Jury Alumni

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  Desmond Dickerson

  Director, Future of Work Marketing, Microsoft

  2022 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Desmond Dickerson is Director, Future of Work at Microsoft. He studies trends and market forces to help people understand how work is changing and what is required for them to adapt and thrive in this new world.

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  Ishmael Adams

  Principle Designer, Microsoft

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Ishmael strives to create products and experiences that are empathic and fueled by observation, intuition, and collaboration. He has been a pivotal part of the entire process, from research, concept development, production, and manufacturing liaison. Ishmael has accumulated many skills and experience over his extensive career. He has worked with some of the most renowned companies and various industries, from sporting goods to consumer tech, and collaborated with inspiring and dynamic startups. Ishmael focuses on bringing new and unexpected solutions to products and experiences and is passionate about creating holistic design solutions for all. Since joining Microsoft Windows and Devices team, over a year ago, Ishmael has led projects across a variety of categories and new horizons. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ishmael was design lead at MNML based in Chicago, where he led projects for Bang & Olufsen, Logitech, Adidas, Samsung, and many more startups.

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  Yuka Hiyoshi

  Designer, MillerKnoll

  2024 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Yuka is a Japanese industrial designer based in Michigan. She has over fifteen years of experience designing and consulting for companies in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. She is lead designer at MillerKnoll’s Tailored Studio.

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  Zeeshan Hakkim

  Senior Industrial Designer, Minimal

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Zeeshan Hakkim is an Industrial designer born and raised in India based in Chicago, Illinois at MNML. He completed his master’s degree in Product Design Management at ISD Rubika. His passion for design stems from an obsession towards creative problem solving by using, learning and adapting new tools into an ever-evolving design process. He believes that good design resides at the intersection of empathy and craft. Over the last 6 years he has had the opportunity to collaborate with small startups as well as fortune 500 companies to bring to life products from lifestyle brands, medical products, consumer electronics and furniture to name a few. Zeeshan’s skill sets span across multiple disciplines that include industrial design, product development, mechanical engineering, graphic design, packaging design, and branding.

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  Arthur Huang

  Co-Founder/CEO, MINIWIZ

  2016 Built Environment Jury Captain

  Arthur Huang is a structural engineer, architect and innovator of loop economy building material solutions. He founded Miniwiz in 2005 and has led the firm since.
  
  Miniwiz is a global leader in post-consumer recycling technology with applications focused around built infrastructure and architectural solutions. For over 10 years, Miniwiz has been challenging the existing linear supply chain by using post-consumer recycled materials for high performance applications, retail store interiors, factory campuses and consumer goods.
  
  Miniwiz gained recognition worldwide for first executing upcycling technologies and developing solutions that enable the switch to the circular economy. Three National Geographic Channel Episodes have been dedicated to Miniwiz , documenting the following Miniwiz Projects: The Ecoark Museum, the worlds first nine story tall museum made form post-consumer Materials (2010), Polliboat (2011), SDTI electronic waste recycling campus (2015). Miniwiz brought trash materials to the retail industry, equipping Nike’s high-end stores (Nikelab) with fixtures made from trash, in the heart of the world’s most premium cities: NYC, London, Paris, Milan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo.
  
  Among other honors, Miniwiz under Arthur Huang’s leadership won the Financial Times’ “Earth Award” in 2010 and The Wall Street Journal’s “Asian Innovation Award” in 2011. Miniwiz received the “Technology Pioneers 2015” title by the World Economic Forum, recognizing the potential of the new industry that Miniwiz is leading and the positive impact of its activities on the state of the world.
  
  Miniwiz holds invention patents and trademarks for various mechanical and chemical up-cycling technologies, including Polliber™, a composite made of reprocessed organic waste with recycled polymers, Natrilon™, a yarn made of recycled PET reinforced with Nano SiO2 from rice husk, Pollibrick™, a mechanical interlocking system, and many others.

