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Simon Mainwaring is an award-winning branding consultant, bestselling author, influential blogger and international speaker. He is the founder of We First, a social branding consultancy committed to helping brands build communities, profit and positive impact. He is a member of the Sustainable Brands Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Center for Public Diplomacy at the USC Annenberg School, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London. He also contributes to Fast Company, Forbes, Huffington Post, Mashable, and GOOD Magazine.

Simon’s first book, <em>We First: How brands and consumers use social media to build a better world </em>(June 2011, Palgrave Macmillan) is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon bestseller. He has been featured in Advertising Age, Adweek, Huffington Post, Inc Magazine, Fast Company, GOOD Magazine, and Mashable, as well as appearing on the Business News Network, CBS, CBC, BNet and Harpo Radio. Simon is a sought after international speaker with engagements including the Cannes International Advertising Festival, Royal Society of Arts, SXSW, TEDxSF, National Speakers Association, and brands such as Google, General Motors, MUJI, Gucci, Patagonia and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Prior to starting We First, Simon was an award-winning Nike creative writer at Wieden &amp; Kennedy and worldwide creative director for Motorola at Ogilvy as well as consulting on dozens of Fortune 500 brands for leading advertising, production, digital and social media companies. He has received over sixty international creative awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival, the One Show (U.S.), the Kelly Awards (U.S) and the British Design &amp; Art Direction Awards, among others.

Simon studied Law and Fine Arts (1st Class Honors) at Sydney University, lives in Los Angeles. His blog is simonmainwaring.com, he tweets @simonmainwaring, and the We First website is wefirstbranding.com