Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He started out in IT marketing for IBM then switched careers to work within the environmental movement, including for Greenpeace. From 1997 to 2003, he was the director of Action on Smoking and Health (U.K.), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003, he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector in the U.K. and for the United Nations in Sudan. In 2013, he started Counterfactual, a public interest consulting and advocacy practice focused on a pragmatic approach to sustainable development.