Designers Accord founder, Valerie Casey, leads the strategic vision and daily operation of the organization, with the help of a group of advisors:

Allan Chochinov
Allan Chochinov is a partner at Core77, a New York-based design network supporting the global design community through both online and offline initiatives. He serves as the editor-in-chief of Core77.com, the widely read design website, Coroflot.com design job and portfolio site, and DesignDirectory.com design firm database.

Clement Mok
Clement Mok is a designer, digital pioneer, software publisher/developer, author, and design patent holder. Mok, a former creative director at Apple, founded multiple successful design-related businesses – Studio Archetype, CMCD and NetObjects. He was the Chief Creative Officer of Sapient, and the president of AIGA. Currently, he consults for Sapient and other Fortune 500 companies on a variety of design planning and user experience projects. Mok has been published internationally and has received hundreds of awards from professional organizations and publications including I.D. 40 most influential designers, and Chief Executive Magazine, which named him 1998’s Tech 100 CEOs. He also serves on the advisory boards of numerous technology companies, colleges, and non-profit organizations.

Jennifer van der Meer
Jennifer is a strategist and activist focused on developing sustainable relationships between people, products and brands. Formerly a Wall Street Analyst, Jennifer has held executive management roles at Organic, Frog Design, and Fahrenheit 212 , and has served as a consultant to companies such as GE, General Mills, MTV, Interface Inc., Disney, Chase, Nestle, Motorola, Toyota, and Coca Cola. By day, Jennifer works on brand collaboration communities with Drillteam and is an Adjunct Professor teaching sustainable design at NYU ITP. By night, she serves on the boards of o2NYC and the Designers Accord, writes for several green design blogs, and lives the West Village of New York City.  Jennifer received her BA in comparative religion from Trinity College, and received her MBA from HEC in Paris.

Lynelle Cameron
Lynelle Cameron is Director of Sustainability at Autodesk. Lynelle’s vision is to simplify and democratize sustainable design. By providing intelligent software tools that enable millions of Autodesk users to make smarter, more sustainable design decisions, Lynelle hopes to transform how we are designing the world around us. Previously, Lynelle spent seven years building a social and environmental responsibility program at Hewlett Packard, and another seven years in the nonprofit sector. Lynelle is on the Board of Directors of the Biomimicry Institute and the Advisory Board of Net Impact, a network of 10,000 MBA students interested in sustainable business.

Paul Hawken
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author. Starting at age 20, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy.

Former Advisory Board Members

Marc Alt (07-09)
Marc Alt is principal of Marc Alt + Partners, a consultancy that helps companies create value by aligning strategy with environmental and social benefit. Marc was founding co-chair of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design and serves on multiple design industry and green business advisory boards. Marc is also partner in Opportunity Green, a platform to advance clean technology investment, social entrepreneurship, and sustainable economic and community development. He is an adjunct professor at the School of Visual Arts and guest lectures frequently at corporations, trade associations, academic institutions and at numerous international design and business innovation summits.

Tim Brown (07-09)
Tim Brown is the CEO and president of IDEO. Tim speaks regularly on the value of design thinking and innovation to business and design audiences around the world. Since 2006, he has participated in and presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos. An industrial designer by training, his own work has earned him numerous design awards and has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Axis Gallery in Tokyo, and the Design Museum in London. Tim has a special interest in the convergence of technology and the arts as well as the ways in which design can be used to promote the wellbeing of people living in emerging economies.