Maureen Thurston

DESIGN STRATEGY JUROR

Maureen Thurston has spent four decades leveraging design-led thinking as a competitive discipline in organisations, across Australia, and the USA. She is currently, Associate Director Client Solutions and Innovation Services at Swinburne University’s Design Factory Melbourne.

At Aurecon, Thurston held the inaugural role as Chief Experience Officer – a first for a global engineering firm. She launched and led a comprehensive culture change program that cultivated design capabilities resulting in multiple Innovation Awards from Australian Financial Review during her tenure. At Deloitte, she established design-led thinking as a core competency, helped launch their first innovation lab “The Source,” to advance the competitive positioning of Deloitte’s Consulting and Audit practices.

A fervent advocate for design’s strategic value, Thurston is Chair Emeritus of Good Design Australia (2010 – 2024). With a singular goal to bridge the gap between academia and industry practice, she is a lecturer, and has taught design leadership at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California and INSEAD in Fontainebleau France,

Throughout her career she has demonstrated how design can transform organisational culture, client experience, and competitive advantage—making complexity navigable and strategy tangible.