Author Bio
Mark Penn is worldwide CEO of Burson-Marsteller and President of Penn, Schoen and Berland (PSB). As CEO of Burson-Marsteller, Mr. Penn oversees a global network that brings world-class public relations to companies around the world. As President of PSB — a position he has held since 1975 when he was an undergraduate at Harvard — Penn provides research-based communications strategy to political figures, corporations, and crisis situations.
Mark has been called "Master of the Message" by Time Magazine; "The King of Polls" by the London Times; and an "incandescent intellect" by the New York Times. The Washington Post recently summed up his influence this way: "[Penn has been an] adviser to the preeminent innovator of the past decade in the realm of politics, Bill Clinton, and the preeminent innovator in the realm of business and technology, Bill Gates."
Mark has helped elect over 25 leaders in the United States, Asia, Latin America and Europe. Currently, he serves as Chief Strategist to Senator Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. He has worked with Bill Gates, President Clinton and Tony Blair, some of the smartest and most visionary leaders in the world.
Mark is married to Nancy Jacobson Penn and has four children. The most influential book in his career is Harvard political scientist V.O. Key's The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting 1936-60 (1966), which made the simple — but still radical — case that "voters are not fools." This thesis has long guided Mark's work — that if you ask people what they think, and listen carefully enough, you will truly determine what motivates them to vote, buy, and act in certain ways.