Jury Alumni

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  Pradyumna Vyas

  Director, National Institute of Design

  2016 Design Education Initiative Jury Captain

  Pradyumna Vyas acquired a Masters in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. In June 2010, Vyas was conferred with an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, United Kingdom in recognition of his contributions to design education and design promotion. Vyas has more than 30 years of professional and teaching experience in different spheres of design. Since the last 25 years, he has been associated with the National Institute of Design (NID) as a faculty in the Industrial Design discipline. In April 2009, he was appointed as the Director of the National Institute of Design.
  Prior to joining NID, Vyas acquired three years overseas experience at the Kilkenny Design Centre, Republic of Ireland.
  In July 2011, Vyas was given the award for his outstanding contribution to design education at the second edition of Asia’s Best B School Award that was held at Singapore. Vyas was invited as the jury member for the special awards screening panel at Good Design Award (G-Mark) by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan consequently in 2012, 2013 and 2014.He has been at the helm of design promotion events in India and has represented NID in various international and national events. He was elected as an ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) Executive Board Member for 2009–11.
  In pursuance of the National Design Policy approved by the Cabinet in February 2007, an India Design Council was constituted in March 2009 and Mr Vyas has been nominated as its Member Secretary by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. In July 2015, World Education Congress, 2015 conferred the award for Outstanding Contribution to Education to Mr. Vyas.

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  Hrridaysh Deshpande

  Director, DYPDC Center for Automotive Research and Studies

  2016 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Hrridaysh has been in the field of education for over 21 years. Presently, Hrridaysh is the member of Governing Body of Ajeenkya DY Patil University and is the Director of DYPDC School of Design and School of Film and Media.
  
  He is associated with the India Design Council (IDC) as its consultant advisor. IDC is a national strategic body of Government of India established under the aegis of Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Government of India. Under the aegis of IDC he is spearheading the India Design Mark program in cooperation with Good Design Award, Japan. He is the member of CII National Committee on Design. In 2004 he founded Creative-i College one of India’s first private initiatives in the field of Design Education.
  
  Over the years Hrridaysh has acquired proficiency in business innovation strategy and design driven Innovation. He focuses on structured innovation practices for organizational innovation via appropriate tools, methods and processes. Hrridaysh has worked on several committees on innovation and has been a speaker at many prestigious forums. Through his work, Hrridaysh has assisted leading companies across a range of industries.
  
  Hrridaysh is an experienced, enthusiastic, and energetic educator and innovation facilitator. He is passionately committed to education and capable of expanding the limits of traditional pedagogy through the development and realization of a unique integrative and interdisciplinary curriculum.

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  Shashank Mehta

  Activity Chairperson, National Institute of Design

  2016 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Shashank Mehta is a principal faculty of Industrial Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Currently, he is the Activity Chairperson of the Institute’s Professional Education Programme.
  
  Over the last five and half years, Shashank also served as the project head of the Design Clinic Scheme for MSMEs, a unique and ambitious design intervention scheme for the country’s large MSME sector. Supported by the Ministry of MSMEs, Government of India, the scheme reached out to over 200 MSME clusters through organization of Design Sensitization Seminars, Design Awareness Programmes and Design Projects.
  
  Over the years Shashank has taught at the Undergraduate and Postgraduate levels, spanning various design disciplines. Shashank has spearheaded the introduction of new course modules 'Design Process', ‘Indigenous Innovations’, ‘Service Design’, ‘Design Audit’, and ‘Introduction to Experience Design’, that are in sync with the rapidly changing demands and aspirations of the industry and economy in general. He also anchored and conducted several workshops on these topics for the participants from various sectors of industries. In 2007, he developed the vision report and the curriculum for the four year undergraduate programme in Product Design. Shashank also developed curriculum for the Postgraduate Programme in Product Design Engineering.

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  Srini Srinivasan

  President and CEO, Lumium, LUMIUM Design, Inc.

  2016 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Srini Srinivasan is a highly accomplished entrepreneur in creative design and technology development, with over 20 years of work experience in the Silicon Valley, United States. As a highly networked and connected person, Srini has developed business successfully across the globe for the past two decades with F-500 companies. Srini has successfully raised capital from leading VCs in the Silicon Valley and enjoys being in Start-ups with his broad set of skills & global customer experience.
  
  Srini is an avid global traveller and enjoys visiting various locations around the globe and meeting people. He loves to play golf and follows several major sports like Soccer, Golf, basketball & Cricket.

