Under the Spotlight with Mitch Oliver

24 business leaders joined a conversation with Mitch Oliver winner of the Bravest Marketing Leader 2019 and the global corporate brand and purpose director at Mars. In her role, Mitch leads Mars incorporated brand strategy and develops a corporate strategy around the Mars Incorporated Purpose. Mitch also leads and focuses Mars, Incorporated Efforts to define and drive the 'make a difference' marketing across their portfolio of consumer brands from Maltesers to Pedigree and beyond.
 
Mitch spoke about her 25-year career at Mars and the important leadership lessons that she has learnt along the way. 

• Bravery and risk-taking are not the same thing
• For a diverse workforce you need to recruit people who are different from you and indeed, those that challenge and may make you feel uncomfortable
• Change can cause chaos initially, but you need to allow time for the process to work Always be your authentic self
• Work less and think more
• Work with honesty and kindness
• Lead with your behaviour
• Speak truth to power 

Mitch also spoke about her work with the UN on the #LionsShare initiative. Animals appear in about 20% of ads, but don’t get paid for their images. With the #LionsShare initiative, brands that use animals in their ads will contribute 0.5% of media spend to a fund for wildlife conservation. It’s something that both Mitch and Mars are passionate about supporting. Find out more about how to get involved.