Our mission
The Design Executive Council is the premier membership network for corporate design executives and the business leaders who partner with them to drive enterprise transformation.
We are dedicated to advancing the strategic role of design leadership in shaping how companies grow, optimize, and innovate—helping Chief Design Officers, Chief Experience Officers, CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, and Boards drive business performance with design.
Through our three core programs, we empower executives and organizations to address critical challenges and opportunities facing business—ensuring design and experience leadership are utilized as central forces in shaping the future of business value creation.
We serve design executives through our Council Membership, and businesses through our Enterprise Membership and Research Platform, helping leadership teams build stronger capabilities, more connected organizations, and strategies that link human experience to business results.
How we work
At the heart of DXC is our invitation-only Council, a global community of senior design executives who define the standards and practice of strategic design leadership. Members collaborate on research, participate in closed-door dialogues, and co-author frameworks that elevate the business impact of design within their companies and industries.
Participation is by invitation, ensuring each member brings relevance, perspective, and strategic alignment to the collective. Through curated membership programs, we develop future design executives and amplify the influence of today’s top design executives—ensuring design leadership continues to grow in relevance, reach, and impact.
Explore membershipWe partner with leaders in leading corporations to strengthen design leadership capabilities across within and beyond design teams. Through tailored advisory, insights, and executive-level research, we help organizations foster the knowledge, skills, and cultural behaviors necessary to advance experience maturity and business performance.
Get in touchWe collaborate with leading technology, research, media, and professional service organizations that share our mission to elevate the role of design in business.
Through strategic partnerships, we co-create research, convene executive dialogues, and produce thought leadership that advances both our partners’ business goals and the industry’s collective intelligence.
These collaborations enable companies to reach senior design and experience leaders across global enterprises, gaining meaningful engagement, visibility, and insights into the evolving priorities of the world’s top design organizations.
Our history and essence
The Design Executive Council began as a graduate thesis project in 2022, when our founder Gordon Ching, asked a curious question to design leaders:
That question sparked numerous discussions and an eventual formation of a small, committed group of design leaders—first in San Francisco, then expanding to New York and Seattle. Our first gatherings centered around bringing peers together for dinner every quarter, a beloved tradition that remains.
As we listened and learned from the needs, visions, and ambitions of design leaders, this organization was born—not as a solution, but as a collective commitment. A commitment to honor our shared love for design, the opportunity to raise a new generation of design leaders, and to tirelessly bridge the worlds of design and business in service of something greater.
Today, we’re a fully operational company led by our Founder & CEO, supported by a board of advisors representing design executive voices, council members and corporates, industry partners, subscribers, and a broader community of leaders invested in the future of design’s role in business and society.
