Simon Williams

Methodology

How I build ecosystems
that actually compound.

Most partnership programmes fail not because the partners are wrong, but because the architecture is missing. Every ecosystem I have built has followed the same three-phase discipline: establish the commercial foundation before recruiting partners, design the co-sell motion before measuring it, and only then scale what the data proves is working.

Phase One

Foundation:
Architecture Before Recruitment

The most common mistake in ecosystem building is recruiting partners before the commercial architecture exists to support them. Before the first partner agreement is signed, the tier structure, partner health metrics, co-sell eligibility criteria, and internal alignment with Sales and CS must be designed and agreed. Partners join ecosystems that have a clear answer to: what do I get, what do you expect, and how will we both know if this is working.

2021 · Ecosystem Foundation

Situation The company had no structured partner ecosystem. EMEA partnerships was a blank page. The company was pre-IPO, growing fast, and Sales had no operational framework for routing deals through or alongside partners.

Task Design the entire commercial architecture before recruiting a single partner, tier structure, health metrics, co-sell eligibility criteria, and internal Sales alignment, so that partners joined a functioning system, not a holding list.

Action Built the Gold / Platinum / Elite tier framework with explicit entry criteria for each. Established a partner operations function to embed partners inside the Sales motion. Defined partner-influenced vs partner-sourced attribution before any pipeline targets were set. Recruited first-wave EMEA SI and agency partners against the tier criteria.

Result Functional ecosystem architecture in place within six months. AWS and Snowflake established as strategic cloud alliances. 12-person team built. The architecture set up in this phase was the foundation for every subsequent milestone, AMTco, Snowflake Leader, Gartner MQ Leader, and $200M+ pipeline.

Phase Two

Motion:
Co-Sell Design & GTM Activation

A partner ecosystem without a co-sell motion is a directory. The work is designing the specific plays, by segment, by vertical, by partner type, that create commercial events with measurable outcomes. ISVs, SIs, cloud hyperscalers, and agency holding groups each require a fundamentally different engagement model. Applying the same GTM playbook across all four is why most partner programmes plateau at 15% pipeline influence and stay there.

2022–2023 · GTM Activation

Situation With the tier architecture in place, partner pipeline was growing but unevenly. GSIs, agency holding groups and cloud platforms were all being engaged with the same playbook. Differentiation between partner types was tactical, not structural, and co-sell conversion was inconsistent across segments.

Task Design fundamentally distinct co-sell motions for each major partner category, with separate engagement models, metrics, and joint GTM plays, to unlock disproportionate pipeline from the highest-value relationships.

Action Built discrete GTM plays for GSIs (Accenture, Publicis Sapient, Infosys), agency holding groups (WPP, Dentsu/Merkle), and cloud platforms (AWS, Snowflake), separate qualification criteria, joint account mapping, co-sell playbooks, and success metrics for each. Led a 12-month joint GTM programme design with AWS field teams to achieve Marketing Tech Competency. Built Dentsu/Merkle Global Strategic Partner status on 200+ joint certifications.

Result AWS AMTco achieved. Snowflake Leader status. Dentsu/Merkle Global Strategic Partner. Team scaled from 12 to 26 globally. Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader designation, directly supported by the ecosystem depth created in this phase. Partner-influenced pipeline accelerating toward $200M.

Phase Three

Scale:
Data-Led Pruning & Compounding

Scale is not adding more partners. It is identifying which partners in the ecosystem are generating disproportionate commercial value and concentrating resources there, while systematically exiting relationships that consume capacity without producing pipeline. Post-IPO Rule of 40 discipline required the ecosystem to shift from growth-mode coverage to efficiency-mode concentration. The partners who remained after that transition were the ones with the deepest joint GTM integration. Ecosystem quality compounds. Quantity does not.

2024–2025 · Scale and Concentration

Situation Post-IPO, the company moved to Rule of 40 discipline. The partner ecosystem had grown to 1,600+ partners across all tiers, but growth-mode partner coverage was no longer the right operating model. A small cohort of partners was generating the vast majority of commercial value. The rest was consuming capacity.

Task Rebuild the partner investment model from coverage to concentration: identify the highest-value relationships, deepen them, exit low-ROI relationships systematically, and demonstrate that ecosystem quality compounds while quantity does not.

