By Sarah Falson
MINNEAPOLIS, USA: Former marketing consultant for Coles Myer, Telstra, Volvo, Compaq and Ford New Zealand, Michael O’Sullivan, has been appointed vice president Asia Pacific and managing director Australia at Carlson Marketing – a member of the Narta buying group.
Carlson Marketing operates a number of direct marketing businesses in Australia and provides Narta with additional buying power in the small appliance category alongside David Jones to achieve the buying group aim of 20 per cent share in each local electrical category.
O’Sullivan’s appointment heralds the mark of the first Australian to join Carlson Marketing’s leadership team; the company, based in Minneapolis, provides sales and marketing concepts to Fortune 1000 clients (the USA’s Fortune magazine’s list of top 1000 companies, based on revenue aline) to help propel their rates of increase.
O‘Sullivan joined the company, which employs more than 3000 people in 19 countries, in 2004 to expand the Melbourne division, then transitioned to the position of general manager business-to-business marketing Australia-wide.
“Today, Carlson Marketing’s operations in Australia are among the agency’s fastest growing offices in the world,” said O’Sullivan in a press release distributed last week.
“We have worked hard to innovate locally and Australian customers are among the best in the world to partner with and stretch complete business-to-business marketing solutions.
“While we regularly draw on the group’s worldwide research, resources and experience, the success of our region’s programs have drawn the spotlight of the world to Australia. I am delighted and excited to take up this role at such a dynamic time and look forward to continuing to realise and secure opportunities for our Australian customers.”
O’Sullivan’s new role will see him based in Sydney, and he will report directly to Karl Schuster, president – Carlson Marketing Asia Pacific.
“Michael has made a tremendous difference to Melbourne’s client outcomes over the past couple of years and I look forward to him applying the same rigor in thinking and execution to customers throughout Australian and the region,” said Schuster.