Christopher Lao-Thiane
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), working with founders and leadership teams across Africa.
20+ years building marketing systems that move revenue, on 15+ markets, from Paris agencies to African scale-ups and a World Bank/IFC portfolio company.
I am a Fractional CMO. I work across Africa with founders and leadership teams who want marketing that drives revenue. My career spans 20+ years and 15+ markets: France, the United States, the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, and ten-plus African countries including Rwanda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
The path is not linear, and that is the point. Integrated campaigns at Nextedia, part of the Lagardère Active group, in Paris. The digital division of Saatchi & Saatchi built from zero across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, as head of digital then co-managing director. A performance system through my own practice, Cob Editions, that generated 2M+ leads for Canal+ on 2.19M euros of cumulative media spend. Group marketing across 10 African countries at Bboxx. A year as sole external consultant, October 2023 to September 2024, to a World Bank/IFC-XSML portfolio company, whose revenue rose 58.4% between 2022 and 2024.
2012, Reunion Island: while building the digital division at Saatchi & Saatchi, I pitched a startup called Intratag, won, and took it into incubation at the Reunion Technopole on a validated budget of 53,900 euros. An agency teaches you to spend a client's budget; a startup teaches you what a budget costs. I have sat on the founder's side of the table ever since.
One thread runs through all of it: I build systems. Agencies, funnels, teams, frameworks. Different industries, same discipline.
On the 2024 dates: the Bboxx mandate was ending as the World Bank mission began, with both parties in agreement. That transition is what launched the fractional practice.
- 2024-
Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | Pan-Africa · Cob Editions
Portfolio of companies across East and Central Africa. Embedded with founders and C-suite.
- 2024-2025
Senior Sales & Marketing Consultant | The World Bank (IFC-XSML)
Sole external consultant, beauty retail portfolio company. The entire marketing and commercial function created from nothing, October 2023 to September 2024.
- 2022-2024
Group Head of Marketing & Communications | Energy & E-mobility, 10 African Markets · Bboxx
Conversion multiplied by 3.3, from 5.05% to 16.61%, and cost per sale divided by 2.8, from $9.58 to $3.47.
- 2013-2021
Founder & Performance Marketing Consultant · Cob Editions
2M+ leads on 2.19M euros of cumulative media spend, for Canal+ among others, at a 28.1% gross margin in 2018.
- 2011-2017
Head of Digital then Co-Managing Director · Saatchi & Saatchi (Master Group, Publicis network)
Digital division built from zero across seven territories, Indian Ocean and Caribbean.
- 2013
Youpulse · a search intelligence product, built inside an agency
Two years of R&D, 30% funded by the French research tax credit. It measured how much of what a buyer reads on the way to a brand actually belongs to that brand.
- 2012
Intratag · first entrepreneurial venture
Winner of Start-Up Weekend Réunion 2012. From the first pitch to incubation, on a validated budget of 53,900 euros.
- 2010-2011
Account Director · Wunderman (WPP network), Reunion
- 2005-2010
Project Delivery Manager, then Project Director · Nextedia (Lagardère Active group), Paris
- 2004-2005
CRM Manager · RogueLink, Oregon, USA
Since 2004: 2.19M euros of cumulative media spend · 2M+ leads · 12,000+ landing pages · 50,000 campaigns · 15+ markets.
Coca-Cola · BMW · Mercedes · Volkswagen · Toyota · Samsung · Unilever · Nestlé · Nivea · Heineken · McDonald's · Total · Orange
- Bboxx
- The World Bank
- Saatchi & Saatchi
- Canal+
- Lagardère Active
15+ markets, worked on the ground
Rwanda, Kenya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mali, Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, South Africa, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mayotte, Reunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Belgium, France, United States.
Languages: English, French.
- 4 creative awards, Saatchi & Saatchi (2013-2015), including a 1st prize for corporate film.
The full CV, one click, no email required.
Twenty years of systems. Yours could be next.
The first call30 minutes. We talk about your traction and what is blocking it. You leave with 2 or 3 moves you can act on. No pitch.