Welcome to IFGlobal In Focus, our series spotlighting the people driving our business forward. In each edition, we chat with key team members about their careers, industry insights, and what’s next for IFGlobal.
In this edition, we hear from Ryan Grimshaw, our Head of Marketing and Communications. Since joining IFGlobal in 2025, Ryan has focused on redefining how the business presents itself to the market, building a more connected, commercially driven approach to brand, marketing and growth. Ryan shares his perspective on bridging the gap between perception and reality, the opportunity within fulfilment and logistics, and what it takes to build a marketing engine that truly drives scalable growth.
I remember one of my first proper conversations about the business - hearing from Carlos Pestana, our Chief Operating Officer, about the scale, the client base, the proprietary tech - and thinking, “this is a seriously impressive operation… it just doesn’t quite sound like one yet”. That gap between reality and perception is always interesting to me.
Coming into fulfilment was also a deliberate step outside my comfort zone. I’d worked closely with operations from the ecommerce side, but never this deep. That gave me just enough context to understand the problem, without inheriting the assumptions that often come with it.
What stood out immediately was the substance. 24 years of history, strong foundations, real capability, but it hadn’t yet been translated into something cohesive and commercially powerful from a marketing perspective.
Since I joined the business in January 2025, it was never about doing more marketing. To scale, it takes building a system where marketing drives growth; where positioning, demand, CRM and RevOps aren’t separate functions, but part of a connected engine.
And just as importantly, it was about people. One of the things that mattered to me early on was the opportunity to build something globally, without losing our identity and investing in local talent. Not just hiring great marketers, but developing commercially minded people across the business. Teams who understand how brands scale, how decisions get made, and what good really looks like.
Ultimately, brand and growth aren’t built by campaigns, but by people who think and operate at that level every day.
It’s probably been one of the biggest advantages. When you come into a space without legacy thinking, you see things a bit differently. Early on, I spent a lot of time in our fulfilment centres, speaking with team members, analysing client conversations, endless meeting notes, listening to sales calls, and just absorbing how everything works.
There was a moment where it clicked, at an event speaking with lots of ecommerce founders. The industry makes sense to itself, but not always to the customer.
A lot of traditional 3PL marketing is technically correct. But it doesn’t always reflect how founders and operators think when they’re trying to scale. The language, messaging and how value is communicated don’t always land with the people making the decisions. They’re not buying pick, pack, dispatch. They’re trying to manage operational complexity, protect customer experience, and unlock the next stage of growth. That’s a very different conversation.
My background has always been about connecting those dots. I’ve worked across ecommerce, agency, sport and leisure, arts and education. Different environments with a similar underlying challenge: aligning brand, marketing and commercial outcomes.
I’m also very conscious of how much we’re all marketed to. And most of it just… passes by. Not because it’s bad necessarily, but because it doesn’t connect to anything real or the problems we’re trying to solve.
So part of the ambition here is to build something that does. Something more distinctive, more considered, and more reflective of the quality of what we deliver.
For me, it starts with how we frame the problem. Most of the market talks about services in isolation... storage, returns, inventory, pick, pack and delivery. Though brands don’t experience growth in neat categories like that. The real pressure tends to sit in the gaps between those services.
I’ve seen it first-hand with brands scaling at pace. It’s not one thing that breaks, it’s the connections between everything. Systems, processes, expectations, customer experience.
What we’re building towards is a clearer articulation of that reality. Not just what we do, but how everything works together to support brands through different stages of growth.
And that extends beyond marketing. We’re building a team that understands that nuance - people across commercial, operations and client services who don’t just execute, but think in terms of growth, trade-offs, and long-term value.
From a communications perspective, our role is to make that message simple, relevant and commercially meaningful. The real differentiator is that it’s grounded in how the business operates.
At its simplest, it means marketing is directly accountable to revenue. I’ve worked in environments before where marketing looked productive, but when you traced it back, it wasn’t driving consistent commercial outcomes.
Marketing serves growth, not the other way around. What we’re building is more deliberate. Clear ICP definition, structured CRM, strong RevOps, and a joined-up go-to-market approach. Not campaigns in isolation, but a system that compounds over time.
The part that’s often overlooked is the human side of that system. You can have the best tools and processes in the world, but if the people operating them don’t understand the commercial context, it falls apart.
So, alongside the infrastructure, we’re investing in capability. Building a team that understands not just marketing, but business. People who can sit in a conversation with a founder or Chief Finance Officer and genuinely add value.
