Simon has been the inspiration and energy behind the group’s success since founding the business in New York in 1992. Under his direction, Sterling has become one of the leading independent branding agencies in the country with such renowned clients as Microsoft, PepsiCo, Nestlé, Unilever and Viacom, among others.

As Sterling’s leader, Simon oversees the group’s strategic growth initiatives and also serves as a senior advisor on some key client engagements. Simon is passionate about brands. Not only has he pioneered new ways of thinking about brand-building such as Visible Thinking™ but he has also conducted proprietary and innovative research studies such as “Experiential Branding” and the “DNA of Difference.”

Prior to founding Sterling, Simon worked in his native London with advertising agency Lowe & Partners and earlier, he served in senior marketing positions in Europe with Xerox, British American Tobacco and Dixons Group.

Based in our San Francisco office, Austin has been President of the Strategy Group at Sterling Brands since joining in 2002. And over that five year period, he has been responsible for overseeing the doubling in size of the strategy practice.

Austin’s role is twofold — he is an active, working strategist and he is also responsible for the quality of all the strategic output from both the New York and San Francisco offices.

Brand positioning is one of Austin’s great passions — the others are cycling, soccer and his family.

Prior to joining Sterling Brands, Austin was CEO of Young & Rubicam, San Francisco and before that CEO of creatively acclaimed agency Cole and Weber in Seattle. Earlier he had worked his way up the packaged goods ladder to become Regional Director: Sales & Marketing for Kellogg’s Australia.

Debbie has been a major influence in building the firm’s creative business since joining Sterling Brands in 1995. As a partner and President of the Design Group at Sterling Brands, she has worked on the redesign of global brands for Pepsi, Gillette, Colgate, Kimberly Clark, Nestlé, and Campbell’s.

Debbie’s loves are culture, technology and the role that design plays in our everyday lives and much of her time is spent applying this knowledge to our business and to our clients.

Debbie is President of the AIGA, the largest professional association for design. She is a contributing editor at Print Magazine, a design writer at FastCompany.com and BrandNew.com, and Chair of the Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. In 2005, she began hosting the first weekly radio talk show about design on the Internet. The show is titled "Design Matters with Debbie Millman" and it is now featured on DesignObserver.com.

She is the author of three books, "How To Think Like A Great Graphic Designer" (Allworth Press, 2007), "The Essential Principles of Graphic Design" (Rotovision, 2008) and "Look Both Ways: Illustrated Essays on the Intersection of Life and Design," (HOW Books, 2009).