Saatchi & Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts speaks at LUMS

Published 18 November 2005

Kevin Roberts, CEO of advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, visited LUMS recently to give a guest lecture to an audience of marketing and MBA students and local business leaders. Over 170 attended his highly interactive, provocative and stimulating talk in the Lancaster Leadership Centre on 17 November.

“If business is the engine of progress, marketing is the fuel that drives it.” - Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts

Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi

The interactive talk took the theme of “10 things you ought to know”. It included his views on advertising and what it can and can't achieve. As you'd expect from the CEO of one of the world's most creative organisations, Kevin's presentation was anything but run-of-the-mill. Using video clips and seeking questions from the audience throughout the talk, he told students, “If business is the engine of progress, marketing is the fuel that drives it.”

Kevin joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997 after working for a number of big-name brands including Gillette, Procter & Gamble and Pepsi. He sees his role within the global agency to help make Saatchi & Saatchi the "hottest ideas company" on the planet.

Educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School, Kevin has lived and worked all over the world, yet Lancaster still ranks among his top five cities, along with Auckland, New York, Casablanca and St Tropez. For more about Kevin, visit his website.

Top speakers

Kevin Roberts joins a growing list of CEOs and other business leaders who have given talks at Lancaster University Management School. Recent speakers have included Stephen Green, Group Chief Executive of HSBC, Larry Hirst, Chief Executive of IBM UK, Paul Duffy, CEO of Pernod-Ricard UK and Christopher Rodrigues, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Visa International.

Geoff Easton, Professor of Marketing at LUMS, said “We are delighted that Kevin Roberts was keen to share his experiences with our students. His talk was a unique opportunity for Lancaster University students to hear a great communicator set out his iconoclastic ideas and enthusiasms.”

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