John Stubbs has been chief executive of The Marketing Council since its formation in Spring 1995, and in 1999 was also appointed chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He began his career at J Walter Thompson in London before moving to Unilever, where he was responsible for various operations overseas. In 1987 he became operations director of the Unilever Export Group, before being appointed deputy head of Unilever's Marketing Division in 1989.