Ashley is Professor of Design Innovation in the school of design at the Royal College of Art in London and a visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. With an MA from the RCA and PhD from the University of Technology in Sydney he has a background in design practice, teaching and research. He joined the Royal College of Art in 2006 lecturing and researching on the Innovation Design Engineering programme. He now leads postgraduate research for the school of design and the MRes in Healthcare Design with Imperial College and is acting head of programme for the MA’s in Design Products and Design Futures. Ashley researches in design innovation methods ranging from innovation strategy to design thinking, design for safety, experimental design, design pedagogy, globalisation design and cultural transfer. His international activity includes leading cross-cultural design innovation collaborations in Australia, China, Ghana, India, Israel, Palestine ,Japan, Korea, Norway, Mali and the USA. He has developed and led commercial-academic partnerships in a range of different industrial sectors from transportation to communications including Airbus Industries, British Airways, BBC, Coca-Cola, Ford, Guzzini, Huawei, Lloyds Register Foundation, O2Mobile, 3 Mobile, Philips Lighting, Samsung, Sharp, Swarovski and Unilever.