About | Blue Feathers

We are specialists in building better brands, developing powerful propositions and growing brilliant teams

After a successful corporate career in marketing, and then fulfilling her ambition of sailing a yacht around the world, in 2017 Susie Partridge started her next adventure.

Blue Feathers was founded on Susie’s strong desire to help marketers to be their best and drive their brands to succeed.

Today, our ambition is to leave you in the right place to move forward, by working in true collaboration, sharing our skills, knowledge and thinking to create lasting positive change.

Meet the team

We’ve come together as Blue Feathers to help build better brands, develop powerful propositions and grow brilliant teams. We’re a team of marketers of the highest calibre, with a depth of experience gained from leading some of the biggest and best brands in the UK and worldwide.

Click on our photos to find out more.

Susie Partridge

Catherine Russell

Cheryl Calverley

Christina Bertram

Claire Layfield

Fiona Harkin

Franz Drack

Gillian Clarke

Guy Chapman

Jessica Duncanson

Jess Poore

Jessie Woelke

Kate Slater-Vance

Kim Smith

Lesley Robertson

Natalie Richards

Robin Sutherland

Tom Partridge

Victoria Fairbank

Susie Partridge

Work experience: Susie is the founder of Blue Feathers and leads our team. She is a customer-led strategic thinker, skilled in brand management, proposition development and facilitation. Passionate about supporting marketeers to learn and grow, Susie draws on deep experience having successfully led brands and teams across multiple industries and global regions. Her portfolio includes Unilever, Tesco, Aviva, Cambridge University Press & Assessment, British Gas, Primark and Booking.com.

What excites Susie: “Feeling the buzz when we crack hard challenges.”

Her superpower: “Understanding people – clients, their customers, our team – it’s all about people!”

Catherine Russell

Work experience: Catherine is a senior copywriter with over 20 years’ experience within advertising agencies. She has a passion for long copy and is particularly strong on turning complex information into friendly, readable copy. She’s also a tone of voice specialist with a keen eye for detail – skills honed over the years on clients including Change4Life, Vodafone, HSBC, Drinkaware and Whizz-Kidz.

What excites Catherine: “When something really resonates and I think, this is going stick in people’s minds.”

Her superpower: “I’m a big question-asker! I ask and I ask and by the time I’m done, I know I understand what I need to write about.”

Cheryl Calverley

Work experience: Cheryl is an ex-CEO and CMO, specialising in brand transformation, culture and leadership, and marketing effectiveness. Known for her passion, creativity, clarity of thinking and down-to-earth approach, Cheryl has rejuvenated brands ranging from Marmite, Axe, Birdseye and The AA, to eve sleep and had a guiding hand in the strategies of Gousto, Tapi Carpets, Lovecrafts and Sous Chef. Widely recognised for her impact on the marketing industry, she’s a Fellow of both the Marketing Academy and Marketing Society, with multiple IPA and Effie awards to her name.

What excites Cheryl: “I have an absolute fascination and love for people, and understanding what drives human behaviour.”

Her superpower: “Seeing the wood for the trees.”

Christina Bertram

Work experience: Christina is a brand and marketing specialist, adept at combining a clear strategic vision with commercially driven execution. She has been delivering successful brand positioning and marketing plans for iconic brands for over 15 years, including Absolut Vodka, Campari, and Malibu, as well as launching Aperol Spritz into the UK. With a digitally savvy mind, Christina is passionate about connecting brands and consumers through relevance, emotion and purpose.

What excites Christina: “I feel energised when working as a team to solve business challenges and create strategies with impact.”

Her superpower: “Cutting through the noise to the heart of the matter.”

Claire Layfield

Work experience: Claire has over 20 years’ experience of brand marketing, and is passionate about developing brand purpose, brand positioning and marketing strategy that translate into winning go-to-market programmes. Claire has developed her skills across a range of industries, markets, and brands including Unilever, GSK, Wiggle, and Bacardi. With an analytical and creative head, Claire is a commercially minded marketer who puts the customer at the heart to deliver the end goal – whether that be creating brand equity, driving customer acquisition, or increasing revenue.

What excites Claire: “That ah-ha moment when you realise you’ve uncovered a consumer truth that will unearth a unique brand positioning and award -winning creative.”

Her superpower: “My relentless motivation to achieve – I never give up in my pursuit of perfection. Oh, and I make cracking cocktails!”

