Mike Peng is a Design Lead and co-founder of the IDEO Tokyo studio. Since his arrival at IDEO in 2006, Mike has led the firm’s design research and strategy efforts in industries ranging from education and hospitality to financial services and consumer electronics. Currently, Mike leads project work and client relationships across Asia and mentors designers within the region. He is also working closely with colleagues on the future strategic vision for IDEO Asia.

Before he moved to Tokyo, Mike helped start IDEO’s office in New York, where he led several projects and experimented with new methods of inspiration-gathering and storytelling to stretch the Human Factors practice. He moonlighted as an adjunct professor at NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, teaching public policy, urban planning, and nonprofit management students how to use design thinking to solve complex problems.

Prior to IDEO, Mike graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in cognitive science and an emphasis in neuroscience. He then joined Johnson & Johnson, where he worked on global strategy, user interface design, laboratory informatics, and process excellence initiatives in the medical device and pharmaceutical sectors. He also trained as Six Sigma black belt.

In his spare time, Mike is a competitive tennis player (his high-school court is named after him!) and an amateur hip-hop dancer who finds solace in reality TV and celebrity gossip.

Asia, Design, Researcher, Education Professionals, Innovation, Hospitality, Retail, Education Industry, Education