Experiences of Insight

In this episode, Lee and I speak with Bill Alexy from Fort Worth, TX. Bill is an entrepreneur, a product designer, and principal at Alexy 19. A few years ago, Lee and I were fortunate enough to work with Bill on a volunteer basis and were immediately impressed by the whole package. He is actively involved in the design community and the larger community. We are very lucky to have had the time to sit with Bill and have this honest conversation. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Episode 13: For this episode, Lee and I travelled to SF to sit with Kai to ask her some deep questions. We discuss her background, where she goes for inspiration, what she does for fun, what she is curious about, & what gives her balance in her life. Kai Haley is the Head of Design Relations at Google. She is a founder of the Sprint Masters Academy. Kai is a community enabler. She builds platforms & programs to inspire, educate & grow the global community. She is a representative and mentor for the global design community. This passionately creative thinker also balances her family life and shares some insights with us on this topic. Kai discuss some of her current work & aspirational work which focuses on sustainability and finding ways to solve the big important problems of our time. Kai has a BA from Vassar College in Anthropology and dedicated a portion of her studies focusing on the impact of tourism on the Yucatan in Mexico. She also hold as Masters in Fine Arts from the California College of the Arts. She has worked as an entrepreneur, freelancer, creative director, & designer. Lee and I are happy to share this candid discussion with Kai. The conversation was inspiring for us and we hope you enjoy it.

On this episode, we are joined by Esme Gonzalez Pillado, an educator from Parsons School of Design in New York. Esme is also a contributor to the Platform Design Toolkit. Esme’s journey is fascinating to hear. Lee and I loved speaking with Esme about design, branding, marketing, her work, and her students. Her personal journey is something to marvel. Esme’s insight on a wide range of topics based off her experience in the classroom and with clients will be helpful and insightful to all listeners.

On this episode we are joined by Michael Tam. Micheal is a speaker, mentor, & storyteller within the global creative community. He is also the Chief Creative Catalyst for IBM iX based out of Hong Kong. Michael shares with us some thoughts and insights on facilitation and innovation. He also shares with us his journey as creative catalyst. Lastly, Michael discusses his positive thoughts and hopes on how empathy can be used to help people find a middle ground in even the most complex situations confronting societies.

Dan is a human centered design expert. Sprint facilitator and coach, advisor, & consultant. He is also a Principal at Move Space for Light, an advisory and consultancy that helps clients move this forward and innovate. He also trains clients to leverage similar tools and methodologies to work better and more effectively. Dan shares with us some insights on being an entrepreneur, his journey as a creative, and discusses some of his passions and interests outside of work.

In this episode, we are joined by Mariano Suarez-Battan, Co-Founder and CEO of Mural. Mariano talks with Lee and I about his early days as an entrepreneur, his influences, innovation, company culture, and the future of remote working.

Jade Zhao comes to us from Suzhou, China. He is the co-founder of Design Sprint China and TEDxSuzhou. Jade also served as community manager and co-founder of YoMail.com. Jade has a deep design background and spent many years at the epicenter of the global textiles industry as a designer. Jade has advanced degrees in Computer Applications (Suzhou Art & Design Technology Institute), Management Information Systems (Suzhou Vocational University), International Finance and Economics (Dongbei University), & a Master's in Communication and Media Studies (Shanghai University).

Nelson Javier Mejia is a human centered engineer based in Frankfurt, Germany. He is also an innovate coach and founder of weSpark, an innovation agency in Frankfurt. Nelson was trained at Hochschule Furtwangen University, where he received a MBA and degree in Industrial and Product Engineering. Nelson began his career as a consultant focusing on business intelligence and service engineering. He eventually ended up at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo, where he described his work as everything innovation. Recently, Nelson launched weSpark and innovation agency where the team provides experiences to help clients innovate. We were very excited and happy to sit down with him and her a little about his journey and early influences. Also, to hear a few tips that he finds useful to help innovate.

On this episode of Experiences of Insight, we are joined by Robert Skrobe, Owner of Dallas Design Sprints & Mastermind of the Global Virtual Design Sprint. Both Lee and I have been following Robert's work closely over the past couple of years and are thrilled and grateful to have had a chance to sit with Robert and capture some of his thoughts and insights. Also, to hear from him about his background in building communities and setting a stage for people to work together and build community. He is a true empowerer of people. Prior to his personal venture with Dallas Design Sprints, Robert was engaged as a user experience and information architect professional for a number of top tier organizations including Cingular (ATT), Classmates.com, Amazon, Razorfish, Fox, Slingshot, and Sabre Airlines Solutions. Robert studied studio art and telecommunications at Michigan State as well as user-centered design at The University of Washington.

In this episode, we are joined by Jeb Altonaga, Chief Operating Officer and Head of Marketing at Sandon Capital in Sydney, Australia. Sandon Capital is an Australian-based activist investment firm. Jeb is responsible for day-to-day oversight of the non-investment functions including Business Development, Technology, Operations and Investor Relations. Prior to his experience at Sandon, Jeb was a COO and executive director of an Asia based hedge fund, where he was responsible for risk management, compliance, & fund raising. He was also Senior Vice President for the Northern Trust Hedge Funds Services (NTHFS) division. He was a member of Northern Trust's Regional Management Team & Risk Committee. Also, we sat globally on the NTHFS Management and Executive Leadership Team as well as the Hedge Fund Services Risk Committee. Before his time in Asia, Jeb working in Chicago, for Citadel Investment Group, where he managed the BUC team and was responsible for all valuations, price verification, trading P&L, & risk sensitivity analytics. Additionally, Jeb helped design, test, & implement the middle office technology platform used by Citadel and clients of Omnium, which became NTHFS. Jeb holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from CSU Los Angeles & a Certificate in Accounting from the University of California, Los Angeles.