An exceptional group of people
organized in an innovative way
to do amazing things.

Akin is an award winning writer, creative director and director, but prefers to frame himself as simply a ‘storyteller’ who works across various platforms. He began his career art directing Nickelodeon’s TV Channels, winning BAFTAS for his branding and short form work. He then went on to write, direct and produce the three time BAFTA Nominated TV Series ‘Apple Tree House’ for the BBC. Most recently he’s been creating powerful campaigns for brands such as Deutsche Bank and Microsoft. Akin’s work is characterised by combining a high level of visual acuity with a powerful empathetic connection with his subjects.

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Jade Kafayat Akintola is an executive producer and marketing consultant.

Over the last 10 years, she has worked with some of the leading brands in luxury,
lifestyle, and technology — leading collaboration across strategy, creative, design, and production.

As a Founding Member of MATTE Projects, Jade established the agency’s arts-anchored approach to experiential marketing. These award-winning campaigns consistently drove high-revenue and innovative verticals with numerous clients including Equinox, Reebok, adidas, Fendi, Apple, Google, Airbnb, and Spotify.

She continues to champion intelligent storytelling by an inclusive team and to build long-lasting and transparent client relationships.

A strategist and writer, focused on telling stories about the artifacts and consequences of design. Carl has used narrative to help shape design strategy for companies like FedEx, Intel, Technicolor, and P&G, and for design agencies including Smart, Topp, and Bresslergroup. The co-author of two books, Carl’s writing has also appeared in WIRED, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Gizmodo, and Forbes among others, on topics ranging from urban infrastructure to service innovation and the ethics of interaction design. He spent five years shaping content and marketing strategy for Ziba Design; before that, he edited and wrote at Core77 and Coroflot. Previously a 3D CAD modeler, a Peace Corps Volunteer in East Africa, and a high school science teacher, Carl holds a BS in Structural Engineering from UC San Diego and a Masters of Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute.

In French, you would say Héloïse is a “touche à tout” or maybe she is just curious to learn new things. She started as a travel writer and editor, and then followed the path of the Digital transformation in the media Industry and held senior roles in Technology, product management and Customer experience. Passionate about building diverse and happy teams and the right organisational culture, her dream job title would be Chief Happiness Officer. Change Partner at Group of Humans, she works with client to kickstart, shape and deliver their transformation agenda.

Nilesh Ashra is a creative technologist. Formally trained in computer science and A.I., Nilesh has spent his career partnering with clients and brands to help create new digital products, services, and experiences.

Paul is a Design human, who’s obsessed by clever, considered, beautiful typography, created digitally or by hand. A designer that will gently push each project as far as it can go, to live up to its potential. A designer who will strip away the nonessentials to make the communication as powerful as possible. But most importantly, I’m a designer who loves, lives and breathes design. As happy in front of a screen, as a piece of paper, with a pen and pencil, a keyboard and mouse, or a tablet and a stylus in hand.

Charles has spent the past 20 years of his career forging valuable relationships with companies and brands, the variety being across the FMCG, Retail, Fashion and Technology sectors.

With a kick off at Goldsmiths studying Eco Design Studies, the journey took Charles through WPP and Omnicom agencies, to board Marketing Director at Wunderman.

Charles offers, strategy, growth, creative, and is the glue joining things and people up guy. He lives with is partner, dog and chickens in the Lake District.

French, cheese-a-holic and NYU Film grad, Stefan has traveled the globe over the past 20 years, lucky to meet and work with exceptional people from the fields of design, film, music, theater, marketing and fashion. He’s assembled, directed and learned from these grand orchestras, striving to become a more capable, knowledgeable, competent, and most importantly, joyful conductor.

Stefan founded pioneering NYC retail concept store The Apartment in 1999, which evolved into The Apartment Creative Agency, at the head of which, he realized scores of architectural, branding and experiential projects for a diverse array of clients from Nissan to Nike, American Express to MTV, The Gap to Bad Boy Entertainment, and more. As the creative director of Google’s Cultural Initiatives, he worked across many departments to develop and execute projects that amplified the oftentimes hidden poetry within technology, making it more relevant to humans. Developing philanthropic initiatives for Annie Leibowitz and Ava DuVernay, creating Pixel 2, Google Mini and Pixelbook product launch materials for VIP customers, and executing an interactive invitation concept for YouTube+Grammys were among his efforts.

He is the author of The Considered Life, a book of philosophical guidance imagined as anti-dogma, which encourages us to get off our butts, help ourselves and dig into our layers to explore who we really are. Stefan was also a featured artist on the Apple Music R&B page for his EP, The Pressure. And his made-from-scratch tomato sauce is incredible.

Remy bridges the business design drive with academic research excellence to shape service ecosystem dynamics from purpose to impact; to embed the ethics of care; to develop sustainable and resilient economics of mutuality. On the business side he has set up and led several multi-disciplinary foresight/research/innovation groups and programs, notably for Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung, Nokia, Orange, Qwant, Brickchain, He has led purpose-driven moonshot programs and grassroots innovations relying on AI/ML and blockchain. This includes a generative framework for AI/ML in Nokia, enabling 120 innovations; a decentralised network enabling trust and inclusion in self-governed service ecosystems; a purpose-driven health media platform; a purpose-driven game engine to craft sustainable communities. On the academic side, at EnsadLab-PSL, he has set up and led 2 research programs;  Mobile Digital ID; Sociable Medias; including collaborations with the MIT MediaLab and BellLabs. Remy is a visiting lecturer about Metadesign @SciencesPo Paris and @ Umea Institute of design. Alumni of Cambridge CISL (sustainable business leadership, sustainable finance), and ENSAD Paris (master, product design). Climate Reality Leader and member of the Club of Rome France.

Chris is a writer, strategist and conceptual thinker with 20 years experience in the design and advertising industries. His career started in Stockholm with .com businesses before agency life took him via 10 M&A scenarios to LBi, DigitasLBi / Publicis. Chris has always been passionate about guiding companies towards “enlightened self interest”. He believes fiercely that everything is connected, and that John Donne can teach us more than Bernbach. He has spoken around the world on subjects like “Has the Internet Made Everything Shit”, which got him on stage at Bestival. EX UK PM David Cameron called him terrifying, which he is more proud of than any award.

