Rita Clifton CBE

Rita Clifton CBE has been called ‘The doyenne of branding’ by Campaign magazine, ‘Brand guru’ by the Financial Times, and the Daily Telegraph described her as ‘The Brand Leading the Brands’.

Rita has featured on a wide variety of TV and radio programmes on business, brand, marketing and communication issues, including CNN, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, BBC World Service, Radio 4 Today programme and Radio 5 Live. She has been a regular guest on The Bottom Line with Evan Davies, and on Sky News with Jeff Randall.

Rita has appeared on the BBC Two series ‘Business Nightmares’, the Steve Jobs documentary ‘Billion Dollar Hippy’, as well as Any Questions? with Jonathan Dimbleby.

She has been a reviewer and columnist for the Financial Times, Management Today, The Observer, Retail Week, Admap and Marketing Week and is a regular commentator in national and international press and magazines.

Between 1997 and 2012, Rita was London Chief Executive and then Chairman at Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy, and before that, Vice Chairman and Strategic Director at Saatchi & Saatchi. She now has a portfolio of chairing and non-executive directorships, including Bupa, Nationwide, Dixons retail plc and Populus.

She has worked with Sir Jonathon Porritt for many years on environmental and sustainability issues, including as a member of the Government’s Sustainable Development Commission and the Assurance and Advisory Board for BP’s carbon offset programme ‘Targetneutral’.

Rita has been on the Advisory Board at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University and was appointed Visiting Professor at Henley Management College in 2006. In 2009 she was made President of the Market Research Society, and is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the Royal Society for Arts.

She has been voted One of the 75 Women of Achievement in the fields of advertising, media and marketing over the past 75 years, has been named in the Power 100 list by Marketing magazine, and was shortlisted for the Credit Suisse Outstanding Business Woman of the Year.

In addition to speaking and writing about brands, Rita’s current portfolio of chairing and non-executive directorship roles, include Bupa, Nationwide, ASOS and Populus (the opinion pollster to The Times and reputation research consultancy). Her pro bono activities include the boards of WWF, The Henley Festival and Chair of the leading practical sustainability organisation, The Conservation Volunteers.

In the 2014 New Year Honour’s list Rita was honoured with a CBE for services to the advertising industry.

Rita has been recognised in the Debrett’s 2015 list as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people.

Keynote Speaker:

As a speaker, Rita Clifton delivers keynote speeches around the world on subjects such as Leadership, Corporate Reputation and Communicating Sustainability as well as all aspects of Branding and Marketing, including Personal and Nation Branding, Branding in the Digital Age and How to Build a World Class Brand.

Her writing has included the best selling book ‘The Future of Brands’, and two editions of The Economist book ‘Brands & Branding’.