Merlin Stone

Professor Merlin Stone is one of the UK’s top specialists in changing organisational capability to meet the needs of customers and stakeholders. His experience covers many sectors, and he also trains, coaches and mentors senior managers. He is Research Director and Director responsible for the Customer, Citizen and Stakeholder Management Practice at WCL, specialists in change management and customer/stakeholder management.

He is author or co-author of many articles and thirty books on transforming marketing, sales and customer service capabilities, including Up Close and Personal – CRM @ Work, Customer Relationship Marketing, Successful Customer Relationship Marketing, CRM in Financial Services, Key Account Management in Financial Services, The Customer Management Scorecard, Consumer Insight, Marketing Revolution and Business Solutions on Demand. The UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing listed him in 2003 as one of the world’s top 50 marketing thinkers, while NOP World nominated him in 2004 as one of 100 most influential individuals for their input and influence on the development and growth of e-commerce and the internet in the UK over the previous 10 years. He is an Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and an Honorary Life Fellow of the UK’s Institute of Direct Marketing. He is also on the editorial advisory boards of several academic journals and writes for several trade publications.

He has a first class honours degree and doctorate in economics from Sussex University, UK. In parallel to his business career, he has also pursued a full academic career. He has held senior academic posts at various universities. He is now a part-time professor at Bristol Business School and a visiting professor at several others.