Reon Brand

Senior Director, Strategic Futures

Reon Brand is Senior Director of Company Design Research at Philips Design. His primary role is to work with multiple Philips stakeholders to explore future directions for the Philips Strategic Company Innovation program.

In his previous role in Philips design as global director of Foresight, Trends and people research, he played a key role in developing the Philips Design Foresight, Trends and people research capabilities and services.

Dr Brand was born in Cape Town, South Africa and graduated with a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Cape Town in 1992. He previously worked in the New Product Development group of Vodacom, the leading South African mobile telephony network, as business consultant responsible coordination collaborations with external partners for innovation and service development.

He joined the Strategic Design Department at Philips Design, based in Eindhoven, Netherlands in 1999. He has been leading several client projects to translate socio-cultural trends into contexts & directions for innovation and marketing. He has presented at international conferences (Design Management Institute, World Future Society and others) and published papers about socio-cultural trends and their relevance for business.

He is also representing Philips Design in the Market Intelligence Board of Philips. He has participated in training programs of Design schools to teach about the role of people and socio-cultural research in design (KISD - Köln International School of Design and INHOLLAND Master of Design Management Program)