Jeff Jones | |
|---|---|
 Jeff Jones pictured in 2017 | |
| Born | Jeffrey J. Jones II 1967 (age 56–57) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Known for | |
| Notes | |
Jeffrey J. Jones II (born 1967) is an American business executive. He is president and chief executive officer of H&R Block, and formerly held executive posts with Target Corporation, Uber and Gap Inc.
Jeff Jones is an alumnus of Fork Union Military Academy. [3] In 1990, he graduated from the University of Dayton with a Bachelor of Arts in communication. [4]
At The Gap, Inc., Jones was executive vice president and chief marketing officer. He led the company's global marketing strategy in addition to store redesign and experience, and consumer communications. [5] Jones led a move toward Web-based marketing and helped create partnerships with iTunes, Kodak and Borders Books. [6] Jones is also noted for tapping Sarah Jessica Parker to promote The Gap's fashion. [7] Jones also worked for The Coca-Cola Company, where he was global account director. [8] [9] [10]
In addition, Jones worked for the advertising agency Leo Burnett Company, Inc., where he performed work for clients including General Motors Company, MillerCoors, and Procter & Gamble Co. and founded a tech-focused subsidiary called LB Works. [10] [11] [12] He also worked for McKinney, a Durham, North Carolina-based advertising agency where he was a partner and president, and served on its board. [10] [12] [13] At McKinney, Jones instituted a 10-percent rule, which stipulated that members of his team spend one-tenth of their time focused on non-client projects. [7]
Jones left McKinney for Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Target in 2012. [14] At Target, Jones was executive vice president and chief marketing officer. [11] Jones is credited with modernizing Target's brand. [14] He helped drive the brand's positioning through a number of campaigns and partnerships, such as The Holiday Odyssey adventure and musical events including the rollout of Target's exclusive edition of Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience and live music video commercial from Gwen Stefani during the Grammy Awards. [15] [16] He created Falling for You, a three-part short film starring Kristen Bell, [16] integrated the Target/Neiman Marcus collection into the plot of an episode of ABC's Revenge , and oversaw the campaign to promote Timberlake's album across radio, TV, Web, and social media. [16] Target underwent several struggles during Jones' tenure. He helped the retailer recover from a data breach in 2013. The data breach, which occurred shortly before Christmas, led to CEO Gregg Steinhafel's resignation. [9] [17] The company also underwent a failed expansion into Canada. [18]
At Target, Jones stressed the need for content creation as a form of marketing and brand building. [10] Progressive Grocer called Jones the "architect of Target’s on-demand shopping experience". [5] He helped launch the savings app Cartwheel [19] and oversaw the extension of naming rights for the Target Center in Minneapolis. [20] HuffPost named Jones on its list of Top Social CMOs of Fortune 250 Companies on Twitter in 2013, The Wall Street Journal listed Jones on its 5 CMOs to Watch in 2015, and Mass Market Retailer awarded Jones as the 2015 Marketer of the Year. [5] Jones left Target in 2016 to join Uber. [18]
Jones first met Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in February 2016 at the TED conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. [21] The two discussed ways that Uber could improve its reputation. [22] Jones left Target on September 9, 2016, to become the president of Uber. [15] In that role, Jones was in charge of the company's marketing and operations. [15] He was also tasked with improving Uber's reputation amid fast growth and increased scrutiny. [18] While at Uber, Jones was named one of Ad Age 's 2016 Power Players. [23] Jones worked at Uber for six months before leaving the company in March 2017. [17] [9] He was among several top executives to leave Uber during a period when the company faced numerous controversies, including sexual harassment in the workplace. [14] At the time, he was the highest-ranking departure. [18] Jones released a statement upon his departure: "It is now clear, however, that the beliefs and approach to leadership that have guided my career are inconsistent with what I saw and experienced at Uber, and I can no longer continue as president of the ride sharing business". [17]
Jones took his first chief executive post when became president and CEO of H&R Block, a Kansas City, Missouri-based tax preparer, on October 9, 2017. [14] [17] He replaced Tom Gerke, who was interim CEO following the retirement of former CEO Bill Cobb. [14] [9] Jones is responsible for growing the company to better compete with TurboTax by Intuit and other online tax preparers. [17] He has said he sees H&R Block as a financial services company and a retail company, and aims to grow the company by diversifying its services. [9] [17] He sits on H&R Block's board of directors. [24]
Jones is on the board of directors of Advance Auto Parts. [25] He is a former member of the board of directors of the Association of National Advertisers and an advisor to Zoove Corp. [26] In 2017, he joined media startup Brit + Co as an advisor. [27]
Jones and his wife, Margaret, have two daughters. [3] After being hired as CEO of H&R Block, Jones said he would move his family to Kansas City, Missouri. [17]
H&R Block, Inc., or H&R Block, is an American tax preparation company operating in Canada, the United States, and Australia. The company was founded in 1955 by brothers Henry W. Bloch and Richard Bloch.