Action Built a partner health scoring model incorporating certification depth, co-sell activity, joint pipeline volume, and customer retention rate. Shifted partner investment weighting to the top 8% of the ecosystem. Restructured team capacity allocation accordingly. Continued deepening the WPP/VML relationship through joint client programmes across multiple markets.

Result Top 8% of partners generating 71% of partner-influenced pipeline. WPP Partner of the Year 2024, the direct outcome of three years of compounding relationship investment, not a single deal event. Gartner MQ Leader for the third consecutive year. Partner-influenced pipeline confirmed at $200M+.

Impact Record

Twenty years of building things
that compound.

Leading Enterprise SaaS Platform · NASDAQ-Listed · London / Global

Global Ecosystem Architecture · Zero to $200M Partner Pipeline · 26-Person Team

Global VP Commercial Partnerships

Apr 2021 – Sep 2025

Joined pre-IPO to build the global partner ecosystem from zero. The mandate was deliberately open: establish what a world-class partnerships function looks like at a company growing at this speed, then build it.

2021–2022 · Foundation. Designed the ecosystem architecture: partner tier structure, health metrics, co-sell eligibility, and internal Sales alignment. Recruited the first wave of EMEA SI and agency partners. Established AWS and Snowflake as strategic cloud alliances. Built a 12-person team.

2022–2023 · Motion. Designed distinct co-sell plays for GSIs (Accenture, Publicis Sapient, Infosys), agency holding groups (WPP, Dentsu/Merkle), and cloud platforms. AWS Marketing Tech Competency achieved. Snowflake Leader status. Dentsu/Merkle Global Strategic Partner with 200+ joint certifications. Team scaled to 26 globally. Gartner MQ Leader designation.

2024–2025 · Scale & Concentration. Post-IPO Rule of 40 discipline required a shift from coverage growth to efficiency. Rebuilt partner investment model around top-tier ecosystem contributors. WPP (VML) Partner of the Year. Gartner MQ Leader for third consecutive year. Partner-influenced pipeline reached $200M+.

STAR · Capability Summary

SituationNo partner ecosystem. No architecture. No team. Pre-IPO SaaS company with a global growth mandate and an open brief.

TaskBuild a world-class partner ecosystem, design, recruitment, co-sell motion and scale, in sequence, from zero.

ActionDesigned commercial architecture first. Recruited against tier criteria. Built discrete GTM plays per partner type. Shifted to concentration model post-IPO. Sustained relationships across four-year compounding cycle.

Result$200M+ partner-influenced pipeline. 1,600+ partner network. 26-person global team. AWS AMTco. Snowflake Leader. Gartner MQ Leader ×3. WPP Partner of the Year.

SaaSEcosystem BuildCloud AlliancesIPOGSIRule of 40

Finder.com.au · Sydney

Audience Monetisation · First-Party Data Commercial Framework · Volume to Value Pivot

Head of Audiences

Jan 2020 – Sep 2020

Recruited post-Carat to lead a strategic pivot at one of Australia's largest fintech comparison platforms. Defined the Head of Audiences function from scratch: shifted the organisation from a pure volume-traffic model to a value-based audience strategy with a commercial data monetisation framework. Built the proposition for agency partners and enterprise clients around Finder's first-party data assets, applying media agency rigour to a digital product environment. Bridged Product, Marketing and Sales around a unified audience segmentation architecture.

FintechFirst-Party DataAudience StrategyData Monetisation

Carat ANZ · Dentsu Aegis Network · Sydney / Melbourne

Commercial Turnaround · $1.1B Portfolio · 420-Person P&L · Culture Rebuild

National Managing Director / CEO

Sep 2018 – Jan 2020

Led a $1.1B global media portfolio across Australia and New Zealand with 420+ staff nationally. Flagship clients: Disney, Microsoft, L'Oréal, Woolworths, KFC, Coca-Cola. Brought in to steady a business that had lost Mondelez ($40M) and was mid-restructure. Mandate: rebuild culture, rebuild commercial momentum, reintroduce a winning standard.

