Alastair Campbell

Consultant, Strategist, Podcaster, Bestselling Author & Mental Health Advocate; Former Director of Strategy & Communications to Tony Blair

Travels From Travels From:
London, UK
Speaking Fee Speaking Fee:
REQUEST BOOKING INFORMATION

Alastair Campbell Biography

Alastair Campbell is a writer, podcaster, communicator, campaigner and strategist best known for his role as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman, press secretary and director of communications and strategy. Still active in politics and campaigns in Britain and overseas, he now splits his time between writing, speaking, broadcasting, charities, and consultancy.

He has written nineteen books in the past sixteen years, including eleven volumes of diaries, four novels, a bestselling analysis of what it takes to win in politics, business and sport, "Winners and How They Succeed," and two personal accounts of depression and the pursuit of happiness. His second mental health memoir, "Living Better: How I learned to survive depression," was also a Sunday Times bestseller, as was his last book, "But What Can I Do?," an analysis of what has gone wrong with politics, with some ideas about how to put it right. He is currently working on a politics book aimed at young children.

In the spring of 2022, he launched a podcast, "The Rest Is Politics," with former Tory Cabinet minister Rory Stewart, which has regularly topped the UK podcast charts, and they have sold out some of the biggest and most prestigious venues in the UK, among them the Albert Hall and the Usher Hall, for live events. They now also do an interview channel, "Rest Is Politics Leading," and have talked to a number of former Prime Ministers, including John Major, Theresa May and Tony Blair, leading international politicians, among them Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Francois Hollande, and a host of British figures from politics and beyond.

He was for many years chairman of fund-raising of Bloodwise, Britain’s main blood cancer charity, but in recent years has become increasingly involved with mental health charities and causes, speaking about his own experience of depression, psychosis and addiction, and of his brother Donald’s lifelong struggle with schizophrenia. A former ‘Mind Champion of the Year’, he is an ambassador for several charities, including Mind, Rethink and Alcohol Concern. He is a Global Ambassador for Australians for Mental Health. He co-founded the all-party campaign, Equality4MentalHealth, which was credited in Parliament by then Chancellor George Osborne with securing an extra £600million for mental health services. In November 2017 Campbell was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in recognition of his leadership role in breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness, and in fighting for better services.

Campbell has been Humanitas Visiting Professor on media at Cambridge University, and has been honored by University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork for his contribution to the Northern Ireland Peace Process. He is on the advisory board of Portland PR, and in addition independently acts as an advisor to governments, businesses, charities, sports organizations and high profile individuals. He helped to found the world’s first university in football business, UCFB, in Burnley, Lancashire, which has since extended to Wembley and Manchester City’s Etihad stadium, as well as overseas.

In December 2017, a musical project he was involved in won the Community Award at the Na Trads traditional Scottish music awards. He had played the bagpipes at a concert in Glasgow earlier in the year, staged entirely by musicians with links to Tiree, where his father was born and raised. The Tiree Community Songbook was made into a CD, which won the Traditional Music award. During the COVID pandemic, he performed on the bagpipes in a charity song written by Martin Gillespie of Scottish band Skerryvore, “Everyday Heroes”, which topped the iTunes download charts within hours of release. In November 2021 Campbell was featured in the BBC series "Winter Walks."

In 2021, following the departure of Piers Morgan from ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he was asked to be one of a pool of new presenters. In the summer of 2022 he co-presented with Tory Peer Sayeeda Warsi the Channel 4 show, Make Me Prime Minister, aimed at finding “ordinary people” who wanted to be politicians.

He is a sought after speaker at events around the world, specializing in strategic communications, leadership, team building and crisis management. Since publishing Winners, he has been asked to support a number of leading sports organizations.

He lives mainly in London, with his partner of forty-three years, journalist and education campaigner Fiona Millar.

BOOK Alastair Campbell

Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 02/22/2024.

Alastair Campbell Speaking Topics

  • Mental Illness

    Alastair Campbell knows all about mental illness. At 29, the youngest national news editor in Britain, he had a drink• and pressure-induced nervous breakdown, was arrested and hospitalized and diagnosed with depression and addiction issues. He rebuilt himself and his career and went on to take on one of the toughest jobs going—running the media operation for Tony Blair in Britain’s highly aggressive media and political environment. He is now a global campaigner on mental illness, fighting to break down stigma and taboo and also to urge business to better understand mental health and mental illness, and to see the advantages of doing so. Campbell’s latest book, Winners, has a chapter on ‘the extreme mind,’ setting out the great figures of history, from Lincoln to Churchill, Florence Nightingale to Charles Darwin—and great winners of today—who have had what doctors define as mental illness. He argues not just for better understanding but better appreciation of what people living on the edge have to offer.

