PROFILE: Alison Clarke Institute of Public Relations - Transforming the IPR image. Alison Clarke waits in the wings, ready to take centre stage at the IPR in 2000

Fresh from the convincing election victory that will see her take over as president of the Institute of Public Relations in the year 2000, Alison Clarke exudes an air of joie de vivre as we meet in her office with its views of the Covent Garden piazza. As president-elect she will work closely with next year’s incumbent, Railtrack corporate affairs director Philip Dewhurst, and has already agreed a role for herself in the year before she takes up the presidential reins. Clarke, says Dewhurst, will travel around the country to focus on the 80 per cent of the IPR’s membership that is located outside London.