Disney retention · Gavin Ashcroft · Marvel Stadium. Disney was Carat's most prized and most contested account. Every major holding group wanted it. The relationship operated at CMO level with Gavin Ashcroft, Disney's ANZ CMO, requiring both strategic precision and the kind of personal trust that only comes from consistently meeting a world-class client at their own level of ambition. To retain the account, I led the pitch personally, built a programme anchored around Disney's franchise portfolio and the cultural weight of its IP in market. The activation centred on a Marvel Stadium naming rights buyout, putting the Disney brand at the heart of one of Australia's most iconic sporting venues, alongside a consumer-facing campaign that included Disney toy prizes distributed through airport baggage carousels, turning a functional touchpoint into a brand moment for families at the point of arrival. Retained in a highly competitive review.

Facebook #FearlessStories · Face of Pride Australia. Asked by Meta (Facebook/Instagram) to become one of the corporate faces of the national #FearlessStories Pride campaign for Sydney Mardi Gras 2019, timed to the Mardi Gras theme of Fearless. The campaign ran across Facebook, Instagram, digital video and out-of-home across Sydney and Melbourne, lifts, buses, street placements. The first time in the career of becoming the campaign rather than building it. Covered in B&T, Mediaweek, Junkee and the Sydney Mardi Gras official channels.

Won the $36.4M SA Government media panel in competitive pitch, Carat Adelaide's first major panel appointment and the largest public sector media win in the agency's ANZ history, directly built on the SA office infrastructure established during the CCO tenure. Retained Cash Converters nationally through a multi-disciplinary DAN response. Authored the Carat Investment & Partnerships Playbook 2019, distributed nationally across the Dentsu Aegis network. Named AFR Top Graduate Employer during tenure.

Commissioned and led the Carat Ten Trends 2019 report ("The Year of Expanding Connectivity"), underpinned by a national Data Consciousness research programme. Implemented Integral Ad Science nationally for brand safety tracking and blocking across the full client portfolio. Invited by TrinityP3 CEO Darren Woolley onto the Managing Marketing podcast to discuss transparency, trust, brand safety, talent and the future of media agency structure. Served on the IAB Australia Measurement Council alongside CEO Gai Le Roy, contributing to the 2019 Future of Measurement project.

Founded &PROUD, Dentsu ANZ's first structured LGBTQ+ marketing programme. Achieved AWEI Bronze Tier employer accreditation, first in the Dentsu ANZ group.

"Our complexities are not our clients' problems." · "Content led by data and creativity, it is the holy trinity." — Managing Marketing Podcast, TrinityP3, 2019

STAR · Capability Summary

SituationCarat ANZ had lost its largest client (Mondelez, $40M), was mid-restructure, and operating without a settled culture or commercial rhythm. The business needed steadying before it could grow.

TaskRebuild commercial momentum, rebuild culture, and reintroduce a winning standard across a 420-person, $1.1B portfolio business, while retaining flagship clients and winning new ones.

ActionLed the Disney CMO relationship personally through a competitive review. Delivered the Marvel Stadium activation and airport baggage campaign to retain the account. Won the $36.4M SA Government media panel. Authored the Investment & Partnerships Playbook. Founded &PROUD. Implemented brand safety infrastructure nationally. Named AFR Top Graduate Employer.

ResultDisney retained. $36.4M government panel won. National playbook distributed across the Dentsu Aegis network. AFR Top Graduate Employer. AWEI Bronze Tier. Selected as a face of the national Facebook #FearlessStories Pride campaign. Business stabilised and growing.

TurnaroundDisney RetentionMarvel StadiumP&L LeadershipAFR Top Employer420+ Staff#FearlessStories

Dentsu International · Sydney

Cross-Agency GTM Architecture · APAC Enterprise Growth · $175M Government Win

First APAC Chief Client Solutions Officer

Sep 2017 – Sep 2018

Appointed as the first-ever APAC CCO across the Dentsu International network. Led cross-agency client strategy, enterprise relationship architecture, and the group-wide integrated go-to-market strategy across ANZ. Directly contributed to the operational performance cited in Dentsu Inc.'s H1 FY2018 Consolidated Financial Results, where Australia reported a "strong result" and played a pivotal role in APAC's return to positive organic growth in Q2.

