Jury Alumni

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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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  Gretchen Anderson

  Head of Design, PG&E

  2018 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Gretchen spent the first part of her career in design consulting for firms like frog, Cooper, and LUNAR. Currently, she is head of design at PG&E, California’s largest energy company where she’s helping to build the energy company of the future. Previously, she led the design of the hardware and software of a next-generation surgical system and was VP of Product at GreatSchools.org.
  
  Gretchen is a frequent speaker on design topics including the changing role of design in the age of artificial intelligence and bridging physical and digital design. Gretchen has also taught design methods and design thinking in a variety of settings including Stanford and UC Berkeley.
  
  Her past clients include Virgin Records, Samsung, Johnson & Johnson, and Starbucks. Gretchen is a Bay Area native who left only long enough to get a bachelor’s degree from Harvard in History & Literature.

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  Erik Askin

  Associate Design Director, NewDealDesign

  2019 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Erik is an Industrial Design Manager at NewDealDesign. Hands-on and fully committed to the craft, Erik strives to push design excellence through all phases of the process. Erik has worked on everything from wearables to autonomous vehicles, building relationships with both small startups and Fortune 500 companies. Notable works include Fitbit (Alta, Blaze, Charge2, Flex2), Helm Personal Server, Postmates Serve Autonomous Delivery Robot, and Solo Gelato.
  
  A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Erik moved to San Francisco in 2012 after spending several years in the medical industry at Keytech inc. When not at work, he can often be found on two wheels.

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  Hanna Bossmark

  Senior Industrial Designer, Independent

  2022 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Hanna Bossmark is an independent designer based in San Francisco with focus on making products and experiences that connect purpose, culture, beauty and commercial viability. Previously, Hanna led industrial design efforts at Branch Creative, and also worked for IDEO, Ammunition and Zound, turning ideas to reality for companies such as Hims, Equal Parts, Lyft and Urbanears.
  
  
  Outside of design work, Hanna is a certified yoga teacher and founder of Space For Stillness, creating tools to encourage meditation practices in promotion for a healthy lifestyle.

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  Kendra Byrne

  Group Product Manager, Google DeepMind

  2024 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Kendra is a Group Product Manager at Google DeepMind where she leads product innovation for new research products. For the last 5 years, Kendra has worked with teams to ground research in user-centered needs and help bring new technologies to life.
  
  Before joining Google DeepMind, Kendra held product leadership positions at X the Moonshot Factory, Bot & Dolly, and Formant. At X, she co-founded the project that graduated as Intrinsic, a robotics software and AI company at Alphabet. At Bot & Dolly, Kendra was responsible for developing easy to use interfaces for robotics in cinematography and visual eects.

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  Brian Case

  Vice President R&D, Fresenius Kabi

  2017 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Brian Case is a Vice President of Research and Development for Fresenius Kabi's Medical Device Division. Brian has over twenty years of experience in developing products from conceptualization to market launch. He has spent the last ten years focusing on the development of apheresis technology. The latest example is Fresenius Kabi’s AmiCORE® Advanced Platelet Apheresis System. Prior to joining Fresenius Kabi, Brian led the advanced research team at Cook Medical focusing on the development of stents and tissue engineered valves. Brian helped Cook launch their first self-expanding stent Zilver®. In addition, Brian has extensive experience in user interface design and usability evaluations. Brian is a prolific inventor and has over 70 patents.
  
  Brian has a master's degree in Engineering Management from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Illinois. He is a licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer and a certified Project Management Professional.

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  Alejandra Castelao

  Industrial Design Lead, Fjord

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Alejandra is an Industrial Design Lead based out of the San Francisco Bay Area, currently working at Fjord - part of Accenture Interactive. Born and raised in Mexico City, she holds a BA in Industrial Design and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Design. Alejandra has over 10 years experience working with multiple Fortune 500 companies, as well as early stage startups, helping them transform ideas into reality. She specializes in designing solutions that take place at the intersection of digital and physical. Over the years she's worked on a variety of projects that range from design research, usability testing and alignment workshop facilitation all the way to end-to-end design and shipping of full-fledged, consumer-facing experiences and products.
  
