Ben Sturt - Director of Digital

Ben is a rational thinker, straight talker and experienced in the world of digital strategy. For over 10 years, Ben has been proactively involved in many of the different elements of online business – from e-commerce, online strategy and creating content channels to digital marketing, advertising, website design and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems.

Ben heads up Merchant’s digital division and is a member of the board. He manages the team of web developers, designers and project managers, gives director level input for our clients’ online strategies and has overall responsibility for the delivery and growth of Merchant’s digital services.

In 1999 Ben was a co-founder of FredFinds.com, the first truly online mortgage broker in the UK – offering a mortgage finding service for homebuyers. This pioneering business gave Ben his first major digital challenge.

After FredFinds.com, Ben was recruited as Commercial Head at Lycos UK where for three years he was responsible for developing strategic new business areas. He created two content specific channels - The Gaming Channel and The Finance Channel – and put together a range of commercial deals strengthening Lycos UK’s revenue through advertising and content commissioning.

Moving into the service sector in 2003, Ben became a director at E-mango – a specialist e-business agency provider to the not for profit sector, and more specifically for membership associations. Here he worked on the online business strategies and implementation for organisations including the English Nature, the Department of Trade and Industry and the International Bar Association.

For the past three years, Ben has been leading his team at Merchant to create and implement digital strategies for our clients, with a specialist focus on the healthcare sector. Work includes online branding and marketing, creating e-commerce platforms, web portals and websites, email marketing, search engine optimisation, pay per click strategies and running mobile campaigns.

Ben is responsible for our ongoing formal partnership with Alterian – a world class provider of digital software and content management systems. We are currently the only marketing and design implementation partner of Alterian working as a specialist in the healthcare sector.