Simon is a Business Anthropologist, with extensive experience in human-centred innovation, product development and design for major global companies across all industry sectors. After an English degree at Cambridge he first worked in documentary film-making, through which he developed an interest in anthropology which he pursued via a PhD at the London School of Economics. He then became a pioneering advocate of the value of anthropology within the business curriculum at London Business School, before moving to the US at the end of the 90’s to build the human-centred design capability at technology consultants, Sapient, and run their user experience design practice, which was responsible for creating the first internet presence for many global 100 companies. He ran the innovation consulting division of GfK, a global business information and market research company, before forming his own start-up Emergence Now. More recent roles include Head of UX for the NHS COVID-19 app, and his current role as Senior Design Director, Patient Solutions, Digital Health at Astra Zeneca.
Simon has been a mentor on a number of i-Teams projects:
- Finding the best route-to-market for printable lasers (Lent 2013)
- Inclusive user modelling – a new system for user interface designers (Easter 2013)
- Building Collaborative Networks – finding the best market opportunities (Lent 2014)
- Using smartphones to manage ongoing health conditions (Lent 2015)
- Commercialising an Internet of Things management platform (Lent 2016)
- Helping consumers and companies make more environmentally-sustainable and healthier choices (Easter 2017)