Australian Federal Government Master Media Account. In my investment and partnerships leadership role across DAN ANZ, I pitched and led the pursuit of the Australian Federal Government's Master Media Account, the single largest media account in the country, with billings of $175M annually. The account had been held by UM for eleven consecutive years before Dentsu Mitchell won it in 2014. The pitch required assembling the full weight of the DAN network across investment, planning, partnerships and data capability, and presenting at the highest levels of the Commonwealth procurement process. The win took the team to Government House in Canberra and into parliamentary chambers, and on 9 December 2017, when Australia's Marriage Equality Act passed into law, I was in Canberra for those hearings. I walked out of the chambers and into a street party. It remains one of the most charged professional and personal memories of the career.

Carat South Australia launch. Led the establishment of Carat's Adelaide office, the agency's fifth Australian location, launching with 16 staff and $50M+ in client billings. The office and its client base directly set up the $36.4M SA Government panel win under the subsequent Carat MD tenure.

Columbus to Merkle rebrand. Led the rebrand of Columbus ANZ to Columbus, a Merkle Company in March 2018, marking Merkle's first entry into the Australian market. The 100+ person performance and data marketing operation was the flagship asset through which Dentsu Aegis Network launched one of its most significant global brands in ANZ. Covered by Campaign Asia and AdNews on announcement.

Cross-Agency GTMAPACFederal Government $175MMarket LaunchRebrandEnterprise Growth

Dentsu Aegis Network · Amplifi · ANZ

Platform Partnership Innovation · $100M Value Generated · $2.6Bn Portfolio

SVP, Group Head of Product & Global Partnerships

Jan 2017 – Sep 2017

Executive leadership role managing a $2.6Bn investment portfolio across the full DAN ANZ group and driving commercial innovation through global technology partnerships. Generated $100M in measurable value in 2017 through the structuring and administration of global contracts and rebate programmes, personally managing commercial negotiations with Snapchat, LinkedIn, Google and Twitter.

YouTube Global First. Led the "Preferred YouTube" project from inception to completion, a global-first initiative with Google that gave clients unrestricted access to YouTube creators, creating a new "Brands as Creators" revenue stream and monetising influencer marketing at scale before the category had a name.

B2B Ecosystem. Partnered with LinkedIn to launch the B2B agency gyro in Australia, hosting the market-defining "The People Inside the Business" event series. Drove the group's operating model capability agenda across the ANZ leadership team.

$2.6Bn Portfolio$100M ValueGlobal FirstPlatform PartnershipsOperating Model

Dentsu Aegis Network · Amplifi · ANZ

First-to-Market Programme Leadership · 47 Market Firsts · 4 Global Firsts

Head of Global & Local Media Partnerships

Nov 2015 – Jan 2017

Directed the media partnership ecosystem for DAN ANZ, responsible for commercialising first-to-market initiatives and defining the mobile and screen strategy across the network. Delivered 47 first-to-market initiatives and 4 global firsts within a single year, positioning Dentsu Aegis as the innovation leader in the region. Recognised as B&T 30 Under 30 winner during this period.

Storyful Partnership. Forged a landmark strategic alliance with News Corp's social news agency Storyful, integrating real-time social intelligence into Dentsu's media planning capability, one of the first integrations of its kind in the market.

Keynote speaker at the MMA and Programmatic Summit, advocating for transparency and trust in the programmatic ecosystem. Selected as a Top 5% global future leader via the Route 500 high-potential programme.

47 First-to-Market4 Global FirstsMobile StrategyMMA KeynoteStoryfulRoute 500

Columbus / Merkle ANZ · Dentsu Aegis · Sydney

Business Transformation · 40% Revenue Growth · 126% PBMC Growth · Agency of the Year

National Head of Strategy & Product → General Manager

Mar 2014 – Dec 2015

Joined Columbus ANZ (subsequently rebranded as Merkle) as National Head of Strategy and Product, appointed to the Columbus Executive Team within eight weeks. Led the Performance, Experience, Content and Data divisions nationally through the Centre of Excellence, responsible for product strategy, product innovation and market intelligence across the Dentsu Aegis network in ANZ.

2013/14 · Build. Led a wholesale restructure of the business alongside the MD: every job function rewritten, 16 additional strategic and specialist roles created, revenue streams diversified from 3 core products to 27 to reduce paid search dependency. Drove Australian and global market firsts for BMW and Nissan. Generated $20M+ in new business. Launched Columbus College (national train-the-trainer programme). Named B&T Interactive Agency of the Year 2014.

