Rita Clifton is Chairman of Interbrand, London, the world’s leading brand consultancy and pioneer of Brand Valuation,
Rita Clifton began her career in advertising working at DMB&B and later at J Walter Thompson. She joined Saatchi & Saatchi in 1986. She was promoted to Director of Strategic Planning in 1992, and to Vice-Chairman & Executive Planning Director in 1995.
In 1997, Rita was invited to join Interbrand, the world’s leading brand consultancy and pioneer of Brand Valuation, as Chief Executive in London; in January 2002 she became Chairman. In her time at Interbrand, she has introduced a range of new services, including internal brand management, digital branding, and brand futures. Interbrand also publishes the definitive, widely quoted annual league table of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, and clients have included most of the world’s leading businesses – and just about every type of organisation and sector, whether large, small or not for profit.
Rita Clifton features regularly on a wide variety of TV and radio programmes on business, brand, marketing and communication issues, including CNN, the Money Programme, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, BBC World Service, the Today programme, The Bottom Line with Evan Davies, Sky News with Jeff Randall, and Radio Five Live. She is also in great demand as a speaker at conferences around the world on subjects as diverse as innovation, leadership, corporate reputation, communicating sustainability and nation branding amongst many others. She has been a columnist for The Observer, Marketing Week, Admap and Retail Week and a reviewer for Management Today and the Financial Times. Her writing has included Interbrand’s book ‘The Future of Brands’, the APG’S ‘How to Plan Advertising’ and most recently The Economist book ‘Brands and Branding’ .
Rita Clifton joined the board of Dixons Group plc (now DSG international plc) as a non executive director in September 2003 and became non-executive chairman of Populus, the opinion pollster to The Times, in 2004. She has also been a non-executive directorship of EMAP plc, and is currently a Trustee of WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature). In 2006, she was appointed Visiting Professor at Henley Management College and in 2009 was made President of the Market Research Society.
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 on the Advisory and Assurance Board for BP’s carbon offset programme ‘targetneutral’. She has also been on the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, and on the Business Advisory Board for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts and of the Marketing Society, a member of the Marketing Group of Great Britain, the Account Planning Group and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising. She has chaired several industry committees, including the Code of Advertising Practice to Children.
Rita Clifton 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.