Lorna Ross, Fjord’s new group design director and studio lead. Image: John Ohle
After eight years of being the design director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, Lorna Ross is returning home to lead Accenture’s new Fjord studio in Dublin as its group design director and studio lead.
Lorna Ross will be familiar to attendees of Inspirefest last year, where she spoke about her experience of leading the design team for one of the world’s most established medical centres, and the potential for design in the field of healthcare.
With a career spanning 25 years, Ross was the principal research scientist at the MIT Media Lab and design lead at Motorola Futures Group. She also consulted with DARPA, the US government defence research agency.
For the past eight years, Ross has been the Mayo Clinic Center’s director for design, where she oversaw a number of major projects, including Project RED, which identified a whole new set of tools to identify patients with the capacity to perform dialysis at home.
Now the Dublin native has decided to return to her homeland, as Accenture announced her appointment as the group design director and studio lead for a new Fjord design studio in the capital.
Co-founded by another previous Inspirefest speaker, Mark Curtis, Fjord is a design-thinking studio that was acquired by Accenture back in 2013. It will open its own studio within The Dock, Dublin, Accenture’s new research and incubation hub.
The Dock was recently opened, creating 300 jobs, to house its designers, developers and digital experts.
From the clinic to The Dock
Under Ross’s leadership, Accenture said that Fjord’s designers and creative technologists will unite with engineers and experts in emerging fields such as AI and analytics.
It also hopes to leverage Fjord’s facilities to clients to help solve their most pressing business problems.
Speaking of Ross’s appointment, Accenture Ireland’s country managing director Alastair Blair said: “We’re thrilled to appoint such an accomplished Dublin native to lead our newest Fjord studio.
“Lorna is a first-class leader and pioneer who has worked with some of the world’s leading minds in experience design and innovation.”
You can check out Ross speaking at Inspirefest 2016 below.
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