Simons writes regularly for, among others, the Africa Report, New Africa, Harvard Business Review, Quartz magazine, the BBC’s Business Daily show, and the Huffington Post. He serves on the Advisory Board of IC Publications. In addition, he has served on the inaugural Microsoft Africa Advisory Council; the Africa Strategy Group at the World Economic Forum; the Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Africa; the Center for Global Development’s Study Group on Technology & Development Prospects; and the inaugural Ashoka Globalizer initiative. As an early Director at IMANI, he has contributed considerably to IMANI’s continuous recognition as one of the world’s most innovative think tanks and among Africa’s top 5 institutions of its kind.

Simons also contributes to the building of global networks as a member of multiple World Economic Forum Global Agenda and Future Councils, the TED Fellowship, the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Fellowship, and the Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellowship. In 2016, Fortune magazine named him on their 50 World Greatest Leaders list. Bright’s current research and innovation focus at the Harvard Innovation Lab explores the power of new technologies that combine data analytics and thermosensitive polymers for temperature control and accountability management in sensitive health cold chains for vaccines and biotech products.