Ashley Couch Email & Phone Number

United States

New York, United States

Partner with executive teams and companies to launch, evolve, and scale their experiential products/services, brands and spaces. Clients include IKEA, NORNORM and more, mostly in the furniture, office + hospitality design, and real estate industries.- New Business Concepts- Differentiated Product Offerings- Experience + Design Strategy- Design- Interior Design- Furniture Design- Productization + Scaling- Market Customization/Adaptation - Brand Strategy + Storytelling

New York, United States

Delivered complex initiatives and cross-functional projects at the intersection of brand/business transformation, physical place design, and innovation.- Led C-suite through process to define and develop new place strategy offering (real estate strategy, master planning, design, storytelling)- Transitioned from a 'services' model to a 'solutions' model- Optimized process for cross-platform project delivery- Refreshed company brand- Adapted people strategy to hire and implement new product offering

New York, New York, United States

One of WeWork’s first 100 employees. Accountable for the definition and ongoing evolution of the physical product offering across all business/product lines.- Redirected overall team mindset from hyper-growth to hyper-focus (and from revenue to profitability)- Executed plan to move from a regionalized organizational structure back to a centralized/global structure- Redefined end-to-end processes, integrated across other product groups; reduced headcount by 50% while maintaining project quality, speed of delivery and budget (via playbooks and consultants)- Co-developed multidisciplinary product vision with other product leads (Brand, Member XP, Ops); partnered with Communications and Marketing on storytelling, and Member Engagement on brand experience definition and hospitality strategy- Directed space product playbook strategy for lean roll-out model; defined product evolution strategy

New York, New York, United States

Established and co-led a new multidisciplinary studio – ‘a design studio with a business mind’ – targeting specific company-wide goals and delivering surgical solutions quickly. Consolidated inputs from executives across organization to deliver innovative solutions prioritizing and maximizing social, environmental and economic impact.

New York, New York | London, Uk

Relocated to London to establish second largest delivery team in fastest growing region. Working with global/regional executive stakeholders, localized and value-engineered core and special product offering. In addition to signing off on all projects, hired, onboarded, and trained 30 architects and designers in less than one year, optimized process and tools to deliver more projects per designer than any other region by a factor of two, expanded into 8 new markets (Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Dublin, Moscow, Warsaw).

New York, New York

Led the global interior design team (35 ppl) during its first and second hyper-growth phases as the company expanded domestically and internationally into Europe, South America, Asia and Australia. Defined the spatial brand/experience DNA; established processes, standards and strategies for scaling consistent product globally.

New York, New York

Worked cross-functionally with leaders from Operations and Member Experience, managed the development of the first library of design and experience standards, incl. BIM integration and test fitting, furniture and finishes catalog, and design delivery process.

New York, New York | Sydney, Nsw

Leveraging operational experience as a former restaurant manager/owner, launched and managed a multidisciplinary design studio -- specializing in restaurant concepting, design, branding, and operations -- with projects in NYC, Australia and Europe.Utilized design + design process as a tool to:- Align goals amongst ownership, investors, FOH and BOH- Create holistic solutions (concept, brand, design, operations) setting up business and each stakeholder for success

New York, New York, United States

Columbia Laboratory for Architectural Broadcasting (GSAPP-Columbia University)Volume Magazine (Vol 24)

Berlin | Santiago De Chile | Los Angeles

While a student at SCI-Arc, worked with a number of award-winning firms in LA and Europe: concept design, competition design, CD sets, model-making, book-making, rendering, and digital fabrication.

Greater Los Angeles Area

M.Arch

Activities and Societies: Semester at UCSB - Media, Arts & Technology

Architecture

Publishing

Ba, Philosophy And Comparative Religion

Activities and Societies: Thesis Semester Abroad - Prague, Czech Republic - Art & Social Change