Jury Alumni

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  Aimee Franco

  Product Designer

  2017 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Aimee Franco is an independent design consultant based in Brooklyn, NY. She studied industrial design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and currently works on projects that span the physical and digital product realms.
  
  Passionate about designing for impact, Aimee has spent most of her career working in the healthcare space. Early on, she worked with Fortune 500 medical technology companies as an industrial designer at​ ​Tekna​. Later, she collaborated with​ ​iDE Cambodia​ on healthcare-focused international development projects, and she began designing digital experiences. More recently, as Product Design Lead at Caremerge, she worked on designing a care coordination platform for older adults, and has since become an independent consultant.
  
  Aimee has also taught as an adjunct instructor for Startup Institute’s web design program.

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  Rhys Newman

  Global Head of Design & User Experience, ABB E-Mobility

  2024 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Rhys is the Global Head of Design & User Experience at ABB E_Mobility. He previously worked as a consultant and led multi-disciplinary Design teams at Google X's Everyday Robots, Casper Sleep, NOKIA, and Lego. He co-founded his entrepreneurial venture, OMATA in 2015.
  As a Design Leader, he has a reputation for building happy and motivated studios where designers want to work, creativity is the priority, and innovation happens. He is obsessed with nurturing cultures of creativity, optimism, and the value of Design and Designing as a perspective and a practice.
  Rhys has a Master’s Degree in Product Design from the Royal College of Art in London, and a First Class Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK. He has been a part-time lecturer at Art Centre, Pasadena; Goldsmiths University, London; Denmark Design School, Copenhagen; and the Royal College of Art, London. He has also served on the jury of numerous competitions, was Chair of the IDSA IDEA Awards, and has multiple patents.

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  Chadwick Harber

  Industrial Design Director, Airbnb

  2022 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Chad has been leading design in a range of innovative environments, such as start-ups, consultancies and corporations. At Airbnb, Chad collaborates with a small group of highly creative and curious wizards building the future of living, consumption and sharing. After studying in Canada where he grew up, Chad moved to the bay area, where he has been designing products with Fitbit, Microsoft and Google among others for the past 15 years. Chad believes that good design has power in minimalism yet still values warmth and humanity in its perception. For a design to be truly meaningful, it needs to be loved by the people that use it, as well as engaging viscerally and intellectually.
  
  In his spare time, Chad loves designing and renovating his mid century home, riding his bike and cooking with friends.

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  Bruno Saint-Jalmes

  Head of Creative Design and Concepts, Airbus

  2016 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  In October 2013 Bruno was appointed Chief Designer of Airbus Group. Airbus Group management charged Bruno with giving the Airbus Group range a more emotional design language. On this basis, Bruno set up future vehicle products, new ideas, future initiatives and technology strategy as a guideline for future Airbus Group innovations – some examples of the major innovations he delivered are the A350XWB cabin, cockpit design and the Concept Plane Vision 2050, both resulting in a new passenger comfort & service experience as well as a higher airline efficiency.
  
  He oversees the Airbus Industrial Design Group and also provides leadership and direction for industrial designer teams across the company, as well as to foster a design excellence culture within Airbus Group. He is based in Munich, Germany.
  
  Previously Bruno was the Head of Design and Advanced Design at the Airbus Commercial Design Centre in Toulouse, France, from 1994 to 2013. His mission was to develop all the aircraft products, differentiating their individuality, and creating a seductive interior of cabins and cockpits.
  
  Prior to that he was in charge of car and product design at Renault-Matra's design studios from 1988 to 1993.
  
  Bruno began his career at French automaker Peugeot, where he was responsible for driving the style of small and mid-size cars.
  
  Bruno graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle with an MA in Industrial Design/Product Design

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  Nicolas Lenotte

  Senior Designer, Ammunition LLC

  2022 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Nicolas joined Ammunition in 2014. As a senior designer, he works closely with clients to help shape ideas into elegant, manufacturable solutions. Notable examples of his work include the UNICEF Kid Power Band, the Polaroid Hoop camera, and the Ammunition X Gantri Gio lighting collection.
  
