Location:

Geneva/London

Quote:

“At Open, the thing that excites me the most is that the market in which we operate is maturing fast. There is so much more awareness and understanding of the value of inclusive insight, design and innovation now, and the industry is becoming more professional and, in parts, more effectively collaborative.”

Background:

Christine founded Open in 2015 to enable the perspectives of disabled and older consumers to inform better design and innovation more easily and consistently.

She is an experienced inclusive research leader and Human Centred Designer who considers which humans are considered at the centre of design. Christine is also an innovator having created new businesses in new markets, new products, services and experiences for a number of decades in digital, physical and customer service environments. She loves supporting others innovate and has been an inclusive insight expert at a range of accelerators and intrepreneurship programmes.

Christine leads the team to ensure that the research design, analysis and delivery provides consistently professional, robust and practical insights well targeted to the objectives.

Christine often speaks at conferences and keynotes business sessions on inclusive design, innovation, research practices, CX, UX and specific emerging technologies.

She leads the Market Research Society’s Unlimited Group (disability-inclusive research), is an active member of the inclusive design workstream for XRAccess (immersive design) community and the Zero Project Network. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and in Asian Studies from the ANU, MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and CPACC from the IAAP.

What I enjoy:

When not managing the growth and delivery quality of our work at Open, she can generally be found in a café with her husband, kids or friends or on a mountain cycling, running or skiing some Alpine trail.

Location:

Geneva/London

Quote:

“At Open, I am excited by the opportunity to work with a fantastic team to develop a business that can have a positive impact on people’s lives.”

Background:

Rob’s role at Open Inclusion is to lead new opportunity development, client engagement and support, organise the broader research program and support the delivery of great client projects. He also oversees Open’s operations and support teams.

Rob has over 20 years of experience leading teams to design, build and run digital products and innovative solutions. He has led teams across consulting, digital agency and the financial services industry to both improve and enable the innovation processes and culture. He also build’s and deliver new initiatives aimed at improving the customer experience and operational excellence.

Rob is passionate about the opportunity to bring more diverse perspectives to our clients to better enable ideation and improve proposition development and the value of the innovation. This will deliver better solutions to all their customers, including those with specific access needs.

What I enjoy:

When not focusing on helping to enable the growth of Open, Rob is usually spending time with his family or enjoying the great outdoors.

Location:

North Carolina, United States

Quote:

“I love working at Open because of the people. We work with an incredible team who are all compassionate, insightful, collaborative, and share the same mission of advancing disability inclusion in our society.”

Background:

Ali leads Open Inclusion’s global community engagement and development. She is a disability strategist, advocate, and powerful, positive communicator.

Ali is based in the US and has extensive global experience having lived and worked around the world, including in China and Australia. In her role at Open, Ali helps us effectively develop valuable strong mutual relationships with individuals and community advocacy groups.

This generates opportunities for those with valuable lived experiences to work, get involved in inclusive innovation initiatives, and engage in paid research opportunities. These support the community and help businesses better serve customers with disabilities and grow the inclusive capability of their organizations.

Ali holds a Bachelor of Business Administration specialising in entrepreneurship from the Herbert Business School at the University of Miami.

What I enjoy:

Ali enjoys swimming as a C6 quadriplegic, traveling, and outdoor accessible adventures.

Location:

Northern Ireland

Quote:

“At Open the thing that excites me is the opportunity to challenge assumptions about disability, use accessible research methods and include the disabled community in research design to ensure all voices are heard. This means we can deliver better products, services and experiences for everyone!”

Background:

Julie is a creative, innovative and strategic Research Director, with 15 years of experience. She specialises in qualitative research and strategy. Julie has expertise born from experience developing bespoke research methodologies suited to meeting the needs of a wide variety of participants, including the diverse spectrum of disability.  She brings a comprehensive toolkit and different perspective to every project.

Julie is passionate about inclusive research and design,. She is an active member of the steering group of MRS Unlimited (disability inclusive research sector group). She engages stakeholders through storytelling and impactful presentations to communicate peoples’ lived experiences in practical and compelling ways that engender change.

She has worked across a wide range of sectors including FMCG, Healthcare, Banking, Technology and Education sectors, enjoying the opportunity to work with disruptive technologies and new product or service development for large global brands such as Unilever, Reckitts, D&G and Sephora. 

What I enjoy:

Julie enjoys socialising with family and friends, listening to live music and taking the occasion dip in the Irish sea (not for the faint hearted!).