Marcus East

Marcus Delano East (born February 7, 1972) is a British technologist, author, speaker, and former politician. He has over 25 years of experience in Information Technology, specializing in digital transformations and e-Commerce.

Early Life and Education

East was born in Enfield, North London to Inez Elizabeth East and Patrick East, and grew up there before traveling extensively with his work. He later moved to Silicon Valley to pursue his passion for technology as an executive.

His education started at the Bounds Green School in North London, before attending the Latymer Grammar School in Enfield, where he was a member of Dolbé House, rising to the rank of House Officer in his penultimate year. During his time there, he developed a strong interest in charity and was awarded the foundation’s HE Horlock Prize for Outstanding Community Service in 1989. East went to the London Guildhall University for his Bachelors of Science in Management and Information Technology, later going on to complete his Masters of Studies in Management from the University of Cambridge.

He credits having a strong education for allowing him to build a successful career in technology.

Career

East has been associated with Information Technology for more than two decades. He started his career at IBM, where he spent six years as a consultant, before joining Omnicom’s Agency.com as Vice President. After Agency.com, he went on to hold executive positions in Inspired Broadcast and Breathe Networks (where he led a management buyout) and worked as an advisor to Peter Gabriel.

In 2009, he joined Comic Relief as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and built the Future Media & Technology function, which delivered critical technology platforms and solutions for the organization. He is credited with helping the organization to embrace agile, taking the charity into the cloud, and building the fundraising platform known as FROST.

In 2011 he left Comic Relief to join Apple as EMEIA Head of eCommerce Solutions, but was later promoted into a global role based at Apple’s campus in Silicon Valley.

In 2016 East was persuaded by Marc Bolland, then CEO of Marks and Spencer, to return to the UK to become Global Digital Director of the international retailer. He was tasked with helping to bring the company into the digital age by bringing a strong digital culture, but this was frustrated by a number of personnel changes there as the company struggled to adapt and he left in 2017.

He then returned to the United States to join National Geographic as Executive Vice President of Product & Technology/Chief Technology Officer, working closely with 21st Century Fox Global CTO, Paul Cheesbrough and NatGeo Chief Digital Officer, Rachel Webber. His primary responsibility in this role was to redevelop the National Geographic core platforms and to build a strong Product & Technology function. This team won a number of awards for its work, including the Webby Award for Media Company of the Year and a number of awards of digital experiences and products: During this time, National Geographic launched a number of successful new products including the award-winning National Geographic app.

East also led the migration of the iconic National Geographic Image Collection archive into the cloud, which was showcased across the industry, including presentations at Google Next 2019.

On July 10, 2019, it was announced that East had joined Google’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (Office of the CTO) returning to Silicon Valley as part of the engineering function for one of the world’s top technology companies.

He also revealed that he is to become an author and that he is being mentored by best-selling author, Tucker Max, to publish a book about Digital Transformation called "Working with Dinosaurs", which should be released in early 2020 by Lioncrest Publishing.

Political Career

East has also been a political activist and official, working on the campaigns for Boris Johnson’s election as Mayor of London in 2008, and also being active in his local community as a member of the Conservative Party before emigrating to the United States.

He stood for election in the May 2010 Local Elections and was elected as Councillor for Chase Ward, Enfield and served a full four-year term representing the ward alongside Tom Waterhouse and Simon Maynard from May 6, 2010, until May 5, 2014.

Affiliations

East is a:

• Member of the Chartered Management Institute
• Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS) Chartered Institute for IT
• Member of the Global Council of the WSA Board of Directors [World Summit Awards, a United Nations Initiative]
• Advisor to the UNESCO Information For All Program (UN IFAP)
• Ambassador for the Oxford University Foundry’s L.E.V8 Programme for Female Entrepreneurs.
• Judge for the D&AD Impact Awards as a member of the D&AD Impact Council

Personal Life

East lives in Silicon Valley with his wife, with whom he was married in 2017. He is known to be a supporter of Arsenal Football Club, where he is also a Debenture Holder.

In his spare time, he actively supports charities and not for profits and is a mentor for Unreasonable Group, a judge for the D&AD Impact Awards and was announced as an ambassador for the Oxford University Foundry's L.E.V8 program for female entrepreneurs in May 2019.

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