About High Touch

As one of the leading experts in the fields of diplomatic protocol and organizational relationship management, High Touch Engagement works with clients to design customized engagement strategies that include our highly acclaimed MasterClass curriculum, Business Etiquette and Social Skills Training (BESST).
What sets us apart is our ability to bridge the divide between left and right brain thinking – merging strategy with creativity. Whether it’s a campaign initiative or a major event, we work with our clients to map out their goals and objectives and then work back from there, designing a strategy that identifies and mitigates every potential risk while amplifying their position as leaders in their fields.
Whether at home or abroad, our clients are prepared to thrive in any environment, avoiding common cultural misunderstandings and pitfalls as they engage with a high touch anywhere in the world.

Clay Doherty - Managing Director

A recognized expert in Global Engagement strategies, Clay Doherty founded High Touch Engagement to combine his personal passion for creative ideation and his deeply-rooted beliefs in the power of dynamic connectivity. Bringing this unique perspective to the table for clients and partners alike, Clay is able to uniquely identify and lean into the points of commonality between clients and stakeholders to create dynamic solutions and opportunities that advance ideas into action — and action into results — that surpass both expectations and set objectives.

Whether in the public or private sector,
I have always sought ways to be of service
in the public interest.
It's the cornerstone of who I am.

CLAY DOHERTY

How Will You Make a Difference in the World?

Growing up in a military family, questions like this were commonplace for Clay. From an early age he was taught a sense of duty – of service over self – understanding that he had a fundamental obligation to give back more than would be given.

For over two decades this question, and Clay’s answers to it, have guided his professional journey. Whether in the public or private sector, Clay has  sought ways to be of service in the public interest; it’s the cornerstone of who he is and why after his time in the Obama Administration, established High Touch Engagement, to continue to work with organizations who believe in serving causes greater than themselves.

From 2010-2016, Clay led stakeholder and diplomatic engagement at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency of the U.S. Government responsible for administering all non-military foreign aid around the world. From leading the agency’s public engagement outreach to serving as the senior protocol advisor to U.S. and foreign government leaders, Clay built bridges across cultural divides, ensuring diverse groups of individuals, governments and organizations could successfully come together to achieve ambitious policy objectives and then effectively communicate the outcomes to a diverse audience. Clay continued his service in the public interest as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, NY from 2016-19.

Clay is an alumnus of the United States Naval Academy and a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College. His graduate degrees include: Master of Arts (Political Science), American University; Executive Master of International Business, Georgetown University; Corporate MBA, ESADE (Spain); Executive Master in Business Management, FGV/EBAPE (Brazil).