About Kip Knight
A Born Marketer - Kip Knight is one of the luckiest people he knows…he discovered what he wanted to do the rest of his life during his freshman year of college and never looked back. He was elected chairman of the Speakers Committee for the LSU Union (and eventually was elected President) when he decided he’d bring the creator of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry, to town.
Before Kip arrived, the biggest crowd to ever attend a speech was 2,000. Kip went to the local TV station, talked them into extensive free advertising for the event, and drew a sellout crowd of 14,000. After that, he knew marketing was his true calling.
A Strong Foundation - Kip joined Procter and Gamble's brand management program in Cincinnati and learned marketing from some of the world's best marketers. He managed a wide range of businesses, ranging from classics such as Ivory Soap, Spic and Span and Bounce to a variety of new products such as Olestra.
Kip has always loved different countries and cultures, so in 1990 he left P&G to join PepsiCo International, where he held a variety of leadership positions, including Vice President of Marketing for KFC International (with over 10,000 locations around the world) and CMO at Taco Bell. Kip has worked in 65 different countries on both start-ups and multi-billion dollar enterprises (but since there are nearly 200 countries in the world, he figures he’s not even at the halfway mark yet).
In 2002, Kip decided the time was right to help create a whole new emerging business (e-commerce) and joined eBay as the head of International Marketing (where he helped launch the business in a variety of countries, including India and China). He later served as Vice President of Marketing for eBay, North America.
Importance of Training - Since Kip learned first-hand the value of in-depth marketing training during his time at P&G, he created Marketing Colleges for both PepsiCo and eBay during his time with these international companies. He’s a highly rated featured speaker at business conferences around the world. He's also the creator and leader of marketing seminars on various topics, such as how to create world class advertising and how to develop and implement an impactful social media strategy.
In 2008, Kip launched KnightVision Marketing to begin to apply the learnings he'd gained over the past 30 years to help other companies build their own brands. He works with a wide variety of clients and utilizes a network of affiliated business partners to address his client's strategic and executional challenges.
Giving Back - Kip believes it’s critical to give back to the community and does this in several ways. He serves pro bono as the Dean of the U.S. Marketing Communication College that works with the U.S. State Department and other key federal agencies to teach senior level government executives and diplomats how to apply modern marketing strategies and best practices to enhance America’s image abroad. He also serves on the Board of C.E.O. Women, a non-profit group which teaches immigrant women English skills and how to start their own business.