Heike Rapp is a senior design leader, design strategist and change maker.  

She began college exploring genetics and the essence of life. As she explored more possibilities (because she is very curious) she found her way into design and the intersection of people, their motivations and passions, and things, and the ways of using technology to give people super powers. Her work has always focused on the wonder that makes us human and how we can humanize technology.  That early exposure to the most complex system of all, nature and life itself, and the scientific method, have always grounded her leadership approach. 

As employee number one at oldnavy.com she pioneered creating digital experiences that drove revenue in an entirely new medium, the website that would sell clothes online. Imagine that. 

At Autodesk, she built a team to drive brand strategy, design and customer experience for the company that allows you to "make anything". She fostered a bias towards action, grew a team of strong and confident creative team members, and enabled a small team to drive outsized impact on the leading engineering authoring tool platform in the world. 

At SAP, she had taken on the challenge to create a harmonized user experience for the C4 Hana Suite. In an engineering-driven environment, Heike continues to be one of the main advocates for human-centered design.

She was the first VP Design at Collibra, a Data Intelligence company, where she built up a powerful team to design and build product experiences for people beyond CIOs.

At Planet Labs, the satellite and Earth observation company, Heike was the first VP Product Design. Again, she built a Design team to unify the various complex and complicated geospatial products to create understanding and a faster path to insights for people. She was also chosen to be on the Ethics Committee, because principled decisions are important.

Heike has facilitated C-level business strategy, design and brand workshops, and has been a keynote speaker at a number of events highlighting the power of design within a business context.

BFA Industrial Design

MBA in Design Strategy