Mark Simmons

Mark Simmons runs hands-on workshops to help organizations unlock their creativity. Each workshop is typically a half-day and is tailored to meet the organization's specific needs. Some of the broad areas that the workshops cover include: why creativity matters in competitive organizations, how to collaborate with others to create big ideas, and how to turn ideas into action and bring them to market quickly and effectively. Simmons is the co-author of the bestselling book The Business Playground: Where Creativity and Commerce Collide, which was published in a dozen languages and has a foreword by Sir Richard Branson. In the workshops he uses techniques and exercises outlined in the book to unlock creativity in a fun, inspiring and effective session guaranteed to make creativity a part of the everyday workplace culture.

Simmons has been working in the creative industries for over 25 years and is recognized as a thought-leader and creative strategist. Following senior roles at two of London’s top advertising agencies he joined Coca-Cola in Atlanta where he ran advertising for Sprite globally and all Coca-Cola brands across Latin America. He subsequently founded his own creative agency Anti-Corp in London that was lauded by the Financial Times newspaper as being in the vanguard of an advertising evolution. Moving back to the US he ran the LA office of Crispin Porter Bogusky, one of the most celebrated advertising agencies of the time, before becoming an advisor to the Gates Foundation and leading creative projects for organizations of all shapes and sizes from startups to multinational corporations and nonprofits.

Following the success of The Business Playground and his first book Punk Marketing: Get Off Your Ass and Join the Revolution, Simmons has been a keynote speaker and run workshops on creativity and innovation in North America and Europe.