More than 200 marketers vye for The Marketing Academy leadership program

More than 200 marketers from across the brand, agency and media spectrum have been nominated for the inaugural Australia Leaders Programme launched by The Marketing Academy.

The UK-based training organisation aims to help skill up marketing talent across the industry as future business leaders. The organisation, which is sponsor-funded, brought its marketing mentoring and leadership curriculum to Australia in October last year.

The first Australian Leaders Programme will run for nine months from February and gives 30 rising stars the chance to learn from CEOs, CMOs, business leaders and leadership coaches.

The Marketing Academy CEO, Sherilyn Shackell, said she was impressed by the quality of more than 200 nominations which had been received for the first program run. The candidates include a mix of representative from brands, creative and media agencies.

“It’s clearly indicative of a great leadership talent pool and a huge desire from individuals within the marketing and advertising industry to lead in business,” she said.

The Academy plans to narrow this down to 30 students through a three-stage process, kicking off with an interactive ‘showcase’ of their abilities with employer endorsements, followed by a 10-minute pitch, then a 15 question-and-answer session. Those who get to the third stage will then have a 90-minute panel interview with the academy’s selection panel.

The judges are AANA CEO, Sunita Gloster; NewsCorp group director of marketing, Damien Eales; GroupM managing director of learning and development Asia-Pacific, Maree McDonough; Foxtel’s head of people and culture, Emma Hogan; and Wesfarmers’ chief human resources officer, Ben Lawrence.

The final 30 delegates will be announced on 19 February.

Those who are successful will then be taking through a 15-day learning program across nine months. The first event on this agenda is five-day boot camp from 23 February to cover topics such as technology, innovation, brand insights, behavioural economics and leadership.

A number of industry heavyweights have signed up to share their experience with applicants include Russel Howcroft, The Gruen Transfer panellist and businessman; John Barter, mindfulness practitioner and a former Buddhist monk; Major General Arthur Denaro, former Commandant of Sandhurst Military Academy and leader of the United Nations Armed Forces; Robbert Rietbroek, managing director of Kimberley Clark; Ed Smith, CMO of Foxtel; and James Wathley, social media director at Ogilvy London.

The longer program also includes one-to-one mentoring, executive coaching and workshops and lectures, all of which are provided free of charge. It is sponsored by News Corp, Foxtel, Google and Commonwealth Bank.

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