  • Crisis Management

    When the conflict in Kosovo was going wrong, Bill Clinton had a message for Tony Blair: “Send Alastair to NATO.” Clinton got to know Blair’s right-hand man in the early days of the New Labour government, when the President was engulfed in scandal, and found great support and strategy coming from Blair and Campbell. As the Milosevic regime started to win the propaganda war, Clinton and Blair realized that until communications were fixed, the military strategy would continue to struggle. So Campbell was seconded to NATO to oversee a complete overhaul of the entire Alliance’s communications. Campbell says the first rule of crisis management is that it is probably not a crisis. He believes that in a decade with Blair, there were only five—Kosovo, Iraq, 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan, and two domestic crises, massive fuel price protests and an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease. Drawing on lessons from what went right and what went wrong, and analyzing examples of good and bad crisis management in the private sector, he lays out simple lessons to help anyone who is hit by a genuine crisis.

  • Sport As A Metaphor For Life

    Alastair Campbell is a sports nut. His latest book was inspired by his insight that too many politicians pay lip service to sport when in fact they can learn from it. A man who counts Manchester United’s former manager Sir Alex Ferguson as a close friend, who has played football with both Pele and Diego Maradona, been out on the bike with Lance Armstrong and met and worked with sports leaders around the world, Campbell hoovers knowledge of sport and tries to apply it to the other worlds in which he moves. What can a political campaign learn from the way Jose Mourinho leads Chelsea FC? What links Billy Beane to Formula One to global business brands? What lessons in life can we take from a Joe Torre or a Tiger Woods, and what lessons could they take from the way other winners operate? Campbell is a marathon runner, triathlete and soccer fan whom rarely misses a game played by his lifelong team, Burnley FC. Partly that is because sport is his passion. It’s also because sport is where he finds lessons in winning, and lessons in life.

  • Strategic Communications

    Alastair Campbell made his name as a tough, no-nonsense media operator that earned him the title “the world’s best spin doctor,” and a job offer from Bill Clinton. But spin, he says, is doomed to fail unless underpinned by real principles of strategic communications. As the media world becomes more atomized, as old certainties die, how does a modern brand—human or organizational—communicate a message? How has technology changed the way that leaders communicate, and the led listen? And given how much change there has been in the last decade, how much more is to come, and what are the threats and opportunities presented? Campbell has ridden the waves of these changes by adhering to certain principles of strategic communications, which can be applied by any organization or individual who understands that in a world where the pressures are to be more tactical, strategy and strategic communications are the answer.

  • Campaigns

    Though his background is in politics, Alastair Campbell has brought his campaigning skills to bear in a number of fields. After losing his best friend to leukaemia, he has fronted charity efforts to raise funds and research into cures and better treatments. He has won awards and plaudits home and abroad for his work on mental illness. He has taken his campaign skills to different issues. British radio presenter Nick Ferrari said: “When Alastair Campbell picks a fight, the chances are he is going to win that fight.” But how do you campaign? What are the essential elements needed to separate a great campaign from a good one? From experience and analysis, he has those answers, and they can help any cause, charity, business, party or government trying to make change for the better.

  • Strategy

    Alastair Campbell is commonly referred to as the architect of the New Labour New Britain strategy that led to Tony Blair’s three general election victories. But what is strategy? How is it shaped? How can it be executed in a faster, more complicated and more aggressive media landscape? Campbell draws on his experience of winning with Blair, and the work he does now in business and sport, to answer those questions. He brings his forensic skills to strategies that work and strategies that don’t, and leaves audiences with simple messages that can benefit any individual or organization seeking to be more strategic in an ever-more-tactical world.

Alastair Campbell Books

  • The Irish Diaries: Alastair Campbell (1994–2003)
    The Irish Diaries: Alastair Campbell (1994–2003)
  • The Burden of Power (The Alastair Campbell Diaries)
    The Burden of Power (The Alastair Campbell Diaries)
  • The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness
    The Happy Depressive: In Pursuit of Personal and Political Happiness
  • The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume Three: Power and Responsibility
    The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume Three: Power and Responsibility
  • The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume Two: Power and the People 1997-1999
    The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume Two: Power and the People 1997-1999
  • The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume One: Prelude to Power 1994-1997
    The Alastair Campbell Diaries: Volume One: Prelude to Power 1994-1997

FAQs on booking Alastair Campbell

  • How do I book Alastair Campbell to speak at my event?

