Neil Davidson

NEXT GEN JUROR

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects.” – Robert Heinlein

Growing up on a farm with parents who were teachers, engineers and innovators, Neil was lucky enough to pick up most of Heinlein’s human competency expertise before leaving school.

After university and 14 years working with one of Australasia’s great product design and innovation consultancies, Neil left the CMD Creative Director position to explore new career experiences and opportunities.

Early 2014 the first opportunity reengaged Neil with the family manufacturing business called innovan. Neil has enjoyed taking on the role of design manager, applying a decade of strategic and tactical experience to the business.

Mid 2014, the second opportunity presented itself with Sunbeam, an iconic Australian appliance manufacturer where he assisted them as interim Design Director for several months.

At the end of 2014, Neil founded Clandestine Design Group (CGD) whose mission is to covertly, collaboratively and creatively help entrepreneurs, businesses and venture partners with innovative design-driven strategic and tactical processes.

The firstborn from Neil’s collaborative efforts is the AUXILIARY Product Design School whose students work in a real consultancy, for real clients, on real projects, delivering commercially viable outcomes to industry standards.

Neil is always happy to connect to see how design can take on your business challenges and convert them to opportunities and solutions. Our ability to design and take on a range of challenges is what differentiates us…as Heinlein says, specialisation is for insects!