Ross Blake MBA, AAIA, AFAINZ – Senior Consultant
Ross has a professional consulting career in strategic business planning, market positioning and communications, spanning more than 30 years. He has held top-level corporate management positions and has been a director of several multi-million dollar companies in New Zealand.
As Marketing Manager for The Coca-Cola Export Corporation, Ross controlled one of the largest advertising and marketing budgets in NZ, and was responsible for the marketing activities of some 18 licensed bottling companies throughout NZ and the Pacific Islands. At that time he also served on the executive of The Association of NZ Advertisers (ANZA).
He was an initial partner in Colenso Communications in Auckland, now one of the city’s largest advertising agencies, and was CEO of the New Zealand operations of multi-national advertising agency DMB&B. In these roles he contributed to the strategic market planning and positioning of many major blue-chip client companies in a diverse range of industries, including leading national and multi-national companies.
For the past ten years Ross has specialised in business development consulting, with a particular interest in market positioning for competitive advantage and business growth.
Ross has a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Auckland, is an Associate of the Advertising Institutes of Australia and New Zealand, and is a graduate of The International Marketing Institute’s Advanced Marketing Programme, University of Waikato.