On May, 1, 2017, Megan Neese, IDSA, becomes the fourth woman to serve as chair of IDSA’s Board of Directors. She’s looking forward to continuing the work of current Board Chair John Barratt, IDSA, in programs such as conferences and competitions, while revitalizing other programs and member benefits.
Neese also believes collaboration with other disciplines is essential as the 52-year-old Society moves forward and takes on new challenges. “I think there’s a lot we can do in industrial design to grow our expertise and expand the conversation with non-designers; that’s something that I think we can really take on in the next couple of years,” says Neese.
Hear more in a new video featuring Neese, who’s a senior manager of Future Lab at Renault-Nissan Alliance, a global, cross-functional team tasked with identifying new business opportunities for the Nissan, Infiniti and Datsun brands. Previously, Neese held similar design strategy positions at BMW Group DesignworksUSA, Samsung Design America and Nissan North America.
In the past 10 years she has helped build design research and strategy functions at two start-up firms and led innovation programs as a client and for clients such as John Deere, LG Electronics, Navistar and Direct TV. Neese holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from Carnegie Mellon University and a master’s degree in product development through CMU’s Integrated Innovation Institute, which has posted a video featuring Neese speaking about the future of mobility and industrial design.