Rachel Mercer

With a foundation in creative technology and design, I have spent my career both working in and leading multidisciplinary teams to successfully design and deliver groundbreaking new products and communications on behalf of my clients. As a design leader, I bring together the best of my strategy and design background. As Oonie Chase of IDEO once said "When done well, there isn't difference between strategy and design. If I’m being reductive: strategy is thinking, and design is thinking by doing." To do one without the other would diminish both. This is part of where I thrive in my work - activating the power and value at the intersection of brand, experience, and technology. As Head of Design, I work to influence and inform user engagement across the entire lifecycle of a business. As brands are increasingly defined by their best, worst, and last experience — I work to help our teams find, codify, and design distinctive experiences with users. The best experiences are considered holistically, including all sets of users from potential and existing customers, to employees, to the public. This becomes even more important as expectations on corporations to act as responsible leaders on the world stage continues to rise. I carry deep expertise in service design, product, and experience development for telco, retail, tech, and financial services verticals extending to corporate innovation, marketing, business design, and emergent technology propositions. I have done my best work with ambitious organizations that look to challenge and evolve their own and industry standards. This includes: Adidas, Google, Verizon, Target, Meta, Samsung, Ally Financial, Volkswagen, ABinBev, Beam-Suntory, SiriusXM, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Esurance (Allstate), Domino's Pizza, The V&A, First Street Foundation, and the World Economic Forum. In looking to the future, I learn best from our future leaders -- so occasionally, I create curricula for institutions like Hyper Island, VCU Brandcenter, Miami Ad School, and Northeastern University on ethics, research, strategy, and design. Finally - revolutionary work comes from combining diverse perspectives (think: Behavioral Economics). With this in mind, I am continually committed to raising the profile of fellow women and minorities working in the industry, and creating a spaces of mutual learning and support in my teams and beyond.