2011NortheastDistrictConferencespeakers

The IDSA 2011 Northeast Conference offers an exceptional group of speakers presenting a variety of timely, informative and entertaining presentations. John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design and Scott Wilson, founder of Chicago-based MINIMAL will kick off this year's dialogue.

John Maeda is a world-renowned artist, graphic designer, computer scientist and educator whose career reflects his philosophy of humanizing technology. For more than a decade, he has worked to integrate technology, education and the arts into a 21st-century synthesis of creativity and innovation. A recipient of the National Design Award and represented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Maeda became president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in June 2008.

At RISD, Maeda seeks to champion the necessary role that artists and designers play in the 21st century creative economy. He sees the traditional, handcrafted techniques that are fundamental to a RISD education as increasingly relevant in an overly digital world as people seek to reconnect with what is real and authentic. As president, he seeks to connect RISD to the political, economic, social and business spheres where artists and designers will make a difference, and he has prioritized fundraising for scholarships to ensure the broadest possible access to a RISD education.

A former professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Maeda taught media arts and sciences there for 12 years and served as associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab. Maeda's early work redefined the use of electronic media as a tool for expression by combining skilled computer programming with sensitivity to traditional artistic concerns. He has published four books including The Laws of Simplicity, now translated into 14 languages. His new book written with Becky Bermont, Redesigning Leadership, expands on his micro-posts on leadership and innovation at @johnmaeda on Twitter. In 2008 Maeda was named one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century by Esquire magazine and in 2010 he was called the “Steve Jobs of academia” by Forbes magazine.

A native of Seattle, Maeda earned a bachelor’s and master’s in computer science and electrical engineering from MIT, followed by a doctorate in design science from the University of Tsukuba Institute of Art and Design in Japan and an MBA from Arizona State University.

Scott Wilson, IDSA is the founder of Chicago-based MINIMAL, a studio whose diverse work spans industries ranging from technology, interaction and consumer products to fashion, furniture and environments. A former global creative director at Nike, Wilson has led design organizations such as IDEO, Thomson Consumer Electronics, Fortune Brands and Motorola. MINIMAL’s current clients and designs include Microsoft’s Xbox 360 + Kinect Sensor, Dell's Venue Pro Smartphone and Coalesse’s SW1 conference-lounge furniture collection. Wilson and MINIMAL have also garnered recent global recognition for their TikTok + LunaTik Multi-Touch Watch Kits designed for the iPod Nano. Wilson's work has been recognized with over 50 international design awards and has been exhibited at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Triennial, MoMA, MCA and Chicago Art Institute. He has also been profiled in dozens of magazines, including 10 Magazine’s Top 40, Fast Company’s Masters of Design and Time magazine’s Style+Design 100.

Since 2002, Dror Benshetrit, principal at Studio Dror, has developed an interdisciplinary practice specializing in innovative design projects. His approach to design has shown breadth and depth through the completion of projects varying in scales and nature. His portfolio encompasses product design, architecture projects, interior design, graphic design and art direction. In collaboration with a team of experts, Benshetrit conducts thorough research focusing on materials, technology and geometry. Based in New York, his clients include Alessi, Bentley, Boffi, Bombay Sapphire, Cappellini, Kiehl’s, Levi’s, Lualdi, Material ConneXion, Maya Romanoff, Marithé + François Girbaud, Puma, Rosenthal, Skins Footwear, Yigal Azrouël, Shvo, Swarovski and Target. He has received numerous design awards including the GE Plastics Competition “Merging Boundaries” (2001), iF Product Design Award (2006) and the Good Design Award (2008). His work is included in the permanent collections of major museums in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Claudia Bernett  has over 10 years of experience in interactive design and development, and is Method’s user experience lead in the New York studio. Collaborating with visual designers, technologists and strategists, Bernett crafts interactive experiences that cross platforms and media, and that impact culture and behavior. Her recent clients include Nokia, Comcast and EMC. Bernett combines commerce and art into unique perspectives and creative thinking and focuses that thinking on innovative design that meets clients’ needs in new and unexpected ways. Before joining Method, she was interaction design director in the mobile and emerging platforms group at R/GA. There, she created work for clients such as Nokia, Walmart, Barnes & Noble and Nike. She has also worked at firms such as Funny Garbage and frog design. Bernett holds a master’s in fine arts in design.

