John Bielenberg
Co-Founder of Thinknado, designer, entrepreneur and imaginative advocate for a better world, John is recognized for innovative investigations into the practice and understanding of design and leadership in the “design for good” movement. John is founding creative director of Pando Populus and a member of the board of directors and co-author of the book Think Wrong. The thing that John Bielenberg designs best is designers. He doesn’t think much of design as an end in itself, but rather sees its value in its impact on people, and the world. He’s always had a tendency to do something he calls “thinking wrong,” which means, Whatever you’re supposed to think, or make, or say—do your best to do the opposite, and see where it takes you.
Bielenberg always felt passionately that the design profession was capable of solving bigger, more important problems than it had. Too many designers were being trained to make beautiful things like corporate logos, ads, websites, brochures, posters, packages and all that stuff—but nobody trained them to take social responsibility and to use design skills to make an impact on people and communities and causes.
Bielenberg decided he could light a fire under young designers by putting them in real situations in the real world, where real people had real problems. And by shifting responsibility for defining those problems from the teacher to the student. In 2003, he invented a movement and a program called Project M. He invited young designers to join him in making design that matters in the areas that mattered: conservation, social responsibility and social change. And they did, in places as far flung as Alabama, Iceland, Germany, Costa Rica, Maryland, Michigan and Maine. He’s turning people into designers. He’s turning designers into problem solvers.
Brandt Williams
Co-Founder Thinknado, entrepreneur, connector of dots and people. Brandt is a strategist with a knack for transforming ideas into successful ventures. As a serial entrepreneur, Brandt has served as founder/co-founder/CEO for early stage ventures and well as an intrapreneur and CMO for Fortune 500 companies. Brandt cares most about mentoring people and teams to find their true purpose.
Deeply invested in building a better future, Brandt strives to find new paths for creativity, sustainable livelihoods, and fulfillment. Much of his early career was spent at Microsoft, Apple and a handful of early stage companies as a co-founder and senior leader. Galvanized by the entrepreneurial rigor and having built and sold a couple of companies, Brandt joined a Fortune 500 company as an intrepreneur where he was able to launch several successful ventures.
After several years of working at making businesses bigger he pointed his efforts to people. Brandt has been a guest lecturer at Haas Business School, UC Berkeley, St. Mary's College and an Adjunct Professor at California College of the Arts in San Francisco in both Graduate and Undergraduate levels, teaching in several divisions. Brandt is currently an Adjunct Professor at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana teaching design thinking and entrepreneurship.
“Teaching gives a fresh outlook on how best to communicate to motivate. Nothing is more gratifying seeing second career students in grad school find their passion in the process of discovery” -Brandt.
His real success is in building impactful teams and help individuals unlock their creativity to build better: businesses, careers, communities and lives.