Jury Alumni

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  Janet Lieberman-Lu

  Co-Founder, Dame Products & TINKR

  2022 Tools & Work Jury Captain

  Janet Lieberman-Lu has more than a decade of experience bringing products to market. As an MIT-educated mechanical engineer and entrepreneur, she's worked on everything from dustpans to 3D printers to bathmats. As the co-founder of Dame Products, she's been a key figure in originating the sextech industry, growing the company into an industry leader while managing the design, engineering, and manufacturing of their products. Her latest project, TINKR, is still pre-launch.

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  David Block

  Principal, Studio Redeye

  2022 Tools & Work Jury Member

  After receiving his MID from Pratt Institute in 2005, David Block spent his early career at the well-known branding firm Desgrippes Gobe—now Brand Image—and other elite studios/brands. He founded Studio Redeye in 2013, with a focus on products in the juvenile, kitchen, and sports equipment categories. David specializes in designing products with and for innovative startups with whom he forms long-lasting relationships, helping these companies grow into leaders in their category.

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  Adriana C Vazquez Ortiz

  Co-founder & CEO, Lilu

  2022 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Adriana is co-founder and CEO at Lilu. She has a Masters in Integrated Product Design from UPenn and a BSc from MIT in Mathematics and Computer Science. Prior to Lilu she worked at Morgan Stanley's Liquidity Risk software team. She was named one of the top 30 Femtech Healthcare Influencers in 2019 and has won awards such as the SheKnows BlogHer competition (2019) and the AlphaLabGear Hardware cup (2018). She has represented Lilu at SXSW, TechCrunch Battlefield, and PitcHer at GraceHopper, and she's inventor of the Lilu Massage Bra, which was recognized as Philadelphia’s invention of the year in 2019 In her spare time Adriana loves to run, cycle and attempting to snowboard.

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  Reid Schlegel

  Associate Design Director, Aruliden

  2022 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Reid Schlegel is a NYC based Industrial Designer with a solid history working in the design consulting and education space. He is currently an Associate Design Director at Aruliden and previously worked at frog and SMART Design. As a design educator Reid teaches process drawing + digital visualization and Junior Year Studio at the Parsons School of Design and visits Universities to guest lecture and teach his design process methodologies. Additionally, Reid runs an Instagram account with 136k+ followers showcasing his work and other design related content.

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  Veronica Becchetti

  Co-founder & Chief Supply Chain Officer, Wildone

  2021 Tools & Work Jury Captain

  Veronica oversees all aspects of product innovation, manufacturing and production at Wild One. Prior to joining the Wild One team, Veronica served as Director of Production at S’well, after joining as the company's 8th employee in 2014. Previously, she worked in manufacturing and product development at Target, William E. Connor and Gap. Veronica has a BFA in Retail Merchandising and Management from the University of Wisconsin - Stout, and lives in the East Village where she’s the proud aunt to many dogs.
  Wild One creates design-forward, innovative products that empower dogs and their people to walk, travel, play and live in style. Crystalizing our position and the most stylish and innovative dog brand in the pet space.
  
  Oversee all aspects of brand product strategy, implementing sourcing manufacturing and supply chain operations to support the brand launch and growth.

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  Minali Chatani

  Co-founder & Chief Brand Officer, Wildone

  2021 Tools & Work Jury Captain

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  Alisha Ramos

  Founder/CEO, No Plans Inc.

  2021 Tools & Work Jury Member

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  Monish Sabnani

  Co-founder, Courant

  2021 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Monish Sabnani is the Co-Founder of Courant, a design-driven electronics brand focused on wireless charging for the home. Courant products are widely distributed online and in-store at retailers including West Elm, Nordstrom, CB2, and Bloomingdales, and have been recipients of recognition including a Red Dot Product Design Award and Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies. Monish graduated with a degree in Finance and Entrepreneurship from Georgetown University, and was selected as part of Forbes 30 Under 30 class in 2021.