Matthew creates unexpected relevant solutions through the design of physical and digital product experiences. As a straight talking industrial designer and innovator he’s driven by people’s essential needs, directional insights, creative collaboration, emerging technologies, brand strategies, design aesthetics and market fit.

He’s unlocked near future opportunities with Samsung, Google, HTC, LG, Fujitsu, Panasonic and Pepsi Co, reinvented the funeral experience for a visionary billionaire and helped Fairphone get to market with the world’s first ethical and modular smartphone.

He engages with the wider design and business community through panel discussions, workshops, design award judging, public speaking, comment and opinion pieces for the international design and business press including FastCo, Wired and Dezeen.

Nhiyc is a Swiss, Vietnamese and American Creative Director, Storyteller and Strategic Marketing Consultant based in New York, who’s passionate about helping Entrepreneurs share their stories, sustainably grow, operate and expand businesses internationally. Artist at heart and contemporary in mind, Nhiyc bridges socio-cultural and generational gaps through storytelling, brand journalism, neuro-marketing to create purpose-driven brands. With 8+ years of experience in corporate, grassroots organisations and startups, Nhiyc has been privileged in developing a highly effective blend of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), Cultural Intelligences (CQ), that helps entrepreneurs and C-suite decision-makers build brands that would last 100+ years.

https://www.nhiyc.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nhiyc/

Lisa is a design executive and strategy consultant. She works with healthcare organizations to discover, develop, and operationalize innovative ways to improve patient experience and outcomes amidst increasing regulatory demands, consumer expectations, and technological complexity.

Lisa founded Forge Harmonic, LLC after more than two decades creating award-winning products and commercial successes for businesses within and beyond healthcare. Most recently she was VP of Design at Confer Health, a health tech startup building at-home clinical diagnostics and, prior to that, she was Head of Product Design at Imprivata, a leading healthcare IT security company.

Lisa coauthored the book, Designing for Emerging Technologies: UX for Genomics, Robotics, and the Internet of Things and is currently an adjunct professor in the Digital Media Master’s Degree Program at Northeastern University. She holds an MS degree in Human Factors in Information Design from Bentley University and an BS in Imaging and Photographic Technology from RIT.

Amy Dick is an interdisciplinary brand storyteller with expertise planning and leading the transformation of brand identity, audience experiences and 360 communications globally.

With 10+ years delivering award winning global projects, she is inspired by innovation, art and culture to deliver brand moments that can shift thinking, move culture forward, effect social change and enrich lives.

Also an entrepreneur, she works at the intersection of technology, leadership and diversity to create more seats at the table for womxn of colour in creative leadership.

Thu Do has built products for some of the most recognizable brands, startups, and consulting firms in the world. These days, she utilizes her expertise in Design, Strategy, and Product Management to deliver highly craftable experiences that recognize the undeniable abilities of technology to empower the irreplaceable power of human creativity.

Peter is a BAFTA Award winning Creative Director, specialising in Brand Storytelling.
He’s inspired by weaving all the threads of brand communication together to create a compelling overall brand story for clients and their customers – creating meaning and value for both.

Peter spent many years in Network Television, firstly as Creative Director for at Turner Broadcasting – overseeing the European Cartoon Network channels before going on run Nickelodeon UK On Air, In house Programming and Digital channels. Here he gained extensive experience in branding and content creation, garnering a Craft BAFTA award and 5 further Nominations for Short Form films. More recently Peter switched into advertsing where at Publicis Groupe he was Creative Lead for ‘Kellogg’s One’, a blended team of creatives from Digitas and Leo Burnett, and responsible for all Kellogg’s TV and digital transformation work across Europe. At Digitas he also led all creative for clients such as Honda and American Express. His work for Honda Formula 1 notably helping them redefine their brand representation.

Now with unique high level experience in both content creation and advertising, Peter is driven to find new ways for brands to connect with their audiences.

BUILDING BRANDS IS AT MY CORE

Peter is a 40+ year veteran of the sports and entertainment industry.

In 1986 Peter joined Umbro Sportswear, where he became European Marketing Director serving on the company’s UK, European and International boards for 11 years.

Peter then joined Manchester United PLC in 1999 as their first Group Marketing Director with responsibility for brand development and sponsorship. He worked successfully with such blue chip brands as Vodafone, Budweiser, Pepsi, Sun Microsystems, Sharp Electronics, British Airways,Sky television and Barclays. He was also a member of the Manchester United Merchandising Ltd’s board until its successful long term licensing of that business to Nike.

He left the club in 2006 to establish his own consultancy business. His rich client list included such organisations as The NBA, The National Trust, Cancer Research UK, The Football Association, Smirnoff, Guinness, Lacoste, Tiger Beer, The British Olympic Association, Royal Bank of Scotland, Sony,UEFA, Audi, General Motors and Mercedes, as well as J.K.Rowling’s “POTTERMORE”,the digital home of Harry Potter.

More recently Drapes has undertaken longer term engagements with international sports and entertainment agency CAA, Valencia Club de Futbol, where he was Commercial and Marketing Director for 3 years,and Virtuosos Holdings Ltd,a multi-media classical music business based in Budapest and London.

Kyle is a frontend developer who’s been working in the industry for 10 years. He is the go-to developer for several small creative agencies and businesses in London and the US. He loves great web design, and always tries to give it the respect it deserves in his coding. Once a pixel-perfectionist, now faithful to responsive web design principles, he never compromises on the interpretation of design into code.

Kat has over 20 years experience as an entrepreneur and business leader with a focus successful change, innovation and what’s next. Kat co-founded the award winning creative agency Exopolis in 2001 (acquired in 2010). Kat connects teams with organizations to create meaningful partnerships and, ultimately, impactful and successful insights. She is a passionate advocate for and a connector to exceptional creatives, strategists, artists, makers, technologists, and brand specialists.