2013/14 · Results. Company report confirmed: 22% billings growth, 40% revenue growth, 126% PBMC growth, 96% client retention, 59% team growth from 51 to 81 people. Largest agency spender on Google, YouTube, Bing and DoubleClick in Australia and New Zealand. Featured speaker at iMedia Online Retail Summit and Mumbrella 360 Virtuoso Stage.

Data MarketingPerformanceGoogle #1 ANZGeneral ManagerExecutive Team

iProspect · Dentsu Aegis Network · Manchester, UK

Practice Build from Zero · £6M First-Year Revenue · Board Director · #1 Google Spender UK

Head of Biddable Media · Board Director

Jun 2011 – Dec 2013

Built iProspect Manchester's biddable media practice from zero, generating £6M+ revenue in year one. Appointed Board Director at an age when most practitioners were still account managers. Led the largest agency team in the UK, becoming the biggest spender on Google and the biggest on DoubleClick in Europe. Associate Director by 22. Key clients included American Golf and Manchester United.

The iProspect role was also the origin of the cross-network commercial model that defined the rest of the career. Dentsu Aegis Network was, at this point, one of the most structurally complex holding groups in the industry: Carat, Vizeum, iProspect, Isobar, Posterscope and a constellation of specialist brands, each with its own P&L, leadership and client base. Rather than operate within the boundaries of a single agency brand, I worked at board level across the flagship DAN brands, identifying where a combined multi-brand pitch could win business that no single agency could take alone. Bringing iProspect's performance and biddable capability together with Carat's planning depth and Vizeum's challenger media positioning created a genuinely differentiated offer for complex briefs. The pitches we won on that model were not winnable any other way.

That cross-brand commercial instinct, building a network of capabilities and directing them at shared commercial outcomes, was precisely what the Dentsu Aegis leadership recognised when the CCO mandate in ANZ was created. It was also the direct precursor to every ecosystem role that followed.

Earlier career: Steak Digital (London) → Young & Rubicam / WPP → OMD UK (youngest employee in agency history) → Publicis Groupe (Group Digital Manager, Manchester) → Carat → iProspect & Aegis Manchester. LSE: PRINCE2 Practitioner · M_o_R certified.

BiddableProgrammaticBoard DirectorCross-NetworkGoogle #1 UKMulti-Brand GTMB&T 30U30

Client Impact

Work that won awards.

CACI Torchie Award 2024

easyJet

easyJet needed a customer engagement programme that could operate at airline scale across multiple markets and lifecycle stages simultaneously. The challenge was identifying which SI partner had both the platform's technical depth and the travel sector vertical expertise to deliver it. Structured the CACI co-sell motion and joint delivery model. Award-winning outcome recognised across the platform's most competitive partner-led recognition programme.

DMA Gold Award

TUI

TUI's marketing organisation was running largely batch-and-blast communications across a customer base with highly variable purchase intent and booking windows. The commercial opportunity was designing a partner-led data and personalisation motion that the platform's ecosystem could enable at scale. Architected the Merkle joint delivery structure. The programme became one of the platform's most-referenced EMEA case studies for partner-influenced revenue. DMA Gold.

Campaign of the Year 2023

Canva

Canva was scaling its B2B and Teams proposition globally and needed a customer engagement architecture capable of supporting product-led growth at a velocity most enterprise MarTech vendors are not designed for. The task was matching Canva with ecosystem partners who understood PLG motion design, not just CRM execution. The resulting programme was built through the partner ecosystem and recognised as Campaign of the Year at the 2023 industry awards.

WPP Partner of the Year 2024

WPP / VML

WPP represented both the highest-value and highest-complexity holding group relationship in the partner ecosystem. The strategic challenge was creating genuine commercial interdependency across VML, GroupM and Ogilvy simultaneously, rather than managing them as separate bilateral relationships. Designed a single global partnership framework with distinct joint GTM plays per agency brand. Named WPP Partner of the Year 2024, the result of three years of compounding joint commercial activity, not a single deal event.

