Minority owned and operated, and certified by the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, Clyde Group has developed a strong expertise in DE&I since its inception in 2015, advising international brands, leading nonprofits, and advocacy groups on internal strategies and external engagement with underserved communities.
Slater has deployed bold — sometimes unconventional — strategies to help clients achieve their goals in a variety of industry sectors. He brings a passion for the intersection of corporate and brand DE&I work with social justice, having led major campaigns in those spaces.
He is also an expert in crisis communications, having helped some of the world’s largest brands facing complex crises or issues management, particularly related to the social issues becoming increasingly prominent.
He is on the board of, and has led, four organizations intersecting with LGBTQ+ engagement and society. Whitman-Walker Health, the nation’s leading health center for HIV/AIDS; Asylum Works, helping LGBTQ refugees escape torture; the Victory Fund, promoting LGBTQ candidates for public office, and the Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, the world’s first museum dedicated solely to queer art.
Slater was the first hire at the now widely respected global agency Finsbury Glover Hering, leaving a decade later as Managing Director. In 2011, Slater was tapped to grow a public affairs practice at SKDK, now widely acknowledged to be the best large public affairs firm in the nation. In those roles, he advised clients on some of the most complex media and communications challenges of the past decades; he went on to found Clyde Group in 2015.
Slater has conceived and executed highly successful public affairs campaigns for the entertainment software industry and major movie studios, as well as blue chip companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Ford, American Airlines, and Visa. He has also developed a track record in progressive politics, conducting impactful communications efforts for the American Postal Workers Union, Advancement Project, People for the American Way, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, and shaping health equity communications strategies for some of the world’s leading brands.
Slater who this year was named a top five communications CEO previously wrote a regular column for The Guardian newspaper in London, and his work has also been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The Financial Times, as well as co-authoring the “Nonprofit Guide to Going Green.” A strong leader and creative force, Slater was named the recipient of the Washington Pride Award in 2020, named to PR Week’s “40 Under 40,” and was recognized by the Business Journal’s network as a Pride leader and a 2021 “Star of PR.”
Slater holds a master of arts degree in Communications from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania and bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees from the University of Cambridge, where he was president of the Cambridge Union. He lives in Washington, D.C.
