LEADERSHIP TEAM

BANNY BANERJEE

Founder & Director

 

Banny Banerjee is a world expert in design and innovation with over 20 years of industry and academic experience. Having worked at IDEO, the foremost global design and innovation firm, for over 9 years, creating novel experiences, crafting futures, and shaping design strategy projects across a variety of industries around the globe.


As Director of the Stanford Design Program, Banny has been highly influential in creating educational experiences that incorporate design thinking into catalyzing systemic change.  In his newest d.school course, “Collaborating with the Future: Innovating Large-Scale, Sustainable Transformation,” students develop strategic visions for and launch large-scale transformation initiatives with industry partners.

 

As the world faces increasingly complex challenges that require new ways of thinking, working, and collaborating, Banny has focused his academic career on developing radically new processes and toolsets for bringing about large-scale, sustainable impact.  To put theory into practice, he founded Stanford ChangeLabs which applies and advances theory through industry projects and inter-departmental collaborations in the areas of behavioral sciences, social economics, systems analysis, management science, engineering, and art.

 

Originally trained as an architect, Banny started his career in India in architecture and structural engineering, building adobe housing for the rural poor and low embodied energy systems. He then went on to receive graduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Design, where his interests in digital and physical experiences led him to Xerox PARC working on ambient media and physical computing.

 

Eager to make discoveries at the intersection of fields, Banny has worked across a broad range of disciplines -- architecture, energy analysis, software design, structural engineering, industrial design, design strategy, MEMs applications, nanotechnology, furniture design, object semiotics, low-cost structural systems, sustainable design, appropriate technology for developing economies,  organizational transformation, and technology strategy and art.

 

Banny is a sought out speaker world-wide on large-scale transformation, innovation, design thinking, co-creation, the dynamics of rapid change, sustainble design, and technology futures.



Anja Svetina Nabergoj

Business Systems, Innovation 


Anja is Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University in Ljubljana in Slovenia where she teaches undergraduate and graduate entrepreneurship courses. Her main focus is developing and using design thinking methodology and adapting it for entrepreneurship courses and business school curriculum.

 

She is also Lecturer at Stanford University in Hasso Plattner Institute of Design in the School of Engineering, where she teaches Executive Education programs and co-teaches class “Collaborating with the future: Launching Large-Scale Sustainable Transformations.”

 

In her work, she focuses on helping individuals, teams and organizations build their creative confidence and reach innovation potential. She has been working with organizations in Europe and the USA including: Stanford Change Labs, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Foundation, JetBlue, Iddiction, Kolektor, Hypo group and others. 

 

Anja is the founding member of Research as Design team at Stanford University that developed the curriculum for applying design thinking to scientific and scholarly research and teaching workshops to graduate students and faculty members. Her recent research focuses on design thinking, primarily in the context of entrepreneurship education and doctoral studies. She has contributed chapters to books published by Edward Elgar and Routlege and is publishing in scientific management journals, including European Management Journal. Dr. Svetina holds a PhD from the University of Ljubljana.

 

 

Baba Shiv

Behavioral Economics 


In his academic career spanning over than 20 years, Professor Shiv’s research has won numerous awards including the William O’Dell award for an article that made the most significant, long-term contribution to marketing theory and practice. Two of his research publications received the Citation of Excellence from Emerald Management Reviews (Top 50 Management Articles in 2005 and 2009).

 

In 2001, Professor Shiv was identified by the Marketing Science Institute as one of the future leaders of the next generation of marketing academics. His work has been featured in a variety of media outlets including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CNN, Fox Business, Financial Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Radio Lab.

 

He served as the editor of the Journal of Consumer Research. He is also on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Retailing,Journal of Marketing and the Journal of Marketing Research.

 

Baba Shiv's research expertise is in the area of neuroeconomics, with specific emphasis on the role of neural structures related to emotion and motivation in shaping decisions and experiences. His recent work examines the interplay of the brain’s "liking" and "wanting" systems and its implications for marketing, innovation, leadership and decision making. The nature of the issues that he examines are: Does being denied something make people pursue it more hotly but also simultaneously like it less? Does a wine's price tag price affect the pleasure one experiences?


In the past few years, he has also focused his attention onto the neuroeconomics behind innovation and entrepreneurship leadership in companies small and large, from silicon valley tech startups to Fortune 500 companies Baba Shiv teaches courses at the GSB that build on his research interests.


June A. Flora

Energy and Human Behavior Change 

 

June A. Flora, PhD, is a senior research scientist at Stanford University’s Human Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute (HSTAR) and Solutions Science Lab in the Department of Pediatrics.

 

Her research focuses on understanding the drivers of human behavior change and the potential of communication interventions. Her research is solution-focused on climate change and health behavior change. She is currently studying the role of energy use feedback delivered through motivationally framed online applications; the potential of children and youth delivered energy reduction interventions to motivate parent behavior change, and the effects of entertainment-education interventions to change behavior.  

 

Dr. Flora earned her PhD from Arizona State University in Educational Psychology in 1976. She has held faculty positions at the University of Utah and Stanford University. 

 

 

THEODORA GIBBS

System Science and Human-Centered Design 

 

Theo works at the intersection of system science and human-centered design. She joined ChangeLabs in 2013, after completing her M.S. in Earth Systems Science at Stanford University, where she studied the social and environmental impacts of new agricultural value chain approaches such as “direct trade.” She also holds a B.A. in environmental anthropology from Stanford. Prior to her masters program, she analyzed barriers and policy solutions to US domestic poverty and chronic hunger eradication as an Emerson Fellow.  She also co-founded Rootspace Design, which became a finalist in the Hult International Business Competition.

