Nita Clarke is the director of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA). She was vice-chair of the MacLeod Review on employee engagement and continues to work with David MacLeod on the new national employee engagement taskforce, launched by then-prime minister David Cameron in March 2011.
She was appointed as vice-president (employee relations) by the CIPD in January 2012, and is a visiting fellow at Kingston University Business School. She was also a member of the mutuals taskforce established by then-cabinet office minister Francis Maude in 2011.
She was formerly the adviser on trade unions to then-prime minister Tony Blair, working as assistant political secretary at 10 Downing Street from January 2001 to June 2007. Her role included liaising with individual unions and the TUC, developing national policy in areas such as the two-tier workforce and work/life balance, and supporting ministers by troubleshooting in industrial disputes. Clarke was a senior official with public services union UNISON from 1992 to 2001. She is the author of the report The way forward: trade unions and the third sector.
Clarke was awarded an OBE for services to employee engagement and business in the Queen's birthday honours list 2013.
