Let us introduce you to Faris Yakob, a strategist and a geek.

Faris was awarded the President’s Prize from the IPA for his thesis on the future of brands and Campaign magazine in the UK said his was one of the top 10 ad blogs in the UK and that he was a Face to Watch, which was nice of them. He writes about brands, media, communications, technology and more for Forbes, Fast Company, The Financial Times, Maxim Magazine, Mediaweek, Contagious Magazine, Media Magazine, Boards Magazine, and AdNews (AUS).

Faris is the chief innovation officer at MDC Partners, a different kind of agency network and is also a co-founder of the mysterious Spies&Assassins, a creative technology boutique. Before that he was EVP Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson New York. Before that he spent five years as the Digital Ninja at Naked Communications, in London, Sydney and New York.

Faris is trying to work out how we communicate in a networked world, how we can make people happy, and how we can make awesome stuff that is useful or entertaining or both.