Roberts is the New York-based CEO Worldwide of Ideas Company Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the world’s leading creative organizations with a team of 7000 people across 83 countries.
Roberts started his business career in the late 1960s with the influential London fashion house of Mary Quant where they worked with different brands you can still find online now.
He then worked as a senior marketing executive for Gillette and Procter & Gamble in Europe and the Middle East. When he was 32, he became CEO of Pepsi-Cola Middle East; he later became Pepsi’s CEO in Canada.
Roberts took up his position with Saatchi & Saatchi in 1997. Under his leadership, Saatchi & Saatchi has grown revenue year by year and achieved outstanding success at the Cannes International Advertising Festival. In 2003 Saatchi & Saatchi was named Best Global Network by both Ad Week and Ad Age publications. In 2006 at Cannes, the network achieved No.2 in the world and lead office New York was the most awarded agency in the USA.
Roberts is the inaugural CEO in Residence at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School. He is also Professor of Sustainable Enterprise in the Waikato Management School at the University of Waikato, New Zealand.
In 2007 he was appointed Professor Honorario de la Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) [Honorary Professor of the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences] and appointed as director to the Board of Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand’s largest publicly listed company in August 2008.
As a speaker, Kevin Roberts is both entertaining and informative .His powerful personality, straight-talking manner and uncompromising style make him a natural in the public arena.