Product Designer with an extensive international experience focused on innovation. Expert in UX Design & Strategy and hands-on Visual and UI Design. Having been exposed to a wide range of industries from digital agencies to large corporations and tech startups, I’m enthusiastic to work closely with teams and to advise solo entrepreneurs starting a new business. Energetic and positive, constantly exploring stimulating opportunities to learn, share and design experiences that ultimately have a positive impact on society.

I’m an Experience Designer and Design Executive. I’ve dedicated my career to creating and growing design-focused businesses that take complex technologies and commercialize them to make them usable to customers – from enterprise to consumers. I’ve developed a deep understanding of product innovation, cross-disciplinary teams, design systems, and translating customer and business needs into product and brand solutions. I’ve had the fortune of collaborating with companies such as Apple, BBC, Microsoft, MoMA, Nike, Google, and TED Conferences. I founded and was CEO of the international design firm Method where I led the cross-functional research, strategy, design, and technology teams responsible for delivery.

Author of The Hidden Psychology of Social Networks and former head of Brand Strategy at Reddit, Joe leads a social media agency called [An Internet Reference]. Joe’s approach to building best-in-class social strategies for the world’s largest brands is rooted in cultural immersion rather than digital disruption.

Rob is a writer, director and creative director with a passion for stories well told. He loves the craft of creating visually memorable, emotionally engaging and effective campaigns. Working collaboratively with clients, he connects brands and audiences to deliver simple solutions for complex briefs.

He began his career in broadcasting working with the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and he also led the in-house agency at Nickelodeon. With an MA in Screenwriting he wrote full-time for TV for several years. Rob has worked with agencies large and small helping them to develop and tell brand stories across platforms. Across a diverse range of industries clients have included American Express, Dr Marten’s, Kellogg’s, GSK and Yoplait.

Audree is a strategist, researcher and designer. With more than 15 years experience in the public and social sectors, including Director-level and C-level roles, Audree’s multidisciplinary background spans design for policy, products, services, operations, organisations and strategy.

Suki Fuller is an Analytical Storyteller, globally recognised by Forbes as a Strategic Advisor for her award winning work with fundraising tech startups, speaker, and mentor. Seventeen years experience as an intelligence advisor from chemical engineering to security. Lived and worked globally (EMEA, China, UK and US) within Academia, National Security, Law Enforcement, and Private Corporations.

Suki, tells the story by taking you on the journey from data gathering, organizing and analyzing to a point of understanding your next potential chapter. Suki keynotes events globally on ethics in technology, deep tech, AI, social networks, security, female entrepreneurship and is recognized for early adoption of new technologies in the advancement of competitive intelligence. Her areas of focus lie within agile competitive and emergent strategies.

Suki loves Penguins.

Federico is a creative leader and strategic brand builder. He works collaboratively with leaders and teams to develop strategy, story, identity, culture and design. He believes that great brands are built holistically through meaningful actions — by people who are inspired, aligned and motivated by a shared vision of the value they create in the world.

Educated in philosophy and graphic design, he worked with agencies and media organisations between Milan, Paris and London as a designer, director, producer, strategist and creative director. He co-founded two design studios, and built the multi-awarded in-house integrated agency at Discovery in London, where he was VP of Brands and Executive Creative Director, responsible for leading the creative marketing function in Europe.

Dilly Gent. Sometimes a producer, other times a creative director and always a fixer, her M.O is best defined as that of a vision crafter.

Early on, she gained a reputation for her ability to match the right people with the right project. She’s been the secret sauce behind many of them – often steering artists in the right visual direction, and inspiring others to take up a path that rings more true to them.

Dilly spent 16 years as Radiohead’s Creative Director, earning a Grammy Nomination for the feature length documentary “Meeting People Is Easy”. In 2005 launched “From The Basement” with music producer Nigel Godrich, a global music TV series featuring artists such as The White Stripes, Beck, Sonic Youth, Radiohead and Red Hot Chili Peppers amongst others.

In 2007, Dilly commissioned and executive produced 60 short films for Al Gore’s Live Earth campaign featuring directors from all over the world.

While working on this campaign, Dilly discovered her deep love and concern for the environment, pushing her to create projects designed to deliver a green message through music and film.

Jan is a solver of creative puzzles across brand and experience design. He has helped hundreds of B2B and B2C companies unlock the potential for their brands to better connect to their customers across a variety of digital media with nearly 20 years in the field. After several years running his own successful creative agency, Jan has once again dedicated himself to his true craft and joined the plight of The Humans to drive forward the principles of human centred design.

Shea Gonyo is an award winning interactive developer with more than 20 years of experience working in the digital landscape. Shea has developed a myriad of interactive experiences for fortune 500 companies — including websites, e-commerce applications, mobile apps, multiplayer games, social networks and touch retail installations.

Jill is a photographer, director, entrepreneur and artist who has been making pictures since she was 9 years old. An early adopter to digital imaging as well as social media platforms, she was working in Photoshop since version 1.0, had her website done by Razorfish in 1995, Later her site was done by Group94 in Belgium, later was one of the first Tumblr based sites. For a while in 2009, hers was the second highest trafficked photography website in the world. She was shooting covers for Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly and Wired regularly in the 90s.
She was one of the few Photoshoppers in NYC in the early 90s- and still loves to learn and use the top technology- continuing always to retouch her own work.
Recent award-winning campaigns for television and film such as The Handmaid’s Tale S1 for Hulu, the first four seasons of Orange is the New Black for Netflix, Dexter, House of Lies for Showtime, Da Ali G Show and Hung for HBO Charlie’s Angels.
In Oct ’18, she aced an experiential activation for Google where she photographed 182 real New Yorkers in Grand Central over 2 days which utilized and solidified her Influencer status on Instagram. The stats when she posted the grid of day-glo images on LinkedIn were through the roof at more 18,000 views.
It is her fine art and outspokenness which has set her apart. Her portraiture is empathetic and full of HUMAN connection with the viewer. While she is best known for her uniquely human animal portraits of monkeys and apes, grizzly and polar bears, and sexy horses, it was the infamous series of crying toddlers, “End Times” which put her on the map due the media frenzy over the pseudo-controversy that toddlers cry, the images have become memes, used to illustrate personal and political issues. The photography style was copied and taught in schools all over the world. She continually pivots and reinvents, coming up with new visual techniques to stay relevant throughout her 28-year career.
Early in 2018, Greenberg was invited to do a TEDx talk which she used as a platform to found an initiative Alreadymade.org – a site listing all of the top female advertising photographers since the ratios 1-10 for awarded jobs.
She recently wrote and directed a short film called “Honeypot” about Weinstein. Is in post-production on“Feminist Pigs” an animated comedy superhero pilot, and a YouTube Premium pilot called “Dick Move” about a female game designer who goes undercover as a man to subvert her workplace sexism.

