Mike Rios

Chief Innovation Officer, 17 Triggers

Biography

Before founding 17 Triggers, Mike was a creative adman working for clients ranging from Nike to Coca-Cola to United Colors of Benetton. He has worked with big ad agencies in USA, England, Italy, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia where he earned the name 'adman with a bleeding heart'. After the guilt of selling beers and cigarettes to people making less than a dollar a day caught up with him, he quit to start consulting for the development sector until opening 17 Triggers in 2010.

Once called ‘a Social Innovation Lab on steroids’ 17 Triggers teaches organizations and governments how to innovate like tech startups - using lean, design thinking, HCD, rapid prototyping, and quick and dirty RCTs – while also providing them with full service advertising and design support. With work spanning across 15 countries, their clients include UNICEF Global, iDE, DAI, ADB, World Vision, WSUP, Plan International, Stone Family Foundation, and MTV EXIT. Mike is also an Unreasonable Institute Mentor, TEDx-er, and happy husband. He is based in sunny Cambodia.