Merkle Case Study

Burger King

Burger King ANZ was running significant media spend without the data infrastructure to connect campaign exposure to purchase behaviour or loyalty programme activity. As GM of Merkle ANZ, the brief was building a data and performance marketing capability that could close that loop. Stood up the measurement framework, owned the client relationship, and structured the delivery model. Became the flagship case study for Merkle's ANZ data marketing practice.

Competitive Pitch Win

Disney (Retention)

Disney ANZ was actively reviewing its media agency roster as part of a broader global consolidation exercise. Losing the account would have been the most visible commercial failure of the MD appointment. Led the retention pitch personally, rebuilding the commercial relationship from executive level down and restructuring the team coverage model to reflect Disney's cross-studio complexity. Retention secured in a competitive process against global network agencies.

Gartner MQ Leader · 2023, 2024, 2025

Enterprise SaaS Platform

Gartner Magic Quadrant positioning is not purely a product decision. Partner ecosystem breadth and depth, cloud hyperscaler integration maturity, and SI delivery capability are all evaluated as part of the Completeness of Vision axis. The AWS Marketing Tech Competency and Snowflake Leader status, both built through the partnerships function, were direct inputs to the company's MQ Leader designation in each of three consecutive years. Ecosystem architecture as analyst relations strategy.

B&T Interactive Agency of the Year · 2014

Columbus ANZ

Columbus was named B&T Interactive Agency of the Year 2014, Australia's most recognised digital agency accolade. The award recognised a year of transformational change: revenue streams expanded from 3 products to 27, $20M+ in new business generated, Australian and global market firsts delivered for BMW and Nissan, and the agency achieving 22% billings growth alongside 126% PBMC growth. Simon led the strategy and product division as National Head of Strategy and Product and was a named member of the Columbus Executive Team driving this transformation.

£6M Year-One Revenue

iProspect Manchester

iProspect Manchester had no paid search or biddable media capability when the brief was given. The market was moving fast and the agency was losing briefs to specialists. Built the practice from first hire through to a functioning team, pricing model, and client portfolio in parallel with holding a Board Director seat. Clients including American Golf and Manchester United were won in year one. £6M+ revenue generated. The deeper outcome was structural: by operating across the full DAN network at board level, and orchestrating combined iProspect, Carat and Vizeum pitches for complex briefs, the role became the first proof of concept for the cross-network commercial model that led directly to the CCO appointment in ANZ.

$36.4M Government Panel

SA Government

The SA Government media panel was the most significant public sector opportunity in the ANZ market at the time and required demonstrating programmatic capability, local market depth, and compliance with public procurement standards simultaneously. Led the pitch strategy and executive presentation. Carat Adelaide awarded a place on the $36.4M panel alongside Wavemaker and Reprise, the largest public sector media panel win in the agency's ANZ history. Covered across AdNews, Mumbrella and B&T.

Beyond the Brief

The same instinct.
Different scales.

Whether the ecosystem is a $200M SaaS partner network, a community of artists, a Camden literacy programme, or an LGBTQ+ movement inside a global agency group, the building method does not change. Find the underserved community. Build the infrastructure. Bring in the right people. Sustain it over time. What follows is what that looks like when the brief is self-assigned.

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Community

partnerships.community

Founder of partnerships.community, a growing network for partnerships professionals globally. Partnerships is not just a career specialism; it is a community that compounds over time.

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Community

Gaymers · London & Brighton

Runs Gaymers, an LGBTQ+ gaming meetup community spanning London and Brighton. Proof that brand communities built on genuine shared interest are more durable than any platform.

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Governance

NED & Shareholder, ZODIAC

Non-executive director and shareholder at ZODIAC events. Commercial governance, strategic growth, and alignment between board-level intent and operational delivery.

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Ecosystem Building Without a Quota

ROMON Art Fund · Camden Book Ambassador · The Bus

The ROMON Art Fund is a private patronage and collection programme working directly with artists and creatives to expand their practice, develop new audiences and find sustainable commercial footing. The same partner development logic that works in SaaS works in culture: find talent with no distribution, provide the infrastructure and the introductions, take a long view on the relationship.

A personal antiquarian library and AI book programme led to a formal appointment as Camden Book Ambassador under Councillor Pat Callaghan. Stakeholder management at its most unstructured: building a relationship with a local authority from scratch, with no commercial mandate, to a named public role.