  Originally from a small town in France, Nicolas grew up finding inspiration and beauty in ordinary objects which eventually led him to pursue a career in industrial design. Prior to joining Ammunition, he worked with companies including Decathalon, Electrolux, and frog design. Nicolas graduated with a master’s degree in industrial design from ISD in France. His work has been featured in TIME magazine and was recognized by IDEA, Fast Company, Core77 and the Halo design awards.

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  Christopher Kuh

  VP, Industrial Design Studio, Ammunitiongroup

  2020 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Christopher joined Ammunition in 2008, and has played an integral role within the studio’s ID group to create meaningful product experiences for clients such as Beats by Dre, Polaroid, Skype and Sky, as well as numerous startups. In his current role, Christopher focuses on managing Ammunition’s ID team, providing ongoing project leadership, coordination, creative direction and mentoring.

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  Cormac Eubanks

  Product Development Consultant, APX Product Design

  2019 Commercial Equipment Jury Captain

  As a Product Development Consultant Cormac has worked with numerous high profile growth startup clients in Silicon Valley including Postmates on the development of the Serve sidewalk delivery robot.
  
  Cormac Eubanks was Vice President of Product Design at Skycatch - a drone company that uses flying robots to create data for customers in the construction industry. Previously, Cormac was the Product Development Director at frog where he worked for almost 10 years. frog is a global innovation firm that Creates and markets products, services and experiences for industries like consumer electronics and computers. Before that Cormac was a Mechanical Design Engineer at Rockwell Collins where he was responsible for mechanical design and analysis of Helmet Mounted Display System for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and prototyping multiple external visor designs for flight-certified use.
  
  Earlier Cormac was the Lead Mechanical Designer at CVI Laser Corporation from 1999 to 2002. He was responsible for designing precision optical mounts for catalog and custom OEM applications. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering with a Minor in Engineering Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

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  Andy Logan

  Founder & Creative Director, AWOL Company

  2018 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Andy Logan is the Founder and Creative Director at AWOL Company, a small but mighty Southern California-based product design agency. AWOL specializes in award-winning design that challenges assumptions, grows market share, and delights users. A veteran of California’s top consultancies, Andy’s 20-year design career resume includes both BMW/Designworks and frog design, leading creative teams to tackle challenges in the Consumer, Industrial, and Medical categories.
  
  With a strategic design philosophy, he has helped businesses as varied as HP, Nike, John Deere, Proctor & Gamble, Turtle Beach, Welch Allyn, AutoDesk, and SanDisk better connect with their customers through amazing design. Most recently, he installed a kick-ass zip line in his backyard for his three daughters.

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  Natasha Margot Blum

  Principal Director, Blumline

  2019 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Natasha specializes in human-centered design research and strategy. She is passionate about creating services, experiences, environments, and products that help people live better, healthier, and more fulfilled lives in a rapidly changing world.
  
  In 2017, Natasha founded the design and innovation strategy consultancy Blumline, where she and her teams blend creative and scientific research methodologies to catalyze radical and compassionate innovation. Blumline's goal is to shift perspectives and behaviors around ambiguous landscapes like the future of health and wellness, the age of autonomy, and mindfulness in the digital age.
  
  Natasha's service design experience rests at the intersection of mobility, wellness, health, hospitality, and retail for clients including Postmates, Volkswagen, Livongo, Singapore Airlines, Lincoln, and emerging brands in the boutique hotel industry.