  Prior to joining Fjord she worked for other design consultancies such as frog design. Most recently, she had the opportunity to lead the physical experience design, interior architecture and custom tech solutions of concierge-style medical facilities for Forward, an innovative Healthcare startup named one of Time Magazine's best 25 inventions.

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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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  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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  Dan Formosa, Ph.D

  Founder, ThinkActHuman

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Dan consults with companies worldwide on design and innovation. An early proponent of “design for all” (a.k.a. Inclusive Design), he also lectures internationally on research and the future of design. He is the recipient of numerous design awards and has appeared in several documentary films.
  Dan holds degrees in product design, ergonomics and biomechanics. He recently established ThinkActHuman, a consultancy named to reflect his goal, design for a better world. He also co-founded 4B Collective, focused on design and gender, and co-founded the Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts in New York.
  In other work, he co-authored / co-illustrated the Baseball Field Guide, a bestselling book using principles of information design to explain the complex rules of baseball. He’s host of the successful YouTube series “Well Equipped,” produced by Epicurious for Condé Nast, critiquing in a less-than-serious way the usability of various odd kitchen gadgets.
  

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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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  Mike Gallagher

  Vice President of Design, Crown Equipment Corporation

  2015 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Mike Gallagher is VP of Design for Crown Equipment Corporation; a manufacturer of lift trucks and related products and services. Mike oversees the global multi-disciplined Design operations and leverages his competent staff to provide strategic innovation influence to an expanding and evolving company. Before his 20 years at Crown he held various corporate design and management positions. Mike graduated from the University of Cincinnati in Design and has juried several international design competitions. Crown Design has won over 50 major international design awards and was recognized by Fast Company Magazine as Thirty Companies that Get Design.

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  Pepin Gelardi

  Co-Founder, Tomorrow Lab

  2023 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Pepin Gelardi works at the intersection of purpose and possibility, exploring the role of entrepreneurship and technology in solving future-facing problems. He has cultivated a skill set deep in idea development, user insights, concept visualization, form development, hardware prototyping, mechanism design and manufacturing.
  As a teenager, Pepin developed products for his family’s injection molding business. He holds a BSME from Columbia University, New York and a Post-Baccalaureate Diploma in Industrial Design from Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, Italy.
  
  He Co-founded Tomorrow Lab® in 2010 and leads the Industrial Design and Mechanical Engineering teams to invent and develop new, impactful hardware products. Prior to Tomorrow Lab®, he developed new CPG ideas, products, and brands at Fahrenheit 212 and Procter & Gamble.
  
  After hours, Pepin teaches workshops in design, creates costumes and toys with his twin children, and creates site-specific art with his wife Teresa.
  

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  Chloe Georgiades

  Senior Industrial Designer, Cricut, Inc

  2022 Commercial Equipment Jury Member

  Chloe Georgiades is a Senior Industrial designer at Cricut, where she is fortunate to spend every day designing tools for creatives. Previously she worked in the consulting world, designing products for startups and Fortune 500 companies alike at NewDealDesign.
  
  Chloe embraces a messy and iterative creative process as a means to achieving thoughtful, polished results.
  
  She is passionate about design education and increasing diversity in the field, regularly mentoring aspiring industrial designers through programs like Offsite and Women in Design.
  
  Chloe is based in the Bay Area where the hills and the weather suit her love of cycling perfectly.

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  Jon Grossman

  Senior Industrial Designer, Verily Life Sciences

  2021 Commercial Equipment Jury Captain

  Jon is a senior industrial designer at Verily, Alphabet's healthcare & technology company, where he leads design and UX for a range of medical devices and their connected services. He collaborates with scientists, engineers, clinical experts, designers, and researchers to break technology out of the lab, and productize cutting edge innovations to help people live healthier lives.
  
  Previously, he was an industrial designer at frog in San Francisco, where he consulted with startups and corporations to turn research insights into product opportunities.

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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.