 

At ChangeLabs, Theo manages the Science Partnerships Enabling Response (SPERR) project to design a new system of rapid collaboration between academic and government scientists during environmental disasters. She also supports the USAID-funded program on building social and institutional resilience on the African continent in the face of climate stress. Her past projects include advising the Rockefeller Foundation’s strategy on catalyzing sustainable small-scale fisheries management, and designing a streamlined, user-centered farm management platform for the New Zealand Ministry of Production in order to reduce freshwater pollution in the country.

 

In addition to her work at ChangeLabs, Theo is a lecturer in the School of Earth Sciences, where she teaches an masters-level course on analyzing and designing urban agricultural systems in developing world cities.

 


Matt Levy 

International Policy and Governance


Matt is a governance and design professional. He seeks to transform incremental, "in-the-box approaches" in the social good sector by catalyzing scaled and systemic change to address the world’s most intractable problems. At ChangeLabs, he manages the organization’s work with the Resilient Africa Network to diffuse design thinking and scaled innovation methodologies within universities and innovator communities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

Matt’s motivation to effectuate large-scale transformation spurred his pursuit of a B.A. from George Washington University in International Affairs, where he co-founded and co-led the university chapter of WarChild, an international organization dedicated to helping children affected by war, primarily in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

 

Thereafter, he worked for three years in the democracy development field, contributing to the design and implementation of legislative strengthening programs in Latin America, coordinating the publication of a training handbook for diplomats, and heading international conferences dedicated to building regional civil society networks.

 

While completing his master’s degree in International Policy Studies at Stanford University, he focused on the social and economic costs of corruption and the development of political institutions. These interests led him to pursue pro-bono consulting opportunities in the public and non-profit sectors, with the Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy in India, the National Democratic Institute’s parliamentary strengthening program in Myanmar, and the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation. Despite individual program successes, he believes there are critical gaps requiring urgent and collective action -- These are all challenges that motivate Matt in his current and future professional pursuits.

 


Susana Montes
International Affairs and Media 

Susana is a media professional with an international perspective and deep understanding of the technology and research space. She helps high-impact organizations to push forward their mission, identity, and message. 
 
Susana has worked primarily in operational, marketing and communication roles. She was previously Communications Manager for Stanford’s mediaX Program, which funds high-impact research in media and technology. Prior to that, she worked at Facebook, where she project managed the API training program for the global sales organization, was a content analyst for the Facebook Help Center and an analyst for the Latin America team in the User Operations Department, shaping multiple initiatives and projects that were implemented across international markets. 
 
Susana also has experience in the Silicon Valley startup world, and worked at a small financial services startup, managing and supporting member growth, storytelling, brand-building, and online and offline outreach. She has experience managing press relations and has landed feature coverage in mainstream press such as WIRED UK, USA Today, The Guardian, ABC News, The Street, The Next Web, among others. 
 
Susana earned her B.A. in International Relations (with highest honors) and M.A. in Journalism at Stanford University, and studied research methodology for her undergraduate thesis on environmental refugees at Oxford University, under the guidance of Prof. Stephen J. Stedman, a senior fellow at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. 

 


JACQUELINE DEL CASTILLO

Management Science and Engineering

 

Jacqueline is committed to transforming lives.  Prior to joining ChangeLabs, she was the Marketing & Design Officer at Design Revolution, a nonprofit technology incubator designing affordable, world-class medical devices for low-resource settings world-wide.  In her role there, she spent significant time in Indian public hospitals conducting ethnography for a newborn health innovation.  Prior to D-Rev, she was involved in several, large-scale corporate transformation efforts, including being involved in establishing The Center for Leadership and Transformation at Santa Clara County with change expert Behnam Tabrizi.  Her passion for transforming lives originally ignited during the Stanford Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability course where she designed a safe, affordable, fuel-efficient cook stove for Burmese women.

 

Jackie received her MS (08') and BS (06') from Stanford in Management Science & Engineering.  During her graduate years, she conducted research on organizational change, contributing to a book, “Rapid Transformation: A 90-Day Plan for Fast and Effective Change,” and spent a year at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (“d.school”) learning the design thinking methodology.  Since her time at the d.school, she has taught design thinking in varying capacities outside Stanford, including facilitating MBA teams in generating viable business recommendations at Haas School of Business and conducting workshops for social change organizations, such as Nuru International and Embrace.  Most recently, she has trained 210+ Santa Clara County mid-level managers from over 10 departments in the innovation process.  Previously, Jacqueline worked on a user engagement strategy for Firefox, on the user experience design of Internet Explorer, and on a global expansion strategy for Michael Parkes -- foremost artist in magic realism.



JASON BADE

Design for Change in Behavior (dΔb)

 

Jason Bade has always been committed to issues of sustainability and improving the interactions between people and the natural world. At ChangeLabs, Jason heads the Design for Change in Behavior (dΔb) Initiative with Banny Banerjee, integrating human behavior and design thinking into an applicable framework for system-wide change. His most recent projects have focused on energy behavior, including utility-wide efficiency programs and house design. 
 
Jason received his B.A. from Stanford in Public Policy, focusing on behavioral economics. His other academic interests include GDP alternatives, well-being economics, and impact investing. In addition to his work at ChangeLabs, Jason is actively involved in developing improved and alternative project financing models for clean energy.

Jason has been an advocate for sustainability since high school, when, among other accomplishments, he led a three-year campaign to convert the six schools in his area to solar power. An active member of his hometown community, Jason sits on the board of Sustainable San Mateo County and was the inaugural vice chair of the City of Foster City (Calif.) Environmental Sustainability Task Force.