Erika Gregory

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Founder
Collective Invention

Erika Gregory is President and Founder of Collective Invention, a multi-disciplinary consultancy that leverages insights from organizational development, anthropology, architecture, design, the arts and business. Based in San Francisco, Collective Invention works businesses, schools, philanthropies, NGOS, corporations, and government agencies dedicated to innovation that serves the common good. Much of Collective Invention’s work focuses on breakthrough approaches to education, health, and environmental sustainability. Co-Founder (1997) of The Idea Factory, an international innovation consultancy based in Singapore, Erika has long led the invention of tools to support strategic innovation. She has also been responsible for cultivating relationships—many of which have spanned years—with key clients and partners in Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States. She has designed and managed projects for Fortune 100 clients in telecommunications, automotive, technology, financial services, international shipping, and advertising. A master of group facilitation, Erika’s expertise is in the leadership of collaborative innovation programs. Because she firmly believes that transformative ideas often result from transformative experiences, Erika designs client programs that stimulate both intellect and imagination, including visits to the future, simulations, and learning journeys. From 1994-1997, She was Director of Scenario Communications at Global Business Network (GBN), where, among other things, she produced the interactive “Museum of Unintended Consequences.” Since 2005, Erika has been leading Collective Invention’s work with the New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts (NOCCA), a New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), a regional, pre-professional arts training center for secondary students planning to expand into a residential ful-day arts/academics conservatory program. In collaboration with the Exploratorium’s Teacher Institute and NOCCA’s faculty and staff, Collective Invention is co-designing a science curriculum for young artists; what is learned in the science prototype will in turn inform the development of history, humanities and math curricula. Erika is collaborating with the New Media Consortium (NMC) to convene an international council to advise in this process. A 1985 graduate of the Juilliard School, Erika has written, directed and produced in a variety of media, from live theater to videotaped dramatization, strategy simulations and installations. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Loren Mollner, and their two small children.