Piers Schmidt is a luxury branding expert who was schooled at Eton and graduated from Cambridge University before joining Charles Barker, the world’s largest Public Relations agency, as an Account Executive. In 1993, Piers became a Brand Consultant at Newell and Sorrell where, between 1996-1998, he served as a Group Director and Board Director and was appointed Head of Strategy on the firm’s merger with Interbrand in 1997.

At Interbrand Newell and Sorrell, Piers led the UK corporate identity practice and was responsible for clients including Barclays Bank, British Airways, Deutsche BA, Air Liberté, Austin Reed and Selfridges. For British Airways, Piers created a strategy for the re-modelling of Terminal 7 at JFK International Airport, the brand strategy for the airline that became known as ‘go’ the ‘oneworld’ name for the global alliance between American Airlines and British Airways as well as the strategy behind the airline’s corporate rebranding launched in 1995.

In 1998, Piers co-founded The Fourth Room, a pioneering brand consultancy that attracted
a blue-chip client list including Coca-Cola, General Motors, Kraft, Mars, Mishcon de Reya, MFI plc, Nokia, Orange, RHM, Sainsbury’s, Scottish Power, Quintessentially, Sun International and The RIBA. The Fourth Room was sold to Los Angeles-headquartered US Interactive in 2002 whereupon Piers was appointed to the dual role of Senior Vice President, Europe.

In September 2003, Piers formed Luxury Branding, an international luxury consulting firm, and joined Kerzner International as consultant Strategic Marketing Director of One&Only Resorts. There, he mastermind the $16m launch and rollout of the new brand that The Fourth Room had created for Kerzner International’s peerless collection of luxury resorts. In March 2005, Luxury Branding was appointed to help Dorchester Group Hotels to develop a new luxury hotel brand – The Dorchester Collection – under which to market the Brunei Investment Agency’s five iconic properties in the USA and continental Europe and through which to market a newly-formed management company capability. In 2005-6, Piers also worked closely with the CEO and senior management of Armani Hotels & Resorts, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Emaar Properties, to extend and translate the Armani brand into the hospitality business.

In 2008, Piers moved Luxury Branding from London to Cape Town, South Africa and during 2009, he co-founded and launched the Southern Africa 
Luxury Association (SALA) to foster the 
growth of the nascent luxury sector in South Africa. Regional clients have included The Steve Biko Foundation, Seeff Properties and Imara Holdings, a specialist investment banking group, headquartered in Botswana. During 2011, Piers led the reconceptualisation and rebranding of Naiade Resorts as LUX* Island Resorts and worked closely with Value Retail across Europe to elevate the quality of the visitor experience at its nine Chic Outlet Shopping Villages. During 2011, the Luxury Branding team was also responsible for rebranding Harel Frères – one of the most venerable sugar companies on Mauritius’  – as ‘Terra’.

Piers is a writer and speaker on brand and marketing issues, making frequent appearances in print and broadcast media as well as on conference platforms in London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles, Cape Town and Johannesburg.