Gerard Smith is a Managing Principal with the Futures Strategy Group, following more than 30 years as a brand and marketing strategist with experience in advertising, branding and global marketing. He has an extensive background in creating solutions to strategic marketing and communications challenges for many of the world’s best known companies.
Prior to working with FSG he was Global Planning Director for Publicis in New York, and had been in a similar role for D’Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles, before its acquisition by Publicis in 2002.
A Londoner, Gerard moved to New York in 1994 while working for Ogilvy and Mather, where he was worldwide planning director on IBM.
His career began at Masius Wynne-Williams in London. He joined and ultimately led the operations research department, a small group devoted to the development and pioneering application of sophisticated computer-based tools and analytical methods to address advertising and marketing problems.
Over the course of his career he has advised many world-class companies – IBM, Microsoft,Ford, Mars, Heineken, Coca Cola, Procter and Gamble, Kimberly Clark, Credit Suisse, UBS, Whirlpool, and innumerable other brands and businesses in virtually every category.
Gerard has contributed articles to a variety of professional publications, was joint author of a book on econometric modeling with a professor at the London Business School, and chaired a Paris-based software user group.
He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School, and lives with his wife in Washington, Connecticut.