The double-decker library bus (~£70,000 personal investment) creates weekend safe exhibition and reading spaces for underprivileged young people across London, combining modern art, old books and digital devices. Identifying an underserved community. Building the physical and programme infrastructure. Running a rotating partner roster of artists, educators and local organisations. Sustaining it. If this were a product line, it would be called community-led growth.

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Performance

Black Double Diamond Skier

Alpine racing line. The same focused, terrain-reading approach that keeps you moving on a black diamond is what builds a $200M partner pipeline from zero.

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Mentorship

20 Years of Mentoring

A consistent thread across every role and organisation for over two decades. B&T 30 Under 30 winner who has spent 20 years paying that recognition forward in practical, working relationships.

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Industry Speaking

Mumbrella 360 · Virtuoso Stage

Invited speaker at Mumbrella 360 on the Virtuoso Stage. Session: "Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone. What's Stopping You?" Curated through Columbus. One of Australia's most-attended media and marketing industry conferences.

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Industry Speaking

iMedia Online Retail Summit · 2014

Keynote breakout speaker at the iMedia Online Retail Summit, May 2014. Session: Attribution and Retail ROPO, addressing the pace of change in digital attribution, omni-connected consumer behaviour, and the humanisation of search for retail brands.

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Published IP

Investment & Partnerships Playbooks

Authored two nationally distributed strategic frameworks during the Carat ANZ CEO tenure: the Carat Investment Best Practice Guide 2017 and the Carat Investment & Partnerships Playbook 2019. Distributed across the Dentsu Aegis ANZ network as foundational commercial reference materials. Proof that partnerships thinking was being codified and scaled, not improvised.

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DEI Leadership

&PROUD Initiative & AWEI

Founded &PROUD at Dentsu ANZ, the network's first structured LGBTQ+ marketing programme. Led the organisation to AWEI Bronze Tier employer accreditation, the first in the Dentsu ANZ group. In 2019, Facebook and Instagram selected me as one of the corporate faces of the national #FearlessStories campaign for Sydney Mardi Gras, the first time in my career I became the campaign rather than built it. The creative ran across OOH, digital video, buses and lifts in Sydney and Melbourne. On 9 December 2017, while in Canberra for the Federal Government account, I was in parliamentary chambers when the Marriage Equality Act passed into law. I walked out into a street party. Served as Executive Sponsor and Leader of Pride ERG globally.

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Published Thought Leadership

AdNews & ADMA Publications

Published opinion pieces in AdNews on content strategy and data-led media. Contributed Expert Predictions to ADMA alongside senior industry figures. Bylined piece: "Mobile demands a transformed approach across the board, not just to creative", an early argument for mobile-first thinking at a time most agencies were still treating it as a channel add-on.

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Industry Awards

ADMA Pinnacle · Gold Search Awards

ADMA Pinnacle Award winner, Most Innovative Agency Campaign. Gold Award for Best Response Campaign (Hillarys). Gold Award for Search (Matalan). Three performance marketing awards representing the early-career period when biddable media was being built from zero into a dominant revenue practice.

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Industry Recognition

LinkedIn Australian Agency Influencer · Top 10

Named in the Top 10 of the LinkedIn Australian Agency Influencer of the Year programme, run in partnership with Mumbrella. A national competition across media, marketing and creative agency executives, judged on thought leadership, publishing consistency and platform engagement. The trophy is on the desk.

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Language

English & French

Full professional fluency in English. Professional working proficiency in French, practically relevant across EMEA partnership conversations and in markets where relationship-building in the client's language changes the dynamic of a commercial discussion.

I build ecosystems.
The currency changes. The instinct does not.

How I build ecosystems
that actually compound.

Twenty years of building things
that compound.

On the record.

Work that won awards.

The same instinct.
Different scales.

Get in touch.

Contact

Communities & Networks

Simon Williams

I build ecosystems.The currency changes. The instinct does not.

How I build ecosystemsthat actually compound.

Twenty years of building thingsthat compound.

On the record.

Work that won awards.

The same instinct.Different scales.

Get in touch.

Contact

Communities & Networks

I build ecosystems.
The currency changes. The instinct does not.

How I build ecosystems
that actually compound.

Twenty years of building things
that compound.

The same instinct.
Different scales.