GK VanPatter is an internationally recognized understanding designer, innovation architect, and visionary thinker. He specializes in the creation of strategies, tools, and organizations that enhance adaptability and innovation. As Co-Founder of Understanding Lab Inc in New York he has pioneered the application of understanding as an instrument to drive growth, change, and innovation in knowledge creating companies. GK has more than twenty-five years of design leadership experience and has consulted to numerous global companies including Pfizer, EDS, General Motors, IBM, Morgan Stanley, BMW, Marriot, HP, Bristol-Myers Squibb and many others. He was an early advocate of extending designsÂ’ reach into the realms of business transformation, strategy development, knowledge creation and organizational innovation. Prior to forming the Understanding Lab he was a Scient Fellow and Co-Founder of Scient's Innovation Acceleration Lab. In collaboration with Elizabeth Pastor he conceived, designed and directed all aspects of the Innovation Lab including its strategy, organization, environments, and award winning cross-disciplinary skill-building program. His consulting work often takes him into the terrain of what he calls B4Design, a term that he coined to describe the landscape of strategic complexities that often must be untangled before design can begin. He considers the terrain of B4Design to be central to the future of design and design leadership.GKÂ’s work has received numerous excellence awards and he has spoken at many international conferences including Doors of Perception in Amsterdam, the Vision Plus Conference in Vienna, and the Design Management Institute Conference on The Future of Design Management.GK holds a Master of Science Degree in Communication Design from Pratt Institute in New York and an undergraduate degree from the School of Architecture at University of Manitoba. Twenty years ago, as he was in the early part of his career in the Architecture business, he became convinced of the need for better tools to enhance strategic problem solving and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The subject has remained his passion and the central focus of his work ever since. Today there is growing awareness, not only that cross-disciplinary work plays a significant role in next economy organizations of all kinds, but that it requires new thinking skills, tools and behaviors. Concerned about the future of design leadership GK co-founded the NextDesign Leadership Institute with Elizabeth Pastor in the spring of 2002. NextD was created for the purpose of raising awareness regarding how the challenges of design leadership have radically changed at the leading edge of the marketplace. Its mission includes helping design educators and practicing professionals prepare to meet the challenges of cross-disciplinary design and innovation leadership in the 21st century. The Institute has three primary focus areas: NextD Education, NextD Research and the NextD Conference. Its provocative NextD Journal / ReReThinking Design has gained hundreds of subscribers around the world, including many design educators, since it launched in May of 2003. In the fall of 2004 the first NextD Conference ReRethinking WHAT + HOW will take place at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.