There’s a framework I come back to a lot. “Capability x Trust x Connection x Control.” Can we deliver? Do people believe us? Do they see themselves in what we’re saying? Do we have the systems and models to scale it consistently? Most businesses are strong in one or two. The challenge and opportunity is building across all four, at both a system and a people level.
The biggest shift has been moving from activity to structure. When I joined, there was work happening though it wasn’t always connected to outcomes. And that’s where value gets lost.
The rebrand to IFGlobal in 2025 was a key moment. It gave us a platform that reflects where we’re going, not just where we’ve been. Since then, it’s been about consistency. Making sure every channel and moment reinforces the same narrative, across content, partnerships, and internal alignment.
But more importantly, it’s been about raising the level of thinking across the business. We’re continuing to strengthen the fundamentals - clearer positioning, sharper messaging, and a much more defined link between marketing and revenue. That flows through everything from ICP definition, inbound and outbound strategy, and how we nurture and convert opportunities over time.
They’re a big part of how we build meaningful presence in the market.
I’ve never really believed in events for the sake of visibility alone. The real value is in the conversations that happen around them. Some of the most valuable interactions I’ve had haven’t been on stage but afterwards, speaking to founders and operators about the challenges they’re facing.
That’s what we’re trying to create more of. Real, valuable, human moments with the right brands, at the right stage of their journey. It also feeds into a broader multi-touch model. We’re not relying on a few channels; we’re building an ecosystem where everything works together over time.
In the B2B landscape, they’re critical. But only when they’re done properly.
For me, it’s not about logos or exposure. I’m more focused on whether we’re genuinely adding value. That might be through shared insight, education, or collaborative initiatives that help brands navigate challenges more effectively.
It also strengthens the ecosystem we’re building. The more connected we are - to communities, platforms and partners - the better positioned we are to support brands as they grow. And again, it comes back to people. Strong partnerships are built on shared thinking, not just shared incentives.
In 2026, our strategic partnerships and collaborations are taking us beyond traditional 3PL services, cementing our role as a true growth partner for scaling brands.
Marketing can’t operate in isolation. To really succeed, it must be closely connected to commercial teams, operations and leadership. That’s where systems matter. CRM, clear processes, regular feedback loops.
Beyond that, it’s about having a clear point of view, and the conviction to hold it. When people understand where we’re heading and why, consistency becomes much easier to maintain across every interaction.
Honestly, the stage we’re at.
We’ve put a lot of work into building the foundations - operationally, strategically and culturally. Now it’s about scaling that in a more deliberate way. There’s real momentum across the business, and you can feel it. In the people, the partnerships and the conversations we’re having. That’s always an exciting place to be.
It’s the variety. I’ve worked across very different environments from start-ups and SMEs to global organisations, in-house and agency. I’ve also run my own consultancy and worked closely with brands in a fractional capacity. That exposure forces you to think beyond your function. You start to understand how businesses operate across commercial, operations, finance, culture.
I’ve always been curious in that way. Less interested in staying in a lane, more interested in understanding how everything connects. Earlier in my career, that was driven by necessity. You solve problems because.... you have to. Over time, it becomes more deliberate.
Whilst I wouldn’t say I’m typically entrepreneurial, I like to think business-first and marketing second. At the core, my role has always been about connecting the dots between people, ideas and systems. And increasingly, it’s about developing others who can do the same.
A lot of my work is quite structured; building systems, connecting moving parts, thinking ahead. So outside of that, I value the opposite.
Space to think, or not think at all. Running, cycling, hiking... anything that gives you a bit of perspective. Some of my clearest thinking has come halfway through a long run or walking along the coast.
And then the simple stuff. Time with good people, great food, switching off properly, and spending time with my English Bull Terrier, Lexi, who has absolutely no interest in business or marketing strategy.
A phrase that describes your leadership style:
Conscientious, accountable, and always moving things forward.
If you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
Robin Williams. He’s someone I’ve always found fascinating. Exceptionally talented, but also deeply human. There’s something powerful about people who can balance humour with depth; who can bring energy to a room, but also empathy and perspective. That kind of duality makes for a very interesting conversation.
Advice you’d give to someone starting out in the industry:
Start with the fundamentals. Marketing isn’t just channels and tactics but understanding how businesses grow, how customers think, and how decisions get made.
It’s easy to get caught up in trends. AI, new platforms, new tools. They all matter, but they’re not the foundation. If you understand the fundamentals, you stay relevant. Everything else evolves around that.
Sometimes I think we forget marketing is about understanding people. Why we do what we do, how we are influenced and how we make decisions. That hasn’t changed and it won’t - no matter how advanced the tools get.