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  Bill Evans

  Principal and Founder, Bridge Design

  2015 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Bill Evans founded and leads Bridge Design which has focused for more than two decades on designing medical and life sciences products from handheld to the purely virtual. His broad and deep industry perspective has resulted in powerful cross-pollination of ideas that often anticipate consumer and medical trends. He is a sought-after speaker on design and innovation at conferences and has written extensively for industry media. He has also been a guest lecturer and student mentor at UC Berkeley's and Stanford University's industrial and product design programs. Bill has served on a number of boards, including the Venture Advisory Board for Kimberly-Clark, and the Editorial Advisory Board of industry leading publication Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry (MD&DI). He has also been named among the '100 Notable People' in the medical device industry by that same organization. Bill owns multiple patents and holds two masters level degrees, awarded jointly: an MDes in Industrial Design Engineering from the UK's Royal College of Art, and a DIC in Engineering from its sister, Imperial College.

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  Robert Sachon

  Head of Design, BSH

  2016 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Robert Sachon has studied free arts, product design and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School´s General Management Program (GMP). He can look back on a long design career in the household appliance sector. Among other things, he worked as a designer for the Siemens brand and was responsible for the design of the regional brands in Southern Europe and South America belonging to the BSH Group portfolio. Since 2005 he has shaped the Bosch brand as Global Design Director. His holistic design approach has been acknowledged with numerous international design awards. Only recently, Sachon and the Bosch Home Appliances Design Team were awarded the honorary title of “Red Dot: Designteam of the Year 2015“.

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  Helen Maria Nugent

  Dean of Design, California College of the Arts (CCA)

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Helen Maria Nugent has been leading progressive innovation in art and design education for over 25 years. Currently, she is the Dean of Design at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco where she oversees 9 graduate and undergraduate design programs including an MBA in Design Strategy. She envisions the Design Division at CCA as a sanctuary for those with radical curiosity, where wonder and imagination are amplified through rigor and craft.
  Previously she was a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she founded the Designed Objects programs that cultivate a reciprocal relationship between products and humanity. In the way-back machine, she was the co-director of the transformative and aptly named, Workshop for Art Research and Practice (WARP), a radical foundation program for artists and designers at the University of Florida.
  
  Helen Maria is also the co-founder of Haelo Design, an interdisciplinary research-oriented design studio that is undertaking the transition from object design to strategic futuring.
  

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  Afshin Mehin

  Lead Designer, Card79

  2024 Commercial Equipment Jury Captain

  Afshin Mehin is the founder of Card79, a creative studio based in San Francisco. The studio focuses on tackling complex and future-facing projects, working on everything from Brain Computer Interfaces to Autonomous Vehicles for agile Startups like Postmates as well as large companies like Amazon and Lululemon. Afshin’s experience blends the old and new, having worked for traditional furniture designers like BarberOsgerby and Terence Conran as well as futuristics institutions such as M.I.T. ’s Media Lab Europe and Elon Musk’s Neuralink.

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  Ara Acle

  Senior Industrial Designer, Casper

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Ara Acle is a Bay Area native currently based in Oakland, CA. After graduating from San Jose State University, Ara spent time at many of the top San Francisco design consultancies. For 4 years he was an Industrial Designer at Frog where he led projects for clients in sectors ranging from consumer electronics, AR experiences, medical products, and environmental installations. Ara is currently a Senior Industrial Designer at Casper where he is helping the brand build sleep products that bring a sense of joy and comfort to consumers.

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  Sam Lucente

  CDO and Co-Founder, Cookbrite

  2015 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Sam Lucente works as the CDO and Co-Founder of Cookbrite, a food business in the technology industry. As a designer, he focuses on bringing world class design approaches to bear on complex problems for society, organizations and the design profession at large. Sam is also Principal of Lucente Design. He previously worked as VP of Design for HP Worldwide, Netscape's UX Director and head of IBM's Strategic Design where he led many ThinkPad design efforts.Selected as one of Fast Company's Masters of Design and BusinessWeek's Champions of Innovation, Sam has judged design competitions worldwide. His work has been recognized with major design awards and is in permanent collection at the SFMOMA, the NY MoMA, the Smithsonian National Design Museum and other collections. Sam studied computer science extensively. Prior to that, he graduated magna cum laude from the College of Design, Architecture and Art at the University of Cincinnati.