KPMG Australia has announced the appointment of design thinking and innovation specialist Nathan Baird as a customer and operations partner.
Baird has 18 years’ experience in the marketing and innovation industry, both client and agency-side, globally and within Australia.
In 2014, he founded Methodry, an innovation and culture consultancy, and previously held several senior positions at Clear, a global marketing strategy business that is part of the M&C Saatchi group.
While in the UK, Baird ran global innovation projects for Bausch & Lomb, Nokia and Siemens. Back in Australia, he led the development and roll-out of a global consumer insight program for Unilever.
Ian Hancock, KPMG’s national managing partner of management consulting, said Baird brings deep experience in understanding what the customer wants and can act as a bridge between the creative world and the consulting world.
“His insight and deep experience in training will be highly valuable as we develop our design thinking and customer-centric innovation practices,” he said.
Commenting on his new role, Baird said it was an exciting time to be joining KPMG.
“The rapid pace of digital transformation and changing customer expectations means now, more than ever, innovation has to become part of how everyone works,” he said.
“Everything – from problem solving to process design, technology to sales and customer experience – requires innovation.”