Tom Kelley , MBA

IDEO
Palo Alto, CA

Tom Kelley is general manager at IDEO, a firm that helps its clients create innovative products, services, environments and digital experiences. Working together with his brother, IDEO founder and chairman, David Kelley, he has helped manage the firm as it has grown from 20 designers to a staff of over 350. During that time, he has been responsible for diverse areas such as business development, marketing, human resources and operations. Like everyone else at IDEO, he also occasionally gets down on his knees to cut foamcore alongside IDEO clients and designers to support the firm's brainstorming and prototyping efforts

Tom's book, The Art of Innovation, was published by Doubleday in January 2001 and spent four months on the Business Week bestsellers list. It is currently being translated into seven languages. He speaks to business audiences around the world, and has written on innovation topics for publications including the California Management Review, the Design Management Journal, and the Harvard Business Review.

Prior to joining IDEO, Tom was a management consultant for Towers Perrin, advising senior executives on organizational and operational issues in North America, Asia, and Australia. Tom holds an MBA in Marketing from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley, where he received the Delbert J. Duncan citation as the year's top marketing scholar.