Fiona Harkin

Work experience: Fiona is a trends and foresight specialist, delivering innovative strategic insight to forward-thinking brands. Having spent over 20 years working in leading forecasting and insight agencies and as a journalist, Fiona draws upon considerable cross-sector expertise ranging from Consumer Lifestyle and Digital Commerce to Fashion, Beauty and Technology. Her skill is absorbing, digesting and pulling together threads to form stories and scenarios that can be communicated and understood effectively by all. Above all, Fiona brings invaluable insight, clarity and direction to brands

What excites Fiona: “That ‘a-ha’ moment when a client connects with relevance and value in my work.”

Her superpower: “Avoiding cliches – or lingo bingo – you won’t find me ‘circling back’ anytime soon!”

Franz Drack

Work experience: Franz is a growth strategist, helping brands to scale and better serve their customers. He worked in various international brand and marketing roles for Absolut Vodka and Lego before moving to consulting. As a consultant, he has helped start-up and challenger brands in the food sector to thrive. Franz combines a strong brand strategy skillset with deep digital marketing / e-commerce knowledge and product development skills.

What excites Franz: “I get excited about proactively creating the future with clients. I love identifying and working towards possible outcomes and scenarios.”

His superpower: “Success is only available to the optimist. I love changing perspectives and mindsets to initiate momentum.”

Gillian Clarke

Work experience: Gillian is an experienced consumer goods marketer with significant experience managing powerful and iconic brands, such as KitKat, Quality Street, Fox’s Biscuits and Honey Monster (formerly Sugar Puffs). She is commercially savvy with a can-do attitude, combining strategic thought with a clear view of how to drive value in practical terms. Gillian takes pride in delivering and realising ambitious plans for brands.

What excites Gillian: “Rendering the seemingly impossible, possible. The knottier a problem to try and solve, the better!”

Her superpower: “Making the complex, simple. That, and I throw myself into everything with gusto and a thousand words a minute!”

Guy Chapman

Work experience: Guy specialises in proposition development, product management and business development. He has a background in international education, having worked for the British Council and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Prior to this, Guy worked for a global advertising agency network. MBA-qualified, Guy has strong facilitation skills, and is adept at distilling information into the essential insights that lead to effective strategy.

What excites Guy: “The variety of projects and sectors we get to work in. I really enjoy getting under the skin of different organisations to help them with their challenges.”

His superpower: “My sunny positivity – I’m always able to find the fun, even in challenging situations!”

Jessica Duncanson

Work experience: Jessica specialises in marketing strategy and campaign management. She has over 18 years of experience across a wide range of clients including Nuffield Health, British Cheese Board, the Food Standards Agency and the British Red Cross. Jessica is well known for being fast, organised and effective – a perfect combination which she uses to ensure outstanding results.

What excites Jessica: “A pack of Blue Feathers PowerPoint slides, brilliantly conceived, beautifully created, perfectly formatted and ready to be shared!”

Her superpower: “Making the complex simple.”

Jess Poore

Work experience: Jess is a senior marketing specialist with experience across a breadth of areas from brand and commercial marketing to customer experience. Her passion is putting customers front and centre to drive business growth and customer happiness. She has over 20 years of experience working in telco, financial services and home services businesses including BT, Sky, Capital One, British Gas and Virgin Media. Jess brings together data and insight, creativity and commercial understanding to shape powerful brand and marketing strategies.

What excites Jess: “Having a challenge I can get stuck into!”

Her superpower: “My energy and curiosity. Oh – and my wardrobe of jumpsuits…”

Jessie Woelke

Work experience: Jessie is a brand development specialist with extensive experience working internationally within advertising, brand and retail, including Ogilvy & Mather, Unilever, GSK, Weleda and Tesco. She is also an entrepreneur, with her own start-up brand in the mass market in Europe, so she practices what she preaches! Well known for her belief in the power of a great brand, Jessie enjoys nothing more than developing and managing consumer brands, working closely with clients from when there is just a speck of an idea through to getting the finished product on shelf.

What excites Jessie: “Finding new solutions to old problems and being brave.”

Her superpower: “Optimism!”

Kate Slater-Vance

Work experience: Kate specialises in account and project management and has been working in the creative industry for over 20 years. She has experience of working alongside a diverse range of clients and colleagues in agencies and consultancies, delivering innovative campaigns for brands such as O2, Microsoft, BBC, and Hyundai.

What excites Kate: “I am passionate about building trusted client relationships, collaborating with colleagues, and working efficiently to deliver projects – no matter how big or small.”

Her superpower: “Organising the unorganisable.”

