Irene’s career has focused on realizing the potential of technology and putting it in the hands of billions of people worldwide in a form that is easy to use and serves human needs. She is passionate about delivering better design to our world. She advises companies, coaches executives and designers, builds and leads teams, shapes organizational design and strategy, does public speaking and writing, and engages in non-profit work. A longtime operator in executive roles in high-growth companies such as Netscape (1996-1998), Yahoo! (1998-2006), Google (2006-2012), and Udacity (2012-2014), Irene has spent the last dozen years in venture capital as an operating partner focused on design and UX.

As the top design leader at Yahoo! and Google during their formative years, Irene founded the companies’ human-centered design practices, built high-performing teams with world-class talent, scaled her organizations, drove culture change, and oversaw research and design efforts across both companies’ entire portfolio of products and services.

At Udacity, Irene joined as employee 20 as VP of Product and Design and helped the company identify product-market fit. She helped Udacity realize its potential to offer project-based learning for motivated students who want to pursue technical careers at some of the world’s most prominent technology companies.

As Design Partner at Khosla Ventures, Irene coached and advised designers, executives, and founders of portfolio companies, from the seed stage to those that have exited. She was an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University, where she taught Product Design and frequently served as a guest lecturer in the Computer Science department. She is committed to serving as a strong mentor for the next generation of leaders in design and technology.

Irene taught yoga for 10 years at Avalon Yoga Center in Palo Alto, where she was among the teacher training program faculty.  She serves as a trustee for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Museum of Design and a juror for the internationally renowned Red Dot Design Awards. She is a frequent author and speaker on human-centered design, mindfulness practices, and creativity; many of the transcripts for her talks are published on Medium.

Irene authored the definitive O’Reilly book, Design in Venture Capital, and has been featured in Wired magazine, Fast Company magazine (2008, 2014), CommArts magazine, and on the cover of Mindful magazine.