Meet some of our team...
A senior corps of emerging platform strategists, we employ proven innovation approaches, drawn from a spectrum of leading design institutions, to unlock new opportunities from existing corporate resources. Our human-centered approach results in more relevant insights, leading to better consumer-driven products and services. As framework thinkers, we engage subject matter expertise as well as citizen stakeholders to develop breakthrough prototypes to test hypotheses and gain deeper consumer understanding. And our rapid iteration methods reduce typical R&D costs while speeding time to market.
Kaz Brecher
Founder and Chief Curious Catalyst
As the daughter of two rocket scientists, Kaz founded Curious Catalyst to marry investigation with action, bringing a new take to the business of social impact through her experience in agile approaches. After years working with emerging technology platforms and solving larger cross-disciplinary problems in the digital agency space, she earned her stripes in the start-up world, leading strategy and operations for early social media innovators and then an open-source cloud computing powerhouse focused on the developing world. With a background across media platforms, Kaz brings a unique creative perspective to her strategy work, combining film, print, broadcast, branding and transmedia storytelling. Kaz is known for being able to switch between the detail of producing and the big-picture design thinking necessary for successful user-centered design. She is a Stanford graduate, Challenge Faculty at and a fellow of THNK, the School of Creative Leadership, and a Certified Scrum Master. See more.
Tim Armitage
Consumer Brand Engagement Strategist
Tim draws from more than a decade of focused involvement in digital media and over twenty years experience in multichannel marketing. He contributes to the evolution of global and rapid-growth brands, helping them to profitably connect with key audiences. He helps large companies and cross-functional teams achieve unified brand experiences across traditional and digital channels. Tim is a forward thinker who can envision and drive positive outcomes in a wide range of organizational environments. He is admired for his instincts, level head, breadth of experience and versatility. He keeps close pace with new technology, channel dynamics and market trends — and enjoys any opportunity to guide progressive organizations to rich customer and partner relationships. See more.
Sarah Dickinson
Customer Insights & Marketing Strategist
A design thinker and eternal student of human behavior who operates at the intersection of business model innovation, brand building and service design, Sarah brings 13 years international experience helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow. In a career exploring the possibilities of technology, Sarah utilizes her deep understanding of networked brands, behavior change and collective action to advise clients on building better products, communications, and ultimately, better companies – to compete in today’s dynamic world. She has been responsible for conceptualizing and developing several category disrupting ideas using human-centered design methods in retail, CPG, health and wellness and social change. As co-founder of Spencer and Bloom, she leads multi-disciplinary teams to develop innovative ideas for clients in the tech, healthcare and media industries. As a start up advisor and board member for two arts for social change non-profits, she also enjoys the chance to apply her commercial experience to new product and community challenges. See more.
Miles Kemp
Interactive Architecture & Emerging Platform Strategist
As one of today’s visionary thought leaders in interactive architecture and user experience, Miles has worked at the intersection of digital media, physical architecture and human interaction design for nearly two decades. Miles is the founder of award-winning Variate Labs, where he works on new projects that push the boundaries of interaction design in spatial environments. Miles has worked on over a hundred projects spanning robotics, architecture, products, vehicles, user experience, software development and video game design. His career includes designing more than sixty built structures, ranging from homes to skyscrapers, and creating next-generation experiences for web, mobile, broadcast and other emerging interactive platforms. Miles has a Master’s degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and a B.S. in Architecture from University of Maryland, College Park. See more.
Chris Shellen
Content and Communications Strategist
Over a decade ago, Chris brought her experience as a film executive at Paramount Pictures to the interactive space, concentrating on the the development of transmedia storytelling and branded content. By focusing on the evolving habits of consumers, she has developed successful cross-platform experiences across a spectrum of brands and industries, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, EIF Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, Dell, Microsoft, GE, CLEAR, Samsung, Logitech, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Southern California Edison, Target, ABC, Disney, Mattel, Oprah, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros., among others. To stay abreast of consumers’ changing preferences, she continues to work on consumer research projects and independent marketing campaigns that keep her in close contact with the public. See more.
We've worked for (almost) everyone and look forward to making a bigger impact together...
We are honored by the counsel of our Advisory Board...
