Dedicated UTS faculty and project coaches closely supervise student teams during each client engagement and provide the teams with conceptual and practical instruction. The coaching team is known as the 'secret sauce of the program; it consists of experienced strategists, innovators, entrepreneurs, and corporate and non-profit leaders who oversee each client engagement and ensure commercial-grade outcomes. Project coaches oversee one project per semester, providing structure and guidance to their assigned student team. They invest about 150 hours of their time in each project.
| Associate Professor Jochen Schweitzer〡Faculty Lead Jochen is the UTS Faculty Lead for the Strategic Design Studios. He is also the course director of the EMBA. His research, teaching and consulting focus on issues of strategy, collaboration, entrepreneurship and innovation with a special interest in Design Thinking, urban planning and open innovation. Jochen was Visiting Scholar at Stanford University and Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) School of Design Thinking at Potsdam University. |
| Associate Professor Lars Groeger︱Faculty Lars is a curious educator, researcher, and advisor to industry. He combines his passion for experiential learning with his expertise in innovation, entrepreneurship, and human-centred design. Lars has more than 15 years of academic and industry experience and holds academic appointments at multiple leading business schools in Australia and Europe. |
| Leanne Sobel〡Practrice Lead Leanne is a Senior Strategic Design Practitioner, Researcher and Educator. She has extensive consulting experience using Design Thinking for innovation and customer experience projects, previously working for Deloitte and Place Associates. Her work experience also includes the development of internal Design Thinking capability, culture and education programs for organisations seeking to adopt Design Thinking principles and work practices. |
| Tarra van Amerongen〡Practice Lead Tarra is a design and innovation professional, with a formal academic background in both classic business administration and new capabilities of Design Thinking and Experimentation. She is currently the Group Director at Fjord, a design and innovation consultancy. She was part of the founding team of the CommBank Innovation Lab and has worked on digital transformation programs as a management consultant in Canada, the Netherlands and Australia with BCG Digital Ventures, and Capgemini Consulting. |
| Tiziana Bianco〡Project Coach Tiziana Bianco is a sought after speaker and consultant specialising in enterprise Innovation, start-up methodology, digital transformation and customer experience helping companies and governments prepare themselves to embrace and succeed in the Digital Era. In her previous role, she led the global Innovation Lab network at Commonwealth Bank. |
| Zeljko Nikolic︱Project Coach Zeljko is a former partner at Accenture and now director of Lilyfield Partners. Zeljko works with senior executive leadership teams to shape and accelerate the delivery of their strategy. His focus is on leading the design and delivery of complex, high impact business transformation initiatives. He has a track record of successfully advising on and delivering complex transformation programs for clients across various industries. |
| Daniel Lohrman ︱Project Coach Daniel combines business skills and a proven track record in building and leading high-performance growth teams with deep technical expertise across growth and analytics. He is a problem-solver at heart, whether from a business or tech perspective. As a quick learner and skilled prioritizer, Daniel rapidly delivers a positive impact for his clients. |
Advisory Council
In addition to teaching staff and coaches, student teams have access to the SDS Advisory Board, which consists of well-established executives and professionals. Like company directors, Advisory Board members ask difficult questions about risk, strategy, ethics, politics and other issues that may directly affect project outcomes. They also offer industry knowledge, functional expertise and introductions to industry insiders—helping our student teams deepen their understanding of the issues most relevant to projects. For further information on how to become an Advisory Council member, please contact us.