Jeff Bell (executive)

Jeff Bell (born February 18, 1962) is an American chief executive. He is the CEO of LegalShield, an Ada, Oklahoma-based corporation that markets legal and privacy management services in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.[1] He also serves as chairman of the board of DOMedia LLC and as a venture partner of NCT Ventures LLC.

Jeff Bell
Bell in 2015
BornFebruary 18, 1962
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S.
Alma mater
Board member of

Bell worked at Ford Motor Company from 1991 to 2001, Chrysler from 2001 to 2006, and Microsoft from 2006 to 2008, and has also worked for NBCUniversal. He has served on the boards of Kenyon College and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Early life and education

Jeff Bell was born and raised in Oklahoma City; his parents and grandparents were native to the city. He attended college in Ohio,[2] graduating from Kenyon College in 1984.[3] Bell earned his Master's degree in international relations and economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 1988,[4] and his Master of Business Administration in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.[5]

Career

Bell's professional background is in consumer marketing and sales for global brands and companies, including Ford Motor Company, Chrysler, Microsoft, and NBCUniversal.[2][4][6] He joined Ford's new business development team in 1989 after graduating from Wharton.[7] He held several positions during his tenure at Ford, including product and marketing manager of large cars from 1994 to 1996, general manager of fleet rental and leasing at Ford of Europe (1997), and managing director of Ford Spain (1999).[5]

Bell left Ford in 2001 to join Chrysler, where he also held several executive positions. In his role as vice president of marketing communications, he oversaw advertising for the Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep brands.[5] Bell later served as vice president of the DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler and Jeep divisions,[6] and has been credited with launching the Chrysler 300, select Jeep Wrangler and Chrysler Town & Country models, and the "grab life by the horns" marketing campaign.[4] He helped Chrysler vehicles appears in television programming and other media, and ran Jeep campaigns integrating the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and Tomb Raider II, in which Lara Croft drives one of the brand's models to Mount Kilimanjaro.[8] In 2005, Advertising Age named Bell and Chrysler "Interactive Marketer of the Year" and "Online Marketer of the Year", respectively.[5][6][9] He also received Mediapost Online's "All-Star Award" in 2005, and was named one of the "21 Most Intriguing People in Marketing" by Min magazine.[10] In February 2006, Bell became vice president of product strategy at Chrysler Group.[5] While in that role he led a gaming strategy for Chrysler that included the development of more than 40 online games used by over 3 million people.[11]

Bell joined Microsoft in mid 2006.[5][12] In his role as corporate vice president of global marketing within the company's interactive entertainment business,[8] he led marketing efforts for Microsoft Windows games and the Xbox console and associated games.[4][11] The Xbox division had its first profitable year during Bell's tenure. He is also credited with leading marketing campaigns for Gears of War and Halo 3,[13] and growing the number of Xbox Live subscribers from four million to twelve million in two years.[6] In 2007, Bell was named Advertising Age's "Entertainment Marketer of the Year" and included in its "Marketing 50" list in 2008.[6][14] He was also included in Min magazine's advertising and marketing "Sweet 16" list as part of its annual "Best of Web" awards.[15] Bell left Microsoft in mid 2008.[13][14][16]

In 2012, Bell led NBCUniversal's marketing efforts in the health and fitness field, developing the "Challenge America" campaign which was incorporated into the NBC competition reality television series The Biggest Loser, specifically its fourteenth season.[6] As of 2014, he was serving as a director of NCT Ventures.[17]

On July 1, 2014,[2] Bell was appointed CEO of LegalShield, a legal service product company, replacing Rip Mason, who began serving as executive chairman of the company's board.[4][6] In 2016, Advertising Age published an article written by Bell, in which he responded to the November 6 episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver about multi-level marketing. In the op-ed, Bell said he left the Direct Selling Association's board and cancelled LegalShield's (which he says has used "ethical direct sales strategies since 1993") membership over the organization's failure to protect and regulate the marketing industry, especially in regards to unethical multi-level marketing schemes.[18] Bell was accepted to join the Forbes Technology Council in January 2017.[19]

