In the second of our “5 Questions with..” series, we sit down with Tanya Thorne, Chief Marketing Officer, at Gill Group to find out more about her role, what she is discovering about the industry and maybe even something we didn’t know about her.
Q.1 – What excites you most about Gill and your role here?
Gill Group is one of those rare businesses where the ambition is as big as the potential, and you have every opportunity to genuinely shape the future. I was brought in to continue the work to build a truly commercial marketing engine – one that connects product, sales, and customer with total strategic alignment. It’s meaty work. High stakes, high impact. And it’s exactly my kind of challenge.
Q.2 – You’ve been in this industry for many years – what keeps it interesting for you?
I’m actually new to this industry, and that’s exactly what makes it interesting. I bring a commercial marketing lens shaped across B2C, B2B and B2B2C in tech and telecoms, where full-funnel strategy isn’t optional, it’s essential. Commercial marketing is what I’m about, not surface-level campaigns, but the discipline of connecting brand, product and sales to drive real business outcomes. It’s part behavioural science, part commercial engineering, and when it’s done properly, it changes the course of a business. Every challenge is a new puzzle, and when you crack it, when the numbers move, the market responds, and the brand earns its place, that’s the win. Growth becomes inevitable, not accidental.
Q.3 – How do you see the industry changing in the next five years?
The silos are coming down. Product, sales and marketing can’t operate like awkward flatmates who only speak when the bins need taking out…not when customers expect joined-up thinking and real solutions. Data will get sharper, yes, but the real winners will be the brands that know how to turn insight into action, and action into advantage. It’s the solutions that solve real problems that will win, not the spec sheets so the brands that move forward will be the ones that revolve around the customer and deliver commercially, not just conceptually. The rest? They’ll still be in meetings, wondering why nothing’s moved.
Q.4 – Who has inspired you the most in your career, and what did you learn from them?
Honestly? Some of the most defining lessons came from people I knew I didn’t want to become, and there’s huge value in that. But the ones who truly inspired me were sharp, adaptable, and unafraid to evolve. They didn’t chase perfection. They aimed for brilliant and understood that progress often beats polish. From them, I learned that raising the bar matters but so does knowing when to move it. And failure? Often just the cost of getting somewhere worth going.
Q.5 – Tell us something about yourself that might surprise us.
I’m a textbook introvert (INTJ, if you’re into Myers-Briggs), which surprises people, given I can lead in the boardroom and drive strategy with confidence. I’ve never enjoyed being the centre of attention. My energy comes from quiet. Preferably with dogs, open fields, and no signal, or thousands of miles from home, travelling solo to somewhere completely outside my comfort zone. It’s that mix of stillness and adventure that resets my thinking, sharpens my instincts, and reminds me how much perspective matters – in life and in leadership.
