I’m a consummate optimist with an entrepreneur’s mindset who believes the future is beautiful. I’m passionate about imagining what’s possible and engaging others to do the same.

As the CEO/founder of A Hundred Years, I guide clients toward inspiring action and driving large-scale change. Since starting the company 15 years ago, I have helped large corporations, NGOs, philanthropic organizations, and early-stage social enterprises connect profit and purpose and challenge their existing models and systems. My background in commercial advertising with brands like Sony and Red Bull and live event production informs my interest and ability to work across science, arts and culture, and consumer brands. I’ve tackled challenges as diverse as distilling complex scientific concepts into engaging, accessible ideas with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Smithsonian’s Tropical Research Institute in Panama; creating large-scale activation of public space with the immersive art experience Glow on Santa Monica Beach; and innovating education with leaders such as TED-Ed and Brian Greene’s World Science University. I have long-standing relationships with TED and Rockefeller Foundation, and I’m a partner in Bruce Mau’s Massive Change Network.

Outside of the studio, I teach design thinking and design for impact at UCLA, and I have spoken on innovation and design thinking at TEDx Phoenix, TEDActive, the National Art Education Convention, and the Museum Next Conference.

When I’m not designing experiences to shape the future, I’m rooted in the present connecting with the most beautiful ecosystem ever designed: nature.

I’m a strategist, entrepreneur, and creative thinker who loves to build brands with a purpose.

As a Partner at A Hundred Years, you’ll find me working with our talented team of thinkers and doers to create new ways of combining positive impact with business success. My work is focused on defining and activating organizational purpose to drive employee engagement, consumer preference, and overall commercial performance of our clients.

Prior to joining A Hundred Years, I led Mattel’s transformation team as Vice President of Culture and Transformation. I was responsible for defining Mattel’s purpose and values, creating experiences that inspire employees around Mattel’s vision, and developing the framework for purposeful brand communication and product innovation across the company’s portfolio. In addition to Mattel, I led brand and marketing strategies for iconic companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Reebok and Volkswagen.

When I am not working on bringing brands to life, I’m finding inspiration in design, arts, and architecture, and exploring the future of mobility.

Rita cultivates new client relationships, ensuring strong partnerships with purpose-driven organizations and companies. Prior to joining the team, Rita served as New Business Director at Rokkan and Huge and was responsible for long-term client partnerships with many leading brands. Rita holds an MFA from the University of Southern California and a BFA with honors from Queens University.

An east coast transplant embracing the west coast way of life, I’m a true blend of sarcasm, practicality and logic, which works well navigating the changing tides of production.

As a Senior Producer, you’ll typically find me squinting over a monitor full of project plans and budgets, collaborating with my team to strategize solutions for your toughest problems, and making sure we’re delivering on our goals and objectives while collaborating closely with clients. I’m particularly proud of my role working with Mattel identifying and articulating their brand purpose and mapping out a company-wide brand alignment program; reconnecting students and educators with the joy and discovery of learning with TED Ed; and aligning stakeholders around a shared purpose with AT&T.

My experience ranges from being a Production Assistant on a CBS sitcom to producing digital experiences for Disney, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Microsoft, Adobe, Nike, Naked Juice and Mitsubishi Motors.

When I’m not wearing my producer hat, I’m daydreaming about how autonomous cars and people who love to drive (like myself) can peacefully coexist, supercars, fashion, and my ever-growing list of dream vacations.

In 100 Years, I hope my ancestors will be proud of the world my generation and I left behind.

I’m a Business Romantic. I believe our world would be a better place if everyone had more romance in their lives – empathy, passion, and imagination, as well as the belief that there’s always more to experience than what we can measure. Only if we embrace our full humanity will we survive in the age of machines. Only if we do our work beautifully, will we thrive.

I love connecting ideas with people. As an author and speaker, I try to bring insights from the humanities as well as my own experience as a marketing executive, including tenures as Chief Marketing Officer of Frog Design, technology firm Aricent, and architectural design firm NBBJ, to exploring the future of business. As co-founder and co-curator of the 15 Toasts dinner series, I enjoy seeing what happens when strangers connect through their stories. As a consultant and Senior Advisor with A Hundred Years, I help clients craft their vision, tell their story, and drive their cultural and personal transformation. Find more on my point of view via my TED talks and my book The Business Romantic.

