About
I've led a rare double life: freelancing 17 years in international diplomacy as an interpreter, alongside 12 years in the creative industry. It's been a struggle to make my nonlinear path understood; as a woman, to have my creativity and intellect recognized. Today, no matter where you sit in creative or brand, the AI revolution has geopolitical and national security implications that will impact your business. A creative mind who comprehends those fields is an invaluable asset. You either see it, or you don't. Here's my story...
FROM DIPLOMAT
For nearly two decades I freelanced as a simultaneous conference interpreter/translator at the UN, NATO, the US State Department and the Department of Defense and other international organizations. I interpreted for heads of state in real time. I've spoken for Putin, Macron...No pressure. It was a fabulous job: far-flung corners of the world, cultural fluency, critical thinking at lightning speed. I can still tell you the shortest connection between any two airports in the same city, anywhere.
But I was always repeating the words of others. My own creative voice went unheard. Interpretation is best when it's invisible. My audacity had to stay quiet. My ambition felt stifled. Late at night I caught myself thinking: “I'm not quite living the life I should be.”
So I began to pivot...
TO CREATIVE PRODUCER
I started small, producing parties on the side. They got popular enough that cultural institutions asked me to creative-direct, then festivals (Montreux Jazz, Polaris), then the sponsoring brands asked me to design their activations. That became The Inner Ear, a small production agency ("musical events for your brain") named after my most heartfelt event which made front-page news: a rave for deaf teens.
TO STRAT-EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
After covid, I moved from production to strategy and went back to school to study the cognitive psychology and neuroscience behind behaviour change.
A multilingual, multicultural perspective added to the behavioural lens, plus my gut instinct for problem-solving, turned out to be a rare combination in experience design. That's how I became a Founding Member of the World Experience Organization, the leading global think tank on XD.
Today I work at the intersection of brand strategy, cultural theory, behavioral science and spatial storytelling. My methodology draws on Douglas Holt's cultural branding, on service design and on the cognitive psychology of memory.
My safe words are "cultural semiotics," "neuroaesthetics" and "environmental psychology." I def have an insight kink. You'll find me at Milan Design Week, Paris Fashion Week, Art Basel, and anywhere culture is birthing. In my spare time, I vibecode apps because... why not?
Every day I wake up and ask myself: how am I complicit, in not getting what I say that I want?
Skills
- Cultural Strategy
- Experience Design
- Concept Design
- Storytelling
- Brand Strategy
- PR Strategy
- Business Development Strategy
- Spatial Design
- Journey Mapping
- Environmental Psychology
- Nudge
- Neuromarketing
- Cultural Semiotics
- Cultural Intelligence