About Us
Work With Us
Grounded in our history of pioneering design practice, the ID Executive Academy provides executive learning focused on your organization’s specific challenges.
Unlike traditional consultants, we build scalable and sustainable capabilities within your organization that become yours to own and evolve.
We work across roles and levels—from multiple cohorts of over 150 people to focused, small teams—enabling learners to apply design in their specific context, as well as see design as a catalyst for enterprise-wide transformation.
OUR APPROACH
Perform and Transform
Here’s how we ensure initial uptake as well as long-term impact:
- Work-Integrated Learning
Embed learning experiences directly into your organizational workflows. Work becomes a learning laboratory, reinforcing capabilities and returning immediate value. - Team-Focused Training
By bringing learning to teams in their own environments, challenges become opportunities. Teams begin to see differently, think expansively, and act decisively. - Practitioner Faculty
Advanced design faculty bring deep expertise in using design as a mindset for strategy, innovation, and change. - Tailored Modules
Our modular approach adapts to your industry, audience, and context. We meet you where you are to cultivate agility in your organization.
OUR PROCESS
Our modular approach puts your organization at the center. Here’s how we work together:
- We begin by understanding your organization’s unique challenges and goals.
Together, we determine what success looks like and identify who should be involved. - We customize our curriculum to address your specific context.
Lessons and topics are developed for your learners, and programming is kept visible for your leaders. - We determine impact according to your organization’s chosen metrics.
We establish clear success metrics and training KPIs that keep progress visible and tangible.
OUR PROGRAMS
Core Offerings
We design curated learning experiences that build skills while transforming organizational practices. These experiences are built around three core offerings that organizations can use independently, blend together, or customize further: Capability-building Series, Master Classes, and Custom Immersions.
Essential design capabilities enable organizations to navigate complexity and drive innovation.
Intensive workshops covering design fundamentals and specialized topics for teams and executives.
Custom immersive experiences that put design theory into practice.
OUR TEAM
Tony Bynum
Director of ID Executive Academy and Associate Industry Professor
Tony has partnered with clients and organizations on their adoption and application of the mindset, principles, and methods of strategic design since the 1990s. Trained in business and design, Tony blends the strategic thinking of an MBA with the human-centered tools and mindset of experience design to help organizations frame and clarify opportunities for purposeful growth and meaningful connection with his client’s users, customers, and communities.
Tony founded the Northwestern Mutual Design Thinking Center of Excellence at Northwestern Mutual in Milwaukee, WI where he was Principal Senior Director of Experience Design. He is also the Owner and President of LYMNL_, a growth and strategy consultancy that brings clarity, intention, and direction to a range of organizations, including Amazon, Bayer, Bose, BMW, LifeFitness, Motorola, SCJohnson, and Sonos.
Tony holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin, an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and a Master of Design Methods (MDM) from the Institute of Design.
Arrenius Karunakaran
Learning Experience Manager
Arrenius works with organizations to develop effective innovation practices that generate meaningful value for their stakeholders. His work bridges theory and practice by crafting experiences that enable professionals to apply human-centered practices in their unique contexts—including the Value Builder Index, a diagnostic tool he co-developed to help teams assess their design-driven performance.
Arrenius holds a Bachelor of Design from the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, a Master of Design from the Institute of Design, and an MBA from Illinois Tech’s Stuart School of Business.
GET STARTED
Request More Information
Email us at id-academy@illinoistech.edu or complete the form for general questions or partnership inquiries.