Ben Verinder

Keynote speaker Ben Verinder is the co-editor of AI for Public Relations: A How-To Guide for Implementation and Management.

As artificial intelligence takes its place in the world of comms there is a need to rapidly update and upgrade skills and processes within the public relations sector. Ben is a key part of that movement. He is a strategic communication and public relations expert who has advised boards, senior leaders and communications professionals in public relations and marketing over more than a quarter of a centur. One of 50 Founding Chartered public relations practitioners globally, Ben is a pioneering authority on AI in PR, and has worked in the field since 2015.

Ben is managing director at Chalkstream, an agency specialising in reputation management and measurement whose clients include the UK Government, Zoological Society of London, Cunard, The Royal Town Planning Institute, Pearson and NATO.

He has a background in communication – in print and digital journalism, software business development and in-house public relations at director level. Ben is a regular speaker on AI and PR, crisis and issues management, communication, change management, behavioural insights and reputation research. He delivers training and consultancy on these topics to a wide range of public and private sector clients in the UK and internationally. He also supports senior leaders with specialist training in public speaking and presentation skills.

Ben is a longstanding researcher and speaker on the UK public relations industry.  Since 2018 he has been the author of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ State of the Profession studies, the largest and longest running survey of public relations in the UK, alongside a number of projects investigating the demography of UK PR practitioners using Office for National Statistics data.

Ben is a founder member of the CIPR’s Behavioural Insights Interest Group and Chair of the assessment panel for social mobility charity Socially Mobile. He has contributed to public relations books, including Chartered Public Relations: Lessons from Expert Practitioners and Introduction to Public Relations and worked as a strategic advisor to the CIPR Board. Ben co-edited AI for Public Relations with fellow speaker Stephen Waddington.

Ben Verinder is also a widely read nature and environmental poet. Ben was awarded the prestigious 2024–2025 Michael Marks Environmental Poet of the Year Prize for his project How to Save a River. You can contact Ben Verinder via a Specialist Speakers agent on our enquiry number, +44 0204 616 0868 regarding speaking and presentation in both in-person and virtual settings or you can email Ben at info@specialistspeakers.com