Jury Alumni

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  Niti Bhan

  Designer, Emerging Futures Lab (consulting) and Ymmärrys ry (non-profit)

  2022 Consumer Technology Jury Member

  After 30 odd years in the global design industry opening doors to new markets through exploratory user research, concept design, and innovation strategies, Niti is pursuing a part time PhD in Product Development at Aalto University, Finland. Her research explores the contribution of collaborative design practices to foster agency and capacity for innovation as a resilience strategy to shocks for micro-enterprises. Her design approach is a transdisciplinary one where participants generate the actionable knowledge for designing their own innovation and transformation roadmaps

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  Nootan Bharani

  Associate Director, Design & University Partnerships, Arts + Public Life

  2023 Built Environment Jury Member

  Nootan Bharani is a fierce champion of the continuum of communities and a thoughtful leader of processes to shape places where people want to be. An architect with a deep background in environmental sustainability, Nootan has a propensity toward existing buildings and in-between spaces, and has spent most of her career in non-traditional practice, working directly with neighborhood partners on projects at a wide variety of scales. Nootan is currently the Associate Director of Design and University Partnerships at Arts + Public Life, and a lecturer in the Humanities Division, at the University of Chicago. Previously, Nootan was Lead Design Manager for Place Lab at the University of Chicago where she was thought and practice leader for building projects. Prior to coming to the University of Chicago, she was Managing Director for CB&I Sustainable Design Solutions of Illinois. Nootan is also a volunteer in Chicago Public Schools where her children attend, co-leading initiatives for caregivers of students with disabilities.

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  John Bielenberg

  Partner, Future Partners

  2016 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  John Bielenberg is a designer, entrepreneur, and imaginative advocate for creating a better world through the application of creativity and ingenuity. John co-founded Future Partners, a Silicon Valley Innovation firm, in 2012 to teach Rapid Ingenuity Practices to individuals, teams, and organizations around the world. In 2001, John co-founded C2 Group, a brand strategy firm, to help leaders from technology start ups, Fortune 500 companies, and the world’s top business management consulting firms develop, build and protect their brands. In his career, John has won more than 250 design awards, including the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.

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  Monika Bielskyte

  Futures Researcher/Futurist Designer, PROTOPIA

  2024 Speculative Design Jury Captain, 2020 Speculative Design Jury Member

  As the Founder of Protopia Futures, Monika Bielskyte is the architect of a platform and a community to proactively prototype inspiring and actually livable future visions. Her journey as a nomadic explorer in over 100 countries has given her first-person experience of the interconnectedness between human cultural priorities and the unfolding future.
  
  Monika was born in the Soviet Union, and grew up in the newly liberated Lithuania, before leaving the country at age 17. Her perspectives as a futurist have been shaped by the collapse of the physical boundaries of a totalitarian regime, and the opening up of the digital world – its opportunities and its harms. She currently resides in Johannesburg, South Africa – which gives her deeper insights into broader futures perspectives, beyond the imaginations of the Global North.
  
  Monika started her career as a creative – working on movie sets in her late teens and progressively moving towards the bleeding edge of technological innovation and scientific research by her mid-20s. Her multicultural and multidisciplinary background, as well as an uncompromising focus on the intricate relationship between future fictions and real-life, have guided her on a journey that makes her voice clearly distinct in today’s foresight industry.
  
  Monika has worked not only with established global media, tech and lifestyle companies such as Universal, Google, Nike, BBC and the WEF, but also various governments and cities. Her contributions have resonated across both industry corridors and academia, from The Royal
  Society to CERN.

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  Christian Bird

  Creative Director, Bird&Co Design

  2026 Sustainability Jury Member

  Christian Bird is a creative director with nearly two decades of experience building distinctive brands for both challengers and icons. He leads Bird&Co, an independent design studio based in New York, specializing in creative strategy, visual identity, packaging, and brand worlds for craft food and premium beverage brands.

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  Amelia Black

  Director of Packaging, Blue Apron

  2020 Packaging Jury Member

  Amelia Black is a designer based in New York. She favors a human-centered approach that she applies to both physical products and digital experiences, bringing user insights into the design process as another material she can use to make ideas tangible.
  
  Amelia is currently the Director of Packaging at Blue Apron, where she leads new product innovation and design development for the brand. She is a passionate advocate for sustainable packaging and leads efforts to reduce waste and improve the company’s overall environmental impact. Prior to joining Blue Apron, she worked as a designer, researcher, and strategist at IDEO.org, Machine, and Arup.
  
  She is the co-founder of Studio Ana, a community-based ceramics studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn where she still gets her hands dirty while also providing emerging potters with access to resources and equipment to build their own practices.

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  Jonathan Black

  Co-founder, The Office of Ordinary Things

  2021 Packaging Jury Member

  Jonathan Black (he/him) is the co-founder of The Office of Ordinary Things, a socially- and environmentally-conscious design studio based in San Francisco. Jonny is hellbent on making sustainable graphic design the industry norm and shakes his fist at greenwashers, climate deniers, and people who chew gum near his ears. Jonny has an MFA in Visual Communication and has taught at The University of Arizona and The University of Colorado Boulder. His work has been published in AIGA Eye On Design, Communication Arts, Creative Review, It's Nice That, Dezeen, Fast Company, and jonnyiscool420.tumblr.com.

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  David Block

  Principal, Studio RedEye

  2022 Personal Accessory 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.
  And now, you can understand Dave’s unique aesthetic. A rare mix of high-end craft with grounded sensibilities. He excels at making products that fit into your life, that you can connect with emotionally. His is a proven track record of award winning and exceptional design.

