James Forster Email & Phone Number

Bristol, England, United Kingdom

• Promoted in role following the successful growth and development of the Tactical Business Unit. Asked to take on additional leadership for the Sainsbury’s Sampling Business Unit from March 2020• After the immediate impact of Covid on the Sampling channel I took the lead on the re-negotiation of the contract with Sainsbury’s procurement to ensure the long term survival of the programme• Head of Client engagement and Relationship with Sainsbury’s & their Media Partners• Additional responsibility for Sainsbury’s team including over 600 samplers• Despite the huge impact of Covid on the channel I lead a strategy which, through restructure and the use of Furlough has ensured that Sampling has remained a profitable channel and is in a position to bounce back in 2022• Following a soft launch in 2019 I was also asked to take ownership of our Group’s Crowd Sourcing solution, SmartSpotter, in 2021. During it’s first year in the OnDemand Business Unit Smartspotter grew despite the challenges of Covid and is on track to grow and exceed budget target in 2022• Launched REL Experiential in 2022 securing 3 significant Global brands through competitive pitches and existing relationships

• Managing the delivery of a Business Unit with full responsibility for P&L• Delivered significant revenue growth from 2018 to 2020 whilst also increasing GP% & EBITDA% performance, exceeding KPI targets • Responsible for over 1,000 employees• Full accountability for the management of Account, Operations, Data, Insight and Field Teams • Member of Senior Leadership Team developing and implementing company-wide strategy• Lead contributor to all relevant new business pitches and fully responsible for New Business Acquisition for Business Unit• Responsible for High level customer engagement and co-ordination of excellence and delivery for up to 80 clients

Lg & Bosch

• Key member of the winning pitch team• Management of TUPE process to bring in team from competitor agency• Managing the delivery of account with full responsibility for P&L• Creating, owning, implementing and driving strategy• Developing new CRM system to collate data and influence strategy• Responsible for UK Retail, Call Centre & Head Office training teams• Developing Social Media Strategy• Lead international team of trainers at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona including all logistical, recruitment and planning aspects• Sell in and delivery of additional tactical projects• Given additional responsibility of second key account to grow Tech Business Unit• Managing the delivery of account with full responsibility for P&L• Increased sell out for BOSCH exceeding target• Delivered additional tactical activity, up weighting core team at critical sales periods • Delivered additional project providing training for key customer account

Britvic & Gatorade

• Managing the delivery of account with full responsibility for P&L• Driving additional sales through tactical, experiential and other services• Overseeing the delivery from a field team of 12 plus up to 20 tactical heads• Creating, owning, implementing and driving strategy• Working closely with Britvic Seed Brands Team to delivery best in class client management• Successfully negotiated and sold in additional business in first 5 months• On target performance delivery from core team• Exceeded targets for tactical activity working with Tesco and Palmer & Harvey• Given the additional responsibility of managing the Gatorade G-Force Account in November 2013

Britvic

American Express

• Managing the American Express Account delivering Tactical field marketing activity• Differing from contracted work, each project had to sold in, managed and reconciled individually – success was • key to leveraging the next opportunity• Managing, training & presenting to a team of up to 83 field staff• Providing accurate, cost effective implementation plans• Delivering vs. stretching targets in limited time periods• Target of additional work exceeded by 120% • Delivery of Shop Small Campaign which combined both face to face and telephone interaction with small businesses• Delivery of a number of smaller campaigns for AMEX including working with Westfield White City & Stratford• Also delivered a large national audit for Kraft

Managing a team of 3 Regional Managers driving performance and KPI delivery of a field force of 20. Strategic involvement in planning, execution and delivery of a dynamic & flexible team with direct exposure to game planning with senior management.