Nic Marks

Nic Marks’ journey started at the University of Cambridge where his studies ranging from mathematics to psychotherapy led him to his love of applied statistics. His findings have grounded his theories on well-being and happiness in hard evidence, garnering worldwide acclaim as well as the realization that happiness is a serious business.

He highlights the business case for taking happiness and well-being seriously while enlightening organizations as diverse as the World Development Movement, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and Coca-Cola. His accolades include Director magazine’s Top 10 Original Thinker and being featured in Forbes as one of 7 Most Powerful Ideas 2011.

In 2001, Marks founded the Centre for Well-Being at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) and went on to produce groundbreaking work, including the Five Ways to Well-Being (2008), the National Accounts of Well-Being (2009) and the Happy Planet Index (2006, 2009, 2012), which led to his prestigious 2010 TEDGlobal talk in Oxford.

He was an advisor to the UK Government Office for Science on the Well-Being Foresight Program and has written over 20 publications. In 2011, he authored one of the original three TED Books entitled The Happiness Manifesto.

Currently, Marks is director of Happiness Works, a business which creates science-based online tools helping organizations to become happier and more productive. He is also a board member at Action for Happiness and a fellow of NEF. He also works closely with Delivering Happiness, a U.S. social business set up by Tony Hsieh (who took Zappos.com from almost no sales to over $1 billion based on the founding principle of happy employees).

His work has been featured extensively in the media, including The Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Huffington Post and The Guardian.