An interview with Julia Whitney
Julia Whitney is an Executive & Leadership Coach at Whitney and Associates and will be speaking on ‘In conversation: Planet as primary user’ at Leading Design London 2024 (6–7 November) at the Barbican Centre.
Julia Whitney works with leaders to help them make the most of what they’ve got. Her client list includes leaders and leadership teams from AWS, Autodesk, Bumble, Condé Nast, The Economist, IDEO and more.
Julia brings her own experience as a board level leader to her coaching practice. She led design teams for more than 20 years, in both the US and the UK, most recently as GM and Executive Creative Director for the BBC’s 150 person User Experience and Design department. She speaks at leadership conferences and is honoured to partner with Clearleft on their Leading Design Retreats and Group Coaching Programmes.
Julia’s passionate about tackling climate change and is on a mission to coach 1,000 climate leaders by 2035. Ahead of her talk at Leading Design London, we caught up with Julia about how design leaders are best placed to develop climate change solutions.
What would you say the top three character traits of an effective leader are?
Humility, courage, and empathy.
Which leader has had the greatest impact on you over the years?
In the past five years it’s been Christiana Figueres — the former UN climate chief who was the architect of the Paris Agreement of 2015 and embodies all three of those character traits (humility, courage. and empathy).
Why do you think design leaders are well placed to develop solutions the huge challenge of the climate crisis?
The challenge may be huge, but so is the scope of designers’ creativity and empathy! So design leaders are well placed to inspire their teams in this space. Especially when helping the people who use your products and services make the climate-conscious choices they often want to make anyway.
What drew you personally to this topic?
Some friends of mine got very involved in climate activism about 5-6 years ago. One of them sent me an article that rocked my world. That was the beginning for me. Since then I’ve co-founded a grassroots climate action charity, taken a course at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership, volunteered for Money Movers, and started coaching climate leaders in addition to design leaders.
What do you hope people take from this conversation?
I hope they think about this topic in a way that maybe they hadn’t thought about it before.
And finally, what are you currently listening to, reading or watching?
I’m watching Monsters on Netflix, I’m reading (irony alert) Julia, the feminist retelling of George Orwell’s 1984, and I’m listening to Outrage and Optimism a podcast co-hosted by Christiana Figueres, the leader I talked about above.
We are delighted to have Julia speak on ‘In conversation: Planet as primary user’ at Leading Design London 2024 (6–7 November).
Leading Design is brought to you by Clearleft, a strategic design consultancy based in the UK. We work with global brands to design and redesign products and services, bring strategic clarity, and transform digital culture.
