Roy Spence co-founded GSD&M’s Idea City in Austin in 1971 and built it into a nationally recognized firm ranked 20th largest in revenues, according to Advertising Age. National clients include Southwest Airlines, BMW, the United States Air Force, the PGA Tour, the State of Louisiana, AARP, and MasterCard.

Named Ad Man of the Year, Idea Man of the Century, among any number of other creative “bests,” Spence has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the New York Times, Business Week, and U.S. News & World Report. A popular keynote speaker, he has addressed more than 10,500 people at major conferences around the country over the past six years.

Spence is at work on a book, It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For, with Haley Rushing, to be published by Penguin Portfolio in 2009.