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  Nadya Peek

  Designer, MIT

  2017 Open Design Jury Member

  Nadya Peek is a postdoctoral associate at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms, a group at the intersection of the physical and the digital. Nadya Peek works on unconventional digital fabrication tools, small scale automation, networked control systems, and advanced manufacturing, and is currently teaching the MIT class How to make something that makes (almost) anything. Nadya Peek is an active member of the global fablab community, working on making digital fabrication more accessible with better CAD/CAM tools and developing open source (hardware) machines and control systems. Previously, Nadya Peek was an editor at Mediamatic in Amsterdam.

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  Marcelo Coelho

  Faculty, MIT Department of Architecture

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Marcelo Coelho is Head of Design at Formlabs and Faculty at the MIT Department of Architecture. Spanning a wide range of media, processes, and scales, his work explores the boundaries between matter and information, fostering new forms of collaboration between human and artificial intelligence.
  
  Marcelo’s work has been exhibited internationally, including places such as the Rio 2016 Paralympic Ceremonies, Times Square, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Ars Electronica, and can be found in museums, private collections, and millions of products sold all over the world. Recognition for this work includes two Prix Ars Electronica awards, Design Miami/ Designer of the Future Award, Red Dot Design Award, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award. He holds a doctorate degree from the MIT Media Lab.
  

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  Scott Wilson

  Founder + CEO, MNML

  2023 Sports & Outdoors Jury Member

  Scott Wilson is a design entrepreneur and founder of the brand acceleration and product innovation studio, MINIMAL (MNML), in Chicago. With a diverse background in industries spanning lifestyle, sports, furniture, medical, consumer products, agriculture, and technology, Wilson has a passion for solving problems through beautifully simple solutions that connect emotionally and rationally with users. His studio has received numerous awards and recognition for its 15-year track record of commercial design successes creating billions of dollars in revenue for its clients and partners.
  
  In 2010, Wilson's Apple Nano LUNATIK Watch campaign sparked both the crowdfunding and wearable era and became the first $1 million Kickstarter fundraiser in history, changing the face of entrepreneurialism forever. He has been recognized as one of TIME Magazine's and Fast Company's Most Influential Designers and is a recipient of the prestigious Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, which is bestowed upon the top designer in the nation each year by the White House.
  

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  Melissa Bruntlett

  Co-Founder, Modacity

  2015 Transportation Jury Member

  Melissa Bruntlett is co-founder of Modacity, a multi-service consultancy, focused on inspiring healthier, happier, simpler forms of urban mobility through words, photography and film. She is a regular contributor for Momentum Magazine, The Vancouver Courier, Vanity Buzz and most recently Grist. Melissa is very active in her community, advocating for walking, cycling and public transportation improvements, and works as producer and project manager for Modacity's film campaigns. Her most recent work includes developing a marketing campaign for a Transit Referendum in the Metro Vancouver area. She lives in Vancouver, BC with her husband and two children, and makes riding a bicycle or walking throughout her beautiful city a daily activity.Follow her on Twitter at@mbruntlett.

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  Bas van de Poel

  Co-Founder, Modem

  2023 Speculative Design Jury Captain

  Bas van de Poel is co-founder at Modem, an office for design and innovation committed to creating experiences for a new world. Whether through research papers with institutions like MIT, Harvard GSD or UC Berkeley or its work with clients such as Nike, Google, Teenage Engineering, and OpenAI. Prior to Modem, Bas served as Creative Director at IKEA’s research and design lab SPACE10 where he led large-scale digital transformation and sustainability programs.

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  Phu Hoang

  Founding Director, MODU

  2020 Personal Accessory Jury Member

  Founding Director and studio alchemist, Phu Hoang and has led MODU since its founding in 2012. Along with Rachely Rotem, he was awarded the 2017 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture, since 1897 an annual prize to those ”who represent the highest standards of excellence in the arts and humanities.” Phu has led the design of many projects in MODU, including the Exhale art park and the Promenade retail and office center. They have also been awarded the Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York (2019) and the US-Japan Creative Artists fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (2018).

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  Alex Hochstrasser

  Founder & Designer, MOLUK

  2024 Toys & Play Jury Member

  Alex Hochstrasser is a Swiss designer and inventor and one of the pioneers of contemporary open-ended toys.
  
