SapientNitro’s Nigel Vaz Joins ‘The Marketing Society’ Board

SapientNitro, part of Sapient (NASDAQ: SAPE), announced today that Nigel Vaz, SVP and European Managing Director, has been elected to the Management Board of The Marketing Society – the UK’s leading marketing association.

Vaz takes up the non-executive role of Director for The Marketing Society – a not-for-profit organisation owned by its members – with immediate effect. He joins a 22-person Board of senior marketers that includes Google’s Vice President of Marketing Yonca Brunini, British Airways Head of Brands and Marketing Abi Comber, P&G’s Corporate Marketing Director Roisin Donnelly and John Lewis Director of Marketing Craig Inglis. The Marketing Society’s President, on a two-year term, is CEO of United Biscuits Martin Glenn.      

The Marketing Society is an exclusive network of 2,600 senior marketers that exists to encourage members to become bolder leaders by supporting the development of leading-edge thinking and seeking out and promoting evidence of effective marketing. Over the 55 years of its existence, the Society has become one of the most influential drivers of marketing in the world.

Vaz’s appointment comes early in the two-year tenure of Marketing Society President Martin Glenn, the CEO of United Biscuits and a former Pepsico marketer. As one of relatively few senior marketers to have made the transition to CEO, Glenn aims to equip The Marketing Society to enable more marketers to rise to the top of their organisations by championing the financial value of marketing excellence.

A member of Sapient’s global leadership team, Vaz’s roots are in business strategy, where he has consistently helped clients to build businesses and create sustainable value propositions for their brands by operating at the intersection of strategic thinking, creativity and technology. Prior to Sapient, he was a successful entrepreneur, as co-founder and Managing Director of a public company with interests in telecoms, consulting and connectivity solutions. 

Vaz joined Sapient in 2000 and has helped to take SapientNitro in London from a startup a decade ago to become the largest independent agency in the UK today. The agency works with some of the biggest brands in the world – including Audi, Lufthansa, Marks and Spencer, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sky, Tesco, Unilever and Vodafone. Vaz is an elected member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Council, Ambassador and Digital Hall of Fame Inductee at the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) and reigning ‘Individual of the Year’ for the DADIs (Drum Awards for Digital Industries).

Stephen Maher, Chairman of The Marketing Society, said: “I am really excited that Nigel has accepted our invitation to join the Board. With our drive to truly internationalise The Marketing Society – and our successful launch last week in Asia was our first stage on this exciting journey – as well as our desire to drive the tech and digital agenda even more with our members, Nigel is the perfect candidate to join our stellar Board and further support Marketing Society Chief Executive Hugh Burkitt, Managing Director Gemma Greaves and the team in Teddington in their brilliant work.”

SapientNitro’s Vaz said: “The Marketing Society’s mission is to help members to think differently about the challenges they face, and to become bolder leaders as a result. As the pace of technological change accelerates and empowers connected consumers globally, the need to have empowered marketers fully equipped to drive the transformational agenda at the top of their organisations has never been greater. I’m delighted to have been invited to join the Board and to help drive forward the Society’s agenda.”