Best Buy CMO Michael Linton to Keynote Influential Gathering of Senior Marketing Professionals at 2006 CMO Council Summit
Chief Marketing Officer Summit to Draw 300 Top Marketers; Offers Unmatched Networking Potential and Intellectual Capital Generation

PALO ALTO, Calif. (May 16, 2006) — Michael Linton, chief marketing officer of Best Buy, North America’s largest electronics retailer, will deliver the kick-off keynote address at CMO Council Summit, set for October 4-6 in San Francisco.

The CMO Council Summit, sponsored by AT&T, CMP and Symantec, is the premier networking and thought leadership event for the CMO Council, an organization of more than 2,000 senior marketing decision makers worldwide across business-to-business and consumer market sectors. Members control more than $50 billion in combined annual marketing expenditures and represent major global brands such as Apple, Best Buy, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Coca-Cola, Comedy Central, Dell, eBay, Earthlink, Electronic Arts, Expedia, Federated Department Stores, GE Healthcare, Google, H&R Block, HP, IBM, Intel, JPMorgan Chase, Kodak, MasterCard, Microsoft, Nintendo, Nokia, Oracle, SAP, Scottrade, Sony, Subway Restaurants, Target, Wal-Mart, Wendy’s International, Yahoo! and many more.

Linton, who also holds the title of executive vice president, consumer and brand marketing at Best Buy, will present “Plugging into Customer Lifestyles,” addressing how customer-centric programs have benefited and boosted this $30 billion Fortune 100 company’s brand and bottom line.

Linton’s presentation is particularly appropriate given the CMO Council’s 2006 Summit theme, “The Power of Engagement. Gaining Customer Intimacy, Insight & Inspiration.” The year’s fifth annual CMO Summit in San Francisco is dedicated to perfecting the process of customer engagement, realizing more value and return from relationships, and improving insight, access and influence in the market.

Best Buy, North America’s No. 1 specialty retailer of technology and entertainment products and services, has achieved significant growth in an intensely competitive retail electronics market, adding more than 100 stores in the past 12 months while generating robust revenue and profit gains in fiscal 2006. Much of that growth can be attributed to its customer-effacing efforts. In his seven-year and counting tenure at Best Buy, Linton has led the launch of major award-winning advertising campaigns, spearheaded its effective Reward Zone Customer Loyalty Program, and brokered high-profile entertainment partnerships with Sting, the Rolling Stones and Elton John. In addition, under Linton’s watch, Best Buy rolled out its hugely successful after-market tech support service, the Geek Squad, which now numbers 12,000 field agents.

“Best Buy is succeeding in a hugely competitive and dynamic market, and a big part of their success is through effective customer engagement,” said Jan Soderstrom, chairman of the CMO Council Advisory Board. “That’s why we’re delighted to have Michael Linton share Best Buy’s customer touch point strategies with our audience of top-level marketing executives.”

Linton’s experience spans more than 20 years. He began his career at Procter & Gamble in brand management, and then he moved on to become general manager for Progressive Insurance. Later he served as the vice president and general manager of a product category at James River Corporation, and then moved to Remington Products Corporation as vice president of marketing.

In addition to Linton’s keynote, highly interactive panel discussions on such topics as customer equity, building new channels of customer engagement, achieving high customer return, and more will be presented by a number of chief marketing executives from name-brand companies, including Amdocs, Dallas Cowboys Football Club, Discover Financial Services, eBay, Expedia, Intel, Porsche Cars North America and Yahoo!

For more information on the CMO Council Summit or to register, please go to www.cmosummit.org. Summit attendees need to join the CMO Council first in order to attend this special event, and can nominate themselves at http://www.cmocouncil.org/nominations.html. There are no membership dues to join the Council; however applicants must hold a senior marketing position to meet eligibility requirements.

CMO Council program underwriters include Biz360, Factiva, MarketBridge, Netline, Vistaar and Yahoo! Media partners include BtoB Magazine, Chief Executive, Chief Marketer, ClickZ Network,  eChannelLine, Forbes, and Tech Confidential. Service providers include ExactTarget, Leverage Software, On24, Opinion Research Corporation, PR Newswire and VeriSign.

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