BioMark Cook is President of Windfall Partners. Mark gets leaders unstuck and thriving with teams because even the greats hit obstacles. Mark calls his method Bold Encounters.
After a degree and master of business, turnarounds and tech-exits as a chief executive, Mark led nine global studies of leaders, the largest-ever research on award-winning results. Mark's led New York Times and Amazon bestsellers and Priorities: The Journal of Professional Success with favorite interviews Jehan Sedat and Walter Payton. Mark has spoken in 50+ cities and led 4,000+ client wins at top brands. Mark's Bold Encounters video podcast has achieved the top ten-percent of all business career shows and can be found on Mark's website and all platforms. Mark has interviewed some of the most iconic and forward-thinking leaders in the world. Mark's energy grew from three ironman races, playing for the national-champion Highland Rugby club, and as a 20-year youth coach. Mark's passion for meaningful success stems from key life moments and mentors: Hyrum Smith, Stephen Covey, and Ray Noorda. Mark and his wife, Annika (vocal academy success), have five adult sons.
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ACCOLADES
“Mark is a proven business builder and rare leader.”
-Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Successful People
“Real-world concepts and advanced strategies anyone leading needs.”
-Glenn Seninger, Group VP, Oracle
“The leadership Cook outlines makes a significant difference in revenue.”
-Steve C. Wheelwright, PhD, Harvard Business School Emeritus
“Mark is a natural leader. He drew people into a vision, turned revenue around, and led an exit for millions.”
−Drew Judkins, exited Co-Owner, Cumulus Systems
“Every team faces a next big thing. Cook attacks rapid innovation for teams and better strategy for leaders!”
-John Grant, CFO, Outpar
“Mark has a critical eye and positive energy building top teams. No one sizes up essentials and people better.”
−Kelly Phillipps, Founding CEO, C7
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND
Mark's Bold Encounters is a method for creating bold breakthroughs in a cadence of accomplishment. Mark has spoken to leaders from: Oracle, Zimmer Biomet, Subway, William-Sonoma, Dow, Ragnar, GE, BofA, Home Depot, Zions Bank, Extra Space Storage, Commscope, plus Intermountain, Norton, and NorthBay Healthcare networks, many associations and more.
Mark has spoken to global webcast audiences and in 50+ international cities including: New York, Athens, Los Angeles, Montreal, Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, San Francisco, London, Dallas, Stockholm, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, Tampa, and more.
Mark's work with leaders comes after leading Harvard, Stanford, and Cambridge PhDs in investigations of millions of business outcomes and iconic interviews like: Dr. Marty Cooper the inventor of the cell phone, Dr. Brad Parkinson the father of GPS, Herb Kelleher co-founder of Southwest, Presidential Candidate Liddy Dole, Egypt's Jehan Sadat, and legends Dick Vermeil, Arnold Palmer, Walter Payton, Heather Stone (President, Teton Sports), Larry King, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Gary Player, Carl Lewis, Stephen R. Covey, Walter Payton, Larry King, Ken Griffey Jr., Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Lou Piniella, Ray Noorda, Carl Lewis, Jon Huntsman, Kyle Whittingham (FBS Dodd coach of the year), Charles Sorenson (top-three healthcare CEOs), Agbor Agbor (CEO, UT Water), Jim Olson (NBA team president), Rami Goldratt (CEO/The Goal), Hyrum Smith (founder FranklinCovey), Kent Murdock (CEO, OC Tanner), John Pingree (CEO, UTA), Thomas Monson (president, CJCLDS), Ken Lamneck (CEO, Insight Enterprises), Kevin Childs & Drew Judkins (Partners, CallCorp) and hundreds of tech CEOs/leaders.
RESEARCH STUDIES
The studies below include quantitative and qualitative studies of leading top business results and the means to achieve such results. Decades of work helps Mark predict whether people will lead exceptional results or not. Predictions depend on quality of action and collaboration--work encounters, bold or not. His Windfall Partners gets leaders unstuck and thriving with their teams.
Problem Solving
Exceptional Team Members
Interviewed 1,000 leaders and teammates about team members with successful pivots. Identified actions, focus, and exceptional results that lifted productivity up to 22% (Windfall Partners '22). 
Great Work
Led investigation of 2 million innovative teams; award winners vs. non-winners. Samples of 10,000, 250 interviews,1000 work shoppers, each revealed five actions raised odds of top results by 10.3X (Great Work '14, Forbes '18). 
