Mike Stevenson

Entrepreneur

Mike’s journey from rough sleeper to multi award-winning entrepreneur is a real tour-de-force and how he turns that learning into life-changing messages makes him a truly compelling keynote speaker or conference host. When words like ‘inspirational’ and ‘Captivating’ come as standard and comparison is made to Martin Luther King’s legendary ‘I have a dream’ speech you know you are getting something special with Mike.
 
 
If you want to know where Mike’s extraordinary edge comes from look no farther than his early life story. Chucked out of school at 15, Mike spent many months sleeping on the streets of London, then racked up 29 jobs before his 26th birthday – his CV includes steelworker, wine bottler, hod-carrier, hospital orderly, biscuit-packer and community worker. He also enjoyed a stint as a musician and actor.
 
He founded Thinktastic, an innovations agency, voted Scottish Small Company of Year and acclaimed for its unique approaches to stretching people and organisations beyond the ‘apparently’ possible. With more that 30 years in Marketing Mike has worked with several leading brand names including M&S, British Gas, Sky TV, SSE and Standard Life with each – the original brief was exceeded. In the process, he won nine Communicator in Business Awards.
 
Mike’s motivational work with schools was given special recognition on three successive years with a Business in the Community award for Raising the Attainment of Young People while his community investments made him one of only 21 UK company directors to be awarded the inaugural Community Mark. In 2011, he picked up New Start Magazines Better Places Award. He was a founder member of Glasgow’s Wise Group and then of multi-award-winning creative agency, Design Links.

He is a TEDx and Leadercast speaker and a high-impact media commentator on leadership, future scoping, and innovation. Mike is a two-times host of Disney Institute Master classes and a regular contributor to "What are the World's thought leaders thinking".