Full Name
Jason Mayden
Job Title
Founder + Creative Director
Institution Name
TRILLICON®️✨
Speaker Bio
Jason Mayden is making the world a better place – and making history while he does it. He is the CEO & Co-Founder of Trillicon Valley, an award-winning design & strategy consultancy specializing in new venture creation and multi-stakeholder partnership negotiations for athletes, entertainers, and global creatives. Mayden made waves as the former Senior Global Design Director for Jordan Brand and former President of Fear of God Athletics, a partnership between Jerry Lorenzo's Fear of God and global sportswear giant Adidas.
Mayden is part of the inaugural cohort of Super Angels for Acrew & Concrete Rose, focused on providing capital and building pathways for Black and Latinx Entrepreneurs. An initiative putting capital into the hands of underrepresented operators, Acrew & Concrete Rose has the goal of sourcing and seeding great companies at the earliest stages.
Mayden is also a co-founder of the award-winning enterprise Super Heroic, which created kid-centric designs, narratives, and experiences focused on amplifying the power and potential of multi-modal play.
In partnership with A Kids Company About, Mayden released A Kids Book About Design, a book intended to empower kids to share their ideas but also regarded as “required reading for all CEOs” by Fast Company. Mayden released a self-published memoir, The Speed of Grace, in collaboration with Georgetown University, New Degree Press, and Trillicon Valley. The book guides the reader through the behaviors and principles he used to pursue creative, physical, professional, personal, and emotional growth.
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.
Mayden left Nike for Silicon Valley in hopes of taking his design abilities to new frontiers.
He became a Fellow at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.School) and the first Designer-In-Residence at the world-renowned venture capital firm, Accel, where he researched, incubated, and launched the generation-shaping and 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, Mayden founded Trillicon Valley in order 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.
Mayden is part of the inaugural cohort of Super Angels for Acrew & Concrete Rose, focused on providing capital and building pathways for Black and Latinx Entrepreneurs. An initiative putting capital into the hands of underrepresented operators, Acrew & Concrete Rose has the goal of sourcing and seeding great companies at the earliest stages.
Mayden is also a co-founder of the award-winning enterprise Super Heroic, which created kid-centric designs, narratives, and experiences focused on amplifying the power and potential of multi-modal play.
In partnership with A Kids Company About, Mayden released A Kids Book About Design, a book intended to empower kids to share their ideas but also regarded as “required reading for all CEOs” by Fast Company. Mayden released a self-published memoir, The Speed of Grace, in collaboration with Georgetown University, New Degree Press, and Trillicon Valley. The book guides the reader through the behaviors and principles he used to pursue creative, physical, professional, personal, and emotional growth.
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.
Mayden left Nike for Silicon Valley in hopes of taking his design abilities to new frontiers.
He became a Fellow at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.School) and the first Designer-In-Residence at the world-renowned venture capital firm, Accel, where he researched, incubated, and launched the generation-shaping and 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, Mayden founded Trillicon Valley in order 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.
Speaking At
