Nic Marks

Nic Marks is Founder of the award winning centre for well-being and has led the well-being programme at nef (the new economics foundation) since 2001. Nic is a recognised expert in the field of well-being research and undertakes innovative research in the use of well-being indicators in public policy environments. He is an experienced an adept keynote speaker.

The lead author of nef’s innovative Happy Planet Index, a global index of human well-being and environmental impact, Nic was an advisor to the UK Government Office for Science’s Foresight project on ‘mental capital and well-being’ which included the creation of the five ways to well-being. He devised, together with others at the centre for well-being, the model and methodology behind nef’s report on National Accounts of Well-being.

Nic is a regular public speaker and occupies a number of advisory positions as a result of his pioneering research. In July 2010 he gave a talk at the prestigious and influential TED global conference in Oxford. In 2011 TED published Nic’s first book Happiness Manifesto, as one of their three inaugural TEDbooks, short books for the digital download market.

Nic has a degree in Management Studies from Cambridge University, a Master’s degree in Operational Research from Lancaster University and a postgraduate diploma in Change Agent Skills and Strategies from the Human Potential Research Group at the University of Surrey.  He is also a qualified psychotherapist and a member of the International Society for Quality of Life Studies – ISQOLS.  In 2007 nef won the ISQOLS ‘Betterment of the Human Condition’ award in recognition of their work on the Happy Planet Index.

In 2008, nef was commissioned by the UK Government’s Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Well-being to review the inter-disciplinary work of over 400 scientists from across the world.  Nic had the idea to present the set of actions as the mental health equivalent of the well-known public health dictum of “five-a-day”: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning, Give.

The cost of ill health to the UK economy is around £100 billion a year, this is equivalent to running another NHS. ‘Presentee-ism’ costs (being at work but not really working) are estimated to be twice the number of absent days lost from the business bottom line. Nic has worked with nef consulting to create a well-being@work  tool  to help organisations to measure and promote the well-being of their employees.

Nic started the well-being work at nef in 2001 with the question: what would government policy look like if well-being was its aim? This led to the creation of the centre for well-being, a globally renowned research centre that seeks to understand, measure and influence well-being.

Speaking Topics

Nic Marks is Founder of the award winning centre for well-being, and is an adept and experienced keynote speaker.

• Change
• Well-being

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