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'. She is one of the world’s leading experts on brands and branding, and is a speaker, facilitator, writer, business leader and portfolio director.
Rita has worked with many of the world’s leading companies on their brand strategy, as well as start-ups and ambitious businesses in just about every sector.
She was Vice Chairman and Strategy Director at Saatchi & Saatchi in its most successful period, and over fifteen years was London CEO and then Chairman at Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy. She now has a portfolio of directorships, including as Chair of BrandCap, the brand consultancy for the boardroom.
Rita speaks around the world on how and why brands are the most important assets any organisation has, in any sector, and why branding needs to be the central organising principle for any organisation to generate sustainable value. She also speaks on subjects as diverse as leadership, innovation, corporate reputation and communicating sustainability as well as all aspects of branding and marketing, including personal and nation branding, branding in the digital age, how to build a world class brand, and women on boards. Her writing has included the best-selling book 'The Future of Brands', and two editions of The Economist book 'Brands & Branding' (buy on Amazon).
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, Sky, Radio 4 Today programme and Radio 5 Live.
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.
Rita has been on the Advisory Board at the Judge Business School at Cambridge University and in 2006 was appointed Visiting Professor at Henley Management College.
Rita 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 shortlisted for the Credit Suisse Outstanding Business Woman of the Year. Rita has been recognised in the Debrett’s 2015 list as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people.
In 2014 Rita was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to the Advertising Industry.
