Bob DeSena has been a change agent for over twenty five years. He has wide ranging experience, having held senior management, media and marketing positions with both advertising agency and client organizations. He is the CEO of the Engagement Marketing Group which he founded to focus on developing new ways to create and measure consumer engagement across all connection points.
Prior to that, Bob was Managing Director of iO Global North America, where he was responsible for the design, development and sales of advanced decisioning technology and targeting solutions for digital platforms.
Earlier in his career, Bob was Director of Relationship Marketing at Masterfoods USA, and a member of the CRM Global Steering Committee. While there, he created and was appointed Managing Director of Mars Direct, the business unit responsible for accelerating brand growth in non-traditional channels. In its first year Mars Direct had a 100% growth rate across its portfolio of brands, which included the development and launch of My M&M's.
Prior to that, Bob held several senior executive positions on the agency side of the business. Serving first as management supervisor, he was appointed director of media and marketing services with Wunderman, where he was responsible for the planning and placement of all television, print, direct mail and other media. This group developed the first predictive models as planning tools for print and electronic media, and led the industry in developing the marketing applications of digital media. He later served as executive vice president and general manager of Draft (now DraftFCB), where he had operational and P&L responsibility for the agency's headquarters office.
Bob then held a number of senior management positions within Time Warner including senior vice president, marketing for Time Life Books and senior vice president, marketing for Time Warner Direct. He next moved to a corporate role at Time Inc. as vice president, new media where he created the Marketing Applications Group, a specialized marketing services unit designed to assist Time Warner's largest worldwide clients including General Motors and Procter & Gamble.
Bob holds a B.S. degree in Quantitative Analysis from Manhattan College and an M.B.A. in marketing from St. John's University, and lives in Connecticut with his wife and family.
