Creative Leaders is not just about those whose teams make great work, but is also here to celebrate and draw on the expertise of those who are helping to solve some of the biggest issues facing society. And they don’t come much bigger than the changing demographics of our population.
Much of the narrative around the growing numbers of older people has been relentlessly negative: Georgina Lee is at the forefront of attempts to change that narrative and to encourage the development of products and services that work not just for older people but for all.
She started out as an organisational psychologist studying for her MSc in London in 1995. However she soon realised that radical organisational change could be achieved more effectively and more successfully using the power of design and creative thinking. In 2002, the year her daughter Iris was born, Lee co-founded design company, This is Real Art, working with the likes of Channel 4, Sony, Virgin, MTV, Coca-Cola amongst many others on award winning, highly innovative campaigns.
But in 2012, Lee realised that she needed a change and decided to devote her passion and skills to use design and innovation to solve social issues. In 2012 she started Commonland, a studio dedicated to using design-thinking to tackle big social issues. After meeting Dr. Jonathan Collie she embarked, with him, on a mission to tackle ageism head-on, fuelled by a mutual vision to create a cohesive and dynamic multigenerational society.
In 2014, Lee and Collie co-founded The Age of No Retirement a research, development and innovation social enterprise, combining live events, online innovation platforms, positive storytelling and design frameworks, collaborating across sectors and all ages. George’s passion is in how to innovate together as citizens, workers and consumers to change the narrative, create new intergenerational stories, discover new age-positive innovations, and build a society we all aspire to live in, for all ages.
