Rudoe bags Ocado’s top marketing post

Ocado, the online grocery firm that handles deliveries for supermarket chain Waitrose, has handed its top marketing role to Jon Rudoe.

Rudoe, who will report to Ocado co-founder Jason Gissing, replaces Neil Jewsbury as head of trading and marketing when Jewsbury quits to join Waterstone’s next month. As exclusively revealed on MarketingWeek.co.uk earlier this week, he is heading for the HMV-owned bookseller to take up the new role of commercial director.

Rudoe has had two stints at Ocado either side of completing an MBA at Harvard University in the US. Most recently he worked in the company’s strategy and development team.

Ocado now handles creative work mostly in-house and is unlikely to have a retained agency in the near future. Its most recent relationship was with Ogilvy & Mather. Media planning and buying continues to be dealt with by Starcom UK.

Meanwhile, Ocado has appointed Michael Grade as its first non-executive chairman. The BBC chairman is being brought on board to provide guidance, with the company expected to post heavy pre-tax losses this year.