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  Emily Pilloton

  Founder, Project H

  2016 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain

  Emily Pilloton is the founder of the nonprofit Project H Design. Since 2008, she has run Project H and worked with young people ages 9-18 to bring the power of design and building to schools and communities. Emily is trained as an architect with degrees from UC Berkeley and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but found that she is physically incapable of working in an office or for a boss and much prefers the creative chaos of a public school classroom filled with tools and welding equipment. Project H Design was born out of the hope that authentic, on-the-ground, face-to-face work with young people could transform what it means to be a design professional, what it means to learn in the 21st century, and what it means to get dirty and physically build solutions for your community.
  
  Specifically, Emily launched 2 Project H programs: Studio H, an in-school design/build curriculum, and Camp H, an after-school and summer building camp for young girls ages 9-13. Exploring the intersection of science, art, math, and community development, Emily has led Project H youth in the design and construction of an award-winning 2,000-square-foot farmers market structure, chicken coops, playgrounds, their own school library, microhomes for the homeless, laser-etched skateboards, and welded steel public sculpture.
  
  Emily believes that by giving youth, particularly girls and students of color, the skills to design and build their wildest ideas, we can support the next generation of creative, confident changemakers. Her ideas and work have made their way to the TED Stage, The Colbert Report, the New York Times, and more. Her work is the subject of the full-length documentary If You Build It. She is the author of two books, Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People, and Tell Them I Built This: Transforming Schools, Communities, and Lives with Design-Based Education. Emily is also a Visiting Professor in the Department of Design at UC Davis.

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  John Bielenberg

  Partner, Future Partners

  2016 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur, and imaginative advocate for creating a better world through the application of creativity and ingenuity. John co-founded Future Partners, a Silicon Valley Innovation firm, in 2012 to teach Rapid Ingenuity Practices to individuals, teams, and organizations around the world. In 2001, John co-founded C2 Group, a brand strategy firm, to help leaders from technology start ups, Fortune 500 companies, and the world’s top business management consulting firms develop, build and protect their brands. In his career, John has won more than 250 design awards, including the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.

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  Maria Guidice

  VP of Experience Design, Autodesk

  2016 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Innovator, artist, protagonist, and positive provocateur, Maria has pursued a vision of intelligent, elegant, people-centered design throughout her professional life. Her grasp of the pragmatic, the authentic, and the essential have kept her at the forefront of design and business for over 25 years.
  
  Under Maria’s leadership, Hot Studio, the experience design firm she founded in 1997, grew into a full-service creative agency with an impressive list of Fortune 500 clients. In March 2013, Facebook acquired the talent behind Hot Studio. In 2015, she joined Autodesk as VP, Experience Design. Her latest book, Rise of the DEO: Leadership by Design, is published by New Riders. Maria is an AIGA Design Fellow. She has spoken at conferences all over the world and currently serves as an adjunct professor and trustee at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Maria is a mom to two amazing teenagers, and just recently, was ordained as a Minister at the Universal Life Church.

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  Luca Nichetto

  Founder, Nichetto Studio

  2016 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain

  Luca Nichetto was born in 1976 in Venice. He studied at the city’s Istituto statale d’arte, before undertaking a degree in industrial design at the Università Iuav di Venezia, from which he graduated in 1998. In 1999, Nichetto began his professional career with Murano-based glass maker Salviati, later becoming a product designer and consultant for lighting company Foscarini. In 2006, he founded his eponymous practice in Venice. In 2011 he moved to Stockholm, Sweden, to open a second studio and he continues to live in and work from this city. Over the course of his career, Nichetto has served as art director for many international design brands and he has developed an in-depth knowledge of the design industry.

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  Hanna Nova Beatrice

  Editor in Chief, Residence Magazine

  2016 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Hanna Nova Beatrice is a design writer and Editor in Chief of Swedish title Residence and English language bookazine My Residence. She has been the Editor of a number of magazines, all focusing on design and interiors, as well as edited and written books on design, including the book Behind the Scenes in the Design industry. She regularly holds panel debates on design and have co-curated exhibitions such as 20 Designers at Biologiska (Stockholm 2011) and Norweigan Structure (Milan 2016).

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  Constance Guisset

  International Designer, Constance Guisset Studio

  2016 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Born in 1976, Constance Guisset lives and works in Paris.
  
  After studying at ESSEC business School and Sciences-Po Paris, then a one-year internship at Japan Parliament in Tokyo, she chooses to turn towards design and enters ENSCI design school from which she graduates in 2007.
  
  In 2008, she is awarded the “Grand Prix du Design de la Ville de Paris”, wins the Prize for the Public of the Design Parade at La Villa Noailles (Hyère, France), as well as two grants from the VIA (French institute for the valorisation of innovation in design). In 2010, she is named among the “ten designers of the year” in Maison & Objet, Now! Design à vivre and wins the Audi Talents Awards.
  
