We are excited to announce that Rachel Qian is joining PlanPerfect full-time as our Director of Product and Design.

Rachel first joined PlanPerfect as an MBA Associate through Kellogg's Venture Lab program, where she met co-founders Adam Wolford and Sophia Shaw. Over the past year, she has grown into the role of Lead Product Designer, shaping how nonprofit leaders and boards experience the platform every day. Now, she is stepping into her new role as Director of Product and Design, on our team for good.

By the time Rachel arrived at Kellogg, she had already spent years building products. She earned her undergraduate degree at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, one of the country's top design schools, then went into industry spending two years at Slickdeals, where she grew from Junior Product Designer to Product Designer leading design across the mobile app and community teams, followed by work as a Senior Product Designer at a startup design consultancy. As she puts it on her own LinkedIn profile, she is "part designer, part maker, part relentless tinkerer," happiest taking an idea from a napkin sketch to something real people use and love. That instinct is exactly what PlanPerfect has needed at every stage of building the platform.

Rachel graduated this June from Kellogg's MMM Program, which pairs an MBA with a master's in design innovation. The program launched in 1991 as the Master of Management and Manufacturing, built to give business leaders real technical fluency, and has since evolved into its current form alongside the Segal Design Institute at McCormick. Rachel works at the intersection of business and human-centered design, which is exactly what PlanPerfect is committed to: software built for nonprofits trying to make the world a better place. Kellogg's social-impact coursework and entrepreneurship resources gave her a running start on both fronts.

"Over the past year, I've had the privilege of working alongside Adam Wolford and Sophia Shaw to build PlanPerfect. Their vision, drive, and thoughtfulness have inspired me every step of the way. PlanPerfect is on a mission to help nonprofits with strategic planning and beyond, giving mission-driven organizations the tools needed to create real and lasting impact. That cause matters deeply to me, and I'm so ready to go all in. Here's to the next chapter!" — Rachel Qian

"Rachel has been shaping PlanPerfect's product since she was still a student, and every part of the platform is better for her fingerprints on it. We've watched her turn feedback from nonprofit leaders into features that actually solve their problems, again and again. We are thrilled to have her leading product and design, full-time, for the long run." — Adam Wolford and Sophia Shaw, Co-Founders

Welcome to the team, full-time, Rachel!