Susana Ecclestone is an international trade executive, strategist, and founder of Harrington Blue & Partners and Harrington Verve, two ventures that reflect her dual focus on high-impact global consultancy and premium services. With a career spanning senior roles in international chambers of commerce, corporate advisory, and multinational organizations, she has established herself as a trusted voice in global trade, investment, and strategy.
At the helm of Harrington Blue & Partners, Susana drives cross-border expansion between the UK, EMEA, and Latin America, advising international funds, securing strategic partnerships, and opening new markets. Through Harrington Verve, she aligns these capabilities with premium, curated services tailored to the UAE’s vision for innovation, luxury, and leadership. Both brands share a commitment to combining strategic insight with a network of world-class consultants, ensuring that businesses and investors engage globally with confidence.
A passionate advocate for women in leadership, Susana is spearheading the launch of a series of high-level projects focused on inclusive education in Dubai. Alongside this, she has expanded Harrington Blue’s international internship and mentoring programmes, strengthening pipelines of talent across continents and building inclusive platforms for the next generation.
Now entering the UAE, Susana’s vision reflects the region’s role as a global hub for entrepreneurship, innovation, and female empowerment. Her work embodies the principles of purposeful leadership, strategic connectivity, and curated excellence — qualities that position both Harrington Blue & Partners and Harrington Verve as strong international players in the UAE ecosystem.
Below is the interview.
Could you provide an overview of Harrington Blue’s core business areas, and explain what distinguishes your approach from other consultancy firms?
Harrington Blue isn’t your traditional consultancy and frankly, we don’t want to be. Our work lives where strategy, investment, and policy collide.
We advise on how to unlock growth, connect global capital with bold projects, and guide companies breaking into new and often not only complicated but markets that are in many cases perceived as complicated when in fact what the client needs is the right connections, approach and disruptive thinking to break into it. At the heart of it, our mission is simple: we help identify the sector and opportunity, step into it and get results. Unlike many firms, we don’t apply cookie-cutter frameworks.
Every project is bespoke, because every market and every client is different. We thrive in complex environments whether that’s guiding a company entering the Middle East, advising on strategic partnerships in Latin America, or aligning corporate strategy with government vision in the UAE. At the end of the day, our strength lies in relationships. We’re trusted because we bring not just analysis but real access to decision-makers, investors, and opportunities. And that’s why we see ourselves as more than consultants; we’re partners who create lasting impact and thrive in long term relationships and strategies. What makes us different is that we refuse to play it safe.
We’re female-led and unapologetically global, with our feet in London, Dubai, and Latin America. That gives us a unique vantage point: we see opportunities others miss, and we’re not afraid to challenge the status quo to get there. While many consultancies deliver glossy reports, we deliver access, we anticipate the opportunity. We’re disruptors in an industry that can often feel stale, and we see ourselves less as advisors and more as allies in transformation.
Think of us as strategic insurgents: we bring clarity to complexity, but we also light a fire under our clients to move faster, think bigger, and lead differently.At the end of the day, Harrington Blue is about courage and conviction. We march on, fearlessly.
Has Harrington Blue undertaken any projects in the Gulf region? If so, could you elaborate on the nature and scope of these initiatives?
Harrington Blue has entered the Gulf with a purpose: to redefine investment for a new era. Our strategy weaves together capital, culture, and education to create unparalleled, holistic opportunities that resonate with today’s sophisticated investor.This philosophy is exemplified in our flagship real estate curation.
Our approach transforms prime real estate into a gateway for holistic growth. While Dubai property continues to see exceptional demand from European investors, we go beyond mere transactions. We curate experiential investment opportunities where a property serves as an entry point into a wider ecosystem—connecting investors to a curated landscape of growth, elite connectivity, and a purposeful lifestyle.
Building on this foundation, we are launching two pioneering initiatives in Dubai that form the pillars of our long-term strategy:
- A Women’s Empowerment Summit: Directly aligned with the UAE’s “We the UAE 2031” vision, this event is a powerful platform dedicated to advancing female leadership and economic participation. It transcends a conventional conference by creating a curated ecosystem where empowerment is directly linked to action—fostering mentorship, facilitating access to capital, and building the strategic networks necessary for women to lead in high-growth sectors.
- A venture-driven entrepreneurial institute, exclusively for women. A truly unique venture, conceived and developed by a pioneering group of experienced female leaders in education and venture capital. Unlike any traditional campus, this institute is a fully integrated ecosystem that merges world-class talent development with direct venture incubation and corporate co-investment models. Its unique curriculum and operational framework, directly aligned with KHDA standards and the UAE’s Vision 2030, make it a pioneering force for female-led innovation in the region.
