(Please see my Linkedin Profile: http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mrsteveradford)

Steve currently has two leading roles within the face-to-face marketing industry. Steve is the Chief Executive of FieldStar – the professional membership body for field marketing, mystery shopping and promotional field staff. Supporting their members' development and empowering them to take control of their career by providing a central hub for training, recruitment, news, information and networking. Steve is also the Chairman of the DMA’s Field Marketing & Brand Experience Council, representing companies who are providers of, or are direct or indirect purchasers of field marketing or experiential marketing services.

Steve first came to the industry from a less than obvious background. After training as a Marine Biologist at the University of Wales and working as a Diving Instructor in Australia, Steve’s natural career path(?) then lead him to managing bars and nightclubs. With a passion for people and business management, Steve quickly developed a love of using events and roadshows to launch new outlets, and from there the transition to face-to-face marketing was a more obvious leap.

It was then during a successful period running the event management department of a top-10 field marketing agency that Steve was exposed to the field marketing side of the industry.

Steve moved on to help found IMS Field Marketing, where he spent the next 9 years as Operations Director. IMS is an award winning field marketing agency specialising in improving the effectiveness of the point of purchase to increase sales and build brand. At IMS Steve was instrumental in developing and using web based technology to train and manage large scale field teams and connect them with head office and to the client, with tremendous success.

Steve unashamedly lists his passions as business and operational management. With a personal motto of “there is a way to do it better – find it” Steve spends much of his time challenging the status quo, pushing boundaries and driving ever higher standards within his own businesses and within the field and experiential marketing industry as a whole.

Steve lives in an old cottage in South Yorkshire with his family and other animals, where collectively there are far too many pairs of legs for such a small space.