Jeff Bell (executive)

Jeff Bell (born February 18, 1962) is an American chief executive and marketing leader.^[2] He is the CEO of LegalShield, an Ada, Oklahoma-based corporation that sells legal service products in the United States and Canada. He also serves as chairman of the board of DOMedia and as a director of NCT Ventures LLC.^[3]

Education

Following graduation from Kenyon College in 1984, Bell earned his Master of Arts in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins University in 1988, and received his Master of Business Administration in finance and marketing from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1989.^[4]

Career

In 1989, Bell joined Ford Motor Company and over the course of ten years, served in roles ranging from customer satisfaction to product development to marketing, ending his tenure as managing director of Ford Spain, and Director of Ford eCommerce.^[5]

Bell joined the Chrysler Group from Ford in 2001 as vice president of marketing communications. Bell's efforts contributed to Advertising Age naming the advertiser its first-ever the Online Marketer of the Year in 2005.^[6]

Following his time at Chrysler, Bell served as corporate vice president of global for the Interactive Entertainment Business group at Microsoft Corporation. At Microsoft, Bell oversaw the launch of Xbox 360's Halo 3 game; the "Believe" campaign garnered the Titanium Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity in 2008. While at Microsoft, Bell oversaw the launches of the Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Rock Band video games, and was credited on seven games, including Madden NFL. Gears of War won the Cannes Silver Lion for television advertising in 2007.^[7]

Bell became DoMedia chairman in 2008, overseeing growth of the Columbus, Ohio-based online marketplace with more than $1.0 billion^[8] in advertising media sold.^[9] Bell was named to the board of NCT Ventures LLC in 2007, and serves on the advisory board of Nimia, the video asset management company.^[10] He has served on the boards of Driverside, Clearsaleing and Embrace Pet Insurance.^[11]

Bell was the chief client officer of the Philadelphia-based carpooling startup vRide from 2012 to 2014. Bell has served in a number of advisory capacities, including as senior advisor to the chief executive officer of the digital agency Organic, Inc. from 2010 to 2013, acting as senior advisor to the president of NBCUniversal Marketing from 2012 to 2013, and senior advisor to the president of Meredith Xcelerated Marketing in 2014. In his advisory capacity at NBCUniversal, Bell developed NBC's "Challenge America" campaign, enrolling 300,000 participants and inspiring the theme for the network's reality program The Biggest Loser.^[12]

Bell joined LegalShield as chief executive officer in July 2014.

Awards and honors

Bell was named Advertising Age Interactive Marketer of the Year in 2005 and the publication's Entertainment Marketer of the Year in 2007, and was named to its "Marketing 50" in 2008.^[13] Bell has received awards from the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, MediaPost, MinMagazine and E3.

References