Peter Zak. is a designer, entrepreneur and innovation coach. He has applied his strategic design skills to projects involving a variety of organizations, including startup companies, non-profit groups and major educational institutions. Peter’s very first job was working for R&B icon Stevie Wonder. Later he worked for retail branding pioneer Don Watt, where among other things, he was part of the core team which launched the global expansion of Walmart’s Great Value, one of the world’s biggest selling retail brands. As an entrepreneur Peter has launched a private label knitwear company Irving & Zak and a sports marketing business Champion Tennis.
In addition to his strategic design work Peter has been a senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurs’ Organization’s Masters Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an Adjunct Professor in the MBA program at Schulich School of Business, where he teaches innovation, and an Assistant Professor in the College of Business at Ferris University, where he teaches communication design. Peter is a recipient of the MIT President’s Citation Award for research, media and branding work done on behalf of MIT Enterprise Forum.
Peter’s design and innovation practice is complemented by his research exploring disruptive innovation and its business and social impact. He has co-produced Better World: Accelerating Lab to Market Innovation conference, at the MIT Media Lab and curated Emtech MIT, the emerging technologies conference, organized by Technology Review magazine. The events gathered some of the most elite thought leaders of the tech industry, including: Joi Ito, Bill Joy, Dean Kamen, David Lee, Jonathan Rothberg, Bill Moggridge, Juan Enriquez and Dr. Peter Diamandis, among others.
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