In partnership with A Hundred Years, I host The House of Beautiful Business, a nomadic home for business leaders, artists, and thinkers to meet and explore the future of humanity and technology. Together, we also recently developed and ran workshops on “A World After Work,” in which we invited participants to imagine how we’re going to find purpose when paid work is no longer the center of our lives.

When I’m not traveling with my family or binge-watching soccer, I’m trying to catch up on all the brilliant writing of our crazy, complicated, exciting times, while desperately avoiding any nearby dogs (a deep-seated fear…).

In 100 years, I hope to have learned how to make an authentic German schnitzel.

I’m a thinker and programmer on a mission to drive purpose and create impact through technology.

As Director of Technology, you’ll find me leading teams building everything from customized content-driven platforms to engaging interactive experiences. I’m particularly proud of helping to build a platform for a program supporting women entrepreneurs; building a dashboard and integrating legacy applications for The Rockefeller Foundation to showcase their work internally and externally; and further developing the educational platform we created with TED-Ed to inspire and educate students around the world.

You might have seen me previously leading engineering teams at eMusic.com, bringing indie music to the masses; PressPlus, where I developed financial strategies for online journalism; and various startups dating back to the dawn of the internet age.

When I’m not working to deliver impact through technology, I’m thinking about how we can improve the lives of the aging and trying to make more time to play the drums.

In 100 years, I hope we live in a pluralistic society, where people live long healthy lives (thanks to advances in healthcare) and have the opportunity to spend ample time with their families, pursuing their personal dreams and goals. On Mars.

I’m an optimist who believes design can solve pretty much any type of problem.

As a Senior Designer I spend my days prototyping and iterating designs of everything from apps to websites to fundraising decks, always balancing form and function. I’m particularly proud of my role in the development of a program supporting women entrepreneurs; my collaboration with TED-Ed to bring inspiring new educational tools to the masses; and my work with iSlate, bringing low-energy tablets to kids in rural India, making long-distance connectivity and textbook distribution more efficient.

When I’m not designing, I’m helping middle schoolers at 826LA with writing, showing midcentury California pottery at the Melrose Trading Post, or training for my next triathlon.

In 100 years, I hope we can do a better job designing for diverse audiences, building empathy with users in our global community.

I’m a little bit right brain, a little bit left brain, and all designer. In other words, I’m endlessly curious to understand how and why things work and solve problems with equal parts logic and creative thinking.

As Creative Strategist, you’ll find me wearing many hats to help teams feel inspired, push the envelope, and ground our work in cultural relevance and meaning. On any given day I am reading a white paper, listening to NPR, reading VOX and watching VICE to gain a broader understanding of what’s happening in the world; pulling together human insights from research; leading an empathy-based interview; and collaborating with my team to hone a big idea. I’m particularly proud of my work on the creation of a program designed to connect and support female entrepreneurs, carrying it from vision to inception to execution; my role leading research and strategy with The Rockefeller Foundation to defined the direction for the web redesign and internal knowledge management system; and my collaboration with the Nomadic School of Wonder designing experiences.

Prior to joining A Hundred Years, I worked with the Los Angeles Dodgers creating experiences and led cultural transformations with Apple and the University of Toronto. When I’m not creating and strategizing, I’m thinking about politics, catching up on pop culture, and repairing my fiberglass egg camper, which is my primary residence while I travel the country.

In 100 years, I hope that our parks and public lands are still wild and that we have moved past the gender conversation.

I’m a father, husband, programmer, dog-lover, mountain biker, paddle boarder, pragmatist, learner, and systems thinker living near the sea just outside Auckland, New Zealand.

As Senior Web Developer, you’ll find me building the exciting behind-the-scenes stuff that makes complex websites work. I’m particularly proud of my collaboration on the development of educational platform TED-Ed and creation of a program for women entrepreneurs. Over the past 15 years, my work has evolved from creating intranets with Microsoft tools to creating custom solutions with Ruby on Rails

When I’m not coding, I’m thinking about improving internal office systems or really, the weather so I know when I can head out to the water to go paddling or wind-surfing.

