Working with me

With 30 years experience in business development, communications, marketing and media, I bring creative solutions and real-world context to set your projects and programmes up for success.
WHAT I DO

Strategy Development

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat” – Sun Tzu.

Brand Strategy
Never has a term been so misunderstood, although – whether you write it down or not – brand strategy is an essential part of any business plan.

Positioning Development
Positioning your brand in your prospective customer’s mind is critical for any marketing campaign – and getting it wrong costs real money.

Marketing Strategy
Writing marketing strategy can be straightforward. But developing a strategy that works for your business, budget, team and customers is not always easy.

Communications Strategy
It is easy to let your departments, agencies and channels define your communications strategy. However, integration brings the best results.

Digital Strategy
Digital strategy sets direction for how your business will succeed, in the face of an ever-changing digital ecosystem.

Content Strategy
Without a solid content strategy, all investment in creating, distributing and measuring your content could be wasted.

WHAT I DO

Content Campaigns

“Raise your words, not your voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder“ – Rumi.

PR Campaigns
Public relations is about influencing what opinion formers, opinion leaders, analysts and the media say about your business.

Writing for Blogs & Media
Clearly articulating what you or your brand has to say in an article, blog post, comment or opinion piece can prove to be an extremely valuable communication.

Thought Leadership
Being more widely recognised as an authority or specialist in your field can have real business impact, driving word-of-mouth awareness and creating new opportunities.


Website Projects
Creating a successful website that drives your business forward requires a holistic approach that integrates content, design and technology.

Inbound Marketing
If you’re investing in content, design and technology, then you need a strategy to leverage your digital assets and attract customers 365 days a year.

SEO Content
Driving better results from Internet search engines doesn’t have to mean accepting poor quality written content, simply because it has an SEO goal.

Design & UX
Effective design comes from ideas inspired by a specific goals and a clear brief. You’ll also find that forward planning saves time and money

Illustrations
Illustrations and animation can prove to be a highly effective medium to increase engagement with your website, digital communications and presentations.

Multimedia
In a world where billions of videos are viewed every day, make sure your multimedia communications are developed to appeal to your specific audiences.

WHAT I DO

Business Development

“If you want to succeed you should strike out on new paths“ – John D. Rockefeller.

Pitch Presentations
I provide the extra time and focus needed to take your pitch presentations to the next level and help you really ‘knock it out of the park’.

Company Profiles
I help you make the most of your company’s story, leverage your core strengths and write a compelling company profile, brochure or web page.

RFP Responses
I improve your team’s chances of success, by focusing on design, clear communication and making the most of your unique selling points.

Introductions
With 30 years of tech industry experience, I am well-connected with analysts, media, technology leaders, distribution channels and clients.

Market Research
I help clients identify research needs, plan projects and develop solutions, across emerging markets where circumstances vary widely.

Sales Support
I provide valuable market context, cross-cultural advice and other insights to help progress sales and partnerships in new markets.

RECOMMENDATIONS VIA LINKEDIN

“I was very impressed with his deep understanding of the industry and very targeted and focused approach.“



‘deep understanding’

Having worked with Carrington a number of times over the years and recently on a Blockchain and AI search project, I was very impressed with his deep understanding of the industry and very targeted and focused approach. I highly recommend Carrington to those who are looking for a strategic and out of the box thinker. Besides his deep understanding of the technology sector in the Middle East, he was able to help me in Europe and in the USA. I am more than happy to recommend Carrington to any company wishing to expand globally.

– Yaz Loukhal, CEO, Yaz Associates – London / Zurich

‘made my job easier’

Carrington is an all-round marketing and communications professional that I can highly recommend. His company was one of Cisco’s first communications agencies in emerging markets. Although far removed from our core global operations, Carrington was invariably up-to-date and fully aligned to corporate strategy, policy and messaging, making my job and that of my team easier and Cisco’s regional communications campaigns top class and highly effective.

