Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian

If you’re looking for a dynamic super creative who will (literally) add rocket fuel to your events and campaigns - Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian will deliver in spades. She is known for electrifying audiences and leaving an impression that resonates long after she has left the room. Dubbed the Willy Wonka of Design and Science, award-winning director and Designer of Experiences, Hayoun-Stépanian is a critical explorer and a fearless and passionate provocateur combining experiences, ideas, design, technology, film, radical pedagogy, music, and art.

Over the past 15 years, she has performed and spoken about her unique practice and transdisciplinary expertise to sold-out shows and in the world's biggest venues and stages. Her passion is always authentic, truthful, and accessible, and it is felt by any individual with 17,500 people at the Hollywood Bowl or in a more intimate setting with a handful of individuals. She inspires, and she shares her positive energy and learning with everyone in attendance. As an experienced keynote speaker, she has spoken worldwide about experiential design practices in the context of nightlife, outreach, community, and education. Hayoun-Stépanian is also a radio host and a host who has been an MC on multiple events such as the Dezeen Awards. In conversation, hosting panels, or opening or closing keynote, she is very at ease on stage, and she enjoys making the audience participate.

She has held an astonishing range of first-of-its-kind roles. As a Designer of Experiences at the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute), she founded the world's first International Space Orchestra, a group made up of NASA space scientists and astronauts. Hayoun-Stépanian’s musical collaborations include grammy-award winning artists such as Kid Cudi, Pussy Riot, Damon Albarn, Bjork, Sigur Ros, Beck, and most recently, The Avalanches.

Hayoun-Stépanian works across disciplines; she is an Associate Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities, where she works to support plurality and the freedom of thinking across borders, Vice Chair of the IAF (International Astronautical Federation) Technical Committee on the Cultural Utilization of Space (ITACCUS), a member of the IAF Space Education and Outreach Committee (SEOC), and a member of the IAA (International Academy of Astronautics) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) permanent committee amongst others since 2013, and a founding member of the IAF Inclusion, Diversity and Equity Administrative (IDEA) committee in 2023. In 2022, she was granted a Karman Fellowship and took part in a one-year program designed to support 15 carefully selected global leaders to strengthen personal relations, meet with thought leaders in technology, science, business, politics, and the arts, and take personal commitments to further advance space-related agendas for the betterment of humanity. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian was the chief of Experiences at file transfer service WeTransfer for 10 years working with WeTransfer's president Damian Bradfield towards building a sustainable B Corp Business, Nelly also assisted in the business development and strategy in the USA. During Ben Hayoun-Stépanian's tenure at WeTransfer, the company grew its client base from 10,000 users to 90 million active users a month.

Now, if you’re ever in the mood for a wild ride, Hayoun-Stépanian has also led multiple large-scale scientific and cultural expeditions, trained special forces such as FEMA (The Federal Emergency Management Agency) in the USA or the United Nations on space disasters such as near earth objects and asteroid impacts. Her design practice brought her investigation to the empty lands of the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone and the Large Hadron Collider, CERN, situated 100m below ground. She has also collided atoms at SLAC (National Accelerator Laboratory), trapped herself in a Soyuz rocket capsule in Baikonur Cosmodrome, and experienced a sonic Booum in the neutrino Observatory Super Kamiokande in Japan while hunting for extremophiles and the worms of Hell in platinum mines in South Africa.

Hayoun-Stépanian is the author and director of five feature-length documentaries: The International Space Orchestra, 2013; Disaster Playground, 2015; I am (not) a monster, 2019; Tour de moon (2023) and Doppelgangers3 (2024), which have screened at film festivals such as SXSW, CPH DOX, BFI London Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, Gothenburg Film Festival, and many more. For them, she was awarded grants from the Sundance Institute and the British Film Institute Doc Society.

Her design work has been exhibited at the National Museum of China, MOMA, V&A, the MET, and other leading design institutions. Wired awarded her their inaugural Innovation Fellowship in 2014, and Icon magazine recognized Dr. Ben Hayoun-Stépanian as one of the top 50 designers “shaping the future.” In 2018, Hayoun-Stépanian was distinguished as the first on the list of the top 50 best Speakers on the speaker circuit by The Drum Magazine; while in 2017, Creative Review named her one of the Creative Leaders 50, selecting 50 creatives they felt were “driving change, not just within their organization but in the world at large,” Dezeen selected her as one of the '50 most inspirational individuals in architecture and design.'

In 2023, Design Week awarded Hayoun-Stépanian with their Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement award, which acknowledges "the achievements of designers and industry figures who have made a significant impact and contribution to the industry and have provided inspiration with incisive thinking."

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