Background
Kelley was born in Barberton, Ohio.
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David Kelley
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Carnegie Mellon University. Stanford University.
Career
He has received several honors for his contributions to design and design education. At Boeing, he was responsible for the design of the Lavatory Occupied sign for the 747 airplane. This experience led him to return to school.
In 1977, he earned his master"s degree from the Joint Program in Design at Stanford University, popularly called the Product Design program
In 1978, he partnered with another Stanford Product Design graduate, Dean Hovey, to form Hovey-Kelley Design. Hovey left to pursue other interests and the firm was renamed "David Kelley Design" (DKD).
In 1984, he co-founded Onset Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm. He also co-founded Edge Innovations, the special-effects company responsible for the whales in the Free Willy movies, among many other film credits.
In 1991, Kelley merged DKD with three other design firms (Mike Nuttall"s Matrix Product Design in Palo Alto, Idaho TWO in San Francisco, and Moggridge Associates in London, the latter two founded by Bill Moggridge) to create IDEO, which he ran as Chief Executive Officer until 2000.
As chairman and managing partner, Kelley continues to play an active role at IDEO. Kelley began teaching in the Stanford Product Design program in 1978, after earning his master"son He was briefly a Doctor of Philosophy student. In 1990, he became a tenured professor, and was named the Donald West. Whittier Professor in Mechanical Engineering in 2002.
In 2004, Kelley led the creation of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University, known as the "d.school.".
Achievements
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He is founder, chairman, and managing partner of the design firm IDEO and a professor at Stanford University. In 2009, he was awarded the Edison Achievement Award by the Thomas Edison Papers at Rutgers University for his “pioneering contributions to the design of breakthrough products, services, and experiences for consumers, as well as his development of an innovative culture that has broad impact.” In 2001, the Smithsonian"s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum presented David Kelley and IDEO with the National Design Award in Product Design.
Membership
He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 1973 where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity, and began work as an engineer, first at Boeing and later at National Cash Register.
