Ken Roberts

Mr Ken Roberts is the Chief Executive Officer of Forethought.

He opened the Forethought doors and solved his first client’s challenge in July 1994. He has led Forethought to be ranked the most commercially effective and innovative marketing consultancy in Australia.

Forethought is best known for assisting challenger brands and restoring established brands. In Australia his clients include Kmart, Optus, Jetstar, Coles, AustralianSuper, CBA, Deloitte, NBN and Allianz.

Mr Roberts is a serial innovator and inventor. He has been lauded internationally for frame-breaking and patented work in the implicit measurement of emotion, along with the rational drivers that lead to change in consumption behaviour.

Having opened a New York office in 2012, he has worked extensively with US brands such as Hershey, Applebee’s, JetBlue and Nestlé.

Through a dual lens of survey and organisational data, Mr Roberts seeks to address organisations’ most fundamental questions: How do I efficiently gain and retain market share? How do I drive the efficacy of my communications? How do I optimise customer experience?

Among his industry recognition, Mr Roberts has been awarded the following:

• Advertising Research Foundation Gold David Ogilvy Award for Research in Communications
• Australian Market and Social Research Society Award for Innovation in Research Methods
• Australian Market and Social Research Society Award for Commercial Effectiveness
• Australian Marketing Institute Certified Practising Marketer of the Year

Mr Roberts has also twice been a finalist in the globally prestigious INFORMS MSI Practice Prize.

He has published extensively including in the journal Marketing Science, and has made an important contribution to the future of the marketing profession via his inventions and commercial activities, and previously as an academic at Monash University and as an Associate Professor at Melbourne Business School.

His contribution has also included his role as a member and past chairman of the Industry Advisory Board of the Department of Marketing at Monash University.

Mr Roberts has undertaken extensive pro bono research on behalf of some of the most underprivileged groups in Australia. His findings into homelessness in Australia helped to inform the Rudd Government’s decision to announce a Minister for the Homelessness. His work found discrepancies between perceived reasons for homelessness and actual, with the key drivers of homelessness – family violence – greatly underestimated by Australians.

Also, his examination of the psychological impact of unemployment on individuals formed the backbone of a submission on behalf of the Salvation Army to the House of Representatives’ Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations. The results highlighted the negative financial, social and psychological effects of prolonged unemployment.

Mr Roberts holds a Bachelor of Business in Marketing from Monash University and a Master of Business Administration from The University of Melbourne.