Simon Sinek

Simon Oliver Sinek (born October 9, 1973) is an English-born American author and inspirational speaker on business leadership.

He graduated in 1991 from Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest in Bergen County, New Jersey and then studied at Brandeis University and studied law at City, University of London.

Sinek began his career at the New York ad agencies Euro RSCG and Ogilvy & Mather, then launched his own business, Sinek Partners.

His books include Start with Why (2009) and The Infinite Game (2019).

Sinek was born in Wimbledon.

His mother is Jewish and of Hungarian Jewish descent.

As a child, he lived in Johannesburg, London, and Hong Kong before his family settled in the United States.

His 2010 "How Great Leaders Inspire Action", arising out of his first book, Start with Why, is one of the most-viewed TED talks, and his following book, Leaders Eat Last, appeared on the bestseller lists of the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

As a motivational speaker, Sinek has spoken at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in 2016, and at TEDx conferences several times, beginning in 2009.

Sinek speculated in a highly viewed 2018 video that the millennial generation's perceived lack of ambition or success is the result of poor parenting and the rise in digital mobile technology devices.

In June 2018, The Young Turks reported a $98,000 no-bid contract from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for leadership training by Sinek, which was provided by Ernst & Young.

Sinek has also been an instructor of strategic communications at Columbia University, and an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation.

In November 2018, Publishers Weekly reported that Sinek would start Optimism Press, a new imprint of Penguin Random House.

He subsequently launched The Optimism Company, a digital learning platform.

Sinek has published five books: