Born and raised in Worthington, Steve Susi graduated from Miami University in 1993 and gained experience as a junior copywriter at Columbus agency Young Isaac before moving to New York City in 1997.

After 16 years with New York’s creative agencies overseeing brand marketing for the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Gucci, Rolex, and American Express, Steve Susi joined Amazon Ads as its first NYC studio creative director in 2012 to develop original brand experiences on behalf of hundreds of advertisers and millions of customers worldwide. In 2014 he became its first group creative director and, two years later, first executive creative director, moving to London to lead creative operations across Europe, Asia, and Canada.

In 2016, he received the first Amazon Inventor Award and US patent granted to Amazon Ads outside the US for brand experience innovation. Informed by the world’s largest consumer dataset, his groups’ insights-driven campaigns raised engagement and sales for the world’s best-known consumer brands—and helped lead Amazon’s rise to #3 in digital advertising.

After handling AT&T as executive creative director at Critical Mass, Steve was brought on as Director, Brand Communication with Omnicom brand strategy and design agency Siegel+Gale, where he positioned and voiced a wide array of brands including 3M, QuidelOrtho, Hertz, and Northwestern Mutual.

That was until last month, when Northwestern Mutual brought him on as Sr. Director, Brand Strategy.

Steve’s book Brand Currency: A Former Amazon Exec on Money, Information, Loyalty, and Time takes the reader inside the company’s operating system to reveal how the tech giant has come to dominate business sector after sector. It was a 2019 Amazon category best-seller.