Harlan Kennedy, Director of Strategy, VBP Orange has been helping clients with strategic challenges since 1995. Currently he heads up VBP Orange, a brand innovation consultancy housed within Venables Bell & Partners. Orange clients include Audi, Barclays, Stanford Media X, the March of Dimes and ZER01. In addition to this role, Harlan continues to serve as the strategic lead on Barclays, Russell Investments, and Conoco Phillips at the agency. Prior to working at Venables Bell & Partners, Harlan was VP of Strategic Planning at McCann-Erickson New York, where, in addition to launching the original Xbox for Microsoft, he headed up strategic planning efforts on Dentyne Ice, Bass Ale, and Agilent Technologies. Harlan also worked closely with clients on new product development for Cadbury Adams and Labatt – spending countless hours understanding what new and exciting ways people might want to chew and drink.

During the dot-com boom years Harlan spent most of his time at Sausalito agency Butler, Shine & Stern, where he headed up strategic planning on Sony’s in-house game-developer 989 Studios, as well as quite a few dot-coms (many now deceased). Harlan began his advertising career at McCann-Erickson Seattle (aka Sedgwick Road), where he cut his teeth on the Washington State Lottery, the Washington Apple Commission, and Powerade, Coca-Cola’s then recently introduced competitor to Gatorade. Harlan laid the groundwork for his marketing career with a BA in Art History from Middlebury College.