Ignites passion with every word
Mike Stevenson is a proven leader and performer who created Thinktastic to champion big ideas and discard outmoded thinking. He draws inspiration from his own richly varied experience and is on a mission to squeeze out practices that hinder positive progress. He works with businesses large and small to draw out and run with new ideas – these invariably come from employees whose creativity once unleashed, knows no bounds. One of the most innovative marketing professionals in Europe, Mike has a track record achieving the seemingly impossible for his clients – Thinktastic represents another leap forward in the value he offers.
As a speaker, Mike is a firm favourite with the business and public service leaders as he champions new ambition and big ideas as the route forward. He has for fifteen years been managing director of Thinktastic’s founding company Design Links, voted Business in the Community’s Scottish Small Company of Year 2008, and acclaimed for its unique approaches to marketing.
During a ‘badly wired’ youth in the 60's, Mike slept on the streets of London and busked in Dublin before a near death experience became a ‘turning point’. His new found work ethic saw him carrying bricks, fitting carpets, selling linoleum, furniture and suits, corking French wine, and working shifts in a steel works and biscuit factory. He had spells as hospital orderly, youth worker, community worker and ran children’s play schemes. Mike has played guitar and performed on stage and in films – and all this before he entered the world of marketing.
He is passionate about the power of ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results far beyond their own, sometimes limited expectations. Last year his work in encouraging young people to walk tall and make a positive imprint on the world was given special recognition with a Merrill Lynch sponsored award for Raising the Attainment of Young People. Mike is regarded as a pioneer in social marketing, wrote a regular inspirations column in Teaching Scotland Magazine, was a driving force behind Leith FM’s five-year Ofcom licence and in 2006 founded ‘Talking up for a Change’ – a new movement aimed at promoting positivity, ambition and innovation. He is chair of Youth Coach Scotland, a member of the Council of St George’s School for Girls, Edinburgh, and sits on Common Purpose’s advisory board in Edinburgh.
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