A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a marketing director or chief brand officer (CBO), is a C-suite corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. The CMO leads brand management, marketing communications (including advertising, promotions and public relations), market research, product marketing, distribution channel management, pricing, customer success, and customer service.
Rachel Marjorie Joan Whetstone is a British public relations executive. Whetstone was in charge of communications and public policy at Google for nearly a decade, and served as senior vice president of communications and public policy for Uber until April 2017. She then joined Facebook as vice president of communications of its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger products. Since August 2018, Whetstone has been the chief communications officer (CCO) of Netflix.
Porter Novelli is a public relations firm, part of Omnicom Group. The company has 35 owned offices and clients in 60 countries.
Weber Shandwick is a marketing communications firm formed in 2001 by merging the Weber Group, Shandwick International and BSMG. The company is part of global agency network Interpublic Group (IPG), as part of the parent company's IPG DXTRA operating division.
Cision Ltd. is a public relations and earned media software company and services provider. The company is incorporated in the Cayman Islands and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Cision offers a portfolio of services including PRNewswire, PRWeb, Brandwatch, Connectively and Canada Newswire.
Jeff Jones is a music industry executive best known as the CEO of Apple Corps, the company founded by The Beatles. Jones was formerly an executive vice president at Sony/BMG, where he managed Sony's recorded catalogs, including repackaging classic albums.
APCO Worldwide is an independent global public affairs and strategic communications consultancy. With 680 employees in 35 worldwide locations, it is also the fifth largest independently owned PR firm in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., APCO was founded in 1984 by Margery Kraus, who is now the firm's Executive Chairman.
Jeffrey Hayzlett is an American businessman. He was formerly the chief marketing officer of the Eastman Kodak Company from 2006-2010. In 2014 he became the CEO of The Hayzlett Group.
J. Russell Findlay is an American businessman, philanthropist and an advertising and marketing executive. He is currently the global chief marketing officer at Hiscox, an international specialist insurer as well as a small business owner and a managing director of a non-profit organization.
Elizabeth "Beth" Comstock is an American business executive. She is a former vice chair of General Electric. She operated GE Business Innovations, which developed new businesses, markets and service models; drives brand value and partners to enhance GE's inventive culture. This unit includes GE Lighting, Current, GE Ventures & Licensing and GE sales, marketing and communications.
The Business Council is a nonpartisan organization of business leaders headquartered in Washington, D.C. It holds meetings several times a year for high-level policy discussions.
Travis Cordell Kalanick is an American businessman best known as the co-founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Uber. Previously he worked for Scour, a peer-to-peer file sharing application company, and was the co-founder of Red Swoosh, a peer-to-peer content delivery network that was sold to Akamai Technologies in 2007.
Michael Birkin is an English marketing executive, notable for his role in developing the concept of brand valuation as well as for his involvement in marketing operations. He began his career at Interbrand in 1987, later working at Omnicom Group and Acer Inc. He founded his own marketing services company, Red Peak Group, in 2010. He is CEO of kyu, the strategic operating unit of Hakuhodo DY Holdings.
Oscar Munoz is an American businessman, board member, and public speaker who was executive chairman of United Airlines from 2020 to 2021, after having been chief executive officer (CEO) of United Airlines from 2015 to 2020. Prior to his role at United Airlines, Munoz served on the board of parent company United Continental Holdings (UCH) and held multiple executive positions at CSX Corporation and AT&T.
Bozoma "Boz"Saint John is an American businessperson and marketing executive who was the chief marketing officer (CMO) at Netflix for 17 months. Previously, she served as CMO at Endeavor for two years, and chief brand officer (CBO) at Uber for one year. Saint John was also a marketing executive at Apple Music until June 2017, after joining the company in its acquisition of Beats Music. From 2005 until 2014, she worked at PepsiCo, eventually serving as the head of music and entertainment marketing. In May 2021, she was named among the Top 50 Most Influential Female Leaders in Africa within the corporate and business sphere by Leading Ladies Africa.
#GrabYourWallet is an organization and social media campaign that is an umbrella term for economic boycotts against companies that have any connections to Donald Trump in response to the leak of a lewd conversation between Donald Trump and Billy Bush on the set of Access Hollywood where he said "grab them by the pussy". The movement has particularly targeted Uber and Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump's clothing and shoe line, which was carried by Nordstrom before being indefinitely discontinued due to poor sales as a result of the boycott.
Anne Finucane is an American banker who was vice chair of Bank of America and chair of Bank of America Europe until retiring from the bank in 2021, after which she became a senior advisor to TPG Rise Climate and chair of Rubicon Carbon. While at Bank of America, she led its socially responsible investing, global public policy, and environmental, social and corporate governance committee.
Keith Creel is the president and chief executive officer of Canadian Pacific Kansas City.
Paul J. Brown is an American businessman and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Inspire Brands. He is the former chief executive officer of Arby’s.