In 100 years I hope people realize we are all interdependent.

As Communications Strategist, I wear two hats: I collaborate with multidisciplinary design teams on projects to shape campaigns, manifestos, mission statements, fundraising decks, and web copy to meet the clients’ needs, whether that’s inspiring action, aligning stakeholders, or clarifying an organization’s purpose. I also help to share the vision and shape the “outdoor voices” of A Hundred Years by collaborating with team members on articles and communication material articulating who we are, what we think, and why we do what we do. I’m particularly proud of my work on two recent projects: creating a fundraising pitch for the Fund for Public Schools in New York to benefit the 1.1M public school students, and developing a communication strategy to amplify and articulate the mission of the New York Department of Education.

Prior to joining A Hundred Years, I was a writer and marketing and communications lead at IDEO in Chicago, where I crafted copy for everything from sex education curriculum for Chicago Public Schools and video scripts for a pharmaceuticals company to packaging copy for a heritage food brand and a design thinking toolkit for the Chicago Public Libraries. I spent the previous eight years as a writer and editor at arts and entertainment magazines, writing profiles, essays, and in-depth features for a range of publications, including Time Out Chicago, Slate, Martha Stewart Living, NPR, and ReadyMade, among others.

In 100 years, I hope that our natural environment—particularly our national and state parks—is not only surviving but thriving and inspiring many generations to come.

I’m a front-end developer who specializes in CMS integrations. I’ve particularly worked a lot with PHP base systems like WordPress and Craft.

As Senior Developer, you’ll find me walking on my treadmill desk while coding beautiful designs, thinking about application architecture, or researching technology platforms. I’m particularly proud of our collaboration with Vulcan Productions, redesigning their website to better showcase their work and developing a new CMS as well as my role creating a custom WordPress theme for The Rockefeller Foundation. Balancing flexibility and design integrity, I also built several custom plugins which automatically integrated external data feeds to cut down on the amount of time required to keep data fresh.

When I’m not reading about new JavaScript libraries or webcomics, I’m thinking about designing games and attempting to write fantasy novels.

I partner with A Hundred Years in shaping innovative products and services to have the greatest impact. As the daughter of two rocket scientists, I founded Curious Catalyst to marry investigation with action, bringing a new take to the business of social impact through my experience in agile approaches. After years working with emerging technology platforms and solving larger cross-disciplinary problems in the digital agency space, I earned my stripes in the start-up world, leading strategy and operations for early social media innovators and then an open-source cloud computing powerhouse focused on the developing world. With a background across media platforms, I bring a unique creative perspective to strategy work, combining film, print, broadcast, branding and transmedia storytelling. I take pride in my ability to switch between the detail of producing and the big-picture design thinking necessary for successful user-centered design. I’m a Stanford graduate, Challenge Faculty and fellow of THNK School of Creative Leadership, and a Certified Scrum Master.

I’m on a mission to deliver impactful, delightful, and enriching contributions to drive exponential change.

What lights me up: using frontier technologies to solve tricky stuff. Moving from a blank sheet of paper to a brand to a business. Countering being disrupted. Identifying where growth is going to come from. Connecting with the mindset of audiences. Creating resilient ways forward. Mobilizing diverse constituents. Delivering large-scale, high-yield, human-centered innovation results.

Until most recently, I was VP of Contend Immersive, a digital art and design collective based in Los Angeles and Moscow specializing in Inverted Reality, a live immersive experience that blends people, digital, gravity and space. Prior to Contend, I served as CEO of Sila Sveta USA, Russia’s largest interactive media and conceptual design company. Before segueing into immersive media, I was Founder/CEO of AmyBMGMT, managing Grammy award-winning international touring artists/producers, directing their brand strategies, and global business affairs for over fifteen years.

I was named a U.S. State Department Cultural Ambassador under both the Bush and Obama Administrations and was sent to 18 countries to coordinate cultural exchange public diplomacy missions. I helped bring the first Western musical artists to perform free public concerts in Nepal, Madagascar, Burma, and Mongolia.

I have a Global Executive MBA (GEMBA) from Georgetown University & ESADE Business School, an MA in Cultural Anthropology and Education from Columbia University, and an awesome brand-new rescue pooch named Mackerel, a half-Chihuahua half-Italian Greyhound.

