Lynne Franks has been a strategic consultant to major global and national brands for more than thirty years, specialising in PR and communication; branding; marketing and assessment of future consumer trends.
Her clients have included many of the recognised major high-street retailers; the leisure industry; FMCG brands including food and drink; the beauty industry and the fashion industry, where she advised many of the world’s top designers and retailers over a period of years, as well as instigating the beginning of the British Fashion Awards and London Fashion Week in its current form.
She also has considerable experience in working with the public sector and has advised charities and NGO’s including Greenpeace, Oxfam, Amnesty International and Terence Higgins Trust.
She was the Chair of the UK’s first women’s radio station, pioneering new possibilities in narrow-cast media; has her own women’s social networking community website – www.seednetworkingforwomen.com - and is currently working with several major multi-nationals on diversity, and on gender issues specifically, with a focus on women’s leadership.
Lynne believes that it is time for a cultural shift in the business world, where the more feminine, right-brain strengths such as empathy, intuition and inclusiveness are as respected as important skills as much as the more left-brain logical, linear style of management.
She is currently on the Advisory Board of McDonald’s UK and is responsible for initiating their Women’s Leadership Network. Lynne has also recently been advising Danone on the European launch of an organic yoghurt brand and is working with several global financial corporations on both women’s leadership development internally, as well as their external communications strategy aimed at women clients.