Hello, I’m Kelly.

I’m a design and research leader who builds the teams, operating models, and strategy that turn design and research into business growth. Most recently I was Senior Director and Head of Regional Design & Research at Visa.

Over 15 years I’ve built and scaled design and research organizations across Visa, Oracle, and IBM—standing up a regional Design & Research function at Visa in three months, ahead of plan; growing Oracle’s ERP design team from three to 15; and helping scale IBM Design from its first 30 hires to more than 1,000. I’ve led 0-to-1 product incubation behind multi-billion-dollar concepts, secured executive buy-in at the highest levels, and hold three issued patents for systems my teams have shipped.

What connects it all is the moment I’m drawn to: the one before anything is settled. I like getting in early, close to the people and the problem, working out what’s actually taking shape and building what should come next, whether a product, a team, or a way of working that didn’t exist yet. How I lead follows from that: clarity about which problems are worth solving, rigor about what we ship, and a push toward the more inventive answer, especially now that AI is changing what’s possible.

Outside of work, I’m always making something, whether it’s dinner, a piece in the pottery studio, or a packing list for an upcoming trip.