It came as sad and shocking news that an old colleague of mine, Neil Warrior, was on the ill fated Air France Flight 447 last week.
Neil was one of the warmest individuals I have known and was often referred to as “The English Gentlemen”. I can’t honestly think of a better way to describe Neil. However; Neil was also one hell of a marketer, and one of best communication professionals I have ever known.
One of my fondest memories of Neil was when my wife Anna, and I took Neil to his first baseball game (NY Mets). He tolerated the experience in his most gracious manner, but I’m sure he was happy when we headed out. Cricket was surely a more civilized sport.
I had another great experience with Neil. We were tasked with supporting our boss on a trip to Porto Cervo, Sardinia to pitch Hasso Plattner (then Sap’s CEO) on a new brand campaign. Hasso didn’t have the best day sailing, and wasn’t in the mood to review anything. Our boss stayed behind to get the job done, and we were lucky enough to get the company plane back to Germany instead of having to take ferries and commercial jets. Every now and then the dog gets a little taste of the bone. As we took off into the Sardinian sun set Neil looks at me and said “This is how B2B Marketing Execs should always travel”. I couldn’t agree more Neil. R.I.P.
Neil Warrior was born on 13 April 1961 in Hillingdon, England, and was university educated. He worked in automotive public relations at the start of his career with jobs at Fiat and Alfa Romeo. When he was just 35, he was appointed Communications Manager at SAP-UK in 1997, and after management jobs in Germany and the USA, was named Director of Marketing and Communications for SAP's European organisation in 2003. He joined Mazda Motor Europe as PR Director in 2007, where he was responsible for product communications.
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