José Manuel dos Santos, IDSA | Masco
José Manuel dos Santos trained in industrial design earning a master’s from the Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design in London. In 1989 he started at the largest brand consultancy in Portugal “Novodesign” as an industrial designer, and left eight years later as an executive director. He started his own industrial design enterprise, granDesign, leading the company to the best of its class. He worked for four years in Barcelona with the largest product innovation consultancy in Spain, CDN International/NODE, assuming roles of design director and international account manager. Dos Santos led the design area of Innovagency in Portugal for a year, and was part of the strategy consultancy spin-off ReturnOnIdeas. He started Diverge in August 2008, a design-led product innovation company focused on the producers with or without private label and on the retail and distribution channels. He sold Diverge to its best client and went to work for him, Delta Cafés, managing the Delta Q business unit of Delta. Now back to doing what he loves most: design, design managment, use design thinking as a strategic tool, transforming with and through the use of design at Masco design as a design Studio Manager. A member of the Advisory Board of the Design Management Institute for over 10 years, an international speaker and jury member, an invited professor at the Universidade Católica for executive training.