Both initiatives are entry points into the Gulf’s next decade of transformation. They combine cultural resonance, global connectivity, and disruptive potential, offering investors not only secure and diversified exposure but also first-mover advantage in spaces where global capital is just beginning to take notice.At Harrington Blue and Harrington Verve, we believe the elevated consumer and investor of today seek purpose, alignment, and experience. Our Gulf strategy reflects exactly that.
Ascot Races-Harrington Blue & Partners at the Royal Enclosure
Given your strong focus on strategic communications, could you share an example of a particularly complex or challenging project you have successfully led in this area?
Strategic communications are often misunderstood. Too many people still think it’s about press releases and polite speeches. For us, it’s about controlling the narrative when the stakes are high — and using it as a weapon to create opportunity where none exists.
The way we work is very deliberate: we anticipate areas of opportunity before they’re obvious, shape them into investable models, and bring those forward to the right people. Communication in this sense is not one-way messaging — it’s a dialogue. The real test isn’t whether someone nods politely in a meeting, it’s whether they truly engage, whether they lean in and want to act. That’s the space we operate in. Take our current jet fuel project. We identified a gap that others overlooked: the demand for sustainable aviation fuel solutions aligned with global energy transitions. We didn’t just pitch it as a project — we built a layered, multi-pronged narrative around it: energy security, international collaboration, environmental impact, and investor return.
By doing that, we’ve been able to attract international investors and strategic partners to start working in co-developing a series of production plants.
And here’s the difference: we’re country-agnostic. That gives us freedom to match opportunity with the right geography, instead of being trapped in a single market.
Our communications strategy is what unlocked that flexibility — it allowed us to frame the opportunity in a way that resonates across borders and agendas.That’s how we see strategic communications: not as an accessory to strategy, but as the engine that drives it.
How does Harrington Blue approach the development of cross-cultural communication strategies for multinational clients, particularly in emerging markets?
At Harrington Blue, we see cross-cultural communication as the cornerstone of successful market entry and long-term growth in emerging markets. Our approach is deliberately rooted in local knowledge. We work with trusted regional advisors, consultants, and talent who understand the nuances of culture, regulation, and business etiquette in their markets.
This ensures that strategies are not only well-informed but also authentically aligned with local needs.Rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all model, we build frameworks that integrate regional voices into global strategy. Local advisors give us insight into investor expectations, community sensitivities, and market-specific dynamics, while our international perspective helps shape these insights into scalable, strategic opportunities.
We believe talent is our greatest asset, and our curated team of consultants—drawn from across geographies and sectors—enables us to design communications that resonate both with local stakeholders and with international investors entering strategic markets.
By combining global standards with regional expertise, we help our clients anticipate challenges, avoid missteps, and foster trust in markets where cultural intelligence is as valuable as financial capital. We believe in the power of people and talent and that is our most effective and reliable weapon.
We believe talent is our greatest asset, and our curated team of consultants—drawn from across geographies and sectors—enables us to design communications that resonate both with local stakeholders and with international investors entering strategic markets.
Technology & Education Roundtable co-organized by Harrington Blue & Partners
What key trends are you currently observing in the field of investor relations, and how is Harrington Blue positioning itself to adapt to these evolving dynamics?
Investor relations is undergoing a profound shift. While investor appetite remains strong, we are seeing greater risk aversion, especially when it comes to volatile or geopolitically sensitive markets. Yet paradoxically, the very uncertainty driving this caution is also pushing investors to explore strategic opportunities across borders that might previously have been overlooked.
At Harrington Blue, we see this as an opening rather than a constraint. The current landscape rewards creativity, agility, and the ability to spot value where others see complexity. Our strength lies in curating opportunities that align with this changing palate—markets and sectors that are underexplored, high-impact, and often disruptive. This allows us to frame investment strategies that both manage risk and unlock new potential.
What differentiates us is that investors actively seek us out because of our specialization. They know that our focus is on areas others may ignore, and that our cross-cultural, cross-market expertise helps de-risk these ventures. We thrive on the element of surprise—identifying opportunities that challenge conventional thinking and positioning our clients at the forefront of emerging trends.
In short, while the dynamics of investor relations are becoming more complex, Harrington Blue’s model is designed for precisely this environment: translating global uncertainty into strategic advantage.
In conclusion, Susana Ecclestone’s vision and approach position Harrington Blue & Partners and Harrington Verve as trailblazers in global consultancy, investment, and female empowerment. By combining fearless leadership with a commitment to tailored, purpose-driven strategies, she continues to drive transformation and open new doors in the UAE and around the world. Her work is a testament to the power of courage, inclusivity, and the relentless pursuit of excellence.
Editorial Staff 2025
