Counsel, clarity, and creativity for the world’s most ambitious leaders.
Hear your own best thinking, shape the essential stories of your work, and transform your impact.
“Working with Alex is going to be one of the more inspirational and joyful experiences you are ever likely to have.”
— Tim Brown, Emeritus Chair, IDEO
I work with leaders to unlock the full potential of their ideas.
For more than a decade, I served as global leader & Executive Design Director at the renowned innovation firm IDEO, offering sought-after counsel and creativity to senior leaders and their teams around the world: I’ve been called “a transformational asset”, “a creative acupuncturist”, and “a river of ideas”.
My path runs through philosophy at Oxford, classical theater and improv, jazz performance, and global journalism with the BBC. (More at LinkedIn.) I bring an outsider’s perspective to your most 'inside' challenges.
Through it all, I’ve come to know the power of people thinking together, in all our glorious, messy humanity: it’s how truly great ideas gain texture, hold tension, and earn their power.
In our work, you’ll hear yourself think with new clarity; you’ll explore without judgment; and you’ll discern where your convictions live and where they waver. We’ll do serious work together, and we’ll have a good time doing it.
I can’t wait to meet you.
How I help
When you need to hear your own best thinking. One of the most expensive moves a leader can make is to lose their own signal in the noise. I create space for you to notice and articulate what you (and others) intuit and value—before you make your choices.
Strategic Enquiry | Creative Counsel for Leaders
Collective Intelligence | Facilitated Experiences for Teams & Cohorts
When you need people to align and accelerate. If you’re making the effort to gather people to advance critical work, polite consensus is not enough. I design and deliver workshops, fellowships, and events that ensure people channel their energies, experiences, and differences into shared progress.
When you need stories that work. Narrative thinking brings coherence and momentum to every aspect of an organization. Done right, it’s the gravity that holds everything together. I help you build stories and editorial that drive work forward, internally and externally, and make it stick through storytelling cultures and systems that scale.
Strategic Narrative | Storytelling for Organizations
“Next time, bring Alex in sooner.”
— SVP, Meta
Recent engagements
Foundational strategic narrative for an AI startup
Speechwriting for the CEO of a Fortune 100 company
Creative development for senior leaders at a major hospitality company
Program design for a corporate social impact fellowship
Program design and storytelling coaching for a major global philanthropy
Program design and community facilitation for a health-centered philanthropy
Community and convening design for a leading collective of creative agencies
Strategic narrative for a government innovation lab
Strategic narrative for a leading transatlantic members club
Narrative and community engagement design for a large-scale real estate development
Facilitation of a C-suite strategy session for a global logistics leader
Product innovation sprint for a household consumer healthcare brand
Expert counsel for a global public health initiative
Expert counsel for an early childhood education initiative
Pro bono storytelling and presentation coaching for a social impact startup network
Pro bono coaching for Chicago-based global impact organizations
Guest lecturing and teaching at Stanford University
Accepting enquiries for January 2027 and beyond