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  Gillian Rode

  Managing Director, Ueno

  2020 Tools & Work Jury Captain

  Gillian is a strategic leader focused on designing amazing customer experiences across the full journey of online and offline touch-points. She’s worked with dozens of different businesses from start-ups in South Asia to global Fortune 100 companies, giving her great insight into what it takes to innovate and find product/market fit. Currently Managing Director at the creative digital agency Ueno she is helping drive the next generation of digital experiences for clients like Google, Facebook, Venmo, and Walmart. Prior to Ueno, Gillian was leading teams at Fuseproject, MNML, and Cirque du Soleil.

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  Mikki Brammer

  Journalist

  2020 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Mikki is an Australian writer, editor, and photographer based in New York City by way of Barcelona and Paris. Currently a contributing editor for Surface and Metropolis (where she was previously editor-at-large), she has covered all things design and architecture for many publications including Architectural Digest, AFAR, Details, Dwell, ICON, and Luxe Interiors & Design.

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  Katerina Kopytina

  Senior Designer, fuseproject

  2020 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Industrial design, creative director and explorer.
  
  For the past decade she has worked on award-winning products ranging from consumer electronics, to lifestyle accessories, lighting and more.
  
  Her personal work is in the permanent collection at Moscow Design Museum, and has been exhibited internationally. It has been featured in Dezeen, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, Milk Decoration, Ignant, Wallpaper*, Yatzer, Fubiz, Interni, Domus, Mocoloco, Elle Decoration and beyond.
  
  For three years Katerina has been working as a Senior Designer at Fuseproject where she focused on innovative product categories and sustainable manufacturing. Recently she left Fuseproject to build a design consultancy that helps novel ideas and technologies become adoptable, desirable, and human.

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  Linda Jiang

  Lead Industrial Designer, Google

  2019 Tools & Work Jury Captain

  Linda is based in Mountain View, California, where she is an Industrial design lead within Google’s fast-growing hardware design team. She is currently focused on designing Google’s next generation of Pixel and Chrome products.
  
  With a background in consumer electronics, Linda has a passion for designing a future based on innovation and compelling experiences. Prior to joining Google, Linda served as the Head of Industrial Design at Essential Products, a Palo Alto-based startup that launched its first PH-1 smartphone in 2017. Before moving to Silicon Valley, Linda was a Senior Designer with Motorola’s Consumer Experience Design team in Chicago, Illinois.
  
  Linda was born in Chengdu, China but grew up in countries across the globe, including Belgium, Spain, and eventually the United States. She received a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Product Design from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan. Go Peacocks!

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  Kelly Custer

  Founder + Creative Director, Knack

  2019 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Kelly Custer is the Founder and Creative Director of Knack, a product design studio with passion for products that move. Whether for a startup, a major corporation or anything in between, Kelly leads her team in designing user-centric products that build desire.
  
  Driven by the belief that design powerfully impacts people and business, Kelly’s mission is not only to prove the value of good design to the world, but to shake up the way designers work
  while she’s at it. Her approach brings new energy, empowerment and mentoring to her teams.
  
  Kelly earned a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Transportation Design from the College for Creative Studies in the “Motor City”, Detroit, MI. That motor oil runs through her veins.

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  Mike Simmons

  Director of Product Design, Playground Global

  2019 Tools & Work Jury Member

  Mike currently serves as Director of Product Design at Playground Global, which is a venture investment firm with an added studio of product development and technical experts. Here he blends his consulting, product design, and entrepreneurship experience to help aspiring hardware startup companies create great products and strong businesses. Prior to joining Playground, Mike worked for Google where he built a team and managed the product design and mechanical engineering efforts first with Android and the Nexus line of products and then adding projects with Chrome and Chromecast. Before that, Mike led product design efforts for startups, created new products and businesses at Lunar Design, and ran his own consulting practice. Through these experiences, he has helped develop products across industries and for many clients such as Apple, Danger, HP, Motorola, and SanDisk.
  
  Mike first realized his passion for designing and inventing products while earning his degree in the Product Design program at Stanford. He later went on to fuel his interest in business and entrepreneurship by obtaining an MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Mike grew up in Montana, and he loves to return to his home state for skiing, fishing, and simply taking in the Big Sky.

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  Bernie Wildner

  Director of Design, Amazon

  2019 Tools & Work Jury Member