Jonathan Mildenhall (born September 9, 1967,
Leeds, England) is
chief executive officer of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, a marketing consultancy firm. While working for
Airbnb in 2017, he was ranked 8th on the world's most influential CMOs by ''
Forbes''.
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Education
After graduating from John Smeaton Community High School in Leeds, England in 1985, he was admitted into Thomas Danby College, where he received a degree in advertising in 1988. At the age of 21, he went on to continue his studies at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he received his HND in Business and Finances management. In 2005, he furthered his studies by completing a course at Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
in Advance Management. In 2007, he was honored by his alma mater with an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration, Business and Management.
Career
In 1990, Mildenhall started working as an Account Manager at McCann Erickson, where he was one of the agency's first ethnic minority hires. In 1992, Mildenhall joined Bartle Bogle Hegarty, where he continued working until 1996 as Account Director. In 1999, Mildenhall became Board Account Director at Lowe Howard-Spink. Between 1999 and 2000, he served as the Head of Account Management at HHCL.
Mildenhall quickly rose in the London ad agency world, and joined the London office of TBWA Worldwide
TBWA Worldwide is an international advertising agency whose main headquarters are in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
Since 1993, the agency has been a unit of Omnicom Group, the world's second largest advertising agency ho ...
as managing director in 2000. In 2002, Mildenhall became co-chair of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising to address issues of discrimination in the advertising industry. In 2005 Coca-Cola pulled him as vice president, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative. He was behind the global initiative “Open Happiness
Open Happiness is a global marketing campaign for The Coca-Cola Company that was rolled out worldwide in the first half of 2009, following the company's "Coke Side of Life" advertising campaign. It was developed by the Wieden + Kennedy creative a ...
”, which led to the company's fastest profit increase in 20 years. The campaign came to be one of the most-awarded marketing platforms in the company's history. In 2014, Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky asked Mildenhall to join Airbnb as Chief Marketing Officer.
During his time at Airbnb, he was responsible for the brand’s breakthrough global campaigns “Wall and Chain”, “Never A Stranger” and “Live There,” among others. In 2017, Airbnb launched its #WeAccept ad during Super Bowl LI, to promote its values of inclusiveness and diversity.
In October 2017, he left Airbnb to found TwentyFirstCenturyBrand, a marketing consultancy firm.
Recognition
In 2017, Mildenhall was named Jury President for Creative Effectiveness of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The same year, Mildenhall was ranked 8th on ''Forbes’'' "The World’s Most Influential CMOs 2017"
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mildenhall, Jonathan
1967 births
Living people
Harvard Business School alumni