Dionne is a business development, marketing and communications specialist based in London.

Over the last 24 years she has worked with some of the most respected names in international architecture, design, technology and contemporary art including United Visual Artists, Adjaye Associates, IDEO, Pentagram, Wolff Olins, Peter Saville, Sebastian Conran Associates, Central Saint Martins and The New Craftsmen. Roles have varied from strategic marketing and PR consultancy and implementation to client relationship development. She has also acted as a curator, editor and commissioner of content for books, special projects, exhibitions and workshops.

Brian is a mix of engineer, storyteller and designer who invariably draws on aspects of all three when designing human-centred product or service experiences, or new organisational structures or capabilities. He likes to work with smart, passionate people and organisations that are courageous enough to embrace design and its potential to shape their thinking.

Gary has created brand experiences at IBM, HSBC, Apple, Sapient and AMV BBDO. He’s worked with brands that include: Guinness, The Economist, Tate Modern, ICA, Mental Health First Aid, City Mental Health Alliance, BBC, Unilever, Heineken, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Etihad Airways, Emaar, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, winning many awards along the way.

Formally Executive Creative Director at IBM he has delivered over 100+ innovation workshops using Garage and Design Thinking frameworks. He has been involved with over 20 start-ups in mental health, music, property, design and banking. As well as deep brand experience he has worked extensively with cloud and cognitive computing. He is driven by finding the human experience within design and technology, drawing inspiration from architecture, product design, music and art.

Over the last 15+ years, Avery has been fortunate to lead a variety of global product launches for Nike, Adidas, Aflac, Ford, Google, Care.com, and others. A strategic systems thinker, Avery knows that the best products/platforms come out of an equal consideration of consumer/market insight, business operations, and internal culture and empowerment. This is where she thrives in a leadership team – outlining business models, hiring/coaching teams, customizing product processes, and advocating for consumer engagement.

In addition to large scale corporate environments, Avery has recognized this same need in the startup world. She co-founded Google’s first design accelerator and entrepreneur training program; then built both an agency and personal consultancy with startup focus. While still occasionally consulting for global brands, she spends most of her time partnered with Founders from seed-level to Series-B, with a focus on supporting women & diversity-led businesses.

Scott is a creative with an unconventional background. Law degree, MA in philosophy – and then media strategy. Wanting more than a PowerPoint as a work end-point, he started devising content and executions. As these initiatives caught fire, his role changed. He became UMs first European Creative Director and led the agency’s content practice across the region. Under Scott’s watch, UM was voted ‘most creative media agency’ in a WARC client survey. Scott looks to combine ad tech, data and media to connect in a new and different ways, and has produced major award winning work every year for the past ten years.

An award-winning Creative Director and leader in creating compelling products, services, and experiences that are human-centric and deliver on business outcomes for the world’s most recognised brands. 
She co-founded the iconic studio Hi-ReS! London in 1999 and after the acquisition by SYZYGY (WPP) remained in post and helped grow it with offices in New York and Berlin. In 2016, Alexandra was brought into Publicis Sapient to push creative output and create innovation opportunities with existing and new clients with a focus on digital business transformation.
She is passionate about a holistic approach to make a positive difference in the lives of people and to create innovative, memorable experiences that are well crafted with no boundaries between off/online.
Her clients range from artists like Darren Aronofsky, Bernardo Bertolucci, The Beatles, Massive Attack, and Beck to global brands including Chanel, Jägermeister, SONY, Toyota, Unilever, Nissan, JP Morgan, Amplifon or IBM.
Alexandra has been frequently recognised over the past 20 years, and listed as one of the world’s most interesting creative leaders and named again as a future leader on Campaign and Creative Equals’ “Future Leaders” list 2019.
She has numerous Webbies, Clios, ’Cyber Grand Prix’ at Cannes Lions, Cannes Lions, and One Shows to her name as well as a D&AD pencil and a BAFTA. Her work has been exhibited at the V&A, the Barbican, and Tate Britain and was published in the monograph ‘Amantes sunt Amentes’ in 2008.

Victoria is an experience strategist who’s spent 15 years helping businesses profit from change at some of the world’s most successful creative agencies. She’s led strategic and creative development on products, service design, and integrated brand experience programmes for a host of international businesses, including Unilever, Lenovo, Barclay’s, Kellogg’s, and BUPA, as well as non-profits and social enterprises. Her training in product design gives her a knack for making things that function well, delight consumers, and make business sense.

Before joining Group of Humans, she was Strategy Director at Isobar (Dentsu Aegis), and prior to that spent 6 years with the Ogilvy Group in Director and team leadership roles, including a secondment to Ogilvy in Bangalore to build a strategic planning capability.

Victoria holds a Masters in Industrial Design from the Pratt Institute, and has lived and worked in the US, Asia, and Europe. A no-nonsense native New Yorker, she’s called London home for over a decade.

Alessandra (Ale) consults in Brand Experience with a special interest in partnership strategies and community building. Having spent half of her career in advertising and the other half in design/innovation, Ale can help companies create amazing brand experiences for growth. She’s a creative with a business strategy mind. She has won 18 industry awards and was in Fast Company’s “League of extraordinary women” with 60 other amazing ladies like Hillary Clinton, Oprah. Ale is the co-founder of SheSays an award-winning global organization focused on the advancement of women in the creative industries. She learned by doing on what makes communities grow and thrive.

Lasse is passionate about first-class strategic thinking, and developing products and services that maximize profitability for the triple bottom line: economical, social and environmental.