I work at the intersection of brand, impact and influence and lead the brand purpose strategy for Unilever’s Prestige division of Founder-led brands. Spearheading Dermalogica’s FITE (Financial Independence through Entrepreneurship) initiative to empower women entrepreneurs we have helped nearly 100,000 small business owners worldwide.

You may have seen my work featured on Bloomberg, MSNBC, Town & Country, The Guardian, New York Times, Entrepreneur magazine, Irish Tatler, Harvard University’s Kennedy School Report, Mogul, People magazine, and NPR. I was also honored to be named one of MOGUL’s 35 Under 35, for changing the way business approaches impact and selected as AOL’s and Levo’s 13 Millennials Changing the World for Women. Beginning my career as a journalist and then later working in film, I believe storytellers and artists are at the center of long term social change and essential to creating a movement, not just a moment.

Passionate about solutions that advance women and girls, I travel year-round as a speaker to amplify the voices of the next generation.

I’m a QA Analyst, Certified Scrum Master and Scrum Developer, Agile Coach, mom, horror movie fan, professional makeup artist and former roller skater.

As QA Engineer, you’ll find me in the midst of software development, stopping problems before they start by constantly testing to ensure everything runs smoothly and efficiently. I’m particularly proud of my role collaborating with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, inspiring communities to participate in a culture of health, as well as my contribution to The Rockefeller Foundation, helping to transform the website into a strategic tool and solving a knowledge management challenge.

Prior to joining A Hundred Years, I worked as a QA Analyst, Scrum Master and Agile Coach for OLX, tested products and transactions, among other things at Gilbarco Veeder Root and assisted in programming classes at the National Technological University in Argentina.

When I’m not worrying about the quality of websites, I’m thinking about how to make my daughter’s life better and brighter.

In 100 years, I hope the earth is a place where my descendants can not only live, but enjoy.

As Product Manager, I’m basically the glue on product teams, ensuring a smooth collaboration across disciplines. I help teams empathize with users, identify opportunity areas, and build solutions to real-world problems by diving head-first into complex challenges.

My past work has included guiding and coaching product teams through every phase of product development, unleashing internal innovation capabilities for clients, and managing development teams for products in full operation. I thrive in fast-paced environments, working with organizations as diverse as startups to Fortune 500 companies. 

I’m an idealist with a healthy dose of realism. I love solving problems (see: my first place award at the City of Burbank hackathon) and often think about the new abilities that technology can afford us as human beings.

As a user experience designer, you’ll find me asking a lot of questions and working towards creating the best experience possible for our clients and their users. I’m particularly proud of working with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to translate their Culture of Health framework for the web as well as my role developing an interactive eCourse to help women realize their dreams.

Prior to working in design, I spent time growing a variety of new ventures—from collaborating with a startup in the music and tech world to establishing a community garden in Los Angeles.

In 100 years, I hope we have successfully preserved our environment and are not ruled by our robot overlords.

I’m a Meaning Maker. Ultimately, my work focuses on helping companies get to the core of who they are and designing thoughtful strategies for them to captivate both new and existing audiences.

As Senior Creative Strategy Consultant, I’ve renamed the Impact Hub and told the story of Hansgrohe. I’m most proud of my role capturing this company’s dreams and ambitions in landing on the name A Hundred Years.

Prior to getting mixed up with this crew, I led marketing communications at the beloved social navigation app, Waze, and have worked alongside scores of entrepreneurs to hone and launch their tech startups out into the world. I especially love working with young companies bringing true disruption to more traditional, ‘boring’ industries, and partnering with extraordinary creative agencies, like the one you’re peeping around in here.

When I’m not glued to my big screen, I’m glued to my little screen, positing pictures of my hand’s travels around the world to Instagram (@kindahandy), seeking out the best tumeric latte, and booking an Airbnb for wherever I’m headed next. If given the chance, I also delight in painting faces and seeing how many people my two-person hammock can hold (record: 7).

In 100 years, I hope technology will have been utilized, by whatever means possible, to help create a better, more just, and more equitable world.

