Nigel Prentice

Nigel has been a leader in software, technical transformation, and design since he founded one of Austin’s first digital product consultancies in 1996. Since then, he has worked with local startups, government institutions, and enterprise organizations to lead various technology and design efforts across dozens of industries at every scale. Prior to IBM, he was the Austin studio leader for Adaptive Path, one of the original user experience design consultancies.

Nigel joined IBM in 2014 and since then has held a number of leadership and executive roles, driving the adoption of design and design thinking, while using those tools to achieve prioritized business outcomes. Currently, Nigel is the design executive for the global Digital Growth and Commerce team, which is the home for IBM’s enterprise digital presence. The team delivers market differentiation through holistic digital journeys built on Carbon- IBM’s unified digital design system.

In addition, Nigel leads IBM's Racial Equity in Design initiative. While investing IBM’s considerable resources at the scale of the enterprise, this work contemplates the redesign of culture using the power of deep empathy combined with user experience design. Through Nigel’s leadership, the company is implementing long term transformation around closing the racial equity gap in the profession of design while improving the career experiences for black designers inside IBM and beyond.

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