Quick Facts
Biography
Kohei Nishiyama (born 1970 in Hyogo Pref., Japan) is Kohei Nishiyama is CEO and Co-Founder of ELEPHANT DESIGN HOLDINGS ltd., and Founder of CUUSOO SYSTEM ltd CUUSOO.com, an online user innovation community, which collects users' ideas and turns them into real products. Since 1997, sixty wishes have been realized both in products and services. Currently 140,000 users, 3,000 designers and 500 manufactures participate in this platform. CUUSOO is used in universities as official curriculum and more than thousand students have benefited from this entrepreneurial educational experience.
Profile
He spent his teenage years in Colombia then returned to Japan to enter Tokyo university.
While he was at the university, he started a tailor made bag business, and studied industrial design at Kuwasawa Design Institute.
Prior to founding CUUSOO.com and elephant design, Kohei was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he primarily handled new product development projects.
- 2002
He became a judge to Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP). - 2005
He was selected as one of “US-Japan Innovators” by The Japan Society,
which is the leading U.S. organization committed to deepening mutual understanding
between the United States and Japan in a global context since 1907.
- 2007
He was selected as The Young Global Leaders(YGL) from The World Economic Forum(WEF) - 2008
He was chosen as The Global Agenda Council (GAC) by WEF. - 2010
He became a member of International Selection Committee for
the 2014 designation of
World Design Capital from ICSID ( International Council of Societies of Industrial Design ).
Also, he was accepted a position a committee member and a judge for the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Arts,
Manufactures and Commerce, and became an advisor to the Secretariat of Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters of Japanese Government.
- 2011
He was selected a member of The Board to ICSID (The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design). - 2012
He was chosen as a member of The Board to Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP)
and became a member to Japan Industrial Designer's Association.
He is currently advising the Danish government to build the world first public user innovation platform, JOIN.dk
- 2014
He was selected our Most Creative People in Business 1000 by fastcompany
Organization
- Founder and Chairman, elephant design co., ltd.
- Founder of CUUSOO.com (online user innovation community)
- Co-founder of Open Hippel (NPO, open platform to promote user innovation)
- Co-founder of Student Innovation College (NPO, entrepreneurship education)
- Good Design Award Committee Member (Japanese National Design Award)
- Young Global Leaders Profile : World Economic Forum