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  Ghislaine Boddington

  Creative Director, body>data>space

  2015 Speculative Concept Jury Member

  Creative Director, body>data>space - curator, researcher, producer, presenter, UX expert - a future thinker placing the live body at the centre of digital interaction, Ghislaine is recognised internationally since the early 90’s as a thought leader and global pioneer in full body telepresence, with deep expertise in body responsive technologies, immersive experiences and interactive interfaces.
  
  She has conceived, directed, commissioned and produced 100s of international projects converging telepresence, motion capture, wearable computing, intelligent materials, sense/gesture tech, robotics, social medias and virtual worlds, focusing on the fluid blending of the virtual and the physical. Her long term work has been to extend natural interface techniques, passionately advocating the use of the entire body as a digital interaction canvas. She has worked extensively across the years with ICA, Dance Umbrella, FACT, National Theatre, Kinetica Art Fair and Nesta as well as major venues and festivals worldwide.
  
  Present work includes Associate Curation of Nesta's flagship event FutureFest, the Women Shift Digital initiative with National Theatre, Research Development with IntelligentHQ and consultancies with creative industries on the body technology convergences.
  
  She holds a Research Associateship with Middlesex University since 1999, is a Tech London Advocate, a member of the TechCityInsider100 and is a godmother to the Stemettes. She has extensive experience in chairing and presenting, having keynoted in over 30 countries on the future of virtual physical body interfaces. She regularly inputs as a thought leader on tv, radio and in the press and into governmental briefings as a key UK innovator.

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  Jan Boelen

  Artistic Director, Z33

  2015 Speculative Concept Jury Member

  Jan Boelen (¦1967, Genk) graduated as a product designer at the Media and Design Academy (KHLim), now the MAD Faculty, in Genk (B). He currently holds the position of artistic director of Z33 in Hasselt (B) and Head of the Masters Department Social Design at the Design Academy Eindhoven (NL).He is chairman of the architecture and design commission of the Flemish Community. Commissioned by the Permanent Deputation of the Province of Limburg, Jan Boelen reformed the Provincial Centre for the Visual Arts into Z33, a house for contemporary art.Since 2002, Z33 has been fashioning projects and exhibitions that encourage the visitor to look at everyday matters in a novel manner. It is a unique laboratory and a meeting place for experiment and innovation where one can discover cutting-edge exhibitions with contemporary art and design. Z33 does not have its own collection of works, but accommodates exhibition shows continuously.In his curatorial work, Jan Boelen has collaborated with Raf Simons, Studio Makkink Bey, John K÷rmeling, Thomas LommTe, Dunne & Raby, Marti QuixT, Aldo Bakker, Konstantin Grcic and Joseph Grima.In addition to the exhibitions at Z33 û House for Contemporary Art, Z33 also organizes projects in the open space, as well as projects commissioned by other organizations.At the initiative of Z33 and the Province of Limburg, Manifesta 9 took place in Belgium in 2012. In 2014 he curated the design biennial of Ljubljana in Slovenia and leaded a series of international debates on the future of design.

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  Robert Bolton

  Principal, From Later

  2020 Speculative Design Jury Member

  Robert Bolton is a Canadian artist, strategist, and principal at the foresight studio, From Later. Recognizing art works and practices as powerful antennae for detecting change, Robert experiments with ways of understanding and imagining how emerging ideas, technologies and cultural phenomena may influence longer-term futures. As an advisor to decision-makers within all matter of organizations, Robert leads interdisciplinary teams, developing strategies for long-term growth and resilience. Robert was a National Science Foundation AoSL Innovation Fellow and holds a Masters of Arts in the Humanities from the University of Chicago. His essays on the future of DIY biotech have been published by MIT Press’s Innovations Journal and the Eindhoven University of Technology’s Next Nature Lab. In 2019, Robert instructed a course on strategic foresight at CityLAB: Berlin — a satellite campus of Norwich University.

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  Hanna Bossmark

  Senior Industrial Designer, Independent

  2022 Commerical & Industrial 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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  Kim Bost

  Product Design Manager, XD Leadership Team, Netflix

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Kim is a seasoned design leader and has worked at companies like The New York Times, Etsy, and Dropbox. She brings a unique blend of passion and strategic thinking to create industry-defining experiences. As part of the XD leadership team at Netflix, she collaborates with a stunning team of designers to entertain the world.
  

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  Farrah Bostic

  Founder, The Difference Engine

  2022 Strategy & Research Jury Member

  Farrah Bostic is a champion of empathetic, co-creative, and collaborative strategy, design, and research. Her focus is on helping business leaders make big decisions, with research as an essential tool for facilitating decision-making, advocating for the customer, and delivering audience insight that field great storytelling.
  
  She was a Group Planning Director at Digitas, led the consumer immersion practice at Ipsos/OTX, led the innovation practice at Hall & Partners, and developed her skills as a strategist at Mad Dogs & Englishmen/Mad Logic and TBWA\Chiat\Day in Los Angeles.
  
  In 2011 she founded The Difference Engine, where she works with clients across business-to-business and business-to-consumer categories including JetBlue, HarperCollins, eBay, AARP, Google, the Financial Times, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PRX, New York Public Media, The US Soccer Federation, IHG, Citibank, and Dow Jones Media Group. She is also an advisor to twofivesix, a content agency focused on gamers as customers and gaming as a channel, where she mentors and leads a team of strategists and researchers with clients including Intel, Sansar, Soundcloud, and others.

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  Jacob Bouchard

  Senior Industrial Designer, JUMP Bikes, Uber

  2019 Transportation & Mobility Jury Captain