Our Panel for Branding Question Time
Michael Persson Gripkow
Bergh's School of Communication
Michael works as a senior brand consultant and has experience of having been responsible for brand management of some of Sweden's best-known brands, including the brand Sweden.
Before starting his own company, focusing on national, regional and place branding, Michael led "Brand Sweden" at Visit Sweden 2016-2021. He played a key role in the further development of the brand strategy, team collaboration and implementation. He also led Sweden's export program for design, food and nature tourism, including both national and regional collaborations with Sweden's cities and regions, including Visit Skåne.
Michael also has many years of experience as brand and marketing manager for Volvo Cars, the Royal Opera, Swedavia and Absolut Vodka.
Today, Michael works on assignments within Place Branding, positioning and business strategy for both private and public clients. Michael is former chairman of Svensk Destinationsutveckling AB and now course leader for Bergh's School of Communications training "Place Branding" and runs the network "Place Branding Executives" which is aimed at communicators, real estate companies and others wanting to develop their place brand.
Anna Gissler
Head of Communication and Market at AMF Fastigheter
Charlotte Ungerth
Global Medical Marketing Director at RELIFE Menarini
Charlotte Ungerth (also known as Lotti), is a dynamic leader with a strong foundation in both business and science, holds a Business Diploma from the Stockholm School of Economics and a Master of Science in Biomedicine.
With over a decade of experience in the pharmaceutical and aesthetics industries, she has proven expertise in global brand management and strategic growth initiatives.
As the former Global Brand Director at SOBI AB, Charlotte led communication strategies for business development in the inflammation therapeutics area. Additionally, she spearheaded the successful rebranding of Restylane, transforming the iconic brand at its 25-year milestone, after overseeing its growth strategies as Head of Global Marketing.
Currently, Charlotte resides in Florence, Italy, where she is leading the global transformation of RELIFE, an aesthetics company under the Menarini Group.
Harnessing Italian heritage and creativity, she has recently launched a new global positioning campaign, bringing together science, beauty, and artistry to elevate the brand.
Moderator: Maddy Savage
BBC freelance journalist
After ten years as a BBC staff reporter and presenter in London, Maddy moved to Stockholm in 2014 to become Editor of The Local Sweden. She now works as a freelance documentary maker, podcaster and journalist for British and Swedish media, including BBC, Monocle Radio, Naudio and Podlit.
Maddy’s favourite assignments focus on Nordic innovation, sustainability and lifestyle trends.
On February 14th this year Maddy moderated the UP Seminar Has the world fallen out of love with the Swedish brand?
Outside of journalism, Maddy regularly moderates English-language business and media events across the Nordics.
Julian Reisz
Director of Open innovation & Lab at Arla Foods
As Director of Open innovation & Lab at Arla Foods, Julian is helping explore the future of dairy around the world.
Half British, half French, living in Sweden he is passionate about food and drink, branding and culture.
Some of the projects he's driven in recent years: marketing single-garden luxury Chinese tea to Michelin star restaurants, creating a new Rum brand for US Hispanic market, exporting Swedish midsummer as a global celebration for a vodka company, starting his own local circular beer company.
"Food is so much more than nutrition, it's social connection, local traditions and a reflection of culture". Many food and beverage brands leverage their local or regional identities and this will be an interesting aspect of the seminars topic.
Julian is on a bit of a high at the moment as he is a keen Arsenal fan.
Julian Stubbs
Founder & Chairman UP THERE, EVERYWHERE
As a brand strategist and writer, Julian has helped shape the international marketing strategies for Hamburg, Basle, The Netherlands, Stockholm as "The Capital of Scandinavia," as well as the branding and positioning of the Hollywood movie brand Technicolor.
His first book 'WISH YOU WERE HERE' details his work for Stockholm and other brands and is the #1 best seller on place branding globally.
Julian founded UP THERE, EVERYWHERE, the pioneering global cloud-based agency in 2011 and has taken the agency from a start up of two people to sales of €10M annually, becoming Sweden's leading international marketing agency with hubs around the world and a growing global client base.
Julian is passionate about Liverpool FC, is a proud European, and calls the beautiful city of Stockholm his home.
About the event hosts
UP THERE, EVERYWHERE – The Global Cloud-Based Agency – is a full-service brand, marketing, and digital agency with a global reach. They work in globally distributed teams around the world while connecting with clients locally.
Founded in January 2011 in Stockholm, Sweden, the agency continues to drive innovative, cloud-based collaboration in the marketing services area.
The agency offers creative and strategic services for everything from market research and analysis, branding, identity and communications, through to website and ecommerce site development, inbound, content and social media marketing, to film and webinars.
Clients span a wide spectrum from established global multi-nationals to small innovative startups across a wide range of business to business and consumer areas. Today the UP Group has sales of around ten million euros, with 75% of revenue coming from outside of Sweden. For more on UP click here.
