Visual facilitator, graphic recorder & workshop designer for Fortune 500s, universities, and nonprofits since 1998.

• Founder, Alphachimp LLC

• Professor, Northwestern Univ. Pritzker School of Law Master of Science in Law Program

• Based in Houston, TX

• Member, Impact Hub Houston

Thanks to an adventurous and encouraging family, Peter was born in Kenya, grew up in the green hills of East Tennessee, and studied fine art, illustration, and industrial design in the US, France, and Poland. Because of this, he cannot imagine a life without traveling, learning, and creating with others.

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The primary driver in his lifelong practice is this question:“How do visual facilitation techniques drive real innovation?“

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As a trained facilitator in the MG Taylor Method™, Design-Thinking, and User-Centered Design, Peter Durand holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, Poland, plus a certificate in professional coaching from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management.

Currently based in Houston, Texas, and an active contributor to the Houston energy and innovation ecosystem, as a workshop facilitator, graphic recorder, mentor, coach, and sketchnoter at various meetups around town. He both hosts and supports collaborative events at locations such as The Ion, Greentown Labs, SESH Coworking, and The Cannon.

Since 2018, he has served as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, working with students on visual communication and presentation design in the multi-disciplinary Master of Science in Law program.

Peter strives to share his skills for making ideas visual, especially with those who work in healthcare, social enterprise, and radical innovation.

He hosts TVW Design Gym, a free online skills-building workshop for anyone in the larger community of facilitation and collaborative design, as well as an in-person Think Visual Meetup in Houston.

He collaborates frequently with old friends and new colleagues on innovation and collaborative design projects worldwide.

More importantly, he feels blessed by fatherhood and will happily bounce on a trampoline when the opportunity presents itself.

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Are you interested in working with Peter?

View pricing or book a free discovery call.

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* Often, people ask where our company name, “Alphachimp,” originated. It is a tongue-in-cheek play on the term “alpha chimp,” initially used by the Dutch primatologist and ethologist Frans De Waal in his book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes. He was a revered researcher, educator, former director of the Living Links Center for the Advanced Study of Ape and Human Evolution at the Emory National Primate Research Center, and passed away in 2024.