‘Purposeful Work Unplugged’ features Twitter’s brand strategy chief, CEO of marketing firm RKG

George Gallate.

George Gallate.

Major players in the international realm of online business come to Bates College to discuss their industry and their career paths in a “Purposeful Work Unplugged” conversation at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29, in the Fireplace Lounge, Commons, 136 Central Ave.

The speakers are JP Maheu, head of global branding and agency strategy for Twitter, and George Gallate, CEO of the international marketing firm RKG. The pair will review their paths to the top of these digital giants and the marketing use of social and search data. Leigh Weisenburger, Bates dean of admission and financial aid, will serve as moderator.

The event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6128.

Purposeful Work is a Bates-wide initiative built on the premise that preparing students for lives of meaningful work is central to the liberal arts mission. The initiative is designed to help students figure out what kinds of work interest them, and to connect students to experiences that allow them to test these interests in the workplace.

The Purposeful Work Unplugged series presents question-and-answer sessions with notable alumni, faculty and guests about career trajectories and the traits that support meaningful work.

JP Maheu.

JP Maheu.

Previous to Twitter, Maheu was the CEO of Bluefin Labs, a social-TV-analytics startup that Twitter acquired in February 2013, its largest acquisition to that point. Twitter’s Bluefin acquisition led AdAge to name Maheu as one of the eight great digital hires of 2012.

Prior to Bluefin, Maheu was the global CEO of Publicis Modem, the digital marketing unit of communications giant Publicis Worldwide. He served previously as chief digital officer at Ogilvy & Mather and also spent six years with Razorfish, his last two as CEO.

A veteran of the management-consulting firms A.T. Kearney and Gunn Partners (of which he was a principal), Maheu holds master’s degrees from Pierre and Marie Curie University-Paris and Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Gallate joined RKG in 2012. Founded in 2003, RKG is a full-service digital marketing agency. In July 2014 Gallate led the sale of RKG to Merkle, a data and connected-customer-relations management agency that is the largest privately held firm of its kind in the world.

An early champion of online business communications, Gallate formed and ultimately served as global chairman of Havas Digital, a segment of the international communications and marketing firm Havas Worldwide.

An accomplished industry speaker and thought leader, Gallate speaks frequently at colleges, to faculty as well as students. Born in Australia, he graduated from the University of New South Wales in 1984, the same year he began his advertising career, at Ogilvy & Mather in Sydney.