B2B Marketing was launched in 2004 – initially starting life as a print magazine, and gradually adding conferences, awards programmes, webinars, roundtables, training and, most recently, community intelligence platform, Propolis, into its portfolio. Throughout that journey, co-founders Joel Harrison and James Farmer were firmly at the helm.
However, in February 2022, Richard O’Connor was appointed managing director, following his impressive career at The Independent, UBM, Informa and RELX. Richard has worked in and around sales and marketing for his entire career, with both client-side marketers and agencies.
Over the past six months, James has remained focused on winning business in new markets, whilst Joel has continued to act as the face and voice of B2B Marketing and Propolis.
At the time of Richard’s appointment, Joel said: “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.”
Among other career highlights, Richard ran The Independent’s Creative Solutions team, established UBM’s first Client Solutions team, led a global sales and marketing transformation across EMEA, Asia and the Americas. More recently, Richard even ran the commercial function for EG – a commercial real estate data and intelligence business, part of RELX plc.
The decision to appoint a managing director was not taken lightly, but Richard’s outstanding performance has led the board to promote Richard to CEO with immediate effect.
Commenting on this promotion, James Farmer said: “On hiring Richard as managing director, he surpassed all our expectations, truly embracing the market, our team and opportunity in hand. He is a true leader and as so, fully promoted to the position of CEO, to nurture and grow B2B Marketing’s global business, across all product and service lines.”
Susanna Kempe, chair of B2B Marketing, added: “As well as doing a superb job managing the operations of the company, Richard sets the strategy, drives the vision and embodies the brand. In short, he acts as the CEO, and we are delighted to recognise that formally.”