– Simon Jacobson, former Cisco EMEA brand marketing & communications director

‘very straightforward’

I’ve worked with Carrington on a number of different projects over the years from strategic planning, to corporate presentations, corporate identity development and media campaigns and have watched him build his business from scratch, signing a long list of global brands as clients along the way. He hires and partners with the best people and I’ve consistently been impressed with the people that he’s brought to work on my projects: and the results thereafter. He’s knowledgeable, creative, analytical, structured and a very straightforward person to do business with. I have no hesitation in recommending Carrington to anyone in need of marketing solutions, strategic advice and someone to help drive their business forward.

– Richard Thompson, managing partner, Progress-Aldwalia


‘world-class marketing plan’

I worked with Carrington whilst launching Tejari’s B2G portal for Saudi Arabia, when he was tasked with developing a marketing plan for the Saudi market from scratch. As the CEO of the new venture, it was important to me that the plan both provided useful insights and was highly actionable in order to support decision making moving forwards. Carrington was able to deliver a world-class marketing plan that was well structured, in-tune with market needs and very useable. I recommend his marketing strategy and planning skills highly.

– Waleed Al-Harkan, former general manager of Tejari Saudi (now CEO, Lebara Mobile, Saudi Arabia)

‘highly successful inbound marketing’

I had the pleasure of working with Carrington for three years across all aspects of digital marketing for Sharjah Investment & Development Authority. In addition to numerous integrated digital marketing campaigns in support of events and other initiatives, he developed a highly successful inbound marketing campaign to target the emirate’s global FDI audiences. Carrington’s strong work ethic, strategic mindset and hands-on marketing skills ensured that digital programmes not only achieved objectives, but that they also ran efficiently and seamlessly whilst requiring the minimum of management time. I recommend him highly.

– Hazem Al Sawaf, former marketing director, Sharjah Investment & Development Authority (now marketing director, Sharjah Tourism)

‘dedication to service excellence’

I first worked with Carrington back in 1998 when he hired me to join his growing team at Spot On. At the time, Carrington had already shown his leadership abilities and his vision for growth, expanding the business with great success and focus in a very short period of time. His dedication to service excellence, his drive to develop a deep understanding of a client’s business and his ability to interpret evolving trends in the technology industry early on have made Spot On the success story it has been for almost two decades. Carrington also has an uncanny ability to find and nurture talent, and many great careers of former employees including my own are a testament to this.

– Sherif El Ghamrawy, former senior account director, Spot On (now director of corporate communications and brand marketing at The First Group)


‘invaluable’

Carrington and his team helped Info2Cell define its brand strategy and paved the way to the company securing $12 million of investment capital, ensuring that the venture was able to reach its full potential. As a company that lives and breathes on the cutting edge of technology and mobile consumer trends, it was invaluable to have access to someone that could quickly understand our business and our future aspirations. I would recommend him highly to technology ventures that require strategic marketing advice and ideas.

– Bashar Dahabra, founder of Pan-Arab mobile information services provider Info2Cell

‘relied heavily on his counsel’

When with Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa, I have worked closely with Carrington and relied heavily on his counsel in developing digital plans and strategy for our brand and business in the Middle-East. Carrington’s broad communications and marketing experience meant that his frame of reference for developing digital plans was exactly what was required. He has not only a firm grasp of new technologies and digital best practices, but also has a keen eye for brand opportunities, potential issues and the integrity of the brand. I can highly recommend Carrington and I look forward to working with him again in the future.

– Hans van Bochove former Director Public Affairs, Communications and CSR, Starbucks EMEA (now Vice-President Public Affairs and Government Relations Coca-Cola European Partners)

‘hard working’

Carrington (CJ) and I worked together in Dubai to establish our own comms agency, Spot On. He is one of the most hard working, thorough and honest people that I know – and is particularly good at attention to detail. CJ has always been at the forefront of technological innovation and he understood early on how digital would transform business. His knowledge of the Middle East technology market is hard to beat.

– Andrew Drwiega, former director at Spot On (now editor in chief at Media Transasia Ltd)