John Stoddard heads for US

Ideo director John Stoddard is moving from London to the consultancy’s Palo Alto office on the US West Coast in December.

Stoddard, who has been heading the London studio since 1979, says he will be “half designing, half floating” in his new role. “Consultancy founder Bill Moggridge said: ‘It would be nice to have you in California for a while,'” Stoddard says.

His role in London will be taken on by Tim Brown, who returned from California in August 1995 to fulfil the “forward-looking role” Moggridge previously held.

The London office runs a studio system “like two halves of a seed”, says Stoddard. He heads design, while Alan South leads the engineering team.