Experience

Deloitte Australia, Principle of Design  2012 – current

Retained to help leverage creativity and design as organizational capabilities to fuel competitive advantage.

Second Road Pty, Ltd  2007 – 2012

Retained by the firm’s founders to develop a franchise model for expansion into the United States. After a 4-month assessment of the firm’s service offering, determined that the first priority should be to strengthen the business’ value proposition and market penetration within Australia and recommended postponing the launch of an offshore operation.

Shifted focus and began a 4-year journey to develop a service mix that would competitively reposition this small, boutique strategy-consulting firm. This market development focus resulted in Second Road tripling in size to address increased client demand. The steps I took to achieve this in my role as a Design Leverage Consultant:

• Assessed organizational strengths and weaknesses, considered consulting capabilities and educational offering and took a fresh look for opportunities to distinguish the firm in a saturated management consulting market. Identified an underserved market niche and devised the strategy to build an innovation consulting capability into the firm’s service mix.
• Expanded the company’s core competencies and created distinctive points of differentiation by leveraging expertise in design thinking and human-centred design.
• Elevated and integrated design disciplines into the organizational framework and retained top design talent to reinforce and advance the firm’s unique value proposition: ‘design driven’ innovation.
• Contributed to business development activities by establishing a marketing function and launching the firm’s first PR campaign; collaborated, shaped and formalized brand messaging to enhance market presence and advance competitive advantage.
• As of January 2011, expansion plans into North America are now under development.

ENTREPRENEUR

ACCESS International, New York and California 1987 – 2008
Founder. Identified an un-met market need and built a consulting practice helping manufacturers locate and qualify design consulting firms for large scale product development programs. ACCESS was the first brokerage for product design and development in the US

Repositioned ACCESS International’s service offering to optimize Design Strategy as a means to create competitive advantage. Three client stories:

3M Automotive – Retained by Divisional Vice President, to reinforce their competitive position. Developed and implemented strategy to integrate design into the organization, its operations and culture: reframed design department structure and accountabilities; orchestrated relocation of internal capabilities to eliminate procedural redundancies; worked with HR on hiring policies and staff expansion strategy, interviewed new candidates. Elevated and enhanced design’s contribution to divisional strategic planning.

BMW/Designworks USA – Retained by Designworks President and Founder, Chuck Pelly to assist with the merger, post acquisition, of the American industrial design consultant firm by the German automotive manufacturer. Conducted situational analysis: people, performance and processes and co-developed 5 year business plan: vision, mission and integration strategy with BMW.

Art Center College of Design – Retained by college President, David Brown to identify entrepreneurial opportunities, develop revenue-generating initiatives and establish unique programs that reinforced the college’s competitive position. Four programs:

• first product licensing program for a US design college – Art Center’s Design Transfer Office
• first executive education seminar – Art Center’s Design for Management series
• first consulting and technology audit program for corporate clients
• first collaborative educational program between Art Center and CalTech, and the Marshall School of Business, University of California

PRODUCT DESIGNER

Practical Products, LLC Co-founder, Lead Designer
Invented, developed, patented, manufactured, commercialized and ultimately licensed a line of household storage products that sold through retail and catalogue channels.

EDUCATOR

Art Center College of Design Pasadena California 1997 – 2007

Adjunct Associate Professor, Design Leadership

• Restructured the Design Management curriculum, to create the school’s first integrated business studies program to prepare product design students for the transition from graduate into professional. Expanded from original single class format into a three tiered program of study based on overwhelming demand. Honoured with the Great Teacher Award
• Art Center at INSEAD Fontainebleau, France and Singapore. Designed, developed and launched the first international educational exchange initiative where product design students were fully matriculated into an MBA program. Launched in 2005, it was recognized in the international press as one of the most innovative programs of it’s kind.

Design Management Institute Seminar Series: Launched the leadership curriculum in 2006 for designers, The Manner and Matter of Leadership: Mastering the art of influence.

MARKETER

Cousins Design, Inc Director, Marketing and Sales 1984-1986 Industrial Design Consultants, New York, New York.

Targeted niche opportunities; expanded market presence nationally; developed sales strategies and strategy implementation. Created proposals and negotiated contracts, represented the firm at trade shows, sales presentations, developed promotional materials and articles.

David Cooper Associates Sales and Marketing Manager 1981-1984 Industrial Design Consultants, Rochester, New York.

Transitioned from design intern into full-time design sales position within a year. Along with sales responsibilities, developed a marketing plan and implementation strategy. Steadily expanded client base requiring firm to expand staff by 400% to accommodate workload.

 ADVISOR

Good Design Australia Chair, Advisory Board 2011

Object Gallery Australian Design Centre Strategy Advisory Board 2010 – 2011

Design Management Institute Advisory Board, USA 2006 – today

Suffolk University, Sawyer Business School Executive MBA Advisory, USA 2006 – 2007

US National Design Council Co- Chair. Represented the Industrial Designers Society of America to promote the value of a federally designated Design Council. President Clinton’s administration was supportive but failed to win legislative support.

Manufacturing Technology Initiative MTI Advisory Committee. Created the first Industrial Design Initiative (IDI) at the request of California Congressman Howard Berman’s office. MTI was a California jobs/competitiveness scheme.

Los Angeles Economic Development Commission Advisory Committee. Worked with the city’s Chief Economist on programs that supported and promoted the investment in regional creative industries.

MEMBER

Design Management Institute Advisory Board, USA 1998 – today

Industrial Designers Society of America 1980 – 2007

• Chairman, 1992 WORLDESIGN Conference. International, quadrennial, 3-day membership event sponsored by IDSA. Led conference committees to create vision, met established objectives, drove corporate fundraising, launched the first WORLDESIGN Foundation Seminar: What’s Design Got To Do With It?
• 1985 WORLDESIGN Conference PR Committee

Product Development & Management Association 2000 – 2004

• Co-chair, 2001 Creating a Future Conference Hardware Track

ARBITER

International Houseware Design Awards 2005, 2006. One of 12 judges invited to review household products submitted by a consortium of international manufacturers

115th Tournament of Roses: New Year’s Day Parade 2004. Honoured with the opportunity to judge nationally renowned float entries over an intensive 3-day schedule of evaluation prior to the parade held in Pasadena, California. Presented the analysis behind the selected winners to Channel 5 News, Los Angeles (the parade is televised to over 25 million viewers annually).

STUDENT

Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY BFA Industrial Design 1978-1982

• Special Exhibit: The Process of Design Persuaded administrators to endorse the college’s first exhibition on the process of design. Conceived concept, solicited corporate sponsorship (e.g. Kodak, Xerox, Bausch and Lomb) oversaw installation, coordinated local network coverage by ABC News, Channel 13.

Monroe Community College, Rochester, NY Business Administration 1976-1978

Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA Interior Design 1974-197