Norths Collective marketing chief to leave in August

Norths Collective's chief marketing and innovation officer Robert Lopez is stepping away from the role after over 13 years.

Lopez announced his planned departure from the hospitality group on LinkedIn, adding he will finish in early August, with no confirmed plans for a new role.

The decision to step down was partly driven by Norths Collective CEO Luke Simmons' decision to also depart following a decade at the helm.

Tony Mathew is set to take over as CEO this August.

The current Digital Nation Awards finalist sits on two advisory boards, including Chief HR, assisting them from a marketing and sponsorship perspective to push membership.

“I also sit on the advisory board of The Customer Show, which is the biggest CX conference in Australia.

“I've been on that advisory board for three years now. We're in Melbourne in August and something I'm passionate about is helping bring that event to life and helping them ensure they've got the right speakers, delivering the right content to the audience to keep ensuring that it is delivering value.”

Lopez told Digital Nation he’ll be working towards his board accreditation to "keep those roles, but [also to] move onto [other] formal board roles."

Lopez - who presented at a number of Salesforce events, with Norths Collective heavily in that technology stack from a marketing perspective - said he would “love to remain connected to the Salesforce ecosystem”.

Norths Collective had worked closely with the major US cloud-based software company for many years as part of its digital transformation journey.

Over the years, Lopez has worked to see Norths Collective develop a personalised journey for its customers, including growing its membership base by 7000 following continued digital transformation work.

The group, home to seven venues and two fitness centres across Sydney and the Gold Coast, also increased membership and user engagement by developing personalisation and analytics under its focused 360 customer view.

Lopez said his top achievement was the Salesforce implementation: "That was the game changer for the organisation, but also for my personal professional growth”.

“The Salesforce implementation, right from 2018 when we started the conversations to now, that whole journey, has been the best.

“Even within that, what we've achieved through the martech stack [and] the Marketing Cloud piece has been exceptional from an engagement perspective,” he said.

With a “great internal marketing team” in place Lopez said the current team at Norths Collective can “keep the ROI and the outcomes going with our partners, underpinning the support as well.”

“I'm proud of what we've achieved here and I'm excited to keep an eye on what Norths Collective does into the future and the successes that they will continue to see and achieve.”