Will Dean

Entrepreneur

Will Dean is the CEO and co-founder of Immersive Gamebox, a global group gaming platform bringing people together through shared play. Dean began his career in British counter-terriorism with the Foreign Office before earning his MBA at Harvard Business School. As his first entrepreneurial endeavor, Dean founded Tough Mudder in 2010 and grew the business to over five million participants across 15 countries. 20,000 people have had the Tough Mudder logo tattooed on them. As his second act, Dean co-founded Immersive Gamebox in 2018. Whilst at the shops one day, Dean tried a VR game with his kids - he was under no illusion that he was standing in the middle of a mall and found not seeing his family more isolating than social or interactive. Since this epiphany to make screen time truly social, Dean has built an immersive entertainment platform with 20 locations across 3 continents and 1m visitors to date. Dean has been named to Fortune’s, Crain’s and Sports Journal’s “40 Under 40” lists and has been honored with the US National EY Entrepreneur of the Year Emerging Award. Dean has also received a Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) which rewards contributions to the arts and sciences.

Growing organisations which make some kind of difference while also remaining grounded enough to realise they probably aren’t curing cancer. The underrated discipline of being kind. My children (who do an annoyingly good job of reminding me of my own fallibilities).

It's OK if you don't have an idea worth spreading at the moment. Most of us only have a few good ones in our entire lifetimes. Listening to others and being authentic is a more than an adequate substitute!

Diplomacy, Entreprenuership

Catching terrorists - at least I used to be