David Kelley is an American businessman, entrepreneur, engineer, and professor at Stanford University who was born on February 10, 1951, in Barberton, Ohio, in the United States. He has a brother named Tom Kelley who he employed at his design firm IDEO. Kelley went on to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University in 1973 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. While attending Carnegie Mellon University, Kelley was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Kelley began his career as an engineer at Boeing where he was responsible for designing the Lavatory Occupied sign for the 747 aircraft.
He went on to work at the NCR Corporation before returning to school to earn his master's degree from the Joint Program in Design at Standford University. Kelley partnered up with fellow Standford Product Design graduate Dean Hovey to form Hovey-Kelley Design. Hovey eventually left the company to pursue other interests and the firm was renamed to "David Kelley Design". Kelley went on to found Onset Ventures in 1984 which was an early-stage venture capital firm. In 1990, Kelley became a tenured professor at Stanford University. He was subsequently named the Donald W. Whittier Professor in Mechanical Engineering in 2002. Kelley has since become known as one of America's leading design innovators and was recognized for his "distinguished contribution to design education" with the Sir Misha Black Medal in 2005. Kelley married Katharine C. Branscomb who met through Steve Jobs.
| Net Worth 2020: | 250 million |
| Net Worth 2021: | 250 million |
