Services

 

Known for crafting highly creative, yet scientifically, technically, and economically robust solutions to complex and critical issues of environment and society, Melissa offers a range of commercial services that draw on her extensive hands-on experience of working at the leading-edge of innovation, enterprise, and sustainability from start-up to global corporation across multiple sectors worldwide.

Together with her scientific and technical skills as a chartered, post-PhD scientist with multiple prestigious fellowships and other honours to her name, and her strategic insights as a serial founder/cofounder of award-winning first-to-market companies and other initiatives, Melissa brings expert understanding of communications and creativity, having trained and worked across an array of design disciplines, and formerly led branding, marketing, public relations, sponsorship, event direction, and editorial across several prestigious for and not-for-profit ventures.

 A folio professional, Melissa works to both short and long-term client assignments, both in and out of house. Careful to avoid conflicts of interest, she is discerning in the briefs accepts and always seeks to work with clients that show a sincere desire to lead with integrity and inspiration, and to make tangible progress in tackling serious problems both within and beyond their organisations. 

Ways in which Melissa works with her clients include:

  • Strategic advisor to the executive board on catalysing, scaling, and managing pioneering sustainable innovation at the regional, national, and global level.

  • Designing and leading sustainable innovation and enterprise research and education programmes.

  • Authoring and co-authoring white papers and seminal reports on pioneering ways in which sustainable innovation can help mitigate problems of environment and society.

  • Delivering concise insights on issues at the interface of sustainability, innovation, and enterprise in both in-person and online keynotes, fire-side chats, and interviews.

  • Media figurehead and/or presenter of sustainable innovation-led campaigns across print, digital, radio, television, and film.

  • Consultant to film, television, and media companies on how emerging and possible near-future scientific, technological, engineering, and design breakthroughs may shape the future.

  • Conceptualising ground-breaking design solutions to complex problems at the interface of human and non-human, biotic, and abiotic systems.

Her disciplinary expertise extends across:

  • Issues of environment including climate change, biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, land-use change, and resource shortages.

  • Sustainable innovation in materials, design, engineering, manufacturing, construction, utilities, retail, and distribution.

  • Strategising solutions at multiple scales for diverse business-to-business, to-consumer, and hybrid markets worldwide.

  • Multi-stakeholder engagement across commerce, industry, government, education, press, and media.

Click the subsections to find further details on services provided.

  • Designing experiments and surveys; literary and other reviews; hosting workshops; speculative design, design fictions, and post-normal science; authoring reports, papers, articles, and interviews; scripting, advisories, and commentaries for film, radio, and other media; consultancy and project mentoring; and science communications and public engagement.

  • Identifying possible future opportunities and risks, including new products, markets, and models; scenario planning; horizon scanning, trend identification, analysis, and extrapolation; designing and hosting workshops and other participatory research; strategic advisories; project curating, critiquing, and mentoring; delivering keynote talks, provocations, and other in-person and virtual presentations and commentaries; and authoring reports, articles, opinion pieces, books, fictions, and scripts.

  • Board-level advisories on issues of foresight, sustainable innovation, concept origination, research, development, and due diligence, market creation and scaling, and environmental, social, and governance leadership. Convening global thought-leaders and other experts, and creating conversations with critical partners in industry, commerce, research and academia, government, and the media, through activities including but not limited to roundtables and other meetings.

  • Authoring articles, reports, papers, essays, chapters, opinion pieces, interview series, blogs, short films, radio shows, podcasts, and live events, including for mixed and hybrid formats in styles technical, creative, and experimental. Editing, critiquing, and supervising academic, creative, and commercial works, including thesis, books, and film scripts.

  • Delivering keynote speeches, provocations, fire-side chats, head-to-head interviews, and other talks; chairing, moderating, and facilitating panel sessions; contributing as a panellist and commentator in debates and discussions in both the private and public domain at events including conferences, seminars, expos, annual meetings, dinners, awards, product launches, and festivals.

  • Speculative design and design fiction; trends forecasting, reporting, and commentary; design conceptualisation and prototyping; directing and mentoring design projects, campaigns, awards, and publications; reviewing and critiquing design ideas; educating designers, design teams, and design-led projects and companies.

As a transdisciplinary researcher and practitioner with wide-ranging experience across multiple sectors, Melissa brings unique insights, expertise, and skills to assignments. Working both independently and through agents worldwide, her rates are quoted on application and dependent on the specifics of the brief in hand. All works are contracted, with deposits payable on signing.

Find Melissa’s resume with details of her past responsibilities, clients, and other credentials here.