Clay Parker Jones found his way into organizational design through hands-on practice. In 2009, he moved to New York to join Undercurrent, a consultancy helping the world’s largest firms navigate marketing in a post-digital era. By 2012, it became clear that companies didn’t just need guidance on marketing or digital strategy — they needed to reorganize to fully leverage the productivity gains enabled by new technologies.

Clay and his team focused on getting new products, initiatives, and services to market. Rather than telling clients what to do, they helped them make it happen by experimenting with new ways of working, from labs to separate business units. Real transformation came when they began reshaping the foundational methods of organizations: how decisions were made, how work was prioritized, and how performance was assessed.

In 2015, Clay co-founded August with a few colleagues from Undercurrent, pushing this “OD magic” to its fullest. August remains an employee-owned, self-organized, self-managed, and transparently operated B-Corp.

After leaving August in 2019, Clay joined IPG, first at R/GA and later at Black Glass. His organizational frameworks have continued to prove their value: in 2023, Black Glass was named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, while August approached its 10-year anniversary.

At the end of 2024, Clay joined Airbnb to lead their new Organizational Design and Development team, excited to bring creativity-first OD practices to life at scale.