Margaux Boyaval, program director for Ximedica, has over 10 years experience driving complex multi-faceted programs for Ximedica’s consumer health care clients. Her focus is advocating for user research and sound human-factors engineering while maintaining high-level client objectives. She has worked for clients such as Gerber, Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, CVS and Kimberly-Clark. Most recently, she has been a driver of Ximedica’s health care systems work for clients such as Lifespan and Care New England Hospitals. She co-developed a proprietary research system that  Ximedica employs to enhance product development through dynamic human factors product iteration. Boyaval graduated with a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from Rochester Institute of Technology.

Mike Branson is a founding partner of Pearlfisher who's experience is an invaluable asset to the iconic brands with which Pearlfisher works. Combining strategy, marketing and business expertise, he brings calm, insight and knowledge to Pearlfisher’s studio in New York. He is also passionate about sports. Over the years his own physical activity has become more refined, with long-distance running giving way to cycling and yoga, making him the Zen master of the office.  Additionally, Branson’s fluent French and German come in handy with European clients. Branson is a frequent speaker at industry events and a regular contributor and commentator in the design and brand media. He also recently became a trustee of Amantani www.amantani.co.uk, a charity that helps some of South America’s most vulnerable children.

Charlie Cannon is an associate professor of industrial design at the Rhode Island School of Design. At RISD, Cannon helped found the Innovation Studio which employs interdisciplinary collaboration, design thinking, social entrepreneurship and research to confront some of the most pressing issues of our day. Research projects emerging from the Innovation Studio have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rhode Island Renewable Energy Fund and the RISD Research Foundation. Most recently the Studio initiated "Partly Sunny: Designs to Change the Forecast," a showcase of design projects grappling with climate change that premiered in Denver as part of DialogCity, Denver’s public arts festival for the Democratic National Convention. Before his work at RISD, Cannon taught Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and spent four years teaching in the Department of Urban Design at Columbia University. He was contributing editor to Constellations: Constructing Urban Design Practices. He is also co-founder of LOCAL Architecture Research Design, a design firm that focuses on projects that develop and sustain local communities. 

Gary Eisenkraft is the principal of Eisenkraft CPA & Consulting Services, an accounting and consulting firm in New York City. His firm specializes in creative professional businesses. He is a member of the Taxation of Pass-Through Entities Committee of the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.  Eisenkraft has spoken to various groups on specific topics of interest to the business and nonprofit communities. He has lectured at various forums, including CPA firms and the American Institute of Architects, the New York County Lawyers Association, NYS Society of Certified Public Accountants and The Workshop for Business Opportunities. His writing has been published in The New York Times, Focal Point and Innovation Journal.

Dr. Mark Evans is a senior lecturer in industrial design and leader of the Design Practice Research Group at Loughborough Design School; with an interest in design methods, digital tools and practice-based research. His clients have included British Airways, Unilever, British Gas and Honda. He also has received research funding from organizations that include the Department of Trade and Industry, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Hewlett Packard and Royal Academy of Engineering. Evans’ research activity has resulted in over 90 publications, Ph.D. supervision and examination for 14 design-based candidates, membership in the AHRC Peer Review College and appointment as an international scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Nathaniel Giraitis, IDSA is senior design strategist at Smart Design. Part detective, part designer, Giraitis’ passion lies in discovering opportunities for design to enhance and elevate everyday experiences. He has been working in design for seven years and has experience in consumer electronics, entertainment, healthcare, housewares and transportation. He's worked with clients such as Church & Dwight, Groupe SEB, HP, Intel, Motorola, NY Taxi & Limousine Commission and OXO to enhance their businesses through meaningful design. He's a graduate of Yale University's Design Theory program and University of Cincinnati's DAAP program in industrial design.

