Russell Findlay

J. Russell Findlay (born 1965) is an American businessman, philanthropist and an advertising and marketing executive. He is currently the head of marketing at Hiscox, an international specialist insurer., as well as a small business owner and Managing Director of a non-profit organization.

Russell Findlay is currently the head of marketing at Hiscox, and was the first chief marketing officer in the history of Major League Soccer. Prior to MLS, Findlay worked for PepsiCo alongside American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame inductee Alan Pottasch. He worked at PepsiCo under Chairmen Roger Enrico, Steven Reinemund and Indra Nooyi. While at PepsiCo, Findlay helped launch SoBe Mr. Green soft drink, Sierra Mist and Sierra Mist Free, including helping produce a TV commercial putting soccer greats Freddy Adu and Pele together for the first time.

Findlay also launched Pepsi Max (North America) while at PepsiCo. He was responsible for negotiating an on-air integrating marketing sponsorship deal with ABC's Duel (U.S. game show). Findlay was also responsible for several Superbowl commercials including the PepsiMax spot called WakeUpPeople which scored 8th in the 2008 USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter rankings

Findlay started his career at Unilever as a territory sales rep before moving to new business innovation and eventually into their brand marketing department. While at Unilever, he headed Unilever's initial work with global e-commerce, working with conventional retailers and online start-ups across Europe, the UK and the USA.

Findlay serves as the Committee Chairman for the Association of National Advertisers Sponsorship and Events Committee, as well as a member of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council's National Advertising Review Board and a member of the Board of Directors of the Business Marketing Association of New York.

He has twice won Effie Award for effective advertising., a Global Ace award, the CMO Club Growth Awardand was named as one of 2014's 30 most influential marketers in the world. Findlay has served as a final round judge of the Effie Awards, the BMA Global Ace Awards and the FCS Portfolio Awards

Additionally, Findlay has authored or has been featured or quoted in a number of publications including:

Books:

• The Future of Marketing, by Nick Johnson,
• Target2000,

Podcasts:

• CMO.com "In Financial Services, Storytelling is more important than ever"

Magazines:

• Inc Magazine,
• Adage,
• Adweek,
• chiefmarketer.com,
• B-to-B Marketer,
• QualityFinancialMedia.com

Findlay is also a frequent guest lecturer at business schools. He has lectured and presented at Harvard Business School, Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, Indiana University Bloomington's Kelley School of Business and SUNY Oswego among others. He has also presented a numerous industry conferences on marketing and advertising topics.

His undergraduate degree is in marketing from SUNY Oswego, where he is on the board of their School of Business. He also holds an MBA with a concentration in marketing and advertising from Xavier University, and a Financial Technology certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Findlay is related to the legendary advertising and media couple, New York Post editor Joseph Cookman and his wife Ladies Home Journal editor Mary Bass.

He also runs the Findlay Family Foundation, a non-profit 501c3 organization providing college scholarships to high school seniors from underprivileged school districts.

Findlay is also a US Soccer Referee.