Jury Alumni

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  Kim Baer

  Principal, KBDA

  2017 Packaging Jury Member

  Kim Baer, principal of Los Angeles-based design studio KBDA is a strong believer in the power of design as a strategic tool. Her firm has created research-driven work for for-profit clients as diverse as Hyatt, and Nike, as well as nonprofits such as The Getty, the Hammer Museum, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, and the LA Phil.
  
  KBDA specializes in helping organizations hone their positioning. Once that messaging has been crafted, KBDA is well known for its focus on audience experience, whether it’s experienced online, in print or in an environment.
  
  Consistently honored by every major design organization in the country, KBDA has produced work that has been featured in the Library of Congress and regularly published in design anthologies. Premiere design magazines such as Communication Arts and HOW have regularly showcased the firm’s work and methodology.
  
  Kim Baer served on the national board of the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) and received the Fellows Award from the Los Angeles chapter of AIGA in honor of lifetime achievement. She is the author of Information Design Workbook from Rockport Publishers, an in-depth look at best practices in information design from around the world. She is also on the Advisory Board for Art Center’s MFA Graduate Graphic Design program.

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  Arundhati Bagrodia

  Service Designer, Fjord

  2022 Service Design Jury Member

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  Estelle Bailey-Babenzien

  Business Founder, Creative Director and Interior Designer, Dream Awake Studio

  2022 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Estelle Bailey-Babenzien is of British and Ghanaian descent and was born and raised in the UK. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in London, with an honors degree in Fashion- communication and promotion, and moved straight to New York City. Since then, she has built her career as a creative director in the fields of music, fashion, and interior architecture and design. In 2015, she cofounded the men's/unisex clothing brand Noah with her husband, designer Brendon Babenzien. Noah has two stores in the United States, two stores in Japan, and shop-in-shops in three Dover Street Market stores globally. Simultaneously, Estelle continues to grow her design studio, Dream Awake Design, which focuses on experiential and interior design, and creative direction for commercial and residential projects and brands. She lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and their six year-old daughter, Sailor.

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  Angela Bains

  Acting Associate Dean, OCAD University

  2024 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Angela Bains currently serves as the Acting Associate Dean within the Faculty of Design at the OCAD University (OCAD U), Toronto, Canada. Her previous role involved serving as the Graduate Program Director for the Strategic Foresight & Innovation (SFI) program. Notably, a member of the Solid Black Collective research group at OCAD U. She is the co-creator of the SFI’s Decolonising Futures BIPOC Speakers Series, and Black SFI (Strategic Foresight & Innovation). In addition to her academic roles, Angela holds the position of Co-Founder and Strategic Director at TransformExp, an esteemed commercial and social change strategy and design firm located in Vancouver, Canada.
  
  Originating from the United Kingdom, Angela brings with her more than three decades of extensive experience in the creative industry. Her professional achievements extend to being a sought-after speaker and host, notably participating in events such as The State of Black Design, Design Management Institute - Diversity in Design Conference, Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD) – International DesignThinkers Conference and Black Design, Past, Present & Future. Furthermore, Angela has dedicated her expertise to part-time teaching in Strategic Design at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). This multifaceted professional background underscores Angela Bains' substantial contributions to the fields of design, strategic foresight, and innovation.

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  Phil Balagtas

  Experience Design Director, The Design Futures Initiative, McKinsey Design

  2019 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Phil has been a practicing visual & interaction designer since 2001 and has experience designing across a variety of devices and platforms within non-profit, retail, advertising, and enterprise software organizations. He is currently an Experience Design Director at McKinsey & Company working with a variety of industries to transform and enhance their digital businesses and strategies. He is also the founder and organizer of the Design Futures Initiative which organizes the international Speculative Futures meetups and the PRIMER conference in the US and Europe. An educator and futurist, his events bring together designers and futurists from all over the world to teach and share strategies for designing for the future and the ethical challenges around emerging technologies.

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  Geoff Baldwin

  Founder, Win Win Athletics

  2026 Sports & Outdoors Jury Member

  Geoff is a creative leader who designs objects, interfaces, spaces, and experiences. He is the founder of WIN WIN Athletics, a new kind of sports company focused on solving everyday sports challenges for everyday athletes. WIN WIN’s innovative flag football equipment—recognized as among the most inclusive in the world—makes it easier for anyone, anywhere, to play.
  
  Through his design practice, People, Places & Things, Geoff continues to collaborate with corporate teams and startups, helping make strategic ideas more tangible and executional details more thoughtful.
  
