<a href="https://www.theurbanlist.com/sydney/a-list/sprout-stack-urban-farm" target="_blank">Meet Sprout Stack, The Northern Beaches Urban Farm Pioneering The Future Of Food</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">The Urban List</font>

Meet Sprout Stack, The Northern Beaches Urban Farm Pioneering The Future Of Food - The Urban List

<a href="https://www.intheblack.com/articles/2020/08/01/businesses-pivot-new-normal" target="_blank">How businesses can pivot to embrace the new normal</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="#6f6f6f">INTHEBLACK</font>

How businesses can pivot to embrace the new normal - INTHEBLACK

Australian Institute of Company Directors

Columbia Business School

London Business School

University of Leeds

Wolverhampton Grammar School

Independent Strategy & Communications Consultant

- Built the brand and communication strategy from scratch: Mapped the competitive landscape, crafted the corporate narrative, established brand guidelines & design system, initiated social media presence and developed the EVP
- Launched the Marcomms function from within stealth mode: Recruited a team of 10 across brand, design, internal & external comms. Hired & managed a PR/social agency partner
- Led the creation and implementation of GTM strategies: Persona development, audience segmentation, messaging & channel strategies, website development & integration into HubSpot and other tools
- Navigated the company out of stealth-mode: Led the Series B announcement campaign, securing a top-five position Bloomberg story with 85% message pull through across 13 feature stories
- Established & led the Operations Partnership Strategy team: Maximizing our relationships with 400+ operating partners. Helping to drive a 65 N.P.S. Conducted annual partner-network listening projects
- Led the creation of a purpose-driven culture: Drove & authored the company culture documentation. Established and led the annual Employee Engagement survey - helped to drive 97% positive engagement 
Led a successful B-Corp application: Secured carbon neutrality, promoted community engagement, drove team engagement and transparency in governance

Avenue One - Fin-Tech/Real-Estate Investment Platform ($170M raised at a $1B valuation)

CMO & Head of Partnerships

Skills: Customer Insight · Critical Thinking · Research Skills · Business Understanding · Brand Strategy · Presentations · Strategic Marketing · Communication · Branding & Identity · Relationship Building · Market Planning · Business-to-Business (B2B) · Team Management · Strategic Thinking · Early-Stage Startups · Strategic Leadership

Independent

Strategy Consultant: Business, Communications, Positioning, CX, Digital

- Built & led a cross-functional launch team of technologists, agronomists and engineers 
- Scaled production to c. 1.5 tonnes/month of sustainable, chemical-free salads to supermarkets and food-service clients 
- Delivered a 4.6X increase in Revenue & a 77% reduction in COGS: Took full P&L responsibility, leading strategy development and implementation across the business through the executive team
- Built a purpose-driven culture with 100% staff commitment to the vision (per 2020 employee engagement survey) 
- Certified as a B-corp 
- Developed and launched the corporate and consumer-facing brand - commanding a 25% premium over equivalent organic produce
- Recruited and managed a PR/Social agency: driving national awareness of the business: Generated 10M+ impressions of earned media and 300k+ of social media impressions
- Acted as company spokesperson
- Replaced the tech-stack (hardware, software & GUI) that automatically and autonomously controls the farms: boosting operational efficiencies by c.50% and cutting reportable incidents by 85%
- Initiated enterprise tracking and reporting

Sprout Stack - Australia's only commercial-scale vertical farm

- Ikon was WPP's "independent", full-service , media agency
- Led a team of strategists across Ikon's three Australian offices
- Delivered integrated media strategies for clients such as CBA, Hort Innovation, Pfizer, Avis/Budget
- Ad Forum ad of the month winner for Smash an Avo: https://www.adforum.com/creative-work/ad/player/34566099/smash-an-avo/australian-avocados

Ikon Communications

National Head of Strategy

- Hiked Munich to Venice
- Toured gastronomical delights of the Iberian peninsula
- Skied Iran
- Dominated paternity leave

Sabbatical - relocation to Australia

- Millward Brown Vermeer is a c. $50M, 200 employee international brand consultancy – the strategic arm of one of the world’s best market research firms.  
- Partner, member of the executive team, and regional head of the Excellence (training) practice.
- Led business development and client engagements for a number of Vermeer's projects, including: brand positioning, communications planning, brand/marketing training, organizational structure,  market segmentation, and portfolio optimization.
- Worked across a broad range of clients, categories and industries, including: Telco, Media, CPG, Consumer Durables, Professional Services, Auto & Utilities.   
- Personal book of business $5m+ p/a.  Contributed to a doubling of the business, both in terms of revenue and personnel.
- Contributed strategic direction and insight into 2014 merger between Millward Brown Optimor and Effective Brands to create Vermeer.   
- An accomplished, international keynote speaker and media commentator on brand building

Millward Brown Vermeer

Partner

- Collaborated across all business sectors providing communications planning counsel and strategic leadership to design equity-building communications campaigns which mapped back to clients’ business objectives  
- Designed, created and instilled a culture of strategic planning for both new business and existing clients. Developed and implemented tools that identify and encourage active audience engagement with clients’ brands 
- Example clients include: Marcoms: Axe, eBay, TJMaxx, Dos Equis, Dove, Arm & Hammer and Heineken.  Corporate: Gensler, Broadridge, Brookfield. Tech: Juniper Networks. Healthcare:  Pfizer.
- Leadership role within the Business Development Working Group to promote smooth co-ordination of new business efforts across the agency across offices and around the world

Edelman

SVP, Brand Stewardship

- Managed a team of researchers to develop innovative marketing and communication strategies for clients across all H&K business units, e.g., Marcoms – P&G, adidas, Mazda & Dos Equis, Healthcare – Amgen & Astellas, Technology - Yahoo! & LinkedIn, Public Affairs - ANGA & DC Metro and Corporate comms
- Designed and commissioned primary & secondary research and provide analysis to diagnose and clarify complex client problems and provide audience insights to help solve them
- Established and led H&K creativity programme – introducing processes to improve creativity in the agency and recruiting and managing young creative talent to build simple, coherent and compelling creative solutions to achieve clients’ communication goals
- Designed and implemented digital/interactive strategy and measurement for H&K

Hill & Knowlton (WPP)

US Director of Brand Planning

- Planned account strategy for clients across Y&R Brand’s businesses and new business prospects.  With a particular focus on financial services clients, e.g., SunTrust & MetLife 
- Developed an evaluation framework for new and existing clients' businesses  - ensuring that Y&R’s communication recommendations were grounded in the strategic business objectives of the client
- Developed and wrote a business plan for Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), a $5.5M company

Global Network Strategist & Brand Planning at Y&R (Young & Rubicam), New York

- Authored the business and implementation plan for an English Language School combined with a residential Outback farm in Australia
- Defined the business concept, developed financials, conducted customer and competitor analysis 
- Raised all necessary start up capital within six months by presenting business plan to potential investors 
- Engaged six overseas partner schools in three countries. Negotiated directly with overseas schools and their Australian representatives – filling school roster

RobMac Farm Schools

- Managed Reuters' London account with UBS, a top-five client. Managed the account service team and associated budget
- Business Management Graduate Trainee, London & San Francisco
- Established and managed relationships with Reuters' high-tech partners in Palo Alto
- Co-authored strategy plan for Reuters' Mobile Solutions
- Designed and performed a detailed strategic analysis for the nascent on-line picture service

Hugh McGilligan