Board of Advisors

ELIZABETH RONN

Elizabeth Ronn, former Vice President of Marketing for P&G’s global household-care businesses, was responsible for almost half of P&G’s $83 billion annual sales. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from LSU in 1976 and holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business. She retired from P&G after 25 years of service in 2009 and is now a partner in  Innovation Portfolio Partners, LLC, a Silicon Valley-based consulting firm that helps Fortune 500 companies develop strategies for innovation and new products. Over the years, Elizabeth has been active in community affairs, volunteering with numerous philanthropic and civic organizations. She is currently a volunteer teacher in the Future Profits Program at Sequoia High School in Redwood City, Calif., and was an interviewer, fundraiser, and guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of business, on whose management board she serves.

MARKUS WILHELM

Markus Wilhelm has served on the Guthy-Renker board of advisors since 2007. He has enjoyed a long and distinguished career, mostly with Bertelsmann AG and Time-Warner. He was CEO for a number of publishing and direct-marketing firms, including Bookspan and Doubleday Direct, in the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China and Korea. He is the former Chairman of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and of Syskoplan; and has served on the boards of the Direct Marketing Educational Foundation (DMEF), BN.com, Ordertrust and others. Currently, Mr. Wilhelm is CEO of Strata Solar LLC.

ARUN SINHA

Arun Sinha is a deeply experienced global chief marketing officer (CMO) whose specialty is to change companies to be more customer centric and marketing driven, and to transform a company’s image and reputation to become the global leader in their category. He served as CMO of Zurich Financial Services and Pitney Bowes, and in senior marketing positions at Philip Morris and Young & Rubicam. He was named “Marketer of the Year” in 2009 by the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) and “Chief Marketing Officer of the Year” in 2011 by The CMO Institute. He is author of the book, Sweet Spot: How to Maximize Marketing for Business Growth. He serves on the board of the DMA. Currently, Mr. Sinha is a Senior Faculty Fellow, teaching at Yale School of Management.