Irene Au is a Natural Intelligence researcher exploring human potential, consciousness, and expanded states of awareness. Her work is rooted in a central question that has emerged across her career: What if intelligence is far more expansive than we have imagined?

For three decades, Irene worked at the forefront of technology and design, shaping how people interact with digital systems. She built and led user experience and design organizations at Google, Yahoo!, and Udacity, and later advised founders as a Design Partner at Khosla Ventures. She began her career at Netscape Communications, contributing to the design of Netscape Navigator, one of the first commercial web browsers.

Alongside her work in technology, Irene pursued a parallel path in studying consciousness and human potential. She practiced and taught yoga for more than a decade, serving on the teacher-training faculty at Avalon Yoga Center in Palo Alto, and has dedicated years to studying meditation, sacred geometry, BioGeometry, energy medicine, and the relationship between humans and the natural world.

Today, Irene bridges these domains. Her work approaches intelligence as an embodied, intuitive, and relational capacity deeply woven into nature and consciousness. She investigates what becomes possible when we cultivate the innate capacities already within us and expand the boundaries of human potential.

Irene is the author of Design in Venture Capital and a frequent speaker on design, creativity, mindfulness, and consciousness. She has taught at Stanford University and serves as a Trustee of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Her work has been featured in Wired, Fast Company, CommArts, and Mindful magazines.