Matt Grigsby graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design. In 2005, he started Design Awareness, which provided research and industrial design services to companies wanting to better understand their customers’ needs and design products that would be successfully targeted in their particular market. In 2007, Grigsby founded Ecolect, which is a materials library and consultancy focusing solely on environmental solutions across many disciplines, including architecture, industrial design, fashion, engineering and construction. His clients have included Hasbro, Continuum, LG Electronics, Schick, Targus and GM. His work has appeared in publications and media outlets such as BBC, Metropolis, Dwell, Make, Architectural Digest, Land Rover Magazine, Core 77, TreeHugger.com and Planet Green.

Wayne Marcus, IDSA is the senior director of Playskool Preschool Design & Development, Hasbro. Addicted to visualization and communication, Marcus earns a living by inventing, playing with and designing new toys for Mr. Potato Head, Tinkertoy and other iconic brands. An IDEA Gold winner, corporate professional, educator and illustrator, he is a true believer in the mighty power of the pencil and regularly shares the secrets of drawing with others.

Brian Matt, IDSA is one of the business community’s leading thinkers. His primary sphere of influence is as the CEO of Altitude, which he founded in 1992. The firm’s work for clients such as Black & Decker, Nike, Motorola, DeWalt, Timex and Bose have resulted in significant business success and earned commendations from design organizations around the world. Matt’s business acumen and uncanny ability to collide consumer insights with trends and influences have made him a trusted advisor for companies exploring breakthrough product strategy. He is a frequent speaker at conferences, and his articles about design, strategy and business have appeared in magazines, journals and blogs. Additionally, Matt is president of the Association of Professional Design Firms and an advisor for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Other affiliations include various senior offices held within the Industrial Designers Society of America and an active membership in the Design Management Institute. He earned his bachelor's in industrial design at Rochester Institute of Technology.

Jeff McCartney is a digital media artist at Luxion. He is lead support person for KeyShot, but also conducts sales presentations and client training. Furtheromore, McCartney delivers print quality images for clients who purchase service work from Luxion. In addition to KeyShot, he has many years of experience with a broad variety of 2D and 3D digital tools, including PhotoShop, AfterEffects, SolidWorks and Maya.

Sami Nerenberg, the chief expansion officer of Design for America and a McCormick School of Engineering lecturer at Northwestern University, seeks to organize and empower communities with design as the means of creating change. Her goals are two-fold: to push designers beyond their traditional role of form givers to become creative leaders and problem solvers and to uncap the latent creativity of under-served community members to re-envision their own environments. Previously the youngest adjunct faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she developed and taught the very popular “Design for Social Entrepreneurship” advanced studio, Nerenberg recently returned from living and working in Kathmandu, Nepal as a sustainability and marketing consultant for a local social enterprise. After founding “Room by Room,” a healthy home makeover summer program for inner city teens, she gained recognition as a Timberland EarthKeeper Hero and went on to teach “Design Futures” at Pratt Institute before joining Northwestern University. Her studios and projects have been discussed in media outlets such as Metropolis magazine, NextBillion.net, Fast Company, Core77, Catalyst Magazine and RISD Views.

Catherine Nygaard is the director of the user experience team in Method’s New York office. She has been creating thoughtful, considered design solutions for over 14 years. Before that, she was part of the emerging technorati of Wired and Boing, Boing. She began her UX career at vivid Studios in San Francisco with Nathan Shedroff, one of the pioneers of experience design. She went on to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in global markets, help define next generation concepts and lead efforts for large multi-platform products, services and environments for brands such as Yahoo!, Apple, Chanel, Converse, Nike,  American Express, Lifetime Channel and Ralph Lauren. Her past industry experience spans internationally and includes lifestyle and luxury, fashion, financial, gaming, sports and mobile. Before Method, Nygaard was a creative director at R/GA. Her educational background concentrates in sociolinguistics and music, with bachelor’s in both cultural anthropology and art history.

