Keynote SpeakerPhilip Collins

Philip Collins is a columnist on The Times, the Writer-in-Chief at the writing agency The Draft and a tutor in rhetoric at the Blavatnik School, University of Oxford. He has written for almost all of the major publications in British journalism. In addition to The Times he has been a columnist for the New Statesman and the Evening Standard. He is a specialist in British politics and communication.

For ten years Mr Collins was on the staff of The Times, where he was the Chief Leader Writer, responsible for the newspaper’s position on all the big issues of the day. Between 2004 and 2007 he was the Chief Speech Writer and Special Adviser on Culture, Media and Sport, for the Prime Minister, Tony Blair. He has also written speeches for Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition. As the writer-in-chief and founder of The Draft. Mr Collins has written for and worked with many international leaders, in the private and the charitable sectors. He is also responsible for training large cohorts of executives in communication, many of them from large corporations but also in central banks and the British civil service.

Before entering Downing Street, Mr Collins was the Director of the think-tank, the Social Market Foundation. He has also spent a decade more recently as the Chair of Trustees of the think-tank Demos. Mr. Collins has also been an investment banker, at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and HSBC.

Mr Collins is the author of two novels and four books. One of those books, Start Again, is about the future of British politics and the other three, The Art of Speeches and Presentations, When They Go Low We Go High and To Be Clear, are about language and communication.