Kevin Roberts
A global marketing leader, advertising influencer and author, Kevin Roberts was the first to receive an honourary professorship in leadership and innovation from the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business in March 2015.
Born and educated in Lancaster in the north of England, Kevin Roberts started his career in the late 1960s with iconic London fashion house Mary Quant. He became a senior marketing executive for Gillette and Procter & Gamble in Europe and the Middle East. At 32, he became CEO of Pepsi-Cola Middle East; and later Pepsi’s CEO in Canada. In 1989, Roberts moved with his family to Auckland, New Zealand, to become Chief Operating Officer with Lion Nathan. He took up his position as CEO Worldwide with Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997, and retired from the company as Chairman in 2016.
Kevin Roberts is well known as an inspirational speaker – he disrupts and engages simultaneously. From his frequent visits to UVic, the school’s MBA students have come to know him as a business leader who makes it a priority to inspire them to be the best they can be and remind them the responsibility of business is to make the world a better place.