As a specialist in new markets, Stephen Wunker combines world-class strategy consulting and entrepreneurial skills. He is the author of Capturing New Markets: How Smart Companies Create Opportunities Others Don't, named one of the five Best Business Books of 2011. Steve has a long track record of creating successful ventures for his own companies and on behalf of clients. His accomplishments include:
- Developing dozens of new growth platforms for clients in a decade of consulting for both start-up and large firms across six continents
- Establishing new growth businesses for Africa’s largest cellular network (Celtel BV, now part of India's Bharti Airtel), including one of the world’s most successful mobile commerce firms (Celpay, sold to South Africa's FirstRand)
- Co-founding Yowzit, Africa's leading Internet site for consumer ratings of businesses
- Creating the first mobile Internet device marketed outside Japan (the Ericsson MC218, produced by Psion PLC)
- Pioneering the use of cellphones as marketing tools, through founding Saverfone (now Brainstorm) as well as co-founding and twice Chairing the Mobile Marketing Association
- Publishing frequently in outlets such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, and the Financial Times. His press and television appearances include the New York Times, Bloomberg and the BBC. He has also been a guest lecturer at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business
In addition to his entrepreneurial and corporate venturing experience, Steve was a long-term colleague of Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen in building up his innovation consulting practice. Steve has co-written two articles with Professor Christensen and helped to put together his recent book The Innovator’s Prescription. Since 2009, he has led New Markets Advisors, which is dedicated to helping companies find new sources of growth and build innovation capabilities.
Previously, he was Managing Director of Celpay, a start-up created by the pan-African mobile network Celtel, and he served as Celtel’s Business Development Director. He was also CEO of Brainstorm, a developer of mobile middleware software that acquired a start-up he founded, Saverfone. Additionally, he was responsible for bringing the leading British electronics firm Psion into the cellphone market, creating joint ventures with Ericsson and Motorola.
Before his entrepreneurial career, Steve was a strategy consultant for several years at Bain and Company, in both their Boston and London offices. He also worked to establish George Soros’ philanthropies in Czechoslovakia after the end of communism, and he assisted the Rockefeller Brothers Fund with their pioneering efforts in developing an environmental movement in Eastern Europe. Additionally, he worked at the United Nations to finance alternative energy and energy efficiency projects in emerging markets. He also created the business plan for E+Co, a groundbreaking initiative by the Rockefeller Foundation to establish collaborative public-private financing for these projects.
Steve has an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Master’s of Public Administration from Columbia University, and a BA cum laude from Princeton University. He has lived in the US, UK, Netherlands, Japan, Ecuador, and Zambia. He now lives near Boston.
Steve has keynoted or spoken at dozens of events. To contact Steve directly, please write to him at swunker@newmarketsadvisors.com