Boyd Cohen
Smart Cities & Climate Strategist
Boyd received his Ph.D. in Strategy and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado in 2001. Dr. Cohen has been a professor, researching and teaching sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship around the globe including positions at the Instituto de Empresa (Madrid), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver), and the University of San Andres (Buenos Aires). Boyd is currently a Professor at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Santiago, Chile. His research has been published in leading academic journals such as: Strategic Management Journal (SMJ), Journal of Business Venturing (JBV) and Business Strategy and the Environment (BSE). Aside from his academic experience, Dr. Cohen has sought to disseminate sustainable innovation content into the practitioner arena as the co-author of the acclaimed book, Climate Capitalism in 2011 and has been a regular contributor to Fast Company and UBM Future Cities on the topics of low-carbon technologies and smart cities. Boyd has also co-founded sustainable ventures in the areas of green buildings, green IT and more recently, carbon consulting. His current focus is on researching and consulting in the area of sustainable and smart cities leveraging his Smart Cities Wheel and associated indicators to help cities develop a baseline and long-term strategy for their smart cities journey. See more.
Dale Herigstad
Futurist & Innovator in Advanced New Media
Now living in London, Dale Herigstad spent 30 years in Hollywood as a Creative Director for motion graphics in TV and film. His mission has been to apply the principles of rich media design to interactive experiences. He began designing interfaces for advanced Television more than 20 years ago, and was a founder of Schematic, which grew and merged with other digital agencies to form the global agency POSSIBLE Worldwide, where he led global teams in the role of Chief Interaction Officer. He has specialised in the visualisation of future systems of navigation and media consumption, working with companies like Sony, Microsoft, Intel, EA Sports, Time Warner, BMW Group / DesignworksUSA, Cablevision, Orange Vallee and the BBC.
Dale has developed a unique spatial approach to navigation in various screen contexts. The work blurs the line between Television, Games and Web, a concept he calls "New Television". He was a part of the research team that conceptualised digital experiences in the film “Minority Report,” and has been active in the development of gestural navigation. As we enter the post screen era, and with advancements in stereo 3D projection and new forms of AR, information and design can occupy spaces. Virtual space and place are the new frontiers of design.
Dale has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, where in 1981 he taught the first course in Motion Graphics to be offered to designers in the United States. He served on the founding advisory board of the digital content initiative at the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, and also was an active participant in the development of advanced prototypes for Enhanced TV at the AFI for many years. Dale has 4 Emmy awards. See more.
Livia Tirone
Sustainable Construction & Urban Resilience Innovator
Livia Tirone studied architecture in London and began her professional career in Portugal, by co-founding a real estate company and architectural practice dedicated to designing and promoting exclusively “bio-climatic” and sustainable buildings, thus spear heading sustainability in the real estate market since the early 1990s, with over 200 dwellings inhabited by satisfied clients and over 4.000 metre square of office and commercial areas, the best known probably being Torre Verde (the first residential bio-climatic tower in EXPO ’98, Lisbon).
Repositioning to become the change agent for sustainability in the construction sector, the Sustainable Construction Initiative was launched in 2007, reaching directly, every year, about 4.000 people in Portugal in the approximately 30 promoted events. Activities include the publication of the book (in Portuguese) "Sustainable Construction In The Mediterranean Climate Region," operating dynamic web sites, promoting a series of lectures, workshops and seminars, editing and publishing the Sustainable Construction Magazine.
In the political arena or urban challenges, Livia has been invited to chair efforts from the Architects Council of Europe group on sustainable construction to the European Commission’s Directorate General Environment Working Group Sustainable Construction Methods and Techniques, which defined the measures that will ‘mainstream sustainable construction’ in the EU. In 2004, Livia was nominated as Delegate Administrator of the Lisbon Municipal Energy and Environment Agency, where she widened the scope of the Agency’s interaction with the city and focused on defining the energy environmental strategy with specific performance targets for the city, including efforts like the kick-off for the local electrical vehicle charging grid and the first secondary water supply for urban hygiene. She was also elected councillor for the opposition for Lisbon Municipality in 2009 and contributed her expertise to the team of ex-Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes for several years. She became a member of the European Design Leadership Board in 2011 to contribute to the creation of the European Design Innovation Initiative and the report “Design for Growth and Prosperity."
Livia has been a member of the Lafarge Stakeholder Panel since 2005 and, in 2011, chaired the Lafarge Sustainable Construction Solutions Specifier Panel, focused on defining future sustainable construction solutions for the Mediterranean Climate Region.
In 2010, Livia founded the Sustainable Construction Living Lab and now coordinates its working groups who creating content and robust, innovative solutions for building refurbishment. Livia was winner of the Gold Mercury Sustainability Awards 2010 in the Architecture Category “Best Contribution to Sustainable Construction,” is a member of the of the Ordem dos Arquitectos Portugueses and was a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects, a qualified expert for Energy Certification of residential buildings. See more.
To find out why we're launching with a focus on urban challenges, click here.