PANELIST PROFILE
Rio Phior
Award-Winning Creative Director & Founder, Branding for Humanity
Rio Phior directs the marketing strategies, branding and creative campaigns for Sagon-Phior. She helps organizations to develop, enhance and grow their brands. Clients have ranged from Fortune 500 companies to entrepreneurial start-ups. They include businesses and organizations from healthcare to technology, real estate to finance, and consumer goods to non-profits. Phior's keen business acumen has helped to deliver imaginative, innovative work for more than 3,000 global brands and over 100 non-profits. Some have included the Olympic Games, Sony, Disney, Ford Foundation, DreamWorks, Stand Up To Cancer, Microsoft, Fox Broadcasting, United Nations, Honda, Columbia-TriStar, United Way, Pininfarina (Ferrari), Rodney Strong, Warner Bros., Hard Rock Cafe, Viacom, Random House, Nestle, Princess Cruises, Cunard, AMC, CBS, NBC, IFC, Universal Entertainment, Callaway Golf, and American Heart Association to name a few.
Phior's career began as a fashion illustrator and designer, segueing into art directing and copywriting for Wells, Rich, Greene Advertising's Max Factor, Britannia Jeans and Columbia Pictures accounts. Shortly thereafter, at the age of 26, Rio became Creative Director for George Lucas and Steven Spielberg where she was responsible for developing the worldwide branding, advertising and merchandising for their films, setting record-breaking precedents for box office and licensing revenue. Rio believes successful branding is rooted in genuinely understanding "the art of making something famous" and building strong
emotional connections. Phior has developed a proprietary process for this style of branding.
After launching the global branding for the original Stars Wars trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark films and their corresponding consumer products lines, Phior negotiated a business arrangement with Lucasfilm to run all advertising through a new company she formed in San Francisco. Her initial clients were Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, Levi Strauss, and the San Francisco Ballet.
Phior soon thereafter moved her business to Los Angeles after acquiring Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures as clients. Glenn Sagon, Creative Director for Columbia Pictures, partnered with Phior at this time. With Glenn's rainmaking talents, he quadrupled their client base after acquiring the majority of Hollywood's major studios. Phior and Sagon grew their first entertainment brand marketing firm to a $30 million dollar company in capitalized billings, selling it to the Interpublic Group of Companies 10 years later (1986-1996) and stayed on contract until 2001. They next created the virtual
brand marketing firm that operates today.
Rio’s creative achievements have been recognized by the U.S. Library of Congress, Grammy Awards, New York and Los Angeles Art Director’s Awards, Graphis, The Creativity Awards, The Broadcast Design Awards, Summit Awards, Astrid Awards, The New York Arc Awards, Critique, Millennium Awards, Women in Film, Davey Awards, Agency Spotter's Top 10
National Branding, Digital, Video, Advertising and Design Firms and Women In Design for Best International Designer, among others.
Phior's interests encompass the arts, entertainment and business. Rio is a Professor of Fine Art, guest lecturer, and internationally recognized contemporary fine artist with Mirage, Martin Lawrence and Tower Galleries. Phior is also known for negotiating the first history-making single-artist national distribution deal for her independent music label. She is creative advisor to Loxley, a next-generation digital entertainment company, merging the worlds of modular role-playing gaming with social communities, blockchain, crypto currency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
At the age of 14, Rio completed her two years of college and authored a Los Angeles Daily News column as a teen film critic. Phior also earned full academic scholarships to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), California State University Los Angeles (English Literature major), and to the prestigious Art Center College of Design as the youngest student ever accepted at the time.
A Legacy of Creative Impact
Rio Phior's journey is defined by a relentless pursuit of excellence and a deep-seated commitment to social good. As an award-winning Creative Director and the visionary founder of Branding for Humanity, she has spent over two decades crafting visual narratives that do more than just sell—they inspire action and foster global change.
Rio’s creative leadership has been recognized by industry leaders for its ability to cut through noise and address the world’s most pressing challenges. From advocating for women's leadership to launching environmental awareness initiatives, her campaigns are built on the foundational belief that creativity is the most powerful tool for progress.
Her work transcends traditional advertising, focusing on high-impact campaigns that empower vulnerable communities and elevate the mission of non-profit organizations across the globe. Through Branding for Humanity, Rio has pioneered a unique methodology that blends strategic brand identity with emotional storytelling.
Currently, her focus remains at the intersection of branding and social impact, where she continues to develop visual systems that give voice to the voiceless. At the Rotary Global Women's Forum, she brings this wealth of experience to discuss how purposeful branding can serve as a catalyst for sustainable development and gender equality.