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.

Bell also serves as chairman of the board of DOMedia and as a director of NCT Ventures LLC.^[3]

Education

Following graduating Kenyon College in 1984, Bell earned his Master of Arts in international relations and economics at 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 1991, Bell joined the new business development group of Ford Motor Company, from the financial services company Dover Group. Over the course of ten years at the company, Bell served product and marketing manager, general manager at Ford of Europe and managing director of Ford Spain.^[5]

Bell joined the Chrysler Group from Ford in 2001 as vice president of marketing communications, responsible for overseeing advertising for Dodge, Jeep and Chrysler. Bell's marketing efforts at Chrysler 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, the group principally responsible for Xbox, Xbox 360, Kinect, TV Music and Video Services and PC and mobile entertainment. 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 (see: Marketing of Halo 3). While at Microsoft, Bell additionally oversaw the launches of the Gears of War, Guitar Hero II and Rock Band video games, among others.

Bell was named DoMedia chairman in 2008, overseeing growth of the Columbus, Ohio-based online marketplace.^[7] Bell was named to the board of NCT Ventures LLC in 2007, and currently serves on the advisory board of Nimia, the video asset management company.^[8]

Bell served as the chief client officer of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based carpooling startup vRide from 2012 to 2014. In recent years, Bell has served in a number of advisory capacities, serving 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 ultimately inspiring the season's theme for the network's hit reality competition program The Biggest Loser.^[9] Joining LegalShield as chief executive officer in July 2014, Bell succeeded former chief executive officer Rip Mason, who will serve as executive chairman of the board.

Accolades

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.^[10] Bell has received awards from the Cannes International Festival of Creativity, MediaPost, MinMagazine and E3.

References