West Vs China Tech
Elaine Ann is the Founder and Director of Kaizor Innovation, a strategic innovation consultancy that helps companies strategize, research, and define innovative products and services for the China market. Born and raised in Hong Kong and having lived in the U.S for 12 years, Elaine’s bilingual, bi-cultural and international background helps companies understand and strategize new product and services for the China market.
She is a veteran of the early dot-com era in the mid 90's having lived and worked in the U.S. for 12 years. She has worked for companies such as Razorfish, Philips Design, Henry Dreyfuss in New York, Silicon Valley and San Francisco and have designed the User Experiences of some of the very early Internet/technology businesses such as Schwab.com, Intuit's Quicken, the first Philips MP3 player and Philips Networked Home etc. in the 90's.
Elaine also trains executives and students alike on New Product/Services Innovation and User Experience. Elaine is the User Experience Instructor of the Google EYE (Empowering Young Entrepreneurs) Program of Chinese University in Hong Kong in 2014 training up 400 Entrepreneurs on User Experience and Design Innovation.
She is currently the Honorary Project Director for the Centre of Entrepreneurship of the Chinese University and is in the Cyberport Expert Network mentoring Tech Startups on User/Customer-Centric Innovation and User Experience (UX) as well as mentor at The Cage of Lane Crawford Joyce Group, Blueprint and Cocoon. Elaine is on the Advisory Committee and taught at two of the major design schools in Hong Kong: the Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design and the Hong Kong Design Institute. She also teaches the Executive Masters in Innovation Leadership at PolyU School of Design and MBAs at HKUST on Lifestyle Innovation. In 2014, she setup the WOW-X User Experience Bootcamp to train up both Startups and Designers bridging to Angel Investors. And in 2015, organised the UX China Tour visting 18 Chinese companies in 5 China cities including Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, WeChat etc. Recently, also organised the Experience Digital China - 1 Day Shenzhen Live Class to introduce the latest mobile/digital lifestyle in China that impacts many business decisions.
Elaine graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a BFA in Visual Communication Design and Masters in Interaction Design. She is also an EMBA alumni of the Cheung Kong Business School (Beijing) and Stanford Executive Education Design Thinking Bootcamp's alumni.