Cultural Diversity Roster

Mayden has fond memories of playing as a child and the power his creativity gave him. As a native of South Side, Chicago, he overcame a life-threatening childhood illness, which served as the basis of his ability to approach life with the superpowers of child-like curiosity and boundless imagination. Today, Mayden’s mission is to share his superpowers, use them for good and help today’s youth discover their own.   

Featured on multiple “most inspiring” lists, including Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business” and EBONY “Power 100”, Mayden is celebrated as one of the most inspiring and influential leaders impacting our world today. As with everything, Mayden approaches the stage with authenticity and a presence that often leaves his audience wishing for more time. He is a highly sought-after thought leader on social justice, youth advocacy, design, innovation, and ethical entrepreneurship. Mayden regularly speaks at conferences, universities, and corporate workshops worldwide, where he continues to share his inspiring personal story and mission “to build stronger children rather than fixing broken adults.”    

Mayden began his meteoric ascent while an undergraduate student at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) in Detroit, Michigan. During his time at CSS, Mayden set his sights upon Nike, and despite being rejected three times, he ultimately succeeded. Mayden joined Nike as their first Black Industrial Design intern and Jordan Brand’s first design intern in 2001. He climbed the ranks, working on everything from footwear to wearables for athletes like Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Russell Westbrook, and Chris Paul.   

Over his 13+ years at Nike, Mayden led Design as Jordan Brand’s Senior Global Design Director and digital product creation as Director of Innovation for Nike’s Digital Sport division. His approach to design was like that of an athlete – Mayden relentlessly honed his craft, stayed focused, and remained open and willing to cultivate new skills. At the height of his career at Nike, Mayden earned a spot as a prestigious Sloan Fellow at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, where he received his MS in General Management & Social Innovation.     

In 2014, Mayden left Nike and went to Silicon Valley in hopes of taking his design abilities to new frontiers. He became a d.Fellow at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.School) and the first Designer-In-Residence at the world-renown venture capital firm, Accel, where he researched, incubated, and launched the generation-shaping award-winning enterprise, Super Heroic.   

Often regarded as the first kid-centric play performance brand to design and build a multi-modal system of play, Super Heroic’s mission was to “entertain, delight and surprise every child in the world through imaginative, and interactive play.”   In a time when diversity is a hotly discussed topic, Trillicon Valley was created to go beyond quotas and performative acts of diversity. The core mission of the award-winning design and strategy consultancy links diversity with youth culture and the tech sector. Trillicon Valley is about empowerment, belief, involving people of all walks of life, and providing them an opportunity to be heard and achieve more. Trillicon’s past clients include the NBA, NFL, MLB, Disney, Google, Spotify, ESPN, Andressen Horwitz, and Fear of God, to name a few. 

In 2022, Mayden will release A Kids Book About Design in partnership with A Kids Company About. He will also be releasing a self-published book in September 2022 as part of a collaboration between Georgetown University and Trillicon Valley.