Jury Alumni

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  Zach Kaplan

  CEO, Inventables

  2018 Open Design Jury Captain

  Zach Kaplan is the founder and CEO of Inventables, the leader in 3D carving. A maker his whole life, he is on a mission to ignite digital manufacturing world wide and provide everyone with ambition a way to get started. Inventables flagship products Easel, Carvey, and X-Carve are used by a new wave of makers carving everything from circuit boards to skate boards. Named a “modern Leonardo” by the Museum of Science and Industry and a 40 under 40 by Crain’s Chicago Business, his dream is to create a world with 2 million digital manufacturers that have raving fans, not just customers.

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  Carl Bass

  Self-unemployed robot builder and former CEO, Autodesk, Parts & Labor

  2018 Open Design Jury Member

  Carl Bass serves on the boards of Autodesk, Built Robotics, Formlabs, Planet, Zendesk and Zoox and serves as a special adviser to the CEO of Alphabet. During his 24 year tenure at Autodesk, he held a series of executive positions including president and chief executive officer, chief technology officer and chief operating officer. Bass co-founded Ithaca Software, which was acquired by Autodesk in 1993. Bass also serves on the boards of directors of Zendesk Inc. and Planet; on the board of trustees of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Art Center College of Design, and California College of the Arts; and on the advisory boards of Cornell Computing and Information Science, UC Berkeley School of Information, and UC Berkeley College of Engineering.
  
  He holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Cornell University. Bass spends his time exploring the intersection of art, robotics and machine learning

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  Jason Busschaert

  Director of Industrial Design, Stanley Black & Decker

  2018 Open Design Jury Member

  As Director of Industrial Design at Stanley Black and Decker, Jason's role is to provide global leadership in the definition, design, and development of industry leading power tools and outdoor power equipment.
  
  Jason has been a catalyst, integrating new technology to support adjacent design functions all with a goal to optimize the user experience. These efforts further enhance and differentiate the strong brands of Stanley Black and Decker. Prior to working for Stanley Black and Decker, Jason started his career at Canadian Design Consultancy DW Product Development, working with and supporting various clients across a diverse set of markets and industries.
  
  Jason has been recognized with several design awards, most recently receiving a 2015 IDSA IDEA Bronze award for DEWALT’s first entry into Professional Outdoor Equipment.

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  Porter Whitmire

  Senior Director of Product Development & Innovation Management, Techtronic Industries

  2018 Open Design Jury Member

  Porter Whitmire has 20 years of product design, product development, and innovation management experience. Currently, he serves as the VP of Innovation and New Business Development at TTI Power Equipment. Porter has developed over 200 different products in many different categories, including power tools, lawn and garden products, electronic devices, lifestyle products, grills, and smartphone products and apps. In 2014, Porter founded the ION program at TTI as part of the company’s open innovation initiative. The Innovation Outreach Network seeks innovations from within TTI, from universities and private companies, and also the inventor community. When not innovating for TTI, Porter enjoys family time, mountain biking, and woodworking.