Mark Stevenson

Mark Stevenson at the 2011 Skoll World Forum.

Mark Stevenson (born 1971) is a London-based British author, businessman, public speaker and futurologist, as well as a former semi-professional musician and comedian. He is founder of Flow Associates, a cultural learning agency^[1] and the cultural change practice We Do Things Differently. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.^[2] Stevenson's first book, An Optimist's Tour of the Future, was released in the United Kingdom in January 2011 (February 2011 in the United States).^[3]

Education

Stevenson graduated from the University of Salford in 1992 with a first-class honors degree in Information Technology.^[4]

Early career

Stevenson began his career working for Ovum, an information technology think tank. There, he co-authored reports on e-commerce and smart card technology and edited material related to CASE (computer-aided software engineering).^[5]

After leaving Ovum, Stevenson worked as a freelancer, consulting primarily in the field of cryptography.

Throughout this period, Stevenson was also a semi-professional musician. As a founding member of the band Clear, he co-wrote both music and lyrics, sang and played bass. The band's sole album, Coming Around, had the unique distinction of being funded by a company founded by the members but owned in part by the band's fans. The album, recorded in 2003, was produced by Andy Metcalfe at the studios of Glenn Tilbrook; it was mastered at Abbey Road.

Comedy

After leaving Clear, Stevenson took to comedy. His stand-up material was primarily focused on science. He has appeared at many comedy clubs, festivals and other venues. And although his current duties as businessman and author preclude a full-time career in comedy, he still occasionally makes appearances at clubs and on programs.^[6]

Writing

In early 2011, Stevenson released a book entitled An Optimist's Tour of the Future (published by Profile Books in January 2011 in the UK and by Avery in February 2011 in the United States), which explores how invention and innovation can help overcome several of humanity's current problems.^[7] The book has since been translated into 12 languages.^[8]

Notably, whilst writing An Optimist's Tour of the Future, Stevenson met the then President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed and was present at the world’s first underwater cabinet meeting. "to draw attention to the climate change issue... he [Mohamed Nasheed] held an underwater cabinet meeting... I was there, I was lucky, I was one of four people that wasn't in the government or the support team that was in the water at this time, it was a very bizzare [sic] experience..."^[9]

Stevenson is also a playwright, having co-authored (with Jack Milner) Octopus Soup.

Current Activities

Following the success of his book, Stevenson is in high demand as a consultant and speaker on issues related to cultural change and technology trends. In addition to his role as one of the co-founders of the consultancy We Do Things Differently he also runs The League of Pragmatic Optimists (aka LOPO), which has chapters in the UK, Spain, New Zealand and Finland.

Mr. Stevenson is working on a new book, (also) titled We Do Things Differently, whose format as a travelogue will be similar to that of his first book, but with a theme centered on the concept of institutional change. It will be published late 2016 by Profile Books.

He fulfills a number of advisory roles notably to The Virgin Earth Challenge, Trillion Fund and Mass Challenge.^[10]

References