People

John Hogan

Hogan left Australia when he was 20 and headed for London where he became a trainee with the Nestle company before moving in 1966 to Brunning Advertising. A year later he moved to Benton & Bowles and began working on the Proctor & Gamble and General Foods accounts before moving in 1969 to Wasey Advertising where he worked on the Coca-Cola account. One of his first moves was to support the career of F2 driver Gerry Birrell (who was later killed in an accident at Rouen) and he also helped to find money for the young James Hunt. In 1971 he joined Ron Dennis and Neil Trundle at Rondel Racing, his job being to look for sponsorship for the new team. This was not a success, however, and after Rondel closed down Hogan joined Philip Morris Europe as Promotions Co-ordinator in 1973. In the years that followed he shaped Marlboro's sponsorship activities and by 1976 was in charge of all Marlboro event marketing. In 1980 he played an important role in the restructuring of McLaren, supporting his old friend Ron Dennis.The move was a big success and by 1984 Hogan had become Marketing Director for Philip Morris Europe. He then began a long process of increasing the association between Marlboro and Ferrari, which had started out as personal sponsorship deals with the drivers. In 1990 he became Vice President of Marketing for Philip Morris Europe and in 1996 was behind the shift of Marlboro money from McLaren to Ferrari. He has been on the Formula 1 Commission since its inception in 1982. He retired from Philip Morris in 2002 and in 2003 was appointed sporting director of Jaguar Racing.