Steve Kakos

Steve helps leading businesses inspire, influence, and inform audiences when it matters most. His work has enabled them to capitalize on transformational growth opportunities, distance themselves from the competition, and create fun and highly-engaging consumer experiences on the world’s largest advertising stages and social platforms.

At Kakos, Steve leads a collective of partners and advisors who share his passion for evolving the way business relationships are formed. They bring empathy, clarity, and value by applying unconventional yet proven methods that produce uncommon results.

Previously, Steve led Second City Works, the professional services arm of the legendary Second City comedy theatre, which helped Fortune 500 clients think beyond clichéd, traditional approaches in order to launch growth and change initiatives that stick. His work helped lead to the creation of Brandstage, a joint venture with WPP, then the world’s largest advertising holding company, to use improvisation to rapidly prototype new products, drive innovation, and workshop creative concepts in collaboration with target audiences. Steve served as a Board Member and Managing Partner for the venture.

Steve also served on the leadership team of Gagen MacDonald, a category-creating employee experience consultancy, and in a growth leadership role for closerlook, a highly-successful digital marketing agency. At closerlook, Steve created dedicated business development and marketing competencies, while also overseeing many large clients of the agency.

Earlier in his career, Steve co-founded Divine Consultants, which used insight from C-suite win/loss interviews to help businesses create more effective business development approaches. He started his career with PeopleSolutions, an Inc. 500 human capital advisory firm where he focused on emerging technologies and their role in creating stronger employer brands and more empathetic employee/candidate experiences.