    Our experienced booking agents have successfully helped clients around the world secure speakers like Alastair Campbell for speaking engagements, personal appearances, product endorsements, or corporate entertainment since 2002. Click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page to check availability for Alastair Campbell, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to discuss your upcoming event. One of our experienced agents will be happy to help you get speaking fee information and check availability for Alastair Campbell or any other speaker of your choice.
  • What are the speaker fees for Alastair Campbell

    Speaking fees for Alastair Campbell, or any other speakers and celebrities, are determined based on a number of factors and may change without notice. The estimated fees to book Alastair Campbell are for live events and for virtual events. For the most current speaking fee to hire Alastair Campbell, click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536 to speak directly with an experienced booking agent.
  • What topics does Alastair Campbell speak about?

    Alastair Campbell is a keynote speaker and industry expert whose speaking topics include Addiction & Recovery, Broadcasting, Communication, Host & Emcee, Leadership, Mental Health, Podcast Hosts, Political.
  • Where does Alastair Campbell travel from?

    Alastair Campbell generally travels from London, UK, but can be booked for private corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. For more details, please contact an AAE Booking agent.
  • Who is Alastair Campbell’s agent?

    AAE Speakers Bureau has successfully booked keynote speakers like Alastair Campbell for clients worldwide since 2002. As a full-service speaker booking agency, we have access to virtually any speaker or celebrity in the world. Our agents are happy and able to submit an offer to the speaker or celebrity of your choice, letting you benefit from our reputation and long-standing relationships in the industry. Please click the Check Availability button above and complete the form on this page including the details of your event, or call our office at 1.800.698.2536, and one of our agents will assist you to book Alastair Campbell for your next private or corporate function.
  • What is a full-service speaker booking agency?

    AAE Speakers Bureau is a full-service speaker booking agency, meaning we can completely manage the speaker’s or celebrity’s engagement with your organization from the time of booking your speaker through the event’s completion. We provide all of the services you need to host Alastair Campbell or any other speaker of your choice, including offer negotiation, contractual assistance, accounting and billing, and event speaker travel and logistics services. When you book a speaker with us, we manage the process of hosting a speaker for you as an extension of your team. Our goal is to give our clients peace of mind and a best-in-class service experience when booking a speaker with us.
  • Why is AAE Speakers Bureau different from other booking agencies?

    If you’re looking for the best, unbiased speaker recommendations, paired with a top-notch customer service experience, you’re in the right place. At AAE Speakers Bureau, we exclusively represent the interests of our clients - professional organizations, companies, universities, and associations. We intentionally do not represent the speakers we feature or book. That is so we can present our clients with the broadest and best performing set of speaker options in the market today, and we can make these recommendations without any obligation to promote a specific speaker over another. This is why when our agents suggest a speaker for your event, you can be assured that they are of the highest quality with a history of proven success with our other clients.

Alastair Campbell is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as Mental Illness , Crisis Management, Sport As A Metaphor For Life , Strategic Communications , Campaigns and Strategy. The estimated speaking fee range to book Alastair Campbell for your event is $30,000 - $50,000. Alastair Campbell generally travels from LondonUK and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Rory Stewart, Anderson Cooper, Elizabeth Day, Jon Favreau and Erik Qualman. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Alastair Campbell for an upcoming live or virtual event.

Tell us about your event!

During normal business hours, we respond to most inquiries within 4 hours.

  • Customized Service

    Our agents find the right fit for your event

  • Unparalleled Database

    Full access to all speakers & celebrities

  • One Stop Shopping

    A reliable and unbiased point of contact

  • Logistics Management

    Your personal Logistics Manager who takes care of all event details

This website is a resource for event professionals and strives to provide the most comprehensive catalog of thought leaders and industry experts to consider for speaking engagements. A listing or profile on this website does not imply an agency affiliation or endorsement by the talent.

All American Entertainment (AAE) exclusively represents the interests of talent buyers, and does not claim to be the agency or management for any speaker or artist on this site. AAE is a talent booking agency for paid events only. We do not handle requests for donation of time or media requests for interviews, and cannot provide celebrity contact information.

If you are the talent and wish to request a profile update or removal from our online directory, please submit a profile request form.

TOP