3 Aug 2011
Nestle’s top marketer in Australia
and New Zealand and former chairman of the Australian Association of
National Advertisers (AANA) Ian Alwill has quit the company.
Nestle Australia chief executive Graham Campbell announced to staff in an email on Friday that Alwill will retire in February.
Headhunters are already conducting a search for Alwill’s replacement, which is firming up as an external appointment.
The veteran marketer, who served as the AANA’s chairman for nine years until 2009, confirmed the decision to AdNews this morning.
Alwill, who is currently Nestle’s executive director, group marketing and communications, a Nestle Australia board director and serves as chairman of the Advertising Standards Bureau and a board director of the AANA, is likely to continue his involvement in the broader marketing and business sector with some directorships and corporate advisory.
"There's an opportunity for some grey hair and experience," he said.
"Grey hair has a lot to offer back to the industry as a sounding board, particularly in e-commerce and e-marketing. We've done a lot to get our operations and structures right at Nestle. Certainly a lot more than other big companies. I hate the word digital marketing but I will be doing some more work in that personalised marketing and the 1-to-1 consumer area."
Alwill also said he would likely remain involved in advisory work with brand manufacturers dealing with the increasingly powerful supermarket chains.
"As big brands and big companies are under assault from [supermarket] private label brands, we have to do more with less money. There’s also some opportunities there."
Before joining Nestle in 1997, Alwill worked in regional marketing for 7Up and advertising agencies such as McCann Erickson in Australia and Japan on Coca-Cola and for Lintas and JWT.
Alwill’s AANA board seat will move to another Nestle marketer early next year, possibly Alwill’s replacement, further adding to the board shake-up at the peak advertiser body.
Telstra’s chief marketing officer, Mark Buckman,
will relinquish his seat after leaving the Commonwealth Bank in April
although it is still unclear whether he will remain on the AANA board
in his new role. Telstra’s head of Corporate Marketing, Inese
Kingsmill, who reports to Buckman, already sits on the AANA board.
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