Sunaina Mehta
Founder, Design Your Next
Strategic designer working with identity, ambition, and what comes next.
Choosing yourself is the most graceful act of rebellion.
Power. Position. Systems.
I no longer accept power that assigns my place in the world.
I choose my own frame of ambition.
I call this kindly formidable — strength that does not abandon care, and care that does not dilute strength.
Systems are the structures that assign roles and dictate how ambition is expressed. I work with women as they step outside of them and begin designing their own position.
Lived Practice
For over two decades, I worked inside global brand and innovation systems — translating human insight into strategic direction at scale. And throughout my life, I have navigated significant socio-cultural and economic shifts.
I have seen how power moves and how it can both elevate and suppress who we are.
We all have blind spots — we are conditioned to accept rather than question convention in order to achieve success. When it’s gone too far, I have always chosen my own way.
Design Your Next is how I approach my career and life. I hold clear lines around independence, integrity, and personal agency.
I do not teach this work from the outside.
I model it through my own ongoing evolution.
Leadership & Formation
Leadership
Founder, Design Your Next
Board Member, Design Forward Alliance
VP, Global of Head of Insights, HP
SVP, Head of Strategy, MullenLowe
Head of Strategy, Wieden+Kennedy (India)
Head of Strategy, Leo Burnett (India)
Education
MS Strategic Design, Parsons School of Design
MS Integrated Marketing Communications, Northwestern University
Bachelor of Architecture, Sushant School of Art & Architecture
Ventures & Recognition
Founder, Know Me Saké
Creator, The Leela Collective
Cannes Gold & 15+ awards for marketing effectiveness