  Constance Guisset establishes her own studio in Paris in 2009. She works with many French and international furniture editors like Molteni, Petite Friture, Moustache, etc. She also designs industrial objects for companies like La Cie – Seagate or travel accessories for Louis Vuitton Malletier for instance.
  
  Since 2009, she has realized the stage designs of several shows, among which Angelin Preljocaj’s solo, Le Funambule, Laurent Garnier’s Concert in Salle Pleyel in Paris in 2009 or Angelin Preljocaj’s ballet Les Nuits presented in Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris. She also conceived stage design for exhibitions for the Arts Décoratifs museum in Paris, the Villa Noailles, or for brands like Established & Sons or Molteni (2011, Paris Designers’ days award for best scenography).
  
  She developed a new concept of interior design for Accor hotel group Suite Novotel. It has been deployed in The Hague and Paris in 2014.
  
  Her work finds applications in industrial design, stage design, interior design and videos. It is guided by an interest for illusion, lightness and surprise. She creates moving objects to raise amazement and fascination.

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  Shu Wei

  Founder, ZaoZuo

  2016 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Shuwei was born in 1981 in China. She studied MBA at Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 2007-2009. As a serial entrepreneur, she has 12 years intensive experience of marketing, design, product, technology and investment. In 2014, she founded Zaozuo, a lifestyle brand that combines global design and domestic manufacturing to present the decent urban lifestyle for new Chinese middle-class.

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  Alexis Lloyd

  Creative Director, NY Times R&D Lab

  2016 Interaction Jury Captain

  Alexis Lloyd is the Creative Director of The New York Times Research & Development Lab, where she investigates emerging technologies and prototypes future concepts for news and media. Her work is focused on creating immersive and exploratory experiences through innovative physical-to-digital interactions, data visualization and screen-based interfaces.
  
  Before joining The New York Times Company in 2007, Ms. Lloyd designed award-winning projects for Columbia University, FOX, American Express, The New York Historical Society and PBS, among others. Additionally, her media artwork has been shown at international venues such as the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, SIGGRAPH, the Chelsea Art Museum and Symphony Space.
  
  Ms. Lloyd received her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons The New School for Design.

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  Donna Lichaw

  Independent Digital Product Strategist

  2016 Interaction Jury Member

  Donna Lichaw brings over 15 years of experience guiding startups, non-profits, and global brands in optimizing their digital products and services by providing them with a simplified way to drive user engagement through impactful storytelling. As a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator, she utilizes a ‘story first’ approach to help teams define their value proposition, transform their thinking, and better engage with their core customers.
  
  She began her career as a designer and user experience strategist for multiple startups and design agencies in New York and London, working with brands like Casio, Capitol Records, Sony Pictures, and Seamless. Prior to her career in technology, she refined her talent for storytelling and narrative development as an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
  
  Now recognized as a thought leader in storytelling and customer engagement strategies, she has presented as a keynote speaker at design and technology conferences in the US, Canada and Europe, and taught courses at New York University, Northwestern University, The School of Visual Arts, and Parsons the New School for Design. Her upcoming book – “The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love” is out now. You can find her on Twitter @dlichaw and on the web at www.donnalichaw.com.

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  Alex Rainert

  VP of Product, Nucleus

  2016 Interaction Jury Member

  I've got 17 years of experience building teams and shipping products in wildly different creative and business environments - startups (co-founder @dodgeball, head of product @Foursquare), large tech companies (Google), digital agencies (R/GA, Razorfish) and an amazing tech-meets-art graduate program (NYU’s ITP).
  
  I'm currently leading Product at a NYC-based hardware + software company called Nucleus. We're building a smart intercom that will serve as the foundation for people to communicate seamlessly with the ones they care about the most — whether they’re in another room in the same house, in a completely different location (Hi mom!) or on the move on their mobile devices.
  
  You can learn more about the product at www.nucleuslife.com. I'm building up the product team so if you have any interest in designing an experience that will live at the center of families' lives, get in touch and let me know what excites you about it.
  

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  Bethany Koby

  CEO & Co-Founder, Technology Will Save Us

  2016 Open Design Jury Captain

  Bethany Koby is a mom, designer, educator and the co-founder of Technology Will Save Us. Technology Will Save Us is on a mission to spark the imagination using hands-on technology. Their beautifully designed DIY Gadget Kits and digital resources are the most accessible way to make, play, code and invent with technology.
  

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  J Milligan

  Executive Producer, Toca Boca

  2016 Open Design Jury Member

  J Milligan is the Executive Producer at Toca Boca, a play studio that makes digital toys for kids. He is spearheading the company’s new video division dedicated to exploring the new kids TV and video landscape. Before joining Toca Boca, Milligan served as creative director of the content innovation lab and digital media group at Sesame Workshop.