Jeremy facilitates epiphanies.
He’s an adjunct professor at Stanford University, co-author of Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Matters, a Thinkers50 Top Innovation Leader, and a General Partner at Freespin Capital. He’s the host of Paint & Pipette: The Art & Science of Innovation, and co-host of Beyond the Prompt.
He’s had the privilege of teaching nearly a million students of innovation worldwide. His blend of deep experience, sharp thinking and penetrating insight have earned him a reputation as a go-to advisor for CEO’s and start-up founders alike.
His current research passion is helping individuals and organizations accelerate their comfort and confidence leveraging generative AI.
Jeremy is a dynamic and engaging speaker who translates his research on discovery into transformative learning experiences.
He’s touched over a million students of innovation around the world since joining Stanford’s faculty in 2009. He’s written about his early experiences with design, and how it transformed his own self-identity on the blog: Commit An Epiphany.
For over a dozen years, Jeremy co-led the d.school’s Executive Education programs, creating a world-leading learning experience. One of the most prodigious collaborators at the d.school, Jeremy has taught alongside the likes of Lecrae, Dan Ariely, Laszlo Bock, and Greg McKeown. He has co-led a number of celebrated courses at Stanford, including Leading Disruptive Innovation and LaunchPad — which focus on creating real-world impact with the tools of design — and Transformative Design, a course that turns those same tools onto the most important project of all: students’ lives.
On his 10th birthday, his father asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Jeremy replied, “One of the people who carry boxes with handles.” Jeremy is a recovering investment analyst and management consultant who does not try to hide his love of spreadsheets. He came to Stanford’s Graduate School of Business with his heart set on leveraging his experiences in Africa and South America to pursue a career in economic development, but an unexpected encounter with the d.school while working at a start-up in India changed his trajectory. His time as a post-graduate design fellow showed him that how he worked was more important than what he did. Today, Jeremy helps people change their deeply-ingrained beliefs about themselves and discover, as he did, that it is possible to make a creative contribution to the world. He does this through teaching as well as by growing alongside his students to become better in his own life and work every day.
Jeremy is an Adjunct Professor at Stanford’s School of Engineering, where he has earned multiple “favorite professor” distinctions from graduate programs. He holds a BBA with Honors in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he graduated with distinction as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
“Jeremy's talk inspired and equipped over 30,000 people in Guatemala with the key tools and mindsets they need to solve the problems they're facing in these challenging times. Bravo!”
— Juan Stahl
Co-Founder of Ascending Mind Conference, Guatemala City, Guatemala
What People Are Saying
“I had the chance at dinner to ask in an open ended way for comments about the day -- and by far your talk was the highlight! We (faculty) were all admiring your mastery in engaging the group. This was really a virtuoso turn on the podium...thank you!…I really do admire both the substance of what you deliver in these talks and your incredibly engaging way of presenting it.”
— Dr Paul Yock
Martha Meier Weiland Professor of Medicine, Founding Co-Chair of Stanford's Department of Bioengineering, Founder and Director of Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign
“Jeremy Utley spent half-a-day with our clients opening the world of design thinking as a business practice. In short, he wowed them. It was amazing to see a room of 125 c-suite executives designing under Jeremy’s direction. The executives laughed and cried, reaching deep to design an experience that would delight and move a loved one.”
— Nathan Owen Rosenberg
Founding Partner of Insigniam
“Jeremy's work is truly impactful to international innovation audiences. I had the honor to host Jeremy's talk at the International Design Thinking Symposium organized by Stanford Center for Design and Innovation Research in Fall 2020, and his talk was definitely one of the highlights of the event. His talk was very insightful and inspirational not only to the industry attendees but also to the academic scholars in the design research community..”
— Dr. Soh Kim
Executive Director of Food Design Research, Center for Design Research, Stanford Engineering