Rita Clifton

As a high-profile business leader and acclaimed brand guru, Rita is able to inspire organisations of all kinds to find new ways to succeed in an uncertain world. Whether you want to engage CEOs and boards, raise the performance of all levels of executives or help entrepreneurs create long-term value, Rita is the perfect speaker for your event. She is able to speak on all aspects of modern business leadership, corporate and personal branding and digital disruption. Other topics close to her heart cover diversity in the boardroom as well as new perspectives on sustainability. She gives honest, stimulating and very practical advice and will leave audiences with a clear sense of opportunities and actions.

Rita started her career in advertising and quickly progressed to become Vice Chairman and Strategy Director at Saatchi & Saatchi during its most successful period. She then moved into brand strategy when she became London CEO, then Chairman, of leading global brand consultancy Interbrand, and led a highly diverse and talented team over a fifteen year stint. She has advised numerous leading businesses around the world, as well as start-ups and growth stage businesses of all shapes and sizes. In 2013, she co-founded and chaired the business and brand consultancy BrandCap, which now has offices in London, New York and Hong Kong and which she successfully sold on to the Populus Group.

She is a regular commentator across all media, including CNN, BBC, Sky and social channels, as well as a columnist for national newspapers and trade magazines. She was recently a mentor and judge on the CNBC award-winning business series ‘Pop Up Start Up’, in association with Alibaba.

She is a non-executive director on the board of a number of businesses including ASOS, Nationwide Building Society and Ascential plc (owner of Cannes Lions and WGSN), and was previously on the boards of Bupa, Emap and Dixons Retail plc. Her non-profit board experience includes WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature) and as a member of the UK Government’s Sustainable Development Commission. She is a Trustee at Green Alliance, which brings business, academia, NGOs and governments together to solve pressing environmental issues, and is a Visiting Fellow at the Said Business School at Oxford University, specialising in corporate reputation.

Rita is also the author of best-selling books including ‘The Future of Brands’ and two editions of The Economist ‘Brands and Branding’. Rita has just completed a leadership book like no other, which captures her uniquely honest thoughts on what it takes to build your personal brand and become a business leader in the world today.

Respected by many of the world’s leading companies, she is an adept keynote speaker and will impress audiences with her diverse business and marketing knowledge.