As a principal at Continuum, Anthony Pannozzo, brings passion, expertise and strategic insight into understanding the people and challenges in the world’s emerging markets. By rethinking conventions, distilling the differences, and creating meaning, Pannozzo bridges the gap between design and business thinking. He advocates that growth comes from creating a culture of people-centered opportunities, where understanding and prioritizing people’s functional and emotional needs are as important as developing new technologies. He has applied this strategic thinking for companies such as Proctor and Gamble, Samsung and Unilever. Before joining Continuum, Pannozzo was on the Leadership Team at Herbst LaZar Bell where he directed design on the East Coast and co-developed the Design Strategy Practice. He earned a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design. Pannozzo is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America where he served on the board of directors from 2004 to 2006.

Timothy Prestero is the founder and CEO of Design that Matters (DtM), a 501c3 nonprofit based in Cambridge, MA.  DtM collaborates with social entrepreneurs to help them offer better services to the poor in developing countries. Prestero is co-inventor on three patents for cholera treatment devices. A former Peace Corps volunteer and MIT graduate, he has worked in West Africa, Latin America and Asia. He is a Martin Fellow at the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, a Draper Richards Fellow and was named an Ashoka Affiliate in 2004.  His awards include the 2007 Social Venture Network Innovation Award and the 2009 World Technology Award.  DtM's work received an honorable mention in the ID Magazine's 2010 Annual Design Review, and the company was a finalist in Corporate Achievement for the 2010 National Design Award.  DtM's NeoNurture Infant Incubator was named #1 of the "50 Best Inventions of 2010" by Time magazine.

Principal designer Jason Severs has been working at frog design for four years. Since joining frog, he has worked on several projects for GE, leading research and IA for the NBC Universal intranet as well as research for GE brand strategy. He has also conducted design research activities for digital, product and strategy projects with American Express, Cox Communications, ETS, Neutrogena and Vonage. Before joining frog he collaborated with Bruce Mau as a member of the Institute without Boundaries on the project Massive Change: The Future of Global Design. And previously, he was a research fellow at Columbia University’s Center for New Media Teaching and Learning working to understand the impact of new media in the classroom. Severs is also an adjunct professor and frequent lecturer at New York University. He has a master’s in instructional design and technology from Columbia University and a bachelor’s in fine arts in painting from the Memphis College of Art.

In her role as director of healthcare delivery solutions at Ximedica, Kristin Simoens leads and advises a multi-disciplined team made up of research, strategy, design and implementation.The group takes an unconventional approach to problem resolution by combining well-proven tools and methods with those steeped in human-centered design. Simoens and her team solve workflow challenges in a variety of critical areas that impact both patients and staff; transforming internal communications, reshaping operational flow and mitigating risk-prone elements of the system to deliver safer and improved care. Before joining Ximedica, Simoens worked over 12 years in the health care industry. She managed innovative medical device and major capital businesses that cross the continuum of patient care and with the constant underpinning of safety, quality and ease-of-use. Her clients included 3M, STERIS and Covidien. She has a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Wisconsin and a master’s in business administration from the University of Minnesota.

An expert consultant in new product and service launches, Allan Tear is the managing partner of Aptus Collaborative and Betaspring. Tear previously was a founder of three venture-funded startups, Elastic Networks, Incanta and WhyData. He has raised over $15M from angels, venture capital and strategic partners, including Slater Fund, Intel Capital and AT&T. Additionally Tear is co-founder of Hackable City and Mashable City, open-source projects that facilitate social capital in our urban environments and communities through better information, transparency and citizen engagement. He advises students and schools on entrepreneurship through the Brown COE program, MET School and the Carnegie Mellon Dean’s Leadership Council. He was selected in 2008 for the Providence Business News “40 Under Forty” list. Tear is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, with bachelor’s in electrical and computer engineering, and Public Policy.

