About Rob Roy

Josh is a marketing consultant and leadership coach who has worked with high-growth companies globally for more than 15 years. He was originally trained as a criminal prosecutor, and since then he’s been a market analyst, a WPP agency CEO, and a data science startup CMO. In January 2017, he founded his own consulting firm, Rob Roy Consulting, based on the belief that authentic purpose and personal conviction are the foundations of all persuasive communication. He helps business leaders and organizations of all kinds become more authentic and persuasive with customers, employees, investors, policymakers and influencers. Josh was the first to transpose Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” into a persuasive storytelling model in the late 1990s. Soon thereafter he developed a series of new evidence-based frameworks to determine core persuasive strategies for marketing campaigns and technology thought leadership. He applied these frameworks to his work with Facebook, LinkedIn, and several other innovative brands worldwide. These innovative approaches to persuasive storytelling, rooted in both classic rhetoric and modern neuroscience, earned him a Top 25 Innovator Award from the Holmes Report in the fall of 2014. Over the years, Josh has developed more than 100 narratives and coached dozens of C-suite executives at companies such as Activision Blizzard, Deloitte, Dolby, Ellucian, Etisalat, Facebook, Ford, Haier, HP, Hyundai, Jabil, LinkedIn, McKesson, Nissan, Oracle, Redscout, SK Telecom, Sony, Surescripts, Symantec, Tantalus, Tata Communications, VMware, Yahoo!, and many others. He’s served on a variety of advisory boards for tech startups and not-for-profit organizations, and has taught courses in persuasive communication and innovation strategies for the Stockholm School of Economics, Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, and the StartX accelerator program at Stanford University. He’s also spoken at events such as Advertising Week, Cannes Lions, Gartner Symposium, Forrester Marketing Forum, LinkedIn TechConnect, Mobile World Congress, and Techonomy. Josh holds degrees in English and History from UCLA, a minor in theology from Oxford, and a law degree from UC Hastings. He’s a frequent author and speaker on the topics of marketing innovation and human intuition. He is also a graduate of the internationally accredited CTI professional coaching program and is a certified Toastmaster. He named his firm Rob Roy Consulting in honor of his grandfather, a stuntman for Roy Rogers who became an international sales and marketing executive, and who taught Josh about the power of personal conviction and helped him overcome crippling shyness in his youth.

Christopher Lane is a seasoned creative professional with over 25 years of experience in various agency and in-house roles. In addition to forming successful creative strategies, he’s a hands-on executor with experience in creative design, copywriting, storyboarding, team-building and project management. Chris has worked across print, digital, video and social mediums for global B2B companies across sectors such as financial services, technology, professional services, and consumer brands. Chris began his career as a graphic designer in the printing industry in San Francisco, then transitioned to the agency world before moving on to the client side. His agency work included design and creative strategy work on such clients as Microsoft, Visa, WaMu, Adobe, Wells Fargo, American Eagle, Charles Schwab, and Blue Shield. Chris then spent a year working freelance for Josh at global PR firm Hill & Knowlton on brand and narrative projects for LinkedIn, Qualcomm, WageWorks, BrightSource Energy, and Deloitte. He then moved in-house with Xilinx, a programmable logic company, where he spent four years managing creative services and agency relationships, as well as doing hands-on work in design and messaging. In 2013 he took on the Creative Director role at AssetMark, a financial services firm, where he led the in-house creative team and worked closely with members of the firm’s C-suite. After four years with AssetMark, he joined Intel’s Programmable Solutions Group as the in-house Creative Lead, where he collaborated on campaign and brand integration work for a business unit that was once a separate company, Altera. Three years later, in 2020, he accepted the position of Creative Director with Rob Roy Consulting. Chris is a San Francisco native and a graduate of UCLA, where he majored in English.

Sharon is responsible for overseeing project timelines, managing the CEO's calendar, and assisting with office management. She is tasked with ensuring that Rob Roy operates smoothly and efficiently and oversees all of the company’s back-end systems, including our CRM and project management software. She is instrumental in ensuring the smooth and timely delivery of multiple client projects, and has supported the Rob Roy team with its work with AWS, CentralSquare, Deloitte, Microsoft, Oracle, Tantalus, the Stockholm School of Economics, and many others Previously, Sharon supported space planning and facility management at a Silicon Valley technology company. She also worked for many years in the non-profit sector as a preschool teacher and director, and ran her own business for several years. Sharon holds a degree in Business with a minor in Hospitality Management. She's also an avid seamstress and gardener.

As Rob Roy’s Research Associate, Arden ensures that clients and his Rob Roy colleagues have the insights and information they need for deliverables of all kinds—narrative and messaging documents, strategy documents and plans, sales and marketing collateral, and keynote scripts and presentations. His responsibilities include tracking market trends, researching competitors, assisting with demand-generation initiatives such as ABM, and analyzing strategic narratives. He produces findings reports, tackles challenging research requests, and ensures all the content we deliver for clients is backed by reputable research. Beyond research, Arden is on the front lines of learning how to use the latest AI tools, in close partnership with our Head of AI Strategy. As an accomplished writer, he also helps the team draft persuasive content of all kinds, and he contributes his non-linear thinking to every challenge that crosses his desk. All these skills, plus his naturally detail-oriented and collaborative approach to work, makes him an invaluable member of any project team. Arden graduated Summa Cum Laude from George Washington University in Washington, DC. Using his degree in Creative Writing and English with Honors, and his History degree, Arden learned how to take in and relay information while critically analyzing it. Arden has been published in a DC literary magazine and continues to write stories in his spare time.

As AI Lead, Jesse spearheads Rob Roy Consulting’s own adoption of AI, leads client demos and trainings on AI tools, and works to keep the Rob Roy team up to date on AI adoption. He has demoed for clients like Scania and the Stockholm School of Economics and leads workshops for the Rob Roy team, as well. Jesse graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Honors College of the University of Texas San Antonio with degrees in English, Business Administration and Jazz Studies. Jesse also plays jazz trombone and flugelhorn, has gigged in several venues across the U.S., and has produced his own jazz album: Loopwhole.

Jay Andersen enables Rob Roy to determine the state of the world for our clients. With a ​background in library and information science, he brings over 20 years of public relations and analyst relations experience, specializing in competitive intelligence, messaging, market trends, new business development, and finding the proverbial needle in a stack of needles. Jay has worked with some of the world's biggest technology vendors—ranging from Fortune 50 to fresh-out-of-the-garage start-ups—and built his career at several of Silicon Valley's most prestigious PR agencies, including Cunningham Communication, Blanc & Otus, and Hill + Knowlton Strategies​.

Naomi is responsible for planning, implementing and managing all of Rob Roy’s financial operations, including accounts receivable/payable, monthly invoicing, and company expenses. Naomi has also planned, implemented and managed all aspects of HR, including our 401k plan, benefits and payroll. She oversaw the company’s successful navigation through the pandemic, avoided any layoffs, and helped the company emerge in a stronger position as we entered 2022. In the 90’s, Naomi worked for Lazard Freres Asset Management and earned both series 7 & 63 licenses. After taking time off to raise a family, she returned to school and is working towards a degree in Biological Sciences to complement her 30+ year career as a therapeutic yoga instructor.​