speaker-info

Amy Heymans

Chief Design Officer - Opening Keynote Speaker

Amy serves as Chief Design Officer of United Healthcare, part of the UnitedHealth Group family of businesses where she works to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. Amy believes that purpose driven design can improve the human condition. She is a designer, futurist, visionary, and innovator focused on collaboratively designing a better future. She applies her expertise in improving experiences as an advisor, speaker, writer, teacher, and facilitator. She works with those interested in finding their purpose, aligning with the people they serve, crafting a brave vision, and  transforming their organization in the direction of that vision. She is both knowledgeable and passionate about health, financial wellbeing, social impact, and sustainability.

Before joining United Healthcare, she co-founded Mad*Pow in 2002 and nurtured its growth into a leading global strategic design consultancy that delivers positive social impact and business outcomes. Mad*Pow was acquired by TechMahindra in 2019 and the business continues to thrive today.  Her work empowering human-centered innovation with companies across the health and finance ecosystem has helped improve the experiences they deliver both inside and outside of the organization. She founded Mad*Pow’s Health Experience Design Conference in 2011 with the vision of connecting a community to discuss important topics and inspiring motivation in the direction of positive change and the conference still continues today. The Center for Health Experience Design that Amy founded in 2016 served as a conduit to form partnerships between large organizations with shared objectives and crowdsource innovation in exciting possibility areas. While at Mad*Pow she also launched and hosted the Better Experiences Podcast where she interviewed leaders in design and innovation.

As a speaker, Amy shares her vision globally at influential events such as TedX, Design Management Institute, UXPA, IA Summit, Stanford MedicineX, Health 2.0, AHIP, and HIMSS.  She is an assistant professor in Massachusetts College of Art’s Masters Program for Design and Innovation Leadership teaching classes on experience design, sustainable business models, corporate social responsibility, and design leadership. She also guest lectures for Boston University’s MPH Program, MIT’s Systems Design Program, UNH’s Entrepreneurship Program, and Kent State’s Health Leadership Program. She serves as a guest speaker for many organizations looking to energize, inspire, and train their staff.

Amy was honored to earn Mad*Pow a spot on Inc. 500’s list of fastest growing privately held companies in 2009 and be named as one of Mass High Tech’s Women to watch in that same year. Her passion, energy, and commitment has  been acknowledged by being named one of Boston’s “40 Under 40” by the Boston Business Journal in 2014 and MedTechBoston in 2015,   as one of PharmaVoice Magazine’s “100 Most Inspiring People” in 2018, and as an “Outstanding Woman in Business” by The New Hampshire Business Review in 2022.

Amy is on the board of An Orphan’s Dream, a nonprofit organization offering an oasis for children orphaned by AIDS and domestic violence in Gachoka, Kenya and she serves on the Advisory Council of Ward Infinity, a social innovation program at Johns Hopkins Sibley Memorial Hospital. She is ever curious and is now expanding her horizons through studies in Futures Thinking and Speculative Foresight at the University of Houston.

My Keynote

Opening Keynote – Amy Heymans

Pacific Jewel Ballroom

Amy believes that purpose driven design can improve the human condition. She is a designer, futurist, visionary, and innovator focused on collaboratively designing a better future. She applies her expertise in improving experiences as a strategy consultant, leadership advisor, speaker, writer, teacher, and facilitator. She works with those interested in finding their purpose, aligning with […]

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