He is the Founder and CEO of RKS Design, a design and innovation firm he founded more than 45 years ago that has delivered human-centered solutions for clients across diverse industries, incubated companies, created licensed products, assembled a high-caliber team of colleagues, and accumulated accolades from the media and design juries.
He is also the Founder of LoanGifting, a technology platform that uses crowdsourcing and APIs to solve the student loan crisis by letting students pay down their loans through gifts and employer contributions. As Founder of D&A Guitar Gear, he created accessories that give musicians around the world peace of mind in keeping their instruments safe and secure, used at major events including the Grammys, Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and Coachella. As Founder of RKS Guitars, he worked with world-famous guitarist Dave Mason (Traffic) to create the world’s first sustainable electric guitar, now played by some of the leading musicians in the world.
Sawhney is the inventor of the Psycho-Aesthetics® design methodology, which Harvard Business Press has explored as a business school case study. Psycho-Aesthetics® is the central focus of Predictable Magic, a book he co-authored and published by Wharton School Publishing in 2010. He has been inducted as a Fellow of the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA) and recognized with an honorary Ph.D. from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
He has spoken globally and at dozens of U.S. conferences as a keynote speaker, and lectures often at prominent design and business schools. Sawhney contributes editorial on design, business, and innovation for FastCoDesign, HBR.com, and Core77, and is the innovator and Jury Chair emeritus of the IDSA Catalyst case program, championing the power of design to effect positive change in business, in lives, and throughout the world.