Designer, triathlete, improviser, endless beginner
I work on complex, high-stakes products, and my job usually starts before the brief does — pushing on whether we're solving the right problem, whether someone hands me a finished prototype or just a vague "we should build something here."
- Living in Abu Dhabi
- 16:03
- Impro ∙ Keith Johnstone
- I love your smile ∙ Charlie Winston
I didn't start here. I spent a few years as a flight attendant for Emirates, and before that worked in tourism — thousands of frustrated people, a lot of broken systems. Somewhere along the way I realized most of that friction was a design problem, not a people problem. I taught myself the craft and made the jump in 2020.
I gravitated toward the hard, unglamorous systems from the start: blockchain, regulated finance, admin workflows — the dense stuff where details matter. At DTCC Digital I was the first designer in the door, and helped ship a blockchain wallet across 21 US states. Most recently I led design at Alpheya, a wealthtech startup, building AI-driven tools for advisors and investors.
The pattern never changed: messy problems, high stakes, half-formed ideas that need someone to turn them into something a team can see, test, and ship. I'm not precious about how it gets made — Figma, code, a whiteboard. I care about finding the core of an idea and making it real.
Lately that's pulled me toward AI — systems that act, not just respond. Products that don't behave the same way twice, users who can't always tell what the thing can do. The hard part isn't adding AI; it's making sure it solves a real problem instead of getting built for novelty. So I ask a lot of questions — and I'm not afraid to ask the wrong ones — to keep the team pointed at what matters.
Off the screen, I race triathlons, play padel, and co-organize a weekly improv group. Turns out "yes, and" is solid design philosophy too.