Hello, I'm Didier Lebon
Head of Culture & Creative Sectors
Global Strategy, Content & Execution
I help organisations craft legacy by imagining, building & scaling all-inclusive portfolios of culture & creative sectors initiatives.
From conception to delivery, I develop strategies, masterplans, in-house capabilities, teams, formats, content & programming and oversee their execution. I work with clients at a strategic level to develop mid- to large-scale, complex & high-profile offers ranging from policies & grants, education & training programs, conferences & exhibitions, to festivals, start-up competitions, creative entrepreneurship programs, art shows and international partnerships.
My secret sauce?
Years of venturing in the international creative vanguards offer a unique capacity to craft outstanding strategies for all types of organisations.
What you won't learn from my bio
I performed in my first opera at 8, coded games on an Amstrad CPC6128 at 10, traded game cards at 14 and wrote a poetry book at 18. Friends became fans.
Championing imagination, creativity & innovation
I guide governments, managers & entrepreneurs on how to craft a thriving cultural & creative legacy.
In details, I help clients:
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define the vision, objectives & strategy of a culture & creative sectors portfolio
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build the capacities on management: teams, boards, resources, digital workplace
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conduct in-depth research on incumbent, adjacent and vanguard markets of choice
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create a deal flow of ideas, partners, innovative products & speakers
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build flagship initiatives that support strategic & commercial developments in a wide variety of formats
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design year-round communities with shared passions & purpose to grow people & businesses continually.
Strategy
Advised on 3 innovation-led turnarounds
Constructed 1 management business unit (38 FTEs)
Created 12 new global innovation pipelines (1 incubator, 1 accelerator, 4 corporate university partnerships, 1 venture studio, 2 artist/entrepreneur-in-residence programs, 3 deal sourcing global networks).
Content
Produced 800+ culture & creative projects
Developed programs on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship resulting in 2 new pan-African policies, 4 new academic curricula
Contributed to the creation & scale of 100+ creative ventures
Capacity
Featured 6,000+ talents & leaders
Worked with 130+ nationalities
Helped raise €350m
Some credentials
My story
#CreativityWithoutBorders
In the last 20 years, I was a theatre director, a photographer, an executive producer, a cultural manager, an art curator, a brand strategist, a corporate activist, a business designer, an intrapreneur, a COO, a founding entrepreneur, an Executive MBA alumnus, a creative director, a mentor.
All roles had in common to celebrate imagination by bringing people and ideas together at scale. Step-by-step, I built the infrastructures to discover & nurture creativity.
#BespokeScenarios
Your culture is unique, and so shall be your cultural offer. You set the tone within the range from conventional to pioneering. I helped clients develop DAOs to rebrand the African continent, materialise foresight scenarios through a food experience, rethink HR through Spotify, develop a new ready-to-wear brand by putting GenZ & Alpha in the executive board of a traditional textile company, pilote the future of food by contributing to the design of the first sausage made from snails (that's called protein transition).
Culture follows no orthodoxy. Neither do I.
#MiningVanguards
I prize experimentation, intuition, honest critique, simplicity and learning as you go. I keep exploring creative frontiers in tech and non-tech domains, developing new thinking on creative leadership and structuring the creative economy for modern ages. To do so, I work at the crossroads of design, social science and strategy:
> design as in strategic business design, experience design, more-than-human design, circular design;
> social science as in humanities, sociology, anthropology, ecology, behavioural science, cultural management;
> strategy as in innovation strategy, ESG-ready, collective intelligence, systemic thinking.
Check my recent readings for inspiration on my current passions: Web3 and regenerative design.