Rory Sutherland

Rory is the vice chairman of Ogilvy UK, which is, as he puts it, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency. He is author of several books, including "Alchemy: The Surprising Power Of Ideas That Don't Make Sense" and "Transport for Humans."

At Ogilvy, he works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behavior which are the often small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make. For instance, tripling the sales rate of a call center by adding just a few sentences to the script. Put another way, lots of agencies will talk about "bought, owned and earned" media, where Sutherland at Ogilvy looks for "invented media" and "discovered media" by seeking out those unexpected (and inexpensive) contextual tweaks that transform the way that people think and act.

Before founding Ogilvy’s behavioral practice ideation, Rory was a copywriter and creative director at Ogilvy for over 20 years, having joined as a graduate trainee in 1988. He has variously been President of the IPA, Chair of the Judges for the Direct Jury at Cannes, and has spoken at TED Global. He writes regular columns for the Spectator, Management today and Impact, and also occasional pieces for Wired. He is the author of three books: “The Wiki Man,” available on Amazon (at prices between £1.96 and £2,345.54, depending on whether the algorithm is having a bad day), the best-selling “Alchemy, The surprising Power of Ideas which don't make Sense,” published in multiple countries and, co-written with his former colleague Pete Dyson, “Transport For Humans” on the behavioral science of transport.

He is host of the podcast "OnBD with ALF" and he has joined forces with MAD//Masters to lead a 12 week CPD accredited personal development program to help marketers adapt, make sense of accelerated disruption and use the tried and tested recipe of using creativity, innovation and behavioral science to their competitive advantage.