Christopher Ireland

Christopher spent most of her career as CEO/Partner at Cheskin, a consulting firm that emphasizes innovation through a deep understanding of people, culture and change. She is noted for her ability to create simple explanations of complex human behavior and to translate those insights into effective design and development strategies.

Christopher's primary area of focus has been consumer-driven technology. Her experience in this area includes researching and developing brand and product positioning strategies for all of Microsoft's major businesses including Windows, Office, SmartPhone and XBox. In addition, she's worked with HP, Intel, Motorola and Apple on the design and marketing of their hardware. To maintain her sanity and perspective, she also consulted to brands offering simpler fare including Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson, Gap and Levi's.

With Cheskin, Christopher made early and significant commitments to using design to explain complex information. She and her colleagues created graphic depictions of consumer behavior including teen trend adoption, styles of play, changes related to aging, technology adoption practices by country, development of trust online and global color preferences.

In her role as CEO, Christopher oversaw Cheskin's operations including the well-being of 80+ employees, financial stability, long-term planning, project management and client relations. After two decades of serving Fortune 500 clients and bootstrapped startups, Christopher and her partners sold Cheskin. Since then she has focused on helping non-profits improve their marketing and strategic planning and has partnered with her daughter to open an online business (www.smocksdesign.com). Christopher has an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. She co-authored China's Culture of Cool and has spoken about innovation and cultural change at leading universities and design conferences.