John Oxford didn’t choose marketing as a profession; it chose him.  At age 17, Oxford found his first job as a taste tester and commercial viewer for Nabisco. Taste-testing snacks and cookies while watching commercials to ensure the message and products match was a sweet gig, but there are only so many Nutter Butters and Oreos a young man can eat during the summer. Therefore, Oxford decided not to jump straight to the pros and instead went to college.

Fast forward to today, Oxford now uses his well-honed skills in brand messaging as director of corporate communication and external affairs with Renasant Corporation, the parent of Renasant Bank, one of the 150 largest banks in the U.S.

Since joining Renasant, the financial services company has grown from a little more than $2 billion in assets to approximately $8.3 billion in assets with 2,200 employees and more than 175 locations in the Southeastern United States: www.renasantbank.com.

Prior to Renasant, Oxford lived in Washington, D.C., where he served in the administration of President George W. Bush as a Legislative Assistant and Public Affairs Aide to the Executive Office of the President for both the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Oxford is also a former commercial spokesperson for Cellular South (now C Spire Wireless), the largest privately-owned mobile phone network in America.

Oxford is the marketing section instructor at the University of Mississippi’s Banking School, co-producer and co-host of the TV show Brand New and host of the weekly marketing podcast www.marketingmoneypodcast.com. He is a member of the American Bankers Association’s Marketing and Retail Conference Board.

A fan of life-long education, Oxford received his Certified Financial Marketing Professional designation from the Institute of Certified Bankers ('07) at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, his master’s degree in Government ('06) from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, and his B.A. in Communication and minor in Political Science ('99) from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Oxford serves his community as Chairman of the Autism Center of North Mississippi. He is also past Chairman of the Tupelo Redevelopment Agency and past Executive Board Member for the Northeast Mississippi United Way. He formerly served ('06-09) as a First Lieutenant in the Mississippi State Guard, and was named Top 40 Under 40 in Mississippi in 2007 by the Mississippi Business Journal.

Speaking on all things communication and marketing, especially in the financial services space - such as writing the perfect tagline, how to geoconquest your competition, what you need to know about cryptocurrency and FinTech to closing the marketing gap - Oxford prides himself on delivering tactical takeaways not just theories.