In his role as Design Practices Lead at ExxonMobil, Nick Cochran’s mission is to promote understanding of human centered design, to make design work in ExxonMobil, and to make designers more impactful. He leads a central design operations team focused on enabling design through education, careers, community, practices, and design systems.

Nick’s passion for design started back in the 80’s with Lego and then found a more practical outlet in the 90’s with web site design. After working as a developer for several years at ExxonMobil, he realized his passion for crafting great experiences had a formal home and a future in the world of design. In 2015, he turned this passion for design into a role as head of the fledgling User Centered Design team.

About 4 years later, the design discipline has grown to over 80 people, the UCD mindset and practices have permeated the culture of the IT division, and the principles of design thinking and human-centered problem solving are making significant inroads into all major business units. Nick Cochran now has his sights on an even larger goal: teaching people the proper way to pronounce GIF. Nick currently resides in Spring, TX with his incredible wife and their three delightful children.