Steven R. Umbach, IDSA founded the Texas-based Umbach Consulting Group in 2001 focused on new product development (NPD) including industrial design, design management and design communications. Umbach Consulting Group clients have included IPDataTel, Schlumberger, MicroMed DeBakey, Jostra Medical, NovoSci, Digital Air Control, Forte Product Solutions, SWI Industries (Seaview Windshield Insert), Innovative Growing Technologies, Overstreet Pass and Dell, among others. Umbach is also an adjunct faculty at The University of Houston and has taught classes in human factors/ergonomics, professional business practice for designers, design issues and user-centered design. He earned a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a master’s in management from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a focus on design management.

As a founding partner at Essential, Richard Watson, IDSA develops strategies to help companies leverage the value of design across a company’s total offering. He is a leading advisor to companies on product innovation and authority in the field of design strategy.  He has worked with clients including Dell, Pyrex, iRobot, P&G, Altec Lansing, EMC and Puma. Before founding Essential, Watson was vice president of design at Fitch, where he led the product development team. He was also part of an international design team at GE Plastics that envisioned products to express the company’s strategic marketing initiatives. His contributions have led to numerous international awards for design excellence and business success. Watson holds a master's in industrial design from Manchester Metropolitan University in England and a bachelor's in silversmithing from Montford University in England. 

Angela Yeh, IDSA has always had a genuine interest in people, and they've been central to her professional life. Her conversations with clients radiate warmth, insight and a profound desire to understand testify to her considerable people skills. Prior to creating Yeh Ideology, she worked for 10 years in design recruiting. Before recruiting, she honed her keen eye for good design at Pratt Institute’s master’s in industrial design. A well-known figure in the New York design community, she chaired the NYC chapter of IDSA 2004-2005 and sat on the IDSA board of directors as the Northeast District VP. Yeh holds a bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Bridgeport, has worked in the field of behavioral psychology and teaches career strategies at Parsons The New School for Design.

Karen Stone is director of design for Knoll Inc. Responsible for the design of Knoll Showrooms, exhibits and trade shows worldwide, Stone has had the additional responsibility for bringing sustainable design, new materials and technologies to Knoll product design and establishing direction for new finishes for Knoll products. Her award-winning work with Knoll has been noted in ID, Domus, Interiors, Inside Design Now and other publications.  Before working at Knoll, she was senior designer at Bonnell Design Associates (New York) where her clients included Interface, Guilford, Teknion, Steelcase, Design Tex, ModernAge, Shearson Lehman Hutton Plaza and Mellon Bank. This year she led a group of Pratt students to Nicaragua for a special outreach project.  She has been a volunteer with the International Center, mentoring young designers who are seeking guidance in their pursuit of employment or study in design. Stone has her bachelor’s in industrial design from Ohio State University and her master’s in industrial design from Pratt Institute.

Career Storytelling: Women in Design Panel Discussion. Learn from leading women in the new product development and innovation field how they got ahead in their careers. What choices did they make? What lessons did they learn along the way? What advice do they have for young women just starting out in their careers? These questions and more will be asked in this engaging panel discussion led by Jill Hunt, IDSA. Come prepared with your own questions for the panel.

