On Wednesday evening more than 100 business leaders from across the region came to Lancaster University to hear Heike O’Leary talk about her strategic marketing journey and expertise of how to best integrate a new brand during a string of acquisitions.

This was the fifth Masterclass of this year’s series, Heike O’Leary, Group Marketing Director of leading UK motor retailer Lookers, showcased her impressive record of achieving real results, locally and internationally, with a customer-centric, multi-platformed approach that has helped household brands including Adidas and Callaway Golf.

Heike shared with the audience how she revolutionised the Lookers brand, turning business growth ideas into market reality. Throughout the Masterclass she illustrated that is it vital to have strong brand awareness, customer loyalty and that there is always room for more innovation.

Professor Angus Laing, Dean of Lancaster University Management School, said: “We were delighted to welcome Heike to Lancaster. This year’s series have included two guest speakers focusing on Marketing and Heike’s Masterclass complimented them beautifully. Heike emphasised the value of people and the community that they are part of and secondly that we shouldn’t allow the fear of failure to stop us from exploring new opportunities.”

The event was part of a masterclass series run by Lancaster University Management School and supported by NatWest, which involves inspirational speakers with a passion for business sharing their knowledge and expertise to inspire SMEs. Lancaster University Management School has been running business masterclasses for more than 10 years as part of their business engagement programmes and have drawn audiences in the hundreds from across the North West’s SME networks.