Samsung loses top marketer to Nokia
Samsung Mobile head of marketing Susan Land has left the company and is thought to be joining Nokia UK in a senior marketing role.
Land is understood to be on gardening leave after resigning earlier this month. A Samsung spokesman confirms she has left the business, but will not comment on the reasons for her departure.
Land was responsible for all of the handset manufacturer’s marketing in the UK and reported to chief marketing officer for the Samsung group in the UK and Ireland, Anthony Marsella.
Nokia could not be reached for comment as Marketing Week went to press, but Land is likely to report to UK marketing director Will Harris in her new role. He joined the Finnish company, which is the world’s biggest mobile phone manufacturer, last year (MW.co.uk, August 21, 2007).
Harris, who is a former O2 and Conservative Party marketing chief, replaced Simon Lloyd at Nokia. Lloyd left to join The Number 118 118 in April last year (MW April 19, 2007).
Harris took on a beefed-up, board-level marketing role, and it is thought that one of his priorities was to strengthen the UK team.
At the end of last year, Samsung appointed IBM marketer Max Bonpain to the new group-wide role of head of brand management for the UK and Ireland as part of an extension of the company’s marketing team (MW November 22, 2007).
Bonpain, who was previously a management consultant within IBM’s global business services division, is responsible for aboveand below-the-line activity, PR, events and sponsorship on all of Samsung’s product lines. It is not known how his appointment affected Land’s role.