Jill Hunt, IDSA, manager of the Experience Design Group at Medela Inc. is currently the co-chair of the Women in Design section for IDSA. With over 15 years of experience, she brings user-centric design thinking skills to new business development and new product development within her organization. Passionate about supporting mothers and babies, Hunt strives to close the gaps on unmet needs and develop highly innovative, unique concepts to the marketplace that take into consideration the human interaction and sensitive nature of the category. Before joining Medela, she worked at Moen as a senior designer. Jill has also worked for various design consultancies in the Chicago area including Joss Design, Herbst LaZar Bell and Beyond Design. Her work has earned her several awards including a Red Dot, an IDEA, Good Design, JPMA Innovation Award and Fit Pregnancy Editors’ Choice Award. She currently holds 23 design patents and two utility patents. Hunt has her bachelor’s in industrial design from the University of Cincinnati and a certificate in general management from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Carole Bilson, IDSA is vice president of the award-winning global design & usability (GD&U) department within Pitney Bowes. With the CEO’s sponsorship, she has initiated and led a company-wide council with a focus on identifying ways to improve the customer experience. In 2007 and 2008, she was appointed to the Chairman's Council, a group of 40 senior executives who contribute to strategy development of the company. Before joining Pitney Bowes, Bilson worked at Eastman Kodak Co. in various product development and marketing management roles. Her most notable assignment was as worldwide marketing manager in which she delivered the award-winning Kodak Picturemaker™, the photo kiosk that has delivered over a billion dollars in revenue for Kodak. In addition to holding two patents, Bilson has always been very active in the ID community, maintaining her membership in IDSA since she was a design student, serving as a juror for IDSA’s International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA®) and hosting two networking events that brought together a diverse group of women designers in the early 2000s. She holds a bachelor’s in industrial design from the University of Michigan and certificates in strategic marketing from Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth, the Berkeley Executive Program at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley and the Smith – Tuck Global Leaders Program for Women.

Erica Eden is a senior industrial designer at Smart Design and a founding member of the Femme Den. She has expertise in diverse fields, including home, health and packaged goods, but her favorite design challenge is creating an emotional connection through product design, especially in the kitchen! While earning her master’s in industrial design from Pratt Institute, she designed her first product, an easy to pour electric tea kettle inspired by her grandmother who had dexterity issues.  Since that first design her work has been praised in a number of international design magazines. She also finds any excuse to travel and learn about diverse cultures, food and fashion from around the world.

As a senior design strategist, Susan Fabry, IDSA takes a holistic approach to product design. Trained in psychology and industrial design, she balances emotional, physical and environmental influences to design products that meet the needs of real people. With nearly 15 years of ethnographic research experience, Fabry excels at interviewing people to uncover ways to improve their lives. The leader of Continuum’s women & children group, she is focused on understanding the decision making process of women buying for more than just themselves. Before joining Continuum, Fabry worked for Smart Design, Siemens and Item NPD, where she developed a broad range of products for clients such as Kellogg’s, OXO and HP. She earned her bachelor’s in psychology and studio art from Oberlin College and her bachelor’s in industrial design from Rhode Island School of Design. In addition, she has received numerous design awards, including those from the IDSA, the Chicago Athenaeum, ID Magazine, Design Zentrum Red Dot and JPMA.

Stefanie Kubanek, IDSA is a New York and London-based designer whose work is inspired by her native-German roots and cosmopolitan perspective. In 2010 she launched Kubanek Design + to develop meaningful collaborations with clients who are devoted to the integration of design and business. A senior designer at Pentagram Design from 2000 to 2010, Kubanek became an associate partner of Daniel Weil in 2008 and was part of a bi-continental team in London and New York. While there she worked for clients such as United Airlines, Cargill, Quam and Benetton, among many others. In 2008 United’s new First and Business class airline seat developed by Daniel Weil & team in collaboration with B/E Aerospace won the first prize in the aviation category of the Condé Nast Traveller Innovation and Design Awards. Before joining Pentagram in 2000, she was a senior designer at Olive 1:1, where for three years she worked on the development of Herman Miller’s Resolve office furniture system, which received a Gold IDEA in 2000. Kubanek received a bachelor’s in fine arts in industrial design from the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg and a master’s degree in industrial design from the Royal College of Art in London. She also completed a traditional three-year apprenticeship in jewelry design in Germany. In 2009 she completed Harvard University’s Program for Leadership Development, a course that complements her time spent at Columbia University studying strategic marketing management.

Additional speakers for the 2011 IDSA Northeast Conference are still being added. Check back often for updates on exciting new additions to the dialogue!

2011 IDSA Northeast Conference