Board service

Bell was named chairman of the Columbus, Ohio-based out-of-home advertising company DoMedia Columbus in May 2009,[14] a position he continues to hold, as of 2014.[17] He was also serving on Kenyon College's board of trustees in 2009.[14] Bell has served on the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's board of directors,[20] and also serves on the global advisory board of the Wharton Future of Advertising Program, which is affiliated with his alma mater, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.[21][22][23] Bell is a member of Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies Advisory Board [24]

Personal life

Bell has lived in England, the U.S. states of Michigan and New Jersey, Spain, and Washington, D.C.[2] As of 2009, he owns a home in Seattle.[14]

Works
  • "John Oliver Won't Make Multi-Level Marketing Ethical". Advertising Age. November 11, 2016.
  • "Simple Steps to Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft". Forbes. March 15, 2017.

See also

References
  1. Bell, Jeff. "Council Post: You Can Be a Good Citizen And Still Protect Your Privacy". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  2. Burkes, Paula (September 7, 2014). "Executive Q&A: LegalShield chief comes home to Oklahoma roots". The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City: The Oklahoman Media Company.
  3. "Notable Kenyon Alumni". Kenyon College. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  4. "CEO Spotlight: Jeff Bell, LegalShield". Voluntary Benefits Magazine. Voluntary Benefits Association. September 29, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  5. Halliday, Jean (June 5, 2006). "Chrysler's Jeff Bell to Join Microsoft". Advertising Age. Detroit: Crain Communications. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  6. "LegalShield of Ada hires new CEO Jeff Bell, an OK native". Ada Evening News. Ada, Oklahoma: Community Newspaper Holdings. August 9, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
  7. Burkes, Paula (September 7, 2014). "Executive Q&A: LegalShield chief comes home to Oklahoma roots". The Oklahoman. Oklahoma City. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  8. Miller, Steve (June 7, 2006). "Chrysler's Bell Driving Off to Microsoft". Adweek. Beringer Capital. ISSN 0199-2864. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  9. Romano, Benjamin J. (July 25, 2007). "EA Sports, Microsoft make in-game advertising deal". The Seattle Times. The Seattle Times Company. ISSN 0745-9696. OCLC 9198928. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  10. Graft, Kris (June 7, 2006). "From Daimler-Chrysler to Microsoft: Microsoft announced it has appointed the former auto exec Jeff Bell new corporate VP of global marketing for interactive entertainment". Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  11. Klaassen, Abbey (June 12, 2008). "Jeff Bell, Global Marketing Leader, Leaves Microsoft". Advertising Age. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  12. "Webdenda; People and Accounts of Note". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. June 19, 2006. ISSN 0362-4331. OCLC 1645522.
  13. Sandoval, Greg (June 12, 2008). "Microsoft shakes up management in Xbox unit". CNET. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  14. Hampp, Andrew (May 5, 2009). "Former Microsoft Marketer Jeff Bell Named DoMedia Chairman". Advertising Age. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  15. Greenfield, Jeremy (April 20, 2007). "Congratulations to All the min's Best of Web Award Winners". Min. Retrieved March 22, 2017.
  16. Fritz, Ben (June 12, 2008). "Jeff Bell exits Microsoft". Variety. Penske Media Corporation. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 810134503. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  17. "Jeff Bell Still with DOmedia While Adding New Job". DailyDOOH. August 11, 2014. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  18. "John Oliver Won't Make Multi-Level Marketing Ethical". Advertising Age. November 11, 2016.
  19. "Coping With A Pandemic: LegalShield's Jeff Bell - Law360". www.law360.com. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  20. "National Board of Directors". National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  21. "Global Advisory Board". Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Archived from the original on October 5, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  22. "Alumni". Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
  23. Wind, Yoram (Jerry); Hays, Catharine Findiesen (February 2, 2016). Beyond Advertising: Creating Value Through All Customer Touchpoints. John Wiley & Sons. p. 215. ISBN 9781119074205. Retrieved February 27, 2017.
  24. "Jeff Bell, JHU '88 | Johns Hopkins SAIS". sais.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-14.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.