His rocket science background (designing astronaut spacesuits) prepared him well to solve complex strategic dilemmas for clients. With 10+ years of brand building experience across companies like McKinsey, Microsoft, Nokia & Marimekko, he has gained market understanding from Australia to Nigeria, from California to Finland.

In recent years, he has also scouted for innovative sustainability startups and helped them scale globally.

Duncan loves to write, so he’s carved a career out of doing just that in all its myriad forms. Running his own show for 15 years, he tells human-centred travel stories from all four corners, creates user experiences that focus on value, loyalty and engagement, and brings new perspectives to businesses and organisations losing their focus. He believes quality of the process is crucial to quality of the outcome, no matter if it’s how we collaborate to create something magic or how we engage with new people to tell new stories. He writes for everyone from Forbes to Lonely Planet, and has built services and products with global agencies, telcos, banks and tech companies, and sparked ideas into life with SMEs, startups and creative souls.

Ex: Scholar, raver, industrial designer, dj, management consultant. Amateur: DJ, music producer, coach. Professional: Consultant, designer, strategist. I like to move people in positive ways. Through music, design, leadership and strategy. To me there’s nothing more human than the progression of our society. I’m a renowned provocateur in the field of User Experience, a community leader through my work with IxDA London, and an Experience Design leader in my consulting work in all things UX, Product, Service, Innovation and Interaction.

As a child, Howard bought BMX bikes, fixed them up, and sold them. As a young adult, he progressed on to fixing up cars and then fixing up houses. It is therefore no surprise, Howard found his calling upon discovering business development as a career. For 20-years, Howard has been realizing the potential of creative companies by helping them tell their story, build a reputation, attract new clients and grow. His career has seen him lead growth and marketing at top creative companies in the U.K. and the United States including Saatchi&Saatchi (Team One), Publicis Groupe, Engine, and Buck. Howard now lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife Esther, and son Forest.

Combining her skills in digital product design, project management, technical writing, and data analysis & visualization, Jacquie is focused on transforming how human’s make and use one of our most basic needs — electricity. She is personally dedicated to research on the smart, cost-effective integration of distributed energy resources, including renewable energy, energy storage, Internet of Things technologies, and electric vehicles.

Rhys is a designer, artist, and cyclist. Having freelanced and worked as a consultant at Logitech and Google X. Rhys has led global Design teams in LEGO, Nokia, Casper and founded his own company OMATA.

As a Design Leader, he has a reputation for building happy and motivated studios where designers want to work, creativity is the priority, and innovation happens. He thinks big but makes ideas tangible, beautiful, and meaningful to people. He’s obsessed with cultures of creativity, optimism, and bringing the value of Design and Designing to any team or organization.

As a designer, he’s drawn to create products that appear to have as little design as possible. With multiple patents, he prefers people to see my work as tools or instruments for life.

With a Masters Degree in Product Design from the Royal College of Art in London, and a First Class Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK. He has been a part-time lecturer at Art Centre, Pasadena; Goldsmiths University, London; Denmark Design School, Copenhagen; and the Royal College of Art, London. And served on the jury of competitions, been Chair of the IDSA IDEA Awards.

Rob has dedicated his career to understanding design and its ability to influence and improve how businesses work. His values lie at the heart of the teams he has curated; loyalty, authenticity and courage. Rob founded Group of Humans, his third design focussed company, to guide the global technology disruption towards a more human future.

Meredith has over 25 years of success helping clients identify and create new products and services. She has helps her clients identify, develop, and launch physical and digital products that improve profitability, grow the topline, and strengthen customer relationships across their entire journey. Meredith has led many successful innovation and UX teams and partnered with multi-national companies of all sizes in telecom, commerce, QSR, automotive, CPG, B2B, healthcare, financial services, and media. Working with Verizon, McDonald’s, Amazon, Nestle, FCA, JP Morgan Chase, Pfizer, and others gives her a perspective of nearly every business challenge and customer experience.

Whether assisting a CPG marketing team in defining the five-year evolution of their category or recreating customer touchpoints for a large telecom brand, Meredith’s approaches are squarely customer-obsessed and future-focused, yielding sound strategy guidance and long-term benefit.

Rick is an entrepreneur, company founder and general creator and manager of things. He is never happier than when working with open-minded, positive thinkers and thrives when given the chance to help mould and steer businesses to greatness. He founded his first company whilst studying Graphics at Central Saint Martins, and sold his first company in his early 20’s to a UK-based PLC. 20+ yrs later he has built and sold a number of companies, including a digital agency, online gaming company and an online art business. He’s worked all over the world, spent a 2-year-long holiday drinking rosé in Annecy with his wife and two young children and now divides his time between an M&A advisory firm, a national (UK) fruit juice company and an online art business. …And now the wonderful Group of Humans too!

Adah is a Polymath, Futurist, Tech Philosopher, Activist and Artist. She has over 20 years of experience creating and nurturing new educational learning models and structures, changing the cultural behaviour of large organisations and creating immersive storytelling experiences, using a humanity-centred design approach for creative problem solving and innovation.

She has worked with businesses and individuals in marketing, advertising, media, entrepreneurship, technology start-ups, and education and was recently recognised as one of the Top 100 BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Leaders in Tech (UK).

“I’m a sound artist/ designer/ composer and audio producer with recording studio and live production background.
Using my ears and some imagination I specialize in creating 3 dimensional audio visual experiences for audiences.
I deliver concepts in sound, engaging select audiences and the general public simultaneously”

Marco first became expert in both studio and live recording before specializing in 3D audio and spatial sound design. Creating spatial and 3D audio and visual experiences in installations, presentations, venues, live & recorded events. He designs and produces live/ recorded and interactive/ audio and visual experiences as world leading 3D and spatial audio content and production specialist.
His recent work includes a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for Bjork and the ViVid exhibitions in Sydney, Tokyo, London, The Eden Project, edenLab and Bjork digital globally where Perry is responsible for the critically acclaimed spatial sound designs and 3D audio installations throughout.
He continues to “push the envelope” collaborating with other ground breaking artists. Headlining the original lazer & spatial sound installation at Dark MoFo arts festival Tasmania with Rob Del Naja and Chris Levine as iy project. 2020 sees Marco creating and sound designing a newly commisioned spatial audio installation at the Glastonbury Festival and beyond in a program of festivals and public art installations.

