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Kevin Reid-Morris
Chief Executive Officer at OCAD U CO
Professional Background
Kevin Reid-Morris is a highly adept and entrepreneurial innovation executive with a notable history of consultancy, advisory roles, and investment across diverse industries. His extensive expertise lies in launching uniquely customer-centric ventures and innovations that not only resonate with target audiences but also drive significant business growth. Over the years, Kevin has successfully led major innovation programs and new business launches for some of the largest organizations globally. His expertise spans various sectors, including financial services, manufacturing, natural resources, retail, health care, education, and social services. His ability to merge innovation with practical business strategies has earned him respect and recognition in the professional community.
In addition to his practical experience, Kevin is a frequent speaker and author for distinguished publications, including the National Post, TEDx talks, Toronto Life, Trend Hunter, and University Affairs Magazine. He is passionate about sharing his insights and experiences with a wider audience, contributing to discussions on innovation, strategy, and design. His thought leadership is especially impactful when discussing the importance of user-centered approaches in the development of technologies and businesses in today's fast-paced market.
Education and Achievements
Kevin's educational background is foundational to his successful career. He completed a Master of Design (MDes) focusing on Strategy and Innovation at OCAD University. This advanced degree provided him with a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical skills that inform his approach to driving innovation in various contexts. His undergraduate studies in Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University further complement his design expertise, equipping him with a holistic understanding of market dynamics and business strategies.
His career has been marked by numerous prestigious roles that highlight his capabilities and contributions to the fields of innovation and business design. As a former Chief Executive Officer at OCAD U CO, Kevin led transformative initiatives aimed at integrating design practice with education. His time as an adjunct professor at OCAD University was equally significant, as he shared his insights and knowledge on strategy for innovation with aspiring leaders in the field. These experiences solidified his commitment to fostering a new generation of innovators.
Kevin's professional journey also includes strategic roles at Monitor Deloitte and Doblin, where he focused on innovation strategy and business design. His experience at Construction Specialties, Inc. as a Manager of Strategy and Innovation allowed him to delve into the specifics of how to tailor strategies that meet unique business challenges.
Notable Organizations and Contributions
Kevin has continuously contributed to the broader community through his involvement with several organizations. He currently serves on the Board of Management at The Corporation of the County of Prince Edward, where he helps guide strategic decisions that affect the local community. Additionally, he has participated in the Design Leadership Forum as a member of InVision, which underscores his dedication to staying at the forefront of design innovation and leadership.
His prior experience as a Limited Partner at Union Capital further illustrates his insight into investment strategies, particularly in companies that promise significant social impact and innovation. As a co-founder of M-Sasa, he demonstrated his commitment to applying design thinking to create solutions that address pressing social issues. Kevin's role as a researcher and co-author at nGenera Insight also highlights his dedication to utilizing data-driven insights to inform future innovations. Furthermore, his time as an Advisor and Director of Strategy and Innovation at CEO Global Network indicates his ability to provide high-level strategic advice to executives and organizations committed to growth and transformation.
Achievements
Over the years, Kevin has shaped a multifaceted career characterized by a commitment to innovation and human-centered design. His work across industries has garnered him a reputation as a thought leader, and he continuously seeks to inspire organizations to achieve bold innovations. He possesses a keen ability to foster advancements that redefine customer experiences through intricate design and strategic foresight.
Kevin remains highly passionate about supporting individuals from misrepresented communities. His willingness to refer talented individuals he has encountered throughout his career speaks volumes about his dedication to equity and inclusivity within the professional landscape. This greater purpose is facilitated by mentoring and providing opportunities for those who embody innovation and possess valuable perspectives.
In summary, Kevin Reid-Morris stands as an exemplary figure in the realm of strategic innovation. His career is a testament to his skills in innovation strategy, business design, human-centered design, and new venture development. With a robust educational background complementing years of rich experience, Kevin continues to inspire and lead based on his strong commitment to advancing innovation across multifarious industries. His ability to connect concepts, people, and systems makes him an invaluable asset to any organization he collaborates with.
tags':['innovation executive','entrepreneurial consultant','advisor and investor','business design','customer-centred ventures','innovation strategy','master of design','OCAD University','financial services expertise','manufacturing','health care innovations','retail strategies','education and social services','TEDx speaker','design strategy','scenario planning','human-centred design','corporate ventures','new venture development','community leadership','board member','social impact investing','mentorship opportunities','strategic advisor','design innovation'],
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Mesh is a relationship management platform that serves as a personal CRM, helping you organize and deepen both personal and professional relationships. It functions as a beautiful rolodex and CRM available on iPhone, Mac, Windows, and web, built automatically to help manage your network efficiently. Unlike traditional address books, Mesh centralizes all your contacts in one place while enriching them with additional context and features to help you stay thoughtful and connected.
Mesh works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Mesh offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
- Network Strength: Visualizes the strength of your relationships relative to others in your network
- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
- Home Feed: Displays updates about your network including job changes, news mentions, and birthdays
- Groups: Organizes contacts into meaningful categories
- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Mesh is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Mesh is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Mesh as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Mesh offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Mesh takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Mesh encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Mesh work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Mesh is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Mesh is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Mesh is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Mesh offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Mesh offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Mesh for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Mesh accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Mesh offers extensive integration capabilities. Mesh introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Mesh supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Mesh also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Mesh makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Mesh's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Mesh is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Mesh stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Mesh excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Mesh is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Mesh offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Mesh's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Mesh has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Mesh is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Mesh beneficial.
Mesh offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Mesh offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Mesh's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Mesh offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Mesh focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Mesh also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Mesh offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Mesh isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Mesh instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Mesh is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Mesh can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Mesh is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Mesh helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Mesh's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Mesh has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Mesh a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Mesh's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Mesh's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Mesh has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Mesh's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Mesh as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Mesh eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.