Melanie Bell-Mayeda is a creative leader and business designer that has worked with Fortune 500 organizations to develop vision, strategy, and implementation roadmaps to drive growth and long-term business fitness.

She is currently a Director of UX, Program and Operations for SearchUX at Google.

Prior to her time at Google, Melanie was a Partner and Managing Director in IDEO’s San Francisco office, leading the Systems Change Practice, a division focused on developing cross-sector partnerships to deliver innovation that would drive positive social impact. Her passion lies in helping organizations reinvent themselves in order to connect with customers in new and meaningful ways. Melanie had led two major initiatives looking at the future of care. “The Powerful Now,” a global project that explored ways to bring creativity and design thinking to the topic of aging. The second was working with Pivotal Ventures to explore opportunities to reinvent the caregiving space with a focus on elevating and valuing the invisible labor or women.

Prior to joining IDEO, she led LeapFrog’s global licensing business and worked at Virgin Entertainment Group, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, and Morgan Stanley, where she sharpened her skill in applying strategic thinking and financial analysis to the business decision-making process.

Ms. Bell-Mayeda earned a bachelor’s degree, Magna Cum Laude in sociology from Harvard University and a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.

- Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow

- Member of IDEO.org Board of Directors

- Member of the Board of Regents, Samuel Merritt University

- Member of The Steve Fund Board of Directors