Julia is a change maker and leading expert in brand purpose. Born in Arkansas, her dream of living and working around the globe came true. She graduated from Wellesley College, moved to New York City to work for ABC News 20/20 and afterwards worked at Wieden+Kennedy where she lived in Portland, Tokyo and Amsterdam building the world’s most influential brands like Nike, Microsoft, Coca-cola, Audi and Old Spice. A decade ago she broke convention and shifted her career to focus on solving the world’s biggest problems. Highlights include leading the strategic and creative development of the Nike Foundation’s Girl Effect to break generational poverty, working with Fazle Abed the founder of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO based in Bangladesh providing micro-lending and savings to unbanked populations, designing the patient experience at Providence Heart Institute, promoting the XQ Institute’s Super School challenge and collaborating with Vice-President Al Gore on The Climate Reality Project. Known for strategic leadership, brand marketing and social innovation, her mission is to bring humanity to business. Today, she partners with brands to identify, define and create purpose-inspired strategies, experiences and programming that drive business growth and benefit society.

Em has spent the past decade helping companies streamline and optimize, from Accounting and Human Resources to restructuring corporations from the inside out. Starting out with a Law Degree in the UK then moving across the pond she became a New York State Attorney, until she found her calling working with clients to attain their goals by taking over the nitty gritty details. Working with small startups to well established companies, Em loves teaming up with clients to make the differences that count to allow progression and promote corporate confidence.

Hello, I document how people and culture are changing by looking at what’s happening now and what might happen next. I don’t need a crystal ball instead I synthesise multiple data points from expert interviews, surveys, social analytics and cultural analysis to build robust and visionary narratives. These get used to drive innovation, communications strategy and customer experience for brands like Vodafone, ITV, Grey Goose, Ecco and SSE.

If a brand wants to get under the skin of their current or prospective consumers then I can help. And I’m in my element if they want to be inspired by emerging trends and, crucially, have them brought to life in a way that feels credible and actionable.

It’s always best when the process is collaborative and interactive and as a certified coach, I utilise a coaching framework to bring all stakeholders into the thinking and along on the journey.

James is a creative director who specialises in image-led strategy, creating visual content across moving image, print and digital to help launch and build brands. He has been involved in contemporary film, photography, art and design for twenty years. Recent clients include Airbnb Samara, where James developed creative concepts for their new flagship Backyard ADU project, and Uber, where he developed creative concepts and narrative visions for the company’s ten-year future vision.
He co-founded London-based creative agency Field Projects, working with clients including Hermès, Onefinestay, Luxottica, The Modern House and Grace Hotels. Prior to that, as long-standing Photography Director of Wallpaper*, James was instrumental in creating and shaping the visual identity of one of the world’s leading design titles. Whilst there he collaborated with people as diverse as Kanye West, Ed Ruscha, Zaha Hadid, Robert Wilson, Maurizio Cattelan and Pharrell Williams on ambitious projects.

Hello. I’m an experienced creative thinker and the founding creative partner of iris Worldwide. For over 17 years I was responsible for the creative work, vision and talent, across a global network of 14 offices. During that time I helped build the business from 2 people, to over 1000 with annual billings of $100m (2016).

As well as building and selling an agency, I’ve developed numerous integrated campaigns across a wide range of business sectors. Most of these brands tended to mirror my own passion for sport, retail, electronics and booze (Jeep, Diageo, adidas, Ericsson, Coca-Cola, Samsung, Heineken, Sony, Reckitt Benckiser, Barclays, IHG, Reebok and Saks Fifth Avenue).

During that time, I’ve worked with some amazing people, which has enabled me to win quite a few global creative and marketing awards (If you’re into that sort of thing).

I’ve founded companies focused on disruptive business models and emerging markets.

Bringing a mixture of strategy, technology, creative, marketing operations to the table and a modest beard.

I help ventures get into market through iterative testing and prototyping of both the digital product and marketing touch-points. Working with founders at a strategic level to plan and deliver, overseeing the entire process.

Nicolas Ronco was the Founder and CEO of YeloSpa which opened its first location in New York City in 2007.

His successful and fulfilling experience in the business and corporate world in the US, Europe and Asia led him to create a unique brand in the hospitality and spa industry that is now internationally recognized opened locations in New York City, Sao Paulo Brazil and Puerto Rico.

YeloSpa was the culmination of Nicolas’ extensive travels and experience in his quest to learn how different cultures deal with stress, fatigue and exhaustion and ultimately heal the entire being. He experienced reflexology and sleep therapy in Japan, performed volunteer work at an ashram in India and studied shamanic healing in Brazil. His constant research for effective healing methods across the globe provides an infinite source of R&D that is applied in his life and for his clients.

Until 2005, Nicolas was Vice President of Business Development and International Sales and Marketing for MakeMusic! Inc. During his tenure in this leading and publicly traded (NASDAQ: MMUS) music software company, Nicolas successfully launched the SmartMusic product line of music learning software. SmartMusic’s revenue has grown ten fold since inception in 2001.

From 1999 to 2001, Nicolas also served as Vice President Online Marketing and Regional Online Vice President for Trader Classifieds Media, a $450 million publicly traded company. During his tenure at Trader, Nicolas participated in the successful IPO of Trader on the NASDAQ (TRDR) and Paris Stock exchange in 2000. His responsibilities also included overseeing online advertising efforts, e-commerce development and CRM implementation for classifieds ads services in 18 countries.

Prior to joining Trader Classifieds Media, Nicolas spent nine years with Time Warner direct marketing divisions in New York City. Nicolas had P&L responsibility over the music and video product lines and he managed direct marketing efforts to a customer database of 35 million active members and 120 million customers and prospects.

Nicolas is currently using his extensive corporate and entrepreneurial experience to help his clients grow while avoiding costly mistakes.

