Industry Coach

While growing up in San Francisco, Sam Yen wanted to be an astronaut. His dream actually going to space abruptly ended when he was fitted for his first pair of glasses in the sixth grade. Nonetheless, Sam’s fascination with the space industry led him through Cornell’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering program before arriving at Stanford’s Aero/Astro Program where he worked with a student satellite team to contribute to the growing number of satellites that orbit our planet (it’s ok, space is a big place). After spending some time working with NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Sam realized that it was the design process that was the interesting part for him, so he switched departments and did a PhD in Design Theory and Methodology with Larry Leifer at the Center for Design Research.

As most Stanford graduates did in 2000, Sam co-founded a start-up called Covigna, Inc., an enterprise software company that delivered contract management solutions. As Director of Strategic Engagements, he worked closely with customers to ensure that product capabilities met customer expectations. Sam has broad experience with large-scale, multi-national technology implementations at Global 2000 companies, including General Motors. Now, Sam works in the Design Services Team (DST) at SAP. The DST is a multi-disciplinary group in the Office of the CEO tasked with accelerating the adoption of Design Thinking as a process for innovation and development of internal and external SAP products and services in all areas of the SAP Value Chain.