IDEO CEO and leadership

IDEO is an award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow.

Melanie Wilson - CSM is a Sr. Leadership Coordinator - Founder, Global Partner, and CFO/COO at IDEO; Program Manager - Global Initiatives at IDEO; and Full-Stack Developer at Self Employed (project based) and is based in Oakland, California. She has worked as Full-Stack Developer Student at UC Berkeley Extension, Executive Assistant to the CEO at ACCESS Systems Americas Inc, and Executive Assistant to the VP of R&D at CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS INC.

Iain has had a lifelong passion for combining human-centered design with emergent technology platforms that has produced award-winning partnerships in the fields of urban mobility, data-driven design, digital experience, and new venture creation.

Focused on creating new-to-the-world solutions, Iain leads relationships with Fortune 100 executives and emerging entrepreneurs alike. A long term partner of Ford Motor Company, his most recent collaboration has seen him incubate an enterprise wide interdisciplinary design team capable of creating successful outcomes across core and emerging business models.

As COO, Iain works with leaders across IDEO’s platform of businesses to ensure the company delivers upon its strategic goals, while still pushing the edges of creativity and design in all of its formats.

Before joining IDEO in 2001, Iain worked at Dyson, where he was responsible for leading the company’s appliance design studio.

He holds a master’s degree in industrial design engineering from the Royal College of Art and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Southampton University. He continues to challenge himself mentally and physically through trail running, cycling, and climbing.

Whitney Mortimer builds brands rooted in meaning and purpose. As Partner and Chief Marketing Officer of IDEO, she has shaped a global conversation in business, social and government sectors about how human-centered design and creativity fuel growth and resilience.Whitney believes that good marketing is always grounded in clarity of purpose and mission. She works with leaders and their teams to tackle challenges related to brand positioning, business strategy, marketing communications, business development, and employee engagement at moments of disruption, change or ambiguity.As a senior leader of IDEO since 1997, Whitney leads initiatives related to competitiveness, diversity & inclusion, and technology. She has helped guide IDEO's product businesses, online learning and open innovation platforms. She is a board director and development committee chair for IDEO.org, a non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of people in poor and vulnerable communities. Whitney works with thought leaders and authors to amplify their voices, helping bold thinkers focus and express and activate big ideas.In 2014, she completed an On The Board fellowship at George Washington University and the International Women's Forum, a program that cultivates executive women for public board positions. The San Francisco Business Journal awarded Whitney “Most Influential Women in Business” for three consecutive years, earning her the accolade, “Forever Influential” in 2017. In 2018, she was named one of Mogul's Top 100 Innovators in Marketing.Whitney is a passionate advocate and advisor to organizations engaged with environmental conservation, women's justice, and education, and supports conservation programs as an advisor and docent. In 2019, she joined the Administrative Board of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.A connoisseur of language, textile arts and audacious ideas, Whitney is also an avid birder, a lapsed pilot, and a recovering wine snob.

Caitlin Narkawicz is an Executive Assistant To The Chief Executi at IDEO and is based in Hoboken Nj Area.

Caryn Voskuil is a Chief Of Staff at IDEO and Business Development + Operations Lead, Design for Learning Studio at IDEO and is based in San Francisco, California. She has worked as English Language Arts Teacher at Teach For America, New Teacher Advisor at TNTP Teaching Fellows, and Education Analyst - Ethiopia at USAID - US Agency for International Development. Caryn attended University of Wisconsin-Madison between 2005 and 2009 and American University between 2009 and 2011.

Dave Strong is the CFO and a Partner of IDEO, a global innovation firm.

Ranked independently among the twenty most innovative companies in the world, IDEO is a design consultancy that partners with many of the world’s leading brands to drive growth through innovation. In addition to the design of new products, services and experiences, IDEO works to enhance the innovation capabilities of its clients, helping them to become the most creatively competitive companies in their industries.

IDEO employs over 750 staff in nine locations worldwide.

Dave provides operational leadership for IDEO by working with leaders across all locations and business units. His primary focus is to enable IDEO to be both a financially healthy firm AND an exceptional design oriented culture. He has enjoyed working at the intersection of design and business for the past eighteen years, helping IDEO to more than double in size, expand geographically and broaden its offer.

In addition to working on the wellbeing of IDEO’s core consulting business, Dave is engaged in the various investment and entrepreneurial activities of the firm. He has led IDEO investments in over 40 early stage companies and had been a board member for two venture backed spinouts from IDEO which raised over $30M in venture funding.

Prior to joining IDEO in 1998, Dave worked with Steelcase in various roles within corporate strategy and finance. He provided operations leadership for Steelcase’s global product development function where he discovered his passion for working across disciplines and with teams bringing new products to market. He was also a member of the emerging enterprises division of Arthur Andersen.



He holds a master’s degree from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Melanie Wilson - CSM is a Sr. Leadership Coordinator - Founder, Global Partner, and CFO/COO at IDEO; Program Manager - Global Initiatives at IDEO; and Full-Stack Developer at Self Employed (project based) and is based in Oakland, California. She has worked as Full-Stack Developer Student at UC Berkeley Extension, Executive Assistant to the CEO at ACCESS Systems Americas Inc, and Executive Assistant to the VP of R&D at CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS INC.

Iain has had a lifelong passion for combining human-centered design with emergent technology platforms that has produced award-winning partnerships in the fields of urban mobility, data-driven design, digital experience, and new venture creation.

Focused on creating new-to-the-world solutions, Iain leads relationships with Fortune 100 executives and emerging entrepreneurs alike. A long term partner of Ford Motor Company, his most recent collaboration has seen him incubate an enterprise wide interdisciplinary design team capable of creating successful outcomes across core and emerging business models.

As COO, Iain works with leaders across IDEO’s platform of businesses to ensure the company delivers upon its strategic goals, while still pushing the edges of creativity and design in all of its formats.

Before joining IDEO in 2001, Iain worked at Dyson, where he was responsible for leading the company’s appliance design studio.

He holds a master’s degree in industrial design engineering from the Royal College of Art and a bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Southampton University. He continues to challenge himself mentally and physically through trail running, cycling, and climbing.