Nicolas holds a Bachelor of Science in Management from the University of Paris-Dauphine and an MBA from the City University of New York.

Bryan is passionate about the operational rhythm of the organizations with which he is involved. He has 20 years experience leading internal operations in a wide range of industries including design, hospitality, health and safety, education, and gaming. Bryan has held Director and C-suite positions in organizations on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Bryan believes collaborative process development creates freedom and reduces waste.

Florian is a Creative Director with a background in product design, visual effects, music, directing, interactive and art and has worked extensively in positive and behavioural psychology, work culture and team enablement.His studio A certain Everything serves as a creative practice without clearly defined boundaries across art, fashion, product, service, architecture and design. He co-founded the highly respected studio Hi-ReS! in 1999 in London, New York and Berlin and served from 2015 to 2019 as the global CCO of the SYZYGY Group who had acquired Hi-ReS! in 2008. He also ran Nanika, a studio focused on emerging technologies, from 2005 until 2016. He has numerous Webbies, Clios, Cannes Lions and One Shows to his name as well as a D&AD pencil and a BAFTA. His work has been exhibited at the V&A, the Barbican and Tate Britain. He’s been a regular speaker at conferences such as OFFF, Semi-Permanent Sydney and Auckland and TEDxAthens. He has worked with clients ranging from Marilyn Manson, Rhianna and Darren Aronofsky to SONY, Chanel, BMW and Jägermeister to name a few. He is currently advisor to several blockchain start-ups, including parity technologies, the Web3 foundation, GridSingularity, the Energy Web Foundation and Polkadot.

For 25 years, Josh Silverman has created successful relationships through design. He speaks and hosts workshops globally, teaches and guest critiques nationally, and is always connecting people and communities. Currently, Josh Silverman is consulting in design operations for Salesforce, NYU, and Blend, hosting workshops, and advising startups.

Most recently, he advised and designed for the portfolio of companies with Sequoia Design Lab, served as Twitter’s first hire in design operations, and was one of the founding designers of the IBM Cloud Garage.

In 1997 he founded Schwadesign, a lean, holacratic-model business, where he managed diverse teams and scaled the business for 18 years. His wide range of clients have included startups (iRobot, Buildium, Trinity Pharma), educational institutions (MIT, Harvard Medical School, Brown University), global corporations (UBS, Wells Fargo, Accenture), cities (Providence, RI, and Bethesda, MD) and non-profits (American Heart Association, Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute). His work has been recognized by Rebrand.com, The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and Recode.

Alex started his design career at Razorfish at the beginning of the first web boom. Since then, he has worked with clients ranging from software startups to major television networks to athletics brands to international educational institutions. Alex’s work in design research explores the use of ideal types, patterns, and pattern language as tools for understanding the structure of design problems and computational design and digital fabrication techniques as methods for developing new, hitherto impossible forms. He is a professor at the Pratt Institute of the Arts, where he has developed course work aimed at helping students to uncover their own theories of design and to develop strategies for the application of those theories beyond the traditional boundaries of the fi eld.

Heath has been an Apple support engineer all his career. Started out as a field engineer, when Apple launched their first colour Mac. He went on to work on Apple UK’s paid-for support team. Long before the stores and Genius Bars! Learnt to speak Windows fluently as a second language and was an early adopter of what became the Internet.

Helpdesk, System Management, Network Admin are just a few of the many titles he’s held, but at the heart always tec support.

technical untanglement / iFix things

Jud is a strategist and researcher with over 15 years’ experience in advising startups and in crafting campaigns for the likes of Verizon, SAP, Novartis, Land Rover, Jaguar, Avis, and American Airlines. Nothing gives him more professional satisfaction than discovering an insight that will make a difference. He’s a frequent speaker at industry events and holds a BA in psychology from the University of Utah and a JD from Columbia Law School.

Gina is a behavior design specialist who helps drive behavior change for organizations, inside and out.  By clarifying your data and insights with evidence from social sciences and behavioral economics, she reveals why people do what they do, and develops acute design strategies for addressing the intention to action gap.

As a curious and compassionate entrepreneurial leader, Gina has a proven history of enhancing engagement and brand growth for future-forward, creative companies. She is proficient in best practices, human factors, leadership strategies, and strategic brand alignment to drive brand awareness and performance. Gina is well-coordinated in addressing problems (no matter the size), investigating root causes, and implementing successful resolutions all through a behavioral lens.

Alexie is a communication design director with 20+ years creating bespoke and sustainable solutions that empower. Her purpose to deliver positive impact through design intention drives her to work the intersection between design creativity, business sustainability and relevant communication.

Her initial graphic design practise took a playful human centred approach to communication design for the Arts and Culture and led to commissions for companies including Rich Mix, LOCOG, British Council and the Mayor of London’s office.

As Design Director for commercial projects at The Guardian and Observer newspaper group, she worked within, and for, brands with strong liberal and sustainable values helping to evolve her commercial understanding of the role design plays in behaviour change, plus the need for 360º design thinking, and rigorous management of the design process.

As Creative Director, at Thomas Matthews – a sustainable communication design studio creating solutions for spaces and social change, she led the team delivering highly crafted design solutions across architectural, identity, exhibition, event, engagement, product, publication, and digital design projects.

Alexie has an extensive creative network with whom she collaborates to consult with clients and help them intelligently communicate their value and creatively evolve their brands. She applies both strategic thinking and human intuition when guiding clients to create connections, raise awareness and evoke beneficial behavioural change both internally and externally.

I’m an accessibility and inclusion specialist with over 20 years of experience. I look at ways to make inclusion seamless, affordable and sustainable so it works for everyone: your customers, your business and your teams.

I started my career in China in the late 90s working on search engines and dual-language digital marketplaces. There wasn’t much accessibility then, let alone usability, which set me firmly on my path. My focus today is on strategy, user experience and design. I’ve worked in-house and on the agency side. A particular area of interest is video on demand (VOD) having worked with brands such as Netflix, Spotify and BBC. I’ve helped companies establish a sustainable accessibility presence such as BBC where we moved from embedded accessibility support within products to a document-driven accessibility framework facilitated by Accessibility Champions.

