For nearly 20 years, I've worked in the digital media sector, with hands-on experience in editorial, marketing, sales and R&D. I'm passionate about engaging and understanding customers to develop great content and products. Formerly Chief Product & Customer Officer at Zapnito, I'm now an advisor to the company.
I spend my energy creating and evolving business strategies for professional, educational, and scholarly knowledge services, and the technical ecosystem required to execute on those strategies. In the current environment my focus is on actionable business intelligence, tailoring user experience to capture new markets, and optimizing multi-device utility.
A digital, marketing leader with 20+ years experience in international B2B and media businesses, the last 15 of them at Board level. Susanna's digital experience includes being CEO of the iconic WGSN, growing its customer base and profits to historic highs. An American, German, Brit, she understands global markets completely, has worked all over the world and launched businesses in China, Japan and India. Her extensive M&A experience includes buying a whole portfolio of Performance Improvement businesses, data businesses and successful PE exits. Susanna is steeped in events experience. She began her career at IIR and was part of the management team that sold to Informa. There she was the CMO before moving to Emap Networks as CEO, transforming the events business and achieving record profits. She was also a NED of WTG and the interim CEO of Industry Dynamics. More recently while the Global Partner for Content and Marketing at Brunswick Group, she implemented a new digital first strategy, GTM approach and corporate re-brand. Susanna is now the CEO of the Laidlaw Foundation which invests in the education of the underprivileged and under represented in order to break the cycle of poverty, reduce inequality and produce a new generation of leaders. She also has her own boutique consultancy, Flying Trumpets, helping CEOs and Boards position their personal brands and grow their company profits through content, marketing, innovation and digital.
Switch Education is committed to learner-centred approaches to digital education by helping learning professionals deliver the best learning experiences and learning outcomes possible. Our focus is on helping them develop the confidence and competence they need to transition from traditional, classroom learning to contemporary digital education. By putting pedagogy first, we remove the mindset obstacles and behavioural blockages that often prevent the creation of dynamic, online learning content, courses and programs. Our design, research and development processes use our 3-stage change model that is underpinned by Social Cognitive Theory, a proven approach through its core focus on boosting learner and educator self-efficacy beliefs. For over 25 years, I have worked as a management educator and leadership development consultant in Business Schools, Consultancies and Not-for-Profits in Australia, USA, Canada and the UK. Launching Switch fulfills my lifelong dream of giving educators, educational leaders, managers and leaders access to the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to thrive. My approach to pedagogy is strongly influenced by social cognitive theory and its core principle of self-efficacy beliefs. Digital technology provides an amazing opportunity to bring my dream to fruition. I've published articles in leading organisational psychology, HRM and education journals and blog regularly on digital education, management and leadership issues.