System 1 CFO Geddes to Leave after Seventeen Years

Marketing and MR Agency System 1 has announced that its Chief Financial Officer James Geddes is stepping down on April 20th, after seventeen years with the firm. He will be succeeded by former British Airways exec Chris Willford.

System 1 (whose research arm was previously known as BrainJuicer) offers behavioural science-inspired methods to produce marketing which leads to profitable growth. The firm's System1 Ad Ratings subscription service delivers media spend data on every US and UK TV ad in more than 100 categories, enabling users to benchmark their marketing.

Geddes (pictured) joined in 2003, having previously been CFO of early stage tech company IoBox, and Executive Director of Corporate Finance at US telecoms company MediaOne, and after beginning his career at Deloitte. Willford will take over as System 1 CFO following a career that has included serving as Group Treasurer at British Airways, and Finance Director at Barclays. Earlier, Willford was Management Group Accountant at Unilever, during the same period that System 1 founder and CEO John Kearon joined Unilever as a graduate of the group's management programme.

Geddes will work alongside Willford to ensure an 'orderly handover', and it is expected that Willford will join the Board, subject to the satisfactory completion of usual due diligence checks. Kearon comments: 'On behalf of the Board, staff, investors and suppliers, past and present, I would like to thank James for seventeen years of remarkable service to the company. James and I have worked shoulder-to-shoulder to build the company over many years and, on behalf of everyone involved, I am extremely grateful for James' many years of hard work and enormous contribution. Change is never easy but someone of the calibre and experience of Chris is a worthy and able successor to help the company achieve its ambitions'.

Web site: www.system1group.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.