Ayse Birsel

Ayse Birsel (pronounced Eye-Shay) is one of the world’s most renowned industrial designers, she has taken that same skill set and applied it to executive coaching. She coaches successful leaders in redesigning their next phase; those who are at an inflection point in their life: navigating a leadership transition, stepping into a new identity, looking for their next big idea or designing what comes next after a defining chapter closes.

She advises and helps CEOs and senior leaders unlock the things they didn't even know are holding them back, to see potential they didn't know exists, and design how to implement these now-seeable opportunities. She is the author of Design the Life You Love: A Step-By-Step Guide to Building a Meaningful Future, Design the Long Life You Love, and the creator of the Deconstruction–Reconstruction methodology. Ayse has helped thousands of people across the globe transform their lives by teaching them to solve life’s problems using design, earning her the nickname "Design Evangelista."

A sampling of Ayse’s client work includes:

• Coach to Marshall Goldsmith. Ayse coached the world's #1 leadership coach through multiple transformations in his life. Marshall credits Ayse for changing his life by 70%. Marshall realized he wanted to give everything he knows away for free in one of Ayse’s design sessions, an idea that became the 100Coaches.

• Design Leadership Through a Public Offering. Ayse coached the Chief Design Officer of a fast-growing AI company through its IPO — helping her define the ROI of design, sharpen her leadership narrative, and transition successfully into an advisory role.

• The Founder Who Sold to Microsoft. Ayse helped a serial entrepreneur find his purpose and focus after selling his first company to Microsoft. On the launch day of his second company, an AI education platform, he gave her credit for helping him get there alongside his family.

• The Founder Who Almost Sold. Ayse walked a successful founder back from selling the company she had built from scratch. Together they stripped away what was weighing her down and protected space for her best work, helping her avoid a potentially catastrophic decision and reach the next level in her career.

• Marshall Goldsmith Advisor. As a Marshall Goldsmith Advisor, Ayse co-coaches CEOs navigating their next phase alongside Marshall — his expertise in behavior change, hers in design and imagination. Together they help leaders reimagine who they are across the full arc of a long life. Marshall tells each client, Ayse is my coach.

Ayse is founding faculty at SVA Products of Design and a Fulbright Scholar. She was recognized by Thinkers50 among the top 8 coaches shortlisted for the Marshall Goldsmith Distinguished Achievement Award for Coaching and Mentoring. Ayse delivers keynotes to Fortune 500 companies and top conferences including Canva Create, Fortune, and the Fast Company Innovation Festival. She is a contributor to Harvard Business Review, INC., and Fast Company, and is frequently interviewed across leading media and podcasts. Her work is in the permanent collections of MoMA, Cooper Hewitt, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.