Simon Mainwaring Keynote Speaker

Simon Mainwaring is a bestselling business author and strategist. He helps businesses find purpose that resonates with their consumers and creates a wider societal impact. He is a speaker on leadership and ethical business.

After beginning his career in advertising with companies such as Saatchi and Saatchi and Nike, Simon rose to the position of Worldwide Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather. There, his responsibilities took him around the world, working in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and China. Leaving this role in 2005, he started his own brand consultancy aimed at helping companies reach their full potential and articulate their purpose in a world where society increasingly demands products with purpose. Simon’s own practice, We First, now empowers business to Lead with We.

Simon’s first book, ‘We First: How Brands and Consumers Use Social Media to Build A Better World‘ is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller. It was named an Amazon Top Ten Business Book and Sustainable Brands listed it as one of their Top Sustainability Books of the decade. The book focuses on the importance of leadership in creating new business cultures. It looks at leveraging social media to earn consumer goodwill, loyalty and profit, while also focusing on sustainable social change.

Simon’s latest book, ‘Lead with We: The Business Revolution That Will Save Our Future’ was published in late 2021. He contends that the Covid-19 pandemic has rendered ‘business as usual’ obsolete. The economy will undergo a seismic shift in the way we do business. To acclimatise to this new culture, companies need to ‘lead with we’ by putting the collective above the individual and swiftly adopting to radical stakeholder capitalism. The book has received critical acclaim. It was named #2 Top Business Book of 2021 by Forbes, it was an Official Nominee for The Next Big Idea Award hosted by Malcolm Gladwell and Adam Grant, and is a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Simon Mainwaring is a member of the Advisory Council of Conscious Capitalism LA, the Advisory Board of Sustainable Brands, The Forbes Business Council, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. He is a highly regarded international speaker and his previous engagements include the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Necker Island with Richard Branson, and the Aspen Institute.