Richard officially commences his new role in February 2022, and will be responsible for managing the entire business and helping to identify opportunities to optimise the business structure. James and Joel will not be stepping away from B2B Marketing in any way, but will be focusing their efforts elsewhere as Richard handles the day-to-day.
While James will continue to focus on winning business in new markets, Joel will continue to be the face and voice of B2B Marketing and Propolis, chairing events and moderating roundtables and webinars.
Joel Harrison, editor-in-chief and co-founder of B2B Marketing, said: “B2B Marketing started in 2004 as a magazine written from my own bedroom in South London. Since those early days, we’ve seen huge success, adding digital reports, training, events, webinars, a podcast, roundtables, The B2B Marketing Awards and much more to our portfolio. With the launch of Propolis last year, we’ve entered a new era at B2B Marketing (and finally put a name to our community!). As we take our next steps as a business, we’re delighted to welcome Richard O’Connor to help bring all of our various products together, and deliver value and insight to our audience in the ways they want, when they want it. As the world around us changes, and the requirements of our customers and audience change too, Richard is perfectly placed to help ensure B2B Marketing keeps pace.”
Richard has held senior leadership positions at The Independent newspaper, UBM, Informa and RELX. He has worked in and around sales and marketing for his entire career and with both client-side marketers and agencies.
Among his career highlights, Richard ran The Independent’s Creative Solutions team, established UBM’s first Client Solutions team, led a global sales and marketing transformation programme across EMEA, Asia and the Americas and, more recently, ran the commercial function for EG, a commercial real estate data and Intelligence business, part of RELX plc.
Speaking on his appointment, Richard said: “I am thrilled to be joining a business that understands the B2B marketing industry better than anyone, and at such a pivotal moment. James and Joel have been outstanding champions and thought leaders over two decades, from a time when B2B marketing was seen as a quirky adjunct to mainstream marketing, to now when the industry has never been so vibrant and so central to growth. With a rapidly growing marketing community at the heart of the business, combined with highly respected events, marketing services and a superb team, B2B Marketing is ideally positioned to support the industry to navigate the post-Covid recovery.”
“We’re very excited to welcome Richard to the helm of B2B Marketing. He has such huge creds in the industry and will enable us to continue to build on the success of B2B Marketing’s brand, growing out of Propolis service, to make us even more relevant to our customers, globally.” James Farmer
If you’d like to learn more about what Richard will be bringing to B2B Marketing and Propolis, check out the full feature here.