  He studied industrial design at the University of Art and Design in Zurich and worked for renowned design firms in Barcelona, San Francisco, New York, and Tokyo. In 2001, he launched his first toy, Bilibo. The open- ended play shell was an instant critical and commercial success, winning a TOTY and numerous other international awards. Alex continued his vision of analog, abstract play objects that encourage children to move and explore with MOLUK, a label he founded with his sister in 2011 - developing an iconic range of open-ended toys that all work together and complement each other. 16 MOLUK toys have won Germany's prestigious spiel gut® award for their unique design and outstanding play value. Alex's work is part of the permanent collections of the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs Paris, and has been featured in exhibitions at the Vitra Design Museum and MoMA New York.

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  Jaime Moreno

  Founder and Creative Director, Mormedi

  2016 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Born and raised in Madrid, Jaime started Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Madrid but shortly after moved to Switzerland where he achieved a Degree in Industrial Design at the Art Center College of Design. He has upgraded his studies taking seminars at Harvard, IESE, IE and St. Louis University Business School.
  
  After graduating he worked as a design consultant for Philips at the Domestic Appliances department in The Netherlands.
  
  From this experience, he decided to found in 1998 his own company, Mormedi, a design consultancy that innovates through customer experience, with a strategic approach, delivering service design, industrial design and digital experiences.
  
  The company now includes a multidisciplinary and a highly skilled team of designers, strategists, engineers, business development consultants and marketing specialists. Mormedi covers many sectors in a wide variety of typologies, ranging from banking, airlines, telecommunications, consumer electronics, energy, etc. The 70% of its turnover comes from abroad, working for 12 companies that belong to the "Fortune 500” list.
  
  Jaime combines his dedication to Mormedi, as CEO and Creative Director, with a passion for design which has led him to take part as a member of the jury in several competitions and to give conferences in Spain, UK, Denmark, Japan and Hong Kong. He is also a member of the Design Management Institute (DMI), the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), and the International Forum Design (IF).
  
  Jaime has been awarded with the “2015 National Design Award” in the Professional’s Category, given by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.

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  Manabu Tago

  President, Art Director and Designer, MTDO inc.

  2015 Packaging Jury Member

  Mr. Tago graduated from the Class-II Design Management program of Tokyo Zokei University.He was engaged in the design development of various home electrical appliances and information technology devices at Toshiba Design Center Corporation. Following a career at Toshiba, he served as design management director at REALFLEET Co., Ltd. Subsequently, he launched MTDO in 2008 to try and open up new areas up until now. He is currently engaged in design, direction and management throughout the entire process from concept creation to production in a wide range of industries.He is also the recipient of many awards: iF Product Design Award 2013 (GOLD), reddot Design Award Best of the Best 2013 and Design for Asia Award 2013 Grand Awardùjust to name a few.

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  Sarah Dunham

  Partner, MTWTF

  2024 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Sarah is a Partner at MTWTF, where she has been shaping design processes, managing interdisciplinary design teams, and facilitating community engagement since joining the studio in 2014. MTWTF is a communication design studio that believes that good design has the power to help individuals, organizations, and businesses clarify what they do and manifest their ideas to make change happen. The studio situates itself within the broadest discipline of design — the shaping of our shared physical and electronic environment — and creates communication tools that foster discussion and facilitate change.
  
  Acting as project manager and art director, Sarah develops design strategies for projects that are drawn from a rigorous engagement with their content. This approach has driven exhibitions including ‘Utopia— Dystopia’ a multimedia exhibition at the Audi Design Incubator in Brooklyn; ‘Seeing Equal Rights in New York State’ an interactive exhibition at the Equal Rights Heritage Center; ‘Climates of Inequality’ an interactive exhibition of student work on environmental justice by the Humanities Action Lab; and 'Maneuvers at Millers River' a case study exhibition currently in development for the National Pubic Housing Museum in Chicago.

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  Maria Silva

  Brand Strategist & Senior Designer, Mucca Design

  2020 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Maria Silva's passion is discovering the compelling kernel of truth at the root of each brand and using it to create a unique story. In addition to being a brand strategist at Mucca Design, she is an award-winning designer, with recognition from CommArts, TDC, LAD, and BID, and a master’s degree in brand strategy from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Some of her recent clients include Union Square Hospitality, WeWork, 7Fresh, Fairway, and Ficosota.