Luma Shihabeldin

I am an innovation specialist that helps individuals, companies, and organizations identify new opportunities to improve, transform, and grow. I focus on mindset development, the future of work, and how both can impact our communities and environment. Through the power of design thinking, I facilitate the transformation of mindsets, help industries invent disruptive products and services, and design urban policies conducive for community wellbeing and engagement. My clients are as diverse as Sony, the World Government Summit, American Express, and the Qatar Museums Authority. I have also worked with award-winning startups – one for which I was instrumental in making engineering accessible, enabling anyone to build, prototype, and invent – and which has since collaborated with NASA and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

I am also Founder of MNDBAR, which combines emerging technologies with a bespoke ‘mind-fitness’ approach to achieve breakthrough transformations for individuals and organizations.

As Envisioning’s Foresight Ambassador, I also represent research at the intersection of technology and design thinking to solve complex challenges and enable my clients to shape the emerging future within the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

My work has earned a Best of AIGA 2008 award and has been published several times including Baseline Magazine, Graphis Magazine, and Graphis Designers USA. I teach periodically at American Universities internationally satisfying my innate nature to offer my knowledge and experience. I also facilitate global accelerators and incubators like Flat6labs and Astrolabs excited by seeing new ideas come to life.

I began my career with Futurebrand and Siegel+Gale in New York, working for clients like American Express Comcast, and Sony. I continued to work for acclaimed agencies like Wolff Olins and Landor Internationally. I hold a Bachelor of Engineering in Design from the American University in Beirut, a Masters in Design Entrepreneurship from the School of Visual Arts in New York, and I am an alumna of the THNK School of Creative Leadership in Amsterdam.

I believe that the construct of design has the power to increasingly influence our interconnected world, shaping perspectives and shifting cultures. My career has been focused on challenging norms, transforming perceptions, and striving for impactful design systems that nurture growth and development.