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Our team—

It’s what we do—
and how we do it.

Our evolution

Empathy was founded more than ten years ago when Emma Saunders and Matthew Ellingsen saw their human-centered design approach had the potential to do more good for more people.

Today chief executive Liss Neustroski supports Matt and Emma in leading the Empathy team to help organisations truly understand their customers.

Meet the team

Our small, high-performing team brings together capabilities in anthropology, design, business consultancy and communications. Each of us has different skills, expertise, backgrounds and areas of responsibility.

For breadth and depth, projects always involve multiple team members.

The design mindset is at the heart of everything we do.

  • Understands what motivates people to behave the way they do and how this translates to business. Turns what Empathy dreams up into reality.

    Emma Saunders

    Founder and principal

  • Designer by day, dreamer by night. Matt thinks big ideas — but always balanced with that “99% perspiration” bit of the quote.

    Matt Ellingsen

    Founder and design director

  • Shapes strategy to set a course for positive change. Liss helps business leaders achieve goals with clarity and inventiveness.

    Liss Neustroski

    Chief executive

  • Notices everything. Combines deep knowledge, finely tuned instinct, and perceptive analysis to make sense of it all.

    Julie Watson

    Design research lead

  • Gentle curiosity and expert research knowledge combine for surprising discoveries about people.

    MaiLynn Stormon-Trinh

    Design research lead

  • California-residing cultural qualitative researcher, speed reader and intuitive theme tracker who whittles vast amounts of information into targeted, comprehensible deliverables.

    Ann Pistacchi-Peck

    Design research lead

  • Seeks truth through reason. Asks the right questions to understand context, connections, and opportunities.

    Rose Patterson

    Design research lead

  • Former BBC journalist who specialises in translating government and business doublespeak into plain English that truly sings.

    Megan Lane

    Content lead

  • Puts the bop in the bop-shoo-bop-she-bop. Rhythm-obsessed story distiller who sees the quickest path to helping others understand what you really mean.

    Nik Jarvie-Waldrom

    Senior writer + strategist

  • Versatile storyteller who gets to the heart of a question to connect people with information they need.

    Tessa Prebble

    Senior writer

  • Design explorer, collaborator, and communicator. Helps people realise their design potential and take ideas further.

    Tina Shirmohammadi

    Senior designer

  • Enables Empathy’s business and people to be at their best. Efficiency and support delivered with a beaming smile.

    Trudy Dalziel

    Operations support

Design greatness with us

We hire passionate people who want to create a better future by design. Our strength lies in our differences. We welcome people with different backgrounds and experiences from all around the world.

Our team is doing incredible things.

If you want to do some excellent work with some excellent people…

Get In Touch

We promise to grow your capacity for greatness across a range of projects.
We will offer steadfast support along the way.