Exceptional Results
Hired firms to investigate 2,000 projects (Forbes Research and Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, BYU PhDs.) Seven actions predicted nine exceptional results, including financial impact (Forbes, Cicero, and OC Tanner '14-16). |
Leader Strategy
Leading Innovation
Interviewed 200 global innovation leaders from 31 countries, 100 onsite including: Google, Oracle, CA, IBM, L3, USAF, GE, Biomet, Simplus, etc. Four strategies led exceptional results. (Windfall Partners '21). 
Leaders of Great Work
Led global study of nearly 4,000 leader actions and results in 13 countries on six continents (qualitatively seven), plus focus groups across US. Three areas of excellence predicted 85th-percentile, client results (Cicero/OC Tanner '18). 
Iconic Leadership
Interviewed 50 icons: Dr. Brad Parkinson (GPS), Dr. Marty Cooper (cell phone), Mimi Silbert (Delancey St.), Herb Kelleher (Southwest), Liddy Dole (Senator/Red Cross), Ken Lamneck (CEO, Insight), Jehan Sadat (Egypt's First Lady), Arnold Palmer (PGA), Stephen Covey (7 Habits), Walter Payton (NFL), Larry King (CNN), Ken Griffey Jr. (MLB), Dr. Laura (ABC), Lou Piniella (MLB), Gary Player (PGA), Ray Noorda (Novell), Carl Lewis (Olympics), etc. (FranklinCovey '99 to Windfall Partners '23). |
Revenue Growth
Proactive Referrals
Interviewed top salespeople on actions to gain references, receive referrals, hold live meetings, formally agree, and gain the next referral. Five actions accelerated sales cycles and spurred top growth (Windfall Partners '23). 
Leading Client Growth
Interviewed 300 top salespeople with standardized questions about sales work with leader samples organized by revenue growth results. A focus on eight prospect goals created exceptional growth (OC Tanner '11). 
Sales Blazers
Interviewed 300 top sales leaders (avg. 29 percent growth compared to 5-percent status quo). Eight practices create exceptional growth. Sales Blazers became the number one Amazon bestseller in Sales (Sales Blazers '08) |
MARK'S "WHY"
"I live to help people get unstuck and thrive. When I was 15, my dad passed away. My escape from seeming catastrophe began my decades desperation for finding paths to thrive. A four-month, near-fatal spine infection that also went septic led to my exit from corporate life just a few years ago. I've taken my own "medicine" then turned to change others' life's work. I still thirst to know how to help everyone thrive. It's the work I love! See my testimonials to understand why I love this work!"
Windfall Partners
"The origin story of Windfall Partners adds a little more to my story. A 'pivot' was originally the pin on a pinwheel that helped signal a coming storm. Pivots and storms are big symbols within my firm's origin story. Another is a 'windfall.'
"In the 1400s, a 'wind·fall' was a surprising storm that blew a bounty from fruit trees. Windfall Partners turns leaders into the surprising storms that get bounties unstuck. Today a 'windfall' is an exceptional gain from a surprising source. Windfall Partners helps leaders thrive as this surprising source of rapid results. Surprising storms, bounties unstuck, exceptional gains, and rapid results are foundational parts of the Windfall Partner origin story.
Engaging Windfall Partners results in a series of windfalls from your highest priorities and lowest-hanging fruit. Forward-thinking leaders get people and projects unstuck and thriving. In fact, we guarantee that you find 10X my first fee or I leave the check.
Windfall Partners promotes Mark Cook as the principal for keynotes and consulting. Mark gets leaders unstuck using "Bold Encounters." Mark engages audiences and teams with fascinating success stories and consults leaders with execution, only available through Windfall Partners.
"In the 1400s, a 'wind·fall' was a surprising storm that blew a bounty from fruit trees. Windfall Partners turns leaders into the surprising storms that get bounties unstuck. Today a 'windfall' is an exceptional gain from a surprising source. Windfall Partners helps leaders thrive as this surprising source of rapid results. Surprising storms, bounties unstuck, exceptional gains, and rapid results are foundational parts of the Windfall Partner origin story.
Engaging Windfall Partners results in a series of windfalls from your highest priorities and lowest-hanging fruit. Forward-thinking leaders get people and projects unstuck and thriving. In fact, we guarantee that you find 10X my first fee or I leave the check.
Windfall Partners promotes Mark Cook as the principal for keynotes and consulting. Mark gets leaders unstuck using "Bold Encounters." Mark engages audiences and teams with fascinating success stories and consults leaders with execution, only available through Windfall Partners.