Kim Smith

Work experience: Kim is an experienced business operations manager, working to facilitate business efficiency and growth. She works as part of the management team and with the team of consultants ensuring all our work is underpinned by strong operations, enabling us to deliver effectively for our clients. Kim is a true team player and an adaptable strategic thinker, unafraid of change.

What excites Kim: “Implementing smart process and technology to enable improved productivity.”

Superpower: “My intuition and ability to adapt – I’m equally happy sipping Champagne in a cocktail bar as camping outdoors in the elements!”

Lesley Robertson

Work experience: Lesley has a background in brand management and has developed her skills working for consumer brands within the food, health and beauty, and personal care sectors. With over 15 years’ experience developing brands and delivering audience-focused marketing, she is motivated by translating insight into meaningful propositions and creating impactful plans.

What excites Lesley: “I love delving into what a brand stands for, and that brilliant moment when you unlock the core idea or expression, the one that will go on to bring the brand to life creatively and coherently.”

Her superpower: “Pulling all the puzzle pieces together – I’m just as at home in planning and detail as I am talking concepts and theories.”

Natalie Richards

Work experience: Natalie is a highly experienced brand strategist and expert facilitator who has worked for a wide range of corporates, national charities and government organisations. Intuitive, pragmatic and creative, Natalie enjoys working collaboratively with clients to shape big thinking. She is a master practitioner in neuro-linguistic programming and behaviour change. Her client experience includes Johnson & Johnson, Waterstones, Bollinger, Lloyds TSB, Barnado’s, Shelter and the Food Standards Agency.

What excites Nats: “All things behaviour – what makes us tick! Unlocking motivation to act really floats my boat.”

Her superpower: “Empathy – I’ll walk in your shoes. Combined with an ability to see your situation from the outside and make a considered assessment.”

Robin Sutherland

Work experience: Robin specialises in marketing and growth strategy and is passionate about utilising insight and analytics to driving brand engagement and growth. He has over 20 years of experience working mainly across Travel and ecommerce sectors for brands such as Expedia, Moneysupermarket, Kaplan, Gelato and Awaze. Robin combines in-depth consumer marketing strategy and execution expertise with a deep digital and ecommerce knowledge.

What excites Robin: “Seeing the impact on the growth and performance of companies that I have worked with.”

His superpower: “My constant need to critically analyse and understand. Even if that means analysing my friends and family, which can get me into trouble.”

Tom Partridge

Work experience: Tom heads up our business development and marketing, working with the team to drive the business forward. He is responsible for ensuring we’re well known for what we do and how we do it, or as we like to call it ‘The Blue Feathers Way’. He brings a wealth of experience at a senior level in global investment banks, including Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and RBS. A Chartered Accountant by training, Tom enjoys supporting the team to ensure we remain best in class.

What excites Tom: “I get excited seeing the powerful strategic and creative thinking our team delivers!”

His superpower: “Brainstorming and researching ideas! And a love of going outside my comfort zone.”

Victoria Fairbank

Work experience: Victoria is a highly accomplished graphic designer with a wealth of experience in the design industry. With her comprehensive expertise, she adeptly navigates client brand guidelines to develop visually engaging graphics and layouts suitable for a variety of applications. Victoria’s skilful integration of brand elements ensures that her designs resonate effectively with target audiences while maintaining brand consistency and integrity.

What excites Victoria: “The thrill of embracing the latest design trends propels me to continuously expand my skills and knowledge, transforming each project into a journey of innovation.”

Her superpower: “I’m dedicated to bringing my clients’ design ideas to life, always aiming for that WOW factor!”

Join our team

We’re always on the lookout for talented people to join our team.

Get in touch

"Their commitment, industry experience and energetic approach to every project is second to none, and the results have been terrific." Senior Brand Manager

"If you are looking for an agency team who is meticulous with detail, grounded in customer insight and are truly forward-thinking experts - then look no further." Senior Brand Manager

"The Blue Feathers team offered structure, expertise and strategic thought throughout. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Blue Feathers." Head of Brand

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We are a team of the highest calibre marketers

We are specialists in building better brands, developing powerful propositions and growing brilliant teams

Meet the team

Susie Partridge

Catherine Russell

Cheryl Calverley

Christina Bertram

Claire Layfield

Fiona Harkin

Franz Drack

Gillian Clarke

Guy Chapman

Jessica Duncanson

Jess Poore

Jessie Woelke

Kate Slater-Vance

Kim Smith

Lesley Robertson

Natalie Richards

Robin Sutherland

Tom Partridge

Victoria Fairbank

Join our team

A growing archive of success with leading UK and global brands