Libsyn Directory

LG Electronics’ Head of Global Corporate Communications, Ken Hong [Episode 14]

Release Date: 12/19/2019

Trust is a Core Competency with SC JOHNSON CCO, Alan VanderMolen [Episode 42]

Damn Good Brands

After a 30-year agency career that included notable stints with Edelman and WE Communications, Alan VanderMolen was named Chief Communications Officer at CPG giant SC Johnson last year. Alan oversees both internal and external communications at SC Johnson, reporting to CEO Fisk Johnson. In this wide-ranging conversation with Lippe Taylor CEO Paul Dyer, Alan delves into the importance of trust, keys to revolutionizing sustainability practice, the importance of internal comms, advice for aspiring leaders, and what it was like joining SC Johnson at the height of the pandemic. Below...

Mondelēz CCO, Russ Dyer on Oreo’s Real-Time Content Engine, Inventing Your Own ESG Best Practices, and the Importance of Having a Hunger for Networking [Episode 41]

Damn Good Brands

Russell Dyer is the VP & Chief of Communications and Government Affairs at Mondelēz International. At Mondelēz, Russ is responsible for overseeing all external and internal communications as well as government affairs for Mondelēz International, a Fortune 150 and the global leader in snacking. Russ joined Mondelēz in 2015 as Vice President, Global Communications. In that role, he was responsible for all strategic communications plans, overseeing the worldwide external and internal communication activities. Prior to joining Mondelēz, Russ spent 2 years at Kraft, and before that, Russ...

Galderma VP & GM, June Risser [Episode 40]

Damn Good Brands

June Lee Risser is Vice President and General Manager for the U.S. Galderma Consumer Care business. A strategic business leader with a passion for building great brands, June is responsible for leading the U.S. commercial organization for the Galderma portfolio of consumer-available brands, including Cetaphil® Gentle Skin Care products, celebrating 70 years of healthy skin in 2017 and Differin® Gel,  first FDA-approved, prescription-strength retinoid acne treatment available over the counter since 2017. June joined Galderma in April 2016 as Vice President of Marketing...

LEVI’S Global Brand President, Jen Sey [Episode 39]

Damn Good Brands

Jen Sey is the global brand president at Levi Strauss & Co., where she is responsible for marketing, design, merchandising, and brand experience. Jen has been with Levi Strauss & Co. for more than 20 years, holding a variety of leadership positions within the Marketing, Strategy, and Ecommerce teams. In 2013, Jen became the global chief marketing officer for the Levi’s brand and in 2018 was appointed senior vice president and chief marketing officer, overseeing marketing for the company’s portfolio of brands. Jen has been named one of AdAge’s "Top 40 Marketers Under 40" one...

GODIVA CMO, John Galloway on Bringing Sweetness to 2020 [Episode 38]

Damn Good Brands

John Galloway is chief marketing and innovation officer for Godiva Chocolatier, the 95-year-old Belgian maker of premium chocolate. He joined the company in 2018 after nearly 30 years in marketing, including substantial stints at Pepsi and Hard Rock. John came to Godiva from a position as CEO of Beautiful Day, where he worked for three years to roll out the lifestyle brand startup. Before that he was with Hard Rock for eight years, handling advertising, public relations, loyalty, and social media for 208 hotels, casinos, cafés, and music venues in 75 countries. At PepsiCo, he...

Origin Stories: SWAG.com CEO Jeremy Parker on the Startup Hustle and Lessons Learned from Jessie Itzler & David Goggins [Episode 37]

Damn Good Brands

Jeremy Parker is the Co-founder and CEO of , the eCommerce platform for purchasing promotional materials that people actually want to keep. When you think of the promotional products industry, you might think of cheaply made items you pickup conferences only to eventually throw away. Or, god forbid you've ever had to order promotional products yourself and are aware of the nightmare of dealing with shipping inquiries, quality issues, and all manner of inconvenience synonymous with that industry. Swag.com's mission is to take the pain out of ordering customized promotional material with a focus...

Origin Stories: Jordan Silbert & Q Mixers [Episode 35]

Damn Good Brands

Jordan Silbert is the founder and CEO of Q Mixers, the premium brand of cocktail mixers. The idea for the company came to him while he was drinking top-shelf gin mixed with low-quality tonic with friends and asked himself, “Shouldn’t my tonic be as good as my gin?” Next came years of experimenting before he devised the perfect blend of high-quality ingredients and ample carbonation that became the brand’s first product. Today the Brooklyn-based company has 11 products and is distributed by all major retailers, in addition to being stocked by discerning bartenders everywhere. Before...

BAYER US SVP of Corporate Affairs, Ray Kerins, on Crisis Comms and the Role of Communications in the Covid Economy [Episode 34]

Damn Good Brands

“Let's all work together to find a solution, as opposed to figuring out what this person did wrong, or that person did wrong. There's no time for that anymore. People are dying, and we have to find the solutions.”

Mentor by J&J President, Diane Gomez Thinnes [Episode 33]

Damn Good Brands

Diane Gomez-Thinnes is Worldwide President at Mentor, one of the world’s biggest makers of breast implants for aesthetic and post-surgical breast reconstruction. Diane has been with the Johnson & Johnson company since 2016 and held the title of vice president for U.S. marketing and global strategic marketing before ascending to the role of president in 2019. Before Mentor, Diane was a marketing executive for medical device makers Ethicon and Cordis. She began her career as an engineer in the oil business and has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Princeton as well as an M.B.A. from...

Best Buy CCO, Matt Furman on Storytelling Over Data & Championing Truth in the DEI Discussion [Episode 32]

Damn Good Brands

“If you speak to 100 people, a third of them didn't listen, a third of them forgot what you said, and the other third didn't believe you. And so you’ve got to speak, and you’ve got to speak again, and you’ve got to speak again.”

More Episodes

Welcome to Damn Good Brands. Today, as part of our Influence 100 series in partnership with The Holmes Report, we are speaking to Ken Hong, the Head of Global Corporate Communications at LG.

Ken has been at LG for over ten years. Throughout the course of that time, he has witnessed and led the company through a number of technological and overall changes in the marketing landscape. Ken currently resides in Korea, but his position has taken him all over the world, giving him a very globalized perspective on consumer technology and the state of communications.

We discuss Ken’s philosophy of leadership during comprehensive company evolution, and his overall thoughts on today’s state of communications. Here are some key takeaways from this conversation with Ken Hong:

Study psychology and political science or hire those who have. Ken is very vocal about the importance of lesser-mentioned disciplines that better enable communications professionals, specifically political science and psychology. Ken claims that his studies in both of these fields helped him tremendously as a communications leader since they gave him a fundamentally better understanding of humanity, culture, and therefore communications.

Think global, stay local. Despite working in five international cities, Ken finds that experience in global comms is in low demand, whereas local expertise in any given market is much more valuable. Ken recommends that comms leaders have a baseline understanding of global communications but remain focused on their local markets, since global expertise is rarely important to local clients.

Keep your challenger mindset. Part of Ken’s success comes down to his refusal to rest on his laurels even when LG achieves market leader status in certain categories. In Ken's view, there is no fundamental sense of “having arrived,” considering the speed of change. In an industry like electronics with its diverse array of products, it’s critical to always be cognizant of the brands that aren’t market leaders and keep pushing them forward to remain vigilant.

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