Ben Legg served as COO of Google Europe during a period of dramatic growth, where he wrote the monetisation blueprint for Search, YouTube and Google’s ads business that is still in use today. An engineer turned strategist, his career spans the British Army, McKinsey, Coca-Cola and Google, plus a decade as a private equity-backed tech CEO across Europe, the US and Asia. His years as a Royal Engineers officer – including serving during the relief of the Siege of Sarajevo – shaped his approach to leadership, resilience and decision-making under pressure.
Through his firm Digital People, Ben helps CEOs envision and engineer their AI-powered future, and gives institutional investors robust, practical, high-quality judgement on a fast-moving digital economy. He has built a track record of spotting significant shifts before market consensus by tracking over $1.3billion of annual ad spend across 300+ companies. This research combined with frequent meetings with senior leaders has seen him highlight outcomes from GDPR’s lack of impact on Meta’s business to the rise of AI-powered micro-businesses.
Ben has spoken for companies including Novo Nordisk, CVC, Tesco, DHL, AstraZeneca, Deloitte and SCG, and at events such as Cannes Lions and Chief Disruptor. A frequent commentator on Bloomberg, the FT, the BBC and The Times, he is also the author of the award-winning Marketing for CEOs: Death or Glory in the Digital Age. Exploring everything from market trends to talent, innovation to capital, with energy, clarity and pragmatism, Ben challenges organisations to cut through the noise, implement AI for value rather than hype, redesign for human-plus-AI collaboration, and build resilience from the boardroom to the front line.