Emilie Colker

Emilie is passionate about how companies can connect authentically with communities and customers in new ways. She’s also intrigued by the collision of the physical and digital worlds, as technology drives a new unconscious longing for greater physicality and yet much of day-to-day work is focused on designing for AI.

For 25+ years, Emilie has held marketing, digital leadership and innovation roles focused on driving growth for businesses experiencing waves of innovation and change; with an emphasis on integrating sustainability holistically into businesses to create a competitive advantage. Emilie has delivered tangible results for early-stage companies focused on growth, as well as helped major brands solve diverse problems and seize new market opportunities.

Much of her work has involved defining (or redefining) market strategies for brands and helping leaders and their teams to identify and implement a systemic approach to designing, launching and scaling new products, services and experiences that people love and that advance society usually in service of some form of organisational transformation. 

Emilie is currently the CEO of ADC, a boutique EU consultancy that brings together the top practitioners in data (esp. decision science), AI, and design to answer questions like: How do I [Chief Risk Officer at a major bank] ensure I’m never surprised by the credit risk predictions we’re making?; How do I [Chief Marketing Officer at leading airline] rigorously experiment with different levers to automate discounting and pricing my airline seats in line with changing fuel prices for better revenue management?; How do I [Head of R&D and Innovation at top Bioscience company] optimise clinical trials to more accurately predict patient responses? The more complex the question, the more we nerd out on it. We make it our mission to build trusted systems from complex data that these leaders can trust to make good decisions in high-stakes moments.

Previously, she was the Chief Design Officer at Avanade – a 25-year, 60,000-person joint venture between Microsoft and Accenture – where she was responsible for the global innovation function, which included Emerging Technology R&D, Collective Intelligence and Client Innovation Services and Experiences, and subsequently AI Transformation. Mostly my team was charged with using human-centred design to help mid-sized companies (including ourselves) imagine how new technology can help them work differently and achieve better sustained outcomes. The work we did with clients was at the bleeding edge of ai development and informed Microsoft’s product roadmap, pricing strategies, and research agenda. 

 

Before Avanade, she spent 6+ years as a global partner and managing director at IDEO. IDEO is a global innovation consultancy that pioneered Design Thinking as one of the tools to help organisations create new value through the design and delivery of products, services, experiences, ventures, and systems. She worked with some of the coolest companies and directly with awe-inspiring C-suite leaders (think Google DeepMind, Meta, Novartis, H&M, IKEA…)

 

She moved to London from San Francisco in 2014, after education powerhouse Pearson acquired the Silicon Valley EdTech she helped to lead and grow for $90 million USD. At Pearson I was Vice President of Global Marketing, Brand and Social Impact and led customer experience transformation bringing marketing, digital and innovation practices to an organisation undergoing a significant transformation from an education publisher to a digital learning company. 

Across her career she has repeatedly used creativity as a mindset and design as a tool: pairing exploration with action. But a big part of being a creative leader is recognising that it’s not just about following a process. It takes people working together and valuing each other to drive change for individuals, teams, organisations, communities and the systems around them. 

Emilie has received a number of awards for innovation, communication, and social impact, including the Cannes Lion Grand Prix. Emilie is a fierce advocate for gender equality and women's leadership and serves on several advisory boards dedicated to empowering women in business, civil society, and politics.