This week we sat down with Francesco Federico, CMO at JLL UK & Ireland to gain an insight into the career journey, challenges and ethos of a highly successful marketing leader. 

For more than fifteen years, Francesco has had an international career working across marketing and communications for the likes of Vodafone, Acer and now JLL. An entrepreneur at heart, Francesco kicked off his career founding three digital businesses and provided consulting for Google and Sky. These commercially focused roles shaped his growth marketing style and, later in his career, allowed him to introduce radical innovations at market inflexion points such as the My Vodafone app, real-time predictive pricing at Acer and the transformation of JLL marketing department into a strategic, modern function.

Throughout our conversation it is clear to see that people are at the heart of Francesco’s work and also his success as a business leader. Not only has he run several industry-first initiatives to address the importance of belonging and equal opportunities in the workplace he also states that his marketing success is testament to always going back to the customer’s point of view and understanding their needs and wishes. In addition, Francesco is passionate about hybrid customer experiences and developing meaningful storytelling through marketing activities. 

In this interview, we discuss Francesco’s career to date, the biggest challenges he’s faced, what makes a great leader and more.