A true rule-breaker, he has spent 35 years ignoring traditional career paths and business rules. Simon Morris’s journey spans some of the biggest brands and most game-changing moments in business, from launching Sonic the Hedgehog to working directly with Jeff Bezos at Amazon.
But what makes Simon stand out? He's a rare mix… calling himself "one part entrepreneur, one part pure creative." This blend has driven his success across everything from advertising to tech to entertainment.
Early Days: British Classics to Gaming Legend
Simon started in advertising, working on memorable campaigns like the "Cream of Manchester" Boddington's beer ads. But things shifted when Virgin walked into his agency with something unheard of: Sega. While others wrote off video games, Simon jumped in, handling both the client and creative side. He became marketing director for Sonic the Hedgehog, helping to make it one of gaming's biggest icons across 8-bit, 16-bit, and early digital platforms.
The Media Revolution Years
Simon's hunger for disruption led him to Sky during its wild early days under Rupert Murdoch. This wasn't the established broadcaster we know today – it was a feisty underdog shaking up the TV monopoly.
Simon juggled program marketing with subscription management, all while also working at Ginger Television (producing hits like TFI Friday and Don't Forget Your Toothbrush) and with Mike Lynch at Autonomy as the internet was just taking off.
His knack for jumping between creative TV and cutting-edge tech, spending weeks in Palo Alto closing deals, then coming back to produce youth TV, showed an unusual ability to connect seemingly unrelated worlds.
Hitting Rock Bottom and Coming Back Stronger
In 2001, Simon faced his toughest challenge when mental health struggles and addiction left him with nothing. He lost everything… family, money, and almost his life. This crisis became a turning point, leading to a complete rebuild through 12-step recovery programs. For 23 years and 10 months, Simon has been sober, spending 17 years volunteering in prisons, running AA and NA meetings.
This experience of recovery and helping others is as core to his identity as any business win. As he told the PepTalk booking team, "If you've had if you've been to the edge, looked into the abyss, and you've had you've been given a reprieve from that. I feel that you are duty bound to pass that on where the opportunity arises."
» EXPLORE: PepTalk's Top Mental Health Speakers
Love Film and the Amazon Takeover
After his personal crisis, Simon co-founded Love Film, basically bringing Netflix's DVD-by-post idea to the UK to fix the terrible Blockbuster experience. The company's disruptive customer-first approach (no late fees, better selection, honest service) was so successful that Amazon bought it.
What Simon thought would be a quick handover turned into an 11-year run, with seven years working directly for Jeff Bezos as Chief Creative Officer across Amazon's whole empire. From turning Love Film into Prime Video to launching Alexa, retail innovations, Kindle, and expanding into India, Japan, and Australia, Simon did it all, racking up 3 million air miles.
Simon’s Secrets to Success
Companies consistently seek out Simon for the frameworks he developed during his Amazon years, mindsets that work across all industries. Despite failing his math O-level four times, Simon built and sold successful businesses by using mental models and creating systematic ways to:
- Set and hit goals
- Size up opportunities and risks
- Build smart business plans
- Manage people and teams
- Create unique brands
His approach focuses on disrupting for the customer, having a challenger attitude, and making every project do "double or triple duty", a concept he learned from Bezos. This is the principle that Simon now applies across his current innovation work:
“Jeff Bezos always used to tell me to did try make everything do double duty or triple duty, by which he meant don’t just have an ad that recruits customers, make an ad or a theme or a promotion or a product that appeals to existing users, new users, does something for us as a brand overall target some high value actions that we value and have defined.”
Current Impact: Innovation with Purpose
Today, Simon chairs JAAQ, a mental health platform where the whole team is focused on making a real social difference. He's also involved with Novel podcast company and is a governor for the London Museum. His investments include companies like Graze snacks and Tails personalised pet food, all linked by disrupting for the consumer.
Simon Morris' Keynote Speaking Style
Having survived personal and professional breakdowns, Simon felt it was his duty to share insights with others facing similar struggles. His talks uniquely blend business frameworks with personal honesty. Audiences hear both strategic advice and wild stories… but you’ll have to book him to hear more.
» LEARN MORE: Book Simon Morris for a fireside chat and more
Whether speaking to tech companies or brands looking to shake up their marketing, Simon delivers consistent messages about thinking differently. He preaches creating "kill lists", building your own media platforms instead of just buying ads, and keeping an intense focus on the customer.
"Businesses today can create media outlets in a way that they were never able to do so before. You know, you can create your own brand podcast."
Simon often says he feels like Forrest Gump – just stumbling from one adventure to the next. But his success isn't accidental. It comes from a core belief that established ways of doing things can always be made better, combined with the courage to be open about failures and the wisdom that comes from rebuilding after losing everything.
Get Simon's Insights
Simon is a new breed of business leader; someone who combines strategy with creative vision, professional success with personal honesty, and disruptive thinking with a genuine desire to help others. His story shows that the best business insights often come not from avoiding failure, but from learning to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
💡 Interested in having Simon Morris speak at your event about all things creativity and the power of disruption? Just let us know. Email us at hello@getapeptalk.com or send us a message via our forms. You can also call us on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US).
In a world where being vulnerable and authentic is more important in business than ever, Simon is a compelling example of how personal recovery and professional success can actually complement each other, creating leaders who are both more effective and more human.