On the side, I have contributed to various W3C projects including the Mobile, Education and Outreach, and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines working groups; various community projects such as the Inclusive Design 24 (ID24) conference, the Inclusive Design Principles and the Web Standards Project International Liaison Working Group.

Joel is proudly ‘Human’ he’s also an award-winning, strategically minded, Senior Copywriter. He brings extensive experience across industry sectors and media channels with a passion for digital. For clients and businesses he adds value, shifts perceptions and creates memorable communications. Driven by bringing brand stories to life, while writing sparkling copy and content that persuades, informs and sells.

Katie is a seasoned design researcher and learning engineering consultant who approaches problems with curiosity and empathy. With a Ph.D. in learning sciences and a suite of research methods, Katie cares deeply about uncovering the social and technical conditions that enable designs and innovations to be successful and scalable.

Following a decade in academic roles, she is excited to join the consulting ranks. She manages research and development projects across sectors including education, public media, philanthropy, and venture capital.

Vassoula is a creative branding powerhouse with proven success around the globe. Following her extensive experience managing branding projects for international design firms including Fitch, Landor, and XMPR, Vassoula was tapped to be the in-house Creative Director for the global headquarters of Office Depot, where she directed numerous strategic business and marketing initiatives for the private brand group. Subsequent to her tenure at OD, Vassoula has continued to drive groundbreaking creative for a myriad of clients from coast to coast and internationally.

Vassoula has successfully guided product innovation, visual brand expressions and guideline systems for numerous global organizations in the Fortune 500, such as Nissan, LEGOLand, Visa, Italian State Railways and Office Depot, to name a few.

Vassoula is a dynamic thought leader, who happens to build and motivate creative teams across a variety of disciplines. She is a true advocate of the design craft and always strives to find ways to transform and innovate brands, products and services.

Simon has worked in the media for his entire professional career. For 20 years he was an award-winning photojournalist for a variety of internationally renowned newspapers, magazines and photographic agencies and most recently as a senior staff photographer on The Times newspaper before becoming its News Picture Editor. Subsequently he has run his own social media business, been the director of brand strategy business and is now consulting for a number of major media businesses including Thomson Reuters. He balanced his consultancy work with portraiture and reportage photography.

Waterfall is a Creative Director in industries from digital to industrial design, advertising to engineering, narrative conception to brand behavior. Formerly, Head of Samara Airbnb’s innovation studio, Vice President and Creative Director at Intel’s innovation lab, Vice President and Creative Director at Verizon’s media future lab and Vevo’s external Creative Director. In the UK, he co-founded three major digital agencies: Deepend, Poke and fray. In the Uk he was the first Digital President of the D&AD, board member of the Design Council and in 2007 was awarded the position of Royal Designer for Industry, the UK’s highest design honour.

Kim started his professional life in the early years of digital communications (BIP). This got him on a journey with the global news agency Reuters, delivering the first truly global information networks and transaction systems. Taking up senior business positions in Hong Kong, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, Africa and Amsterdam. These days it’s a mixed bag of activities ranging from Events, food festivals, environmental organisations and getting teams to work smarter and be more “human” in different outdoor places.

Suzie Webb is a designer, art director and illustrator with 20 years’ experience making award winning work for the likes of Diesel, Mick Rock, Coca Cola, IKEA, Geox and The BBC. An art school skillset fused with a Silicon Valley mindset she has been bringing her unique mix of art and design to digital work of all flavours since the first dotcom boom.
Now living in Oslo she’s worked for some of the best Design and Digital Agencies in the country, back in the UK she was Head of Design and Creative Director of magneticNorth. Her work has been awarded by One Show, D&AD, The Webby’s, Design Week, The FWA, CLIO, Visuelt and BIMA (plus others that have been forgotten along the way).
An enthusiastic advocate of doing and making over pretty much anything else. Expert in UX, CX, illustration, prototyping and branded digital communications. Also does Design Sprints – visual facilitation and designer role for kicks.

Joe is a Visual/UX Designer with 19 years commercial experience working for a wide range of clients and sectors including financial services, media, entertainment and telecommunications. Joe has an eye for detail and is a craftsman in his field. Collaborating with design-centric creative teams, he has led a diverse range of digital projects from user-focused experiences for device and screen to defining visual systems across product UI.

Joe has a passion for human centred design, dabbles in motion graphics and is a consummate illustrator. His work has been awarded by BAFTA Interactive Awards, D&AD, FWA and The Webby Awards to name but a few. His most embarrassing anecdote is when he accidently walked dog faeces into J.K Rowling’s house while at their first ideation meeting for jkrowling.com – Jo Rowling actually found it quite funny.

A consummate creative, Brooke’s passion and curiosity in all things visual belies her experience and indelible touch. At home on set, her example fosters both collaboration and individual expression. Through directing complete brand systems, award wining campaign visuals and category defining imagery, she shares her client’s story with a fresh breath of life, often gracefully balancing commercial requirements, and authenticity to her own unique vision. Brooke is self-immersed in art and creative inspiration. The need to explore, learn and create runs deep. Variety rules. One day collaborating on an interactive installation, another creating a mixed media art piece under a pseudonym.

Select clients include: Airbnb, Google, Restoration Hardware, DoorDash, Nutribullet and Hush Puppies

Jenn Yoo is a design researcher, innovation strategist and team builder. She has not only led high-functioning collaborative teams, but also researched them in depth while leading innovation projects at Steelcase. Bringing to bear these experiences and insights, Jenn brings to each new challenge: a readiness to tackle complex problems and the intellectual rigor to tease them apart; attuned awareness to the dynamics that sustain creative teams; and a capacity for curiosity and delight.

Jenn has worked with startup and enterprise clients to align leadership on shared vision and strategic roadmapping, conduct user research uncovering deep user insights, support capacity building for design research and interdisciplinary innovation teams, and facilitate workshops that level up teams’ creative capacity. Her work experience also includes prior work in social innovation, nonprofit and corporate social responsibility. The common threads that illuminate her non-linear career path are a love of wicked problems, tenacious commitment to user advocacy, and the pursuit of excellence with integrity.