@leoexter
Leo Exter
Leo combines deep theoretical understanding of marketing strategy with intensely practical knowledge of marketing execution.
His career began at The Coca-Cola Company, where he acquired an in-depth knowledge of Consumer Research in a variety of roles in Moscow and Brussels. As a Product Manager at Info2clear – a small company in the sunset years of the dot-com boom he was for the first time exposed to the mysteries of product creation, and took that knowledge with him to his job as the Marketing Manager Europe for Mio Technology.
In that role, Leo has created a new brand of portable GPS devices in Europe and led it to the 3rd position in the highly competitive, dynamic market. In that role he acquired hands-on experience in every aspect of consumer marketing: from product design to packaging, from defining and executing a marketing strategy to press relations, from field marketing and advertising to taking full advantage of social media.
For the past two years, Leo served as Managing Director at Trimedia, a Pan-European public relations consultancy. In this capacity Leo provided communications consultancy to clients as diverse as an oil company (LUKOIL), a media buying agency (Mediaedge), and a number of FMCG and Fashion clients.
Leo has recently launched his own business, westartup (http://westartup.eu) – a community/social network aimed at supporting entrepreneurship through crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. At westartup, Leo serves as chief evangelist, strategic thinker, business architect, all-around marketing guy, business developer, product manager, copywriter and occasional webmaster.
Leo Exter holds an MBA in General Management from Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (Belgium), and a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Valdosta State University (USA). He speaks fluent English and Russian, and has a working knowledge of French.
