Virginia Barnes

Global Head of Brand, Aviva

Virginia began her career as a graduate trainee in advertising. Over six years she worked on P&G across Europe, Persil, and Shell and HSBC globally before deciding to make the move client side. She was the Brand Manager on Anchor Butter, which she relaunched as “the free range butter company”, before she moved to Mars snack food to work on brands including Skittles, Starburst and Maltesers. She joined Aviva in 2009 as part of Aviva’s newly created global brand team. She works with markets to manage the brand around the world and was key to the creation of “You are the big picture”, Aviva’s first international brand campaign. She has recently been shortlisted for the Young Marketer of the Year by the Marketing Society and the Financial Services Forum. She is married to a Quantity Surveyor who doesn’t really understand her job - but then she doesn’t really understand his either.