- Mark Penn
- Chairman and CEO / Stagwell
Mark Penn is the Chairman and CEO of Stagwell, a NASDAQ-listed company, with over 12,000 employees and $2 billion of annual revenue. His career spans 40 years in market research, advertising, public relations, polling, and consulting. A globally recognized strategist, Penn has advised top world leaders, led companies, and written two bestselling books.
Prior to founding Stagwell, Penn served as Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. He sat on the company’s 12-member Senior Leadership Team, managing a $2 billion advertising budget and later overall strategy for the world’s largest company.
Penn was the co-founder and CEO of Penn Schoen Berland -- a high-tech market research powerhouse that he built and sold to WPP. At WPP, he became CEO of Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest public relations companies.
For six years, Penn served as White House Pollster to President Bill Clinton and was chief strategist of his 1996 re-election campaign and developed the concept behind “Soccer Moms.” He is credited with developing several unique ad and polling methods and was first to implement overnight polling.