eitel has a background in communications, having worked for global companies such as Siemens and General Electric, where he led corporate communications and governmental affairs teams in Europe and in Asia, including for five years in China.

He began his career as a journalist with news agency DPA, and spent several years as a journalist for leading German business publication Wirtschaftswoche.

Bernd Eitel holds a Masters of Arts in Communications and Political Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amhurst; and a Masters in Communications, Political Science and History from the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen, Germany. 

He was appointed Head of Group Communications at LafargeHolcim in April 2018.

Stella Medlicott has a BA (Hons) degree in Social Science and a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing.

She has over 25 years marketing experience in major IT, telecoms and media companies. Medlicott joined Ericsson in 2014 following the acquisition of Red Bee Media where she held the position of Chief Marketing Officer.  

Adif Zulkifli is the Executive Vice President & CEO of PETRONAS’ Upstream Business. Leading up to his appointment, he was the EVP & CEO of Gas & New Energy Business, where he is responsible for the company’s Midstream Gas Assets, LNG Marketing and New Energy.

Adif previously held the role as the Senior Vice President of Development & Production, Upstream Business overseeing Upstream development projects and operations worldwide. Prior to that, he was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Strategy, responsible for shaping and steering PETRONAS’ long term strategic direction, including leading Mergers & Acquisitions as well as change management and strategic industry research.
Previously, Adif was the Vice President of Malaysia Petroleum Management accountable for all upstream regulations and governance for the country’s oil and gas resources. Adif was also the Head of Strategy & New Ventures Division in the Exploration & Production (E&P) Business and served as the Executive Assistant to the President and Group CEO of PETRONAS.

Adif is a Board member for PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd. and PETRONAS International Corporation Ltd. He is also the Chairman of MLNG Sdn Bhd, PETRONAS LNG Sdn Bhd, PETRONAS Energy Canada Ltd (PECL) and Progress Resources USA Ltd Board since the entity first incorporated. Adif also serves as the Chairman of PETRONAS’ public listed entity, PETRONAS Gas Berhad.

A member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Adif has been playing leading roles within the petro-technical community in Asia Pacific and Middle East via his role as the SPE Asia Pacific Regional Advisory Council Chair, Board Member for International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC) and serve on the International advisory committee for Offshore Technology Conference Asia (OTCA). He was previously the Vice Chair for the E&P Working Committee for the International Gas Union (IGU).

Adif holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Petroleum Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and a Masters of Business Administration from Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Illinois, United States

As the head of TCS’ European business, Amit oversees strategic, customer, organizational and operational functions organized around seven sub-regions and 16 countries that make up this unit. In the 19 years that Amit has worked for TCS, he has occupied several leadership roles across geographical markets and industries. Prior to his appointment in 2016 as head of the European business, Amit was the head of TCS’ Nordic European business where he oversaw the emergence of TCS as the industry leading provider in terms of growth and customer satisfaction, helping customers drive twin objectives of simplification and digital transformation. In his spare time, he is passionate about nature, long distance running and behavioural economics.