Leadership series: Cliff Poulton

In our Leadership series, we feature exceptional and inspiring industry leaders worldwide.

In this interview, we speak to Cliff Poulton, Founder and Managing Director of Poulton Consultancy. 

Tell us a little about yourself and your business.

I'm a British leader who has been based in Dubai since 2007, and my career has moved between retail operations, education and attractions. I started in UK retail with ASDA, spent seven years at The Cambridge High School Abu Dhabi, finishing as Director of Assessment, then moved into the attractions sector: Atlantis, The Palm; Dubai Parks and Resorts; IMG Worlds of Adventure; and General Manager of Aventura Parks. Most recently I was VP of Development GCC/MENA at IBCCES. Today I'm Founder and Managing Director of Poulton Consultancy, a Dubai-based consultancy that connects schools, venues and corporates through curriculum-aligned experiences, career pathways and consultancy services.

What initially inspired you to pursue this career?

Teaching showed me that people learn and remember most when they experience something rather than are simply told about it. That idea has run through every role since, whether I was bringing school groups into a resort or building a career programme for students. 

What are your biggest career achievements?

• Atlantis, The Palm: as Educational Manager, I grew student visits from 450 to 20,000 in two years.
• Dubai Parks and Resorts: as Education Manager in the corporate office, I built the education business from zero to 40,000 students in two years, coordinating across Motiongate, Legoland, Legoland Water Park, Real Madrid World, Riverland and Lapita Hotel.
• Aventura Parks: as General Manager with full P&L responsibility for 57+ staff, I delivered 42% overall business growth and 200% growth in food and beverage revenue within six months.
• IBCCES: I helped position Dubai as the first autism-certified destination in the Eastern Hemisphere through partnerships with DET and DCT.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the sector?

Three stand out.

First, expectations: schools, families and corporates now want experiences with a clear purpose and measurable outcome, not just a good day out.

Second, talent: the sector must show young people a credible career path early, or it will keep competing for the same shrinking pool.

Third, inclusion: venues that design for every guest, including neurodivergent guests and students of determination, will open up a market many still overlook. 

What will distinguish the leading service providers over the next decade?

The leaders will be experience-driven and outcome-led. A venue will win a school or corporate client by proving what the visit achieved, whether that is curriculum links, team performance or wellbeing. Inclusion will be built in from the start rather than added later, and the strongest operators will work in partnership with schools, destinations and each other rather than in isolation.

What strategies work best for attracting and growing future talent?

Give young people real exposure, early. Through Poulton Consultancy I run Discover Pathways, a 12-week career placement programme for students, including Students of Determination. Students see a working environment, meet the people in it and understand what a career looks like before they choose a university course. It builds the next generation of talent and gives employers a genuine pipeline.

If you could change one thing about the sector, what would it be?

I would make accessibility and inclusion the standard rather than the specialist offer. My time at IBCCES showed me that when a destination commits to being genuinely autism-friendly, with trained teams and certified standards, families notice and the whole guest experience improves, not just for those families.

What is the most important leadership lesson you have learned?

 In 2024, as Acting GM at Hero Group / Absolute Adventure, I stepped into a business where school bookings were already committed across adventure, watersports and a zipline operation, and protected them. If the lesson is that a leader's first duty is to honour commitments to customers while stabilising the team behind them, say so in your own words.

Have you had to make any hard decisions as a business leader?

Yes. The hardest was closing Aventura Parks on 15 March 2020 because of Covid. It was my first GM role, and I suddenly found myself leading a company that might not reopen. My priority was to protect the company, its cash flow and my colleagues. Redundancy for everyone, including myself, was the initial plan, but we avoided it. Before Covid I had made the decision to save money, and that is what allowed us to reopen the park. As government policy for businesses changed, we moved to reduced salaries, which ran until September. We reopened in July 2020 under new regulations for operating an adventure zipline and ropes course in Dubai.

Most of our employees stayed with us, and by December every salary reduction and all benefits had been paid back to every single employee. The business then went from strength to strength. It reinforced what I said earlier: listen to your people and keep the promises you make to them.

What advice would you give emerging leaders?

Learn the operation from the ground up. I began as a Meat Manager and Night Trading Manager at ASDA, and that floor-level experience of stock, shifts, margin and people still shapes how I run a venue or a P&L today. Understand how the money is made, treat partnerships as a strength, and invest in your teams, because guests feel the culture before they see the product.

What is your long-term vision and legacy?

My vision for Poulton Consultancy is to make experiential learning and career pathways accessible to every student, including students of determination, through a trusted network of partner venues, schools and employers. The legacy I would like is a generation of young people who saw their future careers up close and a sector that is more inclusive because of it. 

Your career spans retail, education, theme parks, adventure and inclusion. What connects it all?

Every role has been about turning a venue's assets into a strong guest experience and a strong commercial result. Retail gave me operational discipline, teaching gave me an understanding of how people learn, and the attractions sector gave me scale and P&L responsibility. Put together, that lets me run a venue and also build the education, partnership and inclusion offers that fill it.

How can attractions and schools build partnerships that deliver both learning and revenue?

Start with the curriculum and the teacher's needs, not the ticket price. When a visit is tied to learning outcomes, schools return and recommend. That is how I grew student visits from 450 to 20,000 at Atlantis and from zero to 40,000 at Dubai Parks and Resorts. At Poulton Consultancy I now apply the same approach across a network of partner venues.

What does it take to turn around an underperforming venue or stabilise one in transition?

In my experience it starts with protecting what is already committed, such as confirmed bookings and key customers, and then finding the quickest commercial wins. At Aventura Parks that meant a 42% rise in overall business and 200% growth in food and beverage revenue within six months. At Hero Group in 2024, as Acting GM, it meant keeping school bookings on track while stabilising operations.

Why does accessibility make commercial sense, not just moral sense?

Because it widens the audience and builds trust. Families who know a venue understands their needs become loyal advocates. At IBCCES I worked with Dubai government partners to position the city as the first autism-certified destination in the Eastern Hemisphere, and that kind of leadership gives a destination a story competitors cannot easily copy.

What does a consultancy like Poulton Consultancy offer that schools and venues struggle to do themselves?

We join up the education side and the commercial side. For schools, that means curriculum-aligned trips, programmes such as Build Beyond Boundaries and Week Without Walls, and career pathways. For venues and corporates, it means packaging their facilities for the education and team-programme market and advising on partnerships and commercial strategy. Because I have run venues and worked inside schools, I understand both sides of the conversation.

What are you looking for next, and how can people work with you?

I am keen to hear from schools, venues and organisations that want to build education, career pathway or inclusion programmes, and from owners and boards seeking a senior operations or commercial leader in attractions, leisure, hospitality or education. You can reach me at info@poultonconsults.com.