Foreseeable Future - Marketing and advertising exec Mark Penn reveals how Al can enhance business travel

In 2015 Mark Penn, a pollster, trendspotter and former chief strategist at Microsoft, created a marketing services firm in Washington, D.C. He was convinced that by focusing on the digital domain and data analytics, his start-up, Stagwell, could trounce traditional ad agencies and plunder their clients. His biggest backer was ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who pitched in $250 million.

- By Boyd Farrow - Photography by Michael George

In 2015 Mark Penn, a pollster, trendspotter and former chief strategist at Microsoft, created a marketing services firm in Washington, D.C. He was convinced that by focusing on the digital domain and data analytics, his start-up, Stagwell, could trounce traditional ad agencies and plunder their clients. His biggest backer was ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who pitched in $250 million.

Less than a decade on, Stagwell is a Nasdaq-listed company with a market capitalization of approximately $2 billion, with a stable of more than 70 agencies and 13,000-plus employees in 34 countries. And Penn, who celebrated his 70th birthday in January, shows no signs of slowing down. Indeed, he's racking up air miles faster than he can spend them in the pursuit of ever more global opportunities.

Gratifyingly, though, at an altitude of 35,000 feet, the energetic chairman-CEO is just like the rest of us. I never work on a plane, says Penn. I doze, I eat, I watch movies. Not even good ones-B movies. For me, planes are an escape from whatever else is going on. He particularly loves long-haul flights, as he can get some real shut-eye.

I'm really happy business travel has picked up again as videoconferencing has its limits, he says. As a company, Stagwell always encourages its people to get out as much as possible.” He notes that in June about 100 staffers attended Sport Beach, a starry networking event the company hosts during Cannes Lions, the global ad industry’s annual shindig on the French Riviera.

Stagwell now has more than 20 agencies in Europe, including London-headquartered travel media company Ink, publisher of Business Traveler. In April it opened its EMEA headquarters in London and has since made its first moves into the Middle East, acquiring an Israeli marketing and social commerce organization and a panregional government advisory firm.