BESTie Andy Dong returning to California after being appointed chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts (CCA).  Professor Andy Dong’s research addresses the central activity of engineering: the design of new products and services. Prior to his appointment at CCA, Andy joined the University of Sydney in 2003 after completing his PhD and postdoctoral training in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He started in the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning as a Lecturer and eventually became the Head of Discipline for the Design Lab. In 2010, he was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship.

From the CCA website:

Andy Dong, formerly the Warren Centre Chair for Engineering Innovation at the University of Sydney in Australia, has been appointed chair of the MBA in Design Strategy program at California College of the Arts.

Dong, who completed his PhD in mechanical engineering at University of California, Berkeley, comes to CCA after 13 years at the University of Sydney. He began his career as an architecture, design, and planning faculty member and eventually moved on to a position as head of discipline for the school’s Design Lab.

In 2012, he was appointed the Warren Centre Chair for Engineering Innovation. His research over the years has focused largely on artificial intelligence as well as the design of new products and services.

“In taking on the role as the new chair of the program, my mission is to make the course as transformative and connected as possible,” says Dong.

“More broadly, my goal is to make CCA’s MBA in Design Strategy not only an amazing physical place but an intellectual movement. We want the whole world to know that right here, at this school, with these people and these students, we are creating a whole new grammar for business, a grammar in which the principles of good design are also the guiding principles of a business’s value creation process.”

Dong has authored dozens of articles for academic journals as well as the 2009 book The Language of Design.