David Kelley

David Kelley is a designer -- of products, details, environments, his own industry-leadingworkplace, and now a groundbreaking design school at Stanford.
Kelley was working (unhappily) as an electrical engineer when he heard about Stanford's cross-disciplinary Joint Program in Design, which merged engineering and art. What he learned there -- debate, openness to new approaches, a desire to solve fundamental problems with design -- he has maintained in his professional life as a designer.

In 1978, he co-founded a design firm that ultimately became IDEO, now renowned worldwide for its innovative, user-centered approach to design. IDEO works with a range of clients -- from fast food conglomerates to high tech startups, hospitals to universities -- building everything from a life-saving portable defibrillator to the defining details at the ground-breaking Prada shop in Manhattan (IDEO designed those famous see-through dressing rooms). Based in Palo Alto, Calif., IDEO has grown to seven offices and 400+ employees worldwide.

Now chairman of IDEO, Kelley has also been teaching design at Stanford for more than 25 years. He's now leading the university's brand-new d.school -- an interdisciplinary institute for educating innovative designers and thinkers.
Website: http://www.ideo.com/