Tony Bynum

Tony Bynum is a Professor of Practice at the Institute of Design and the director of the ID Academy. He has partnered with clients and organizations on their adoption and application of the mindset, principles, and methods of Strategic Design Thinking 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 communit(ies).

Tony has taught at Rutgers, CEDIM’s School of Design, and Lake Forest College. Tony has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin, an MBA from the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, an MDM from the Institute of Design. He has also completed graduate studies in organizational psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Industry Experience

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. Tony is also the Owner and President of LYMNL_, a growth and strategy consultancy that partners with organizations to bring clarity, intention, and direction to challenging human-centered opportunities. His clients have included Amazon, Bayer, Bose, BMW, LifeFitness, Motorola, SCJohnson, and Sonos.