Simon Mainwaring is the founder and CEO of We First, a creative consultancy that builds purpose-driven brands. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Sustainable Brands, the Steering Committee of the Business Alliance for the Future, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. He contributes to The Guardian, Forbes, and Huffington Post on purposeful branding and storytelling.

Simon’s 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, 800CEORead Top Five Marketing Book, and strategy+business named it the Best Business Marketing Book of the Year. It has been translated into Russian, Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean. Simon was included in Top 30 Global Brand Guru’s for 2018, Richtopia’s ‘Top 200 Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs 2017,’ the 2016 United National Foundation’s ‘Global Influencers to Follow’, Statsocial’s 2015 Top 100 Social Media Power Influencers, YPO’s Real Leaders ‘100 Visionary Leaders’ for 2015, GlobalCEO’s Top CSR Leaders for 2014, #15 on SustMeme’s CSR Top 500 Influencers for 2013, #4 on The Guardian’s, ‘Twitter List: The 30 Most Influential Sustainability Voices in America for 2013’ and Trust Across America’s, ‘Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior for 2012’. In addition, he has been featured in BBC World News, The Guardian, Advertising Age, Inc., AMA, Fast Company, GOOD Magazine and Huffington Post. Simon is a sought after international speaker with engagements including the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Royal Society of Arts, SXSW, TEDxSF, NAB, Promaxbda, Conscious Capitalism, Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson, Sustainable Brands, Social Good Summit, National Speakers Association, 1440 Multiversity and National Press Club, as well as brands such as Google, Coca-Cola, General Motors, VF, Samsung, VSP Global, Toyota, SAP, Gucci, VW Group, NHL, and Patagonia. He was voted a Top 5 Marketing Speaker by speaking.com, featured on the cover of the National Speaker’s Magazine, and was a finalist for Global Australian of the Year. Simon received the MAKE CHANGE, ‘Conscious Leadership’ Award for 2016 and was a finalist for the Conscious Company Leadership Awards in 2017.

Prior to starting We First Simon spent 15 years as an award-winning writer, Creative Director, and Worldwide Creative Director at many of the world’s top creative advertising agencies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Wieden & Kennedy, and Ogilvy working on brands such a Nike, Coca-Cola, Toyota, and Motorola, as well as consulting on dozens of F500 brands for leading advertising, production, and digital companies. He was the writer on the U.S. launch of the first three generations of the Toyota Prius, the largest national service campaign for the Entertainment Industry Foundation that brought together all four major TV networks for the first time in U.S. television history, and award-winning campaigns for Nike. He has received over 60 awards at major advertising festivals including the Cannes Advertising Festival (Europe), the One Show (U.S.), the Clio’s (U.S.), the Kelly Awards (U.S), British Design & Art Direction Awards (U.K.), and AWARD (Australia), among others. Simon studied Law and Fine Arts (1st Class Honors) at St. Paul’s College, Sydney University, and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.