  Prior to founding WIN WIN Athletics and PPT, Geoff was a Design Director at IDEO.org, where he partnered with foundations, NGOs, and non-profits to address complex challenges in underserved and vulnerable communities around the world. At the digital agency Code & Theory, Geoff founded an industrial design practice bridging physical and digital interaction design, contributing to the agency being named one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Design Companies in 2015. An industrial designer by training, he honed his craft and multidisciplinary approach at IDEO and LUNAR.

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  Timothy Bardlavens

  Product Design Manager, Facebook

  2020 Design Education Initiative Jury Member

  Timothy Bardlavens is a Product Design Manager at Facebook, a Cultural Strategist and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) consultant. At Facebook, Timothy supports Community Experiences within the Facebook App, leading teams focused on new Member Experiences and Ecosystem Growth. As a strategist, he specializes in Organizational Culture through the lens of Human-Centered Design, helping organization leaders develop people-centric strategies with clear, actionable steps to increase diversity, create more inclusive spaces and design more equitable systems. Timothy is also Co-Founder of the &Design Fellowship Program and an international speaker and facilitator.

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  Gem Barton

  Ms, Experimental Realism / Office for Speculative Spatial Design

  2024 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Gem is an author and senior academic specialising in the interrelations between human behaviour, speculation, and spatial design. Currently teaching at the Royal College of Art, she was awarded a coveted National Teaching Fellowship in 2019, is Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE, and founding chair of QuEAN - Queer Educators in Architecture Network. Gem’s work in the future(s) space comes to life through her advisory, research, teaching and leadership of superFUTURES at the RCA, her directorship of the Experimental Realism platform and consultation services offered through her Office for Speculative Spatial Design (O-SSD).

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  Sabiha Basrai

  Co-Owner, Design Action Collective

  2024 Design for Social Impact Jury Captain, 2018 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Sabiha Basrai is a co-owner of Design Action Collective — a worker-owned cooperative dedicated to serving social justice movements with art, graphic design, and web development. She is co-coordinator of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action, where she works with racial justice organizers on international solidarity campaigns. Sabiha is also part of the Center for Political Education advisory board, an affiliate trainer with Race Forward, and a faculty member in the University of San Francisco's Department of Art and Architecture.

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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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  Kim Bates

  Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Futurist, LRXD

  2022 Packaging Jury Captain

  Kim is a marketing, communications, and innovation executive with 20+ years of experience driving profitable revenue growth, leading marketing and strategy departments on both the client and agency sides. As the CMO of Common Good, she led the creative agency’s brand, growth, thought leadership, and reputation initiatives. Kim was also the Chief Futurist at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, a think tank with over 90% accuracy on predicting the future.
  
  As the leader of The FutureFactor Lab at Common Good, she worked with fortune 200 enterprises and start-ups to help predict, navigate and leverage the future to generate meaningful business transformation, creative innovation, incremental revenue and share growth initiatives.

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  Annette Baumeister

  Studio Director, Munich Studio, Designworks, a BMW Group Company

  2026 Transportation & Mobility Jury Member

  Appointed Director of the Munich Studio in April 2024, Annette Baumeister brings deep cross-disciplinary mobility expertise shaped by leadership roles across the BMW Group and Designworks. She previously led the Designworks Shanghai Studio (2016–2019) and spent four years as Head of Material and Color Design at BMW, where she shaped CMF strategies at scale.
  
  Now back at Designworks, Annette oversees projects spanning automotive, aviation, rail, construction equipment, furniture, and experiential environments. Known for her empathic leadership and sensitivity to design nuance, she brings a holistic, material-driven perspective to evaluating mobility and transportation innovation.

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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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  Veronica Becchetti

  Co-Founder & Head of Production, Wild One

  2021 Personal Accessory 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.

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  Liliana Becerra

  Founder, STUDIO LILIANA BECERRA Inc.

  2021 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  Liliana is the founder of STUDIO LILIANA BECERRA Inc. a firm advising global companies on strategic design foresight and advanced CMF Design. Clients include AT&T, Simple Human, Sonos, Nestle & Lenovo. Her latest book, CMF Design is the first publication about the professional discipline of color material and finish design. She also an editorial contributor to design publications including Viewpoint Design and Viewpoint Color. She is an adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design and formerly, she served as the Head of Design Insights at Nokia where she led global, multi-disciplinary teams, trend research initiatives and key design strategies.