Diana Rees

Experience

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  Management Development Services (MDS) Ltd

  Jan 1988 - Dec 1989

  Management Trainee
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  G's

  Jan 1989 - Jan 1990

  Procurement Assistant
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  G's Espana

  Jan 1990 - Jan 1991

  Administrative Manager
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  G's

  Jan 1991 - Jan 1992

  Procurement Executive
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  Potato Marketing Board

  Jan 1993 - Jan 1994

  Export & Overseas Relations Assistant
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  Potato Marketing Board

  Jan 1995 - Jan 1998

  Export Marketing Manager
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  British Potato Council

  Mar 1998 - Oct 1999

  Head of Marketing

  In this newly-created, not-for-profit organisation, I created and managed implementation of consumer and trade marketing strategy, including ATL and BTL campaigns, export marketing and seed marketing. In this highly visible position, stakeholder management skills were required alongside marketing and team management.Key achievements: I developed a highly-performing new team of 6 channel specialists; managed BPC's first ever TV advertising campaign and achieved ROI of 22x spend on PR; devised and implemented a successful sector development strategy fully backed by stakeholders, which attracted supporting investment from the Scottish Office. Show less

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  SAC Priory Chile Ltda

  Oct 1999 - Nov 2001

  General Manager

  A start-up role, where I created and recruited for a new office and production facility from scratch, in time for the export season. As general manager I managed personnel, company finance and administration and developed export and domestic market opportunities.Key achievements: I moved the Chilean business from loss into profit through improved management practices; formed a motivated team of Chilean and British nationals; initiated a company-wide GAP program to assure future exports to Europe. Show less

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  Fresca Group: Manor Fresh Ltd/DGM Growers Ltd/Mack Multiples Ltd

  May 2002 - Jul 2009

  Category Marketer positions

  Three separate roles in category marketing for the Fresca group as it undertook acquisitions and mergers and my experience and skills were requested in the newly-created businesses. I recruited and developed a category team of innovation manager/product developer, category analysts and implant merchandisers; interpreted EPOS & panel data and market research to recommend price, promotion, store merchandising and range changes as well as new product proposals. Key achievements: category leadership won with Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's and Tesco in company product areas; successful new product launches at M&S, one award-winning; national TV and print media PR successes; achieved 10 x ROI with implant merchandising. Show less

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  Bayer CropScience Ltd

  Sept 2009 - Dec 2018

  Marketing Communications Manager & Marketing Campaign Leader

  From 2009 to 2016 I led and developed the MarComms team of 14 talented people, recognising the need to bring in specialist social, PR & content, digital, event & CRM skills to expand the existing team, which also covered market intelligence, customer service, graphic design, corporate brand guardianship, marketing agronomy trials & Agri Services development. In 2017 and 2018 I was asked to create and lead the comms campaign team for all launch, campaign and ongoing seasonal communications through the significant transition from product-focused to customer content-focused communications. Key outcomes: the first campaigns and seasonal comms to be fully integrated across all channels and with consistent expression of the corporate brand; significantly increased audience engagement and ROI; industry-leading communications (advertising, website, social presence, online tools & apps, exhibition stands and literature), as rated by customers in market research and recognised by awards. Show less

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  AHDB - Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board

  Aug 2019 - Jun 2021

  Head of Technical Communications

  A new role created to bridge the gap between Technical and Communication departments, recommend and embed new ways of working. Contract extended 3 times but pending organisational re-structure now means that contract cannot be renewed beyond 30 June 2021.The matrix structure in this not-for-profit organisation requires effective influencing and collaboration skills to drive relevant customer insights, recognition of the need for change and win the resources to implement it. I act as internal consultant and coach for teams and individuals, at strategic and grass roots level, to develop a culture of customer focus and embed comms best practice in Technical functions.Key achievements: I created and led a cross-functional, cross-sector project team to optimise technical web content for levy-payers in terms of both useability and SEO. Already, optimised content is receiving 21 x more page views, traffic to technical pages from Google is five times greater and content is now appearing at the top of Google rankings, Google Images, and in Google snippets I recommended the process and new roles for effective technical campaign and content marketing, collaborating with digital, marcomms and technical colleagues to create and pilot a suite of best practice templates for comms planning, briefing and evaluation. I also worked with colleagues to create a new portfolio-based approach to managing and promoting key tools and services Creating focus out of a plethora of activity is a key outcome. Show less

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  AB Agri

  Jul 2021 - Aug 2022

  Communications Manager
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  Lallemand Animal Nutrition

  Sept 2022 - now

  Marketing Manager UK & Ireland