About
Jocelyn Wyatt is the Executive Director and Co-Lead of IDEO.org, the nonprofit organization started by IDEO to address poverty-related challenges through design and to encourage the use of our human-centered approach to innovation in the social sector. Previously, Jocelyn led IDEO’s Social Innovation practice, which she expanded over the course of several years.
Jocelyn specializes in building social enterprises and advising businesses in the developing world, where she uses the market to effect social change. She has lent her perspective to social-innovation projects with clients such as Acumen Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, KickStart, the Rockefeller Foundation, Unilever, the US Agency for International Development, and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor. Based in San Francisco, she travels worldwide to grapple with strategies and issues related to product, service, and system design.
Prior to joining IDEO in 2007, Jocelyn worked in Kenya as an Acumen Fund fellow with an agro-pharmaceutical company involved in the production of malaria treatments. She served as VisionSpring’s interim country director in India, where she helped increase the distribution of low-cost reading glasses to the urban and rural poor. She also did training, project management, and business development for Chemonics International, a contractor for USAID.
Jocelyn received an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Grinnell College in Iowa. She has taught social enterprise and human-centered design at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and Thunderbird. She is a Tactical Philanthropy Advisory Board member, Fenix Advisory Board member, an Aspen Institute First Movers Fellow, and a Steelcase Green Giant. In her spare time, Jocelyn enjoys hosting dinner parties, reading in the park, and exploring the neighborhoods of San Francisco.
Speaking Highlights
Speaking Topics
Published Work
Press
"Three things we think about when designing for BoP markets are affordability, appropriateness, and attractiveness. Any solution must meet the needs of the people it’s meant to serve, be liked by them, and be priced at an affordable level. When these three stipulations are meant, it generally means the design is good."
– Jocelyn Wyatt, interviewed by Josh Cleveland of Next Billion. Read the full interview here.