Cara. Thomas
AWEN LABS FOUNDER
ABOUT THE FOUNDER
For the past 20 years, Cara has focused on empowering leaders and organizations to access their ability to uncover the unexpected.
Cara built her career as a Lead Inventor at What If in New York and Singapore, developing brands, products, and business models for blue-chip companies around the world.
Collaborations led to the creation of multi-billion dollar business models for healthcare companies, published work on how millennials will uproot the concept of innovation, and the launch of award-winning packaged-goods products.
She has worked across industry, from fashion and retail to consumer goods to healthcare and tech. By taking a broad approach, Cara is able to uncover unexpected insights and develop breakthrough ideas.
Her passion for and experiences with innovation leadership has led her to coach hundreds of Fortune 500 executives in Japan, Korea, China and the US/Canada. This training is crucial to enhancing mindsets and embedding transformation initiatives into corporate culture.
She has guest lectured at Columbia Business School and USC Marshall School of Business as well as taught innovation courses at Middlebury College.
Her career began at the Aspen Institute, after graduating with a degree in International Relations from Brown University.
Born in Australia and raised in New York City, she has been traveling since before she could walk. She brings a global perspective to all endeavors while embracing regional nuance — a viewpoint developed while studying in five countries and exploring over forty.
These personal adventures and her international curiosity add spark to her innovation practice and fueled her first product, Serenflipity: a game published by Hachette that is designed to foster serendipitous and connected experiences. The product has been covered on NBC News, and Cara’s entrepreneurial journey was featured in Forbes and on The Unmistakeable Creative.
Recent Press:Flipping the Script:
How Cara Thomas Is Redefining Entrepreneurship and Embracing Human Connection (Nasdaq)
“Cara and the team did in three months what would have taken a management consultancy a year — and we had a fun, immersive journey that helped us see our market and customers in new ways.”
WHY AWEN
Awen is the Welsh and Celtic term to denote the divine inspiration or creative flow that allows one to create with profound insight and artistry.
It is the ability to channel intuitive understanding and insight to foster deep connections and innovative solutions.
We believe this spirit is what drives empathetic leadership, bold ideas, and transformative business practices — and it enables leaders to inspire collective growth, wisdom, and innovation.
LET’S CONNECT
We would love to hear about your innovation ambitions.
Feel free to reach out to us here.