I work with the world’s most innovative and ambitious companies in realizing their potential and growing their business. I focus on the intersection of design, technology, business strategy and new ventures.

For almost two decades, I have worked as a management consultant with clients in technology, healthcare and consumer spaces on every aspect of defining and implementing corporate, operational and marketing strategies. As the CEO of a global design and innovation consultancy, I focused on advancing the integration of brand and business strategy with customer experience design.

I find inspiration exploring the world: traveling across the globe, immersing myself in different cultures, surrounded by all sorts of people. And I hop on my bike for long rides to refuel.

Phil Otto is a hands-on designer and big-picture strategist. His approach to design is rooted in his studies in cultural anthropology at Stanford University and Fine Arts at the San Francisco Design Institute. Summer gigs as lead singer in a Sub Pop Seattle band didn’t hurt either.

Phil’s interest in fashion, spaces, and experience design coalesced with a first job at Comme des Garcons. He continued on at the Exploratorium Museum in San Francisco and at the Headlands Center for the Arts where he worked on projects for Brian Eno, Oliver Sachs, Ann Hamilton, David Ireland, and Andres Serrano.

Phil’s engagement with brands began with Urban Outfitters, where he worked as a lead on strategy and design and played an instrumental role in the growth of the brand: In addition to helping with its expansion of the brand from 3 to over 200 retail locations international, he was involved in the birth of sibling brands Anthropologie and Free People.

Since then Phil has enjoyed working with disruptive growth-stage companies, indie streetwear and surf brands as well as large civic-scale and eco-futurist projects. He has worked on strategy and concepts for REI, Undefeated, Nike, Outerknown, and Coca-Cola, to name a few.

Phil, who likes to call himself a Blue Collar Futurist, lives in Topanga Canyon with his wife Trā, their son Fin and daughter Emily.

I’m on a mission to design content that improves lives by tapping into the intersection of audience and organizational needs

As Senior Content Strategist, you’ll find me digging into what makes people tick, surveying digital landscapes and trends, and synthesizing organizational needs and brand voices into content strategies for non-profits and enterprise-level brands. I’m particularly proud of co-authoring a forthcoming leadership program for North American women and my past cross-platform work for a spectrum of brands and industries, including the Gates Foundation, EIF Foundation, Girl Scouts of the USA, Microsoft, GE, Samsung, Logitech, Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Southern California Edison, Target, Disney, Mattel, Oprah, and Universal Pictures, among others.

When I’m not immersed in the digital world, I moonlight as a documentary producer and creative non-fiction author. The newest feather in my cap: scoring a spot on Amazon’s Best Books list in 2015 for “Welcome to Marwencol,” the companion book to a documentary I produced entitled “Marwencol,” about the life of artist Mark Hogancamp.

I oversee marketing, branding, social media, and digital strategy, including SEO and SEM.

I spent 10 years managing digital strategy teams at ad agencies WDCW and R2C Group, where I led campaigns for clients such as Chase, Vonage, P&G, Alaska Airlines, and Philips. I’m also the founder of IdeaMensch, a community of entrepreneurs who share stories of bringing their ideas to life. I’ve interviewed more than 2,500 entrepreneurs, from the fledging stage to the very-famous.

I’m a first-generation immigrant from Germany who came to America as an exchange student at age 16. I’m an Ironman triathlete, JMT Thru Hiker, and a Gold Card-carrying Costco Club member.

I believe there is always a solution. I am driven to find the smartest and most creative one.

As Creative Director, you’ll find me developing strategies, workshops, and creative solutions to help organizations map out their future vision, imagine what’s possible, and identify how to create positive impact with their core business. Considering today’s advances in technology and mankind’s inventive talent, I deeply believe that we can create a more purposeful world — together. That´s why I instantly fell in love with the radical optimism of A Hundred Years.

Previously, I was Co-Founder and Executive Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather Berlin. I have created campaigns for Mercedes-Benz, IKEA, Volkswagen, Bosch, Coca-Cola and won over 450 national and international awards.

Otherwise, I’m loving life in Berlin. I love to discover new hidden places. I don’t own a car, nor a cat. I stand up for truth, freedom, and democracy. And pasta and wine with friends.

In 100 years, I hope we will prioritize ethics and ecological and social progress over economic success.