Simon Birkenhead is a chief executive with 30 years experience building businesses and driving commercial success through online marketing and e-commerce. He has worked in organisations from the very largest global corporations through to early stage technology start-ups.

Educated at Cambridge University and London Business School, Simon is a former global business leader at Google, where he led teams across four continents. He has also held business leadership positions at 3M, Telefónica and Gartner. Since becoming a CEO he has run a number of global businesses out of the UK and New Zealand. Most recently he was Chief Executive of HQ Travel Group, the world’s most awarded travel group specialising in impact and educational travel programs, with operations in over 60 countries.

He is author of Managing People, a Penguin Business Experts series book.