Jury Alumni

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  Rachel Smith

  Founder & Designer, Design to Combat COVID19

  2023 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Rachel Smith is a Latinx Designer & Founder of Design to Combat COVID-19, a virtual community of creatives over 2,000 strong—who during the pandemic volunteered their skills and time to support underrepresented communities. By day, Rachel Smith is a Product Designer at Facebook, was formerly a Lead Mentor with The Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and previously has worked with companies such as Nordstrom and The Home Depot. The rest of the time, the LA native works on a range of creative projects, both within her local and global communities.

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  Rotimi Solola

  Founder, SO Dsgn

  2023 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Rotimi Solola is an award-winning industrial designer and the founding partner of SO Dsgn, a Chicago-based creative agency focused on story-driven brand and industrial design. In addition, Solola is an educator, having taught at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, he values mentorship, community, and design education. Prior to his current roles, Solola worked as a member of Motorola’s Consumer Experience Design team where he acquired much of his knowledge of bringing products to market. Solola stays involved with the design community by giving public lectures, judging design competitions, and mentoring students, and young professionals.

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  Ishmael Adams

  Principle Designer, Microsoft

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Ishmael strives to create products and experiences that are empathic and fueled by observation, intuition, and collaboration. He has been a pivotal part of the entire process, from research, concept development, production, and manufacturing liaison. Ishmael has accumulated many skills and experience over his extensive career. He has worked with some of the most renowned companies and various industries, from sporting goods to consumer tech, and collaborated with inspiring and dynamic startups. Ishmael focuses on bringing new and unexpected solutions to products and experiences and is passionate about creating holistic design solutions for all. Since joining Microsoft Windows and Devices team, over a year ago, Ishmael has led projects across a variety of categories and new horizons. Prior to joining Microsoft, Ishmael was design lead at MNML based in Chicago, where he led projects for Bang & Olufsen, Logitech, Adidas, Samsung, and many more startups.

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  Felicia Ferrone

  Founder, f f e r r o n e design

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Felicia Ferrone is an architect, designer, academic, and entrepreneur. Her international namesake design brand f f e r r o n e- based in Chicago and Milan- is known for delivering the unexpected through a seemingly simple gesture. Born in Chicago, Felicia graduated with a degree in architecture from Miami University, Ohio after which she moved to Italy. Ferrone’s expansive reach is informed by her early experience as an architect in Milan, where she was first taught to “blur boundaries” in design.
  
  Ferrone's award-winning designs have been widely exhibited, published internationally, and featured in numerous films and TV series. Several of her works are included in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Permanent Collection. In 2022 she was named Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago’s Creator of the Year for her contribution to the field through her design and utility patents. Felicia was also included in Woman Made: Great Women Designs, published by Phaidon, recognized as 1 of 200 women who have shaped the history of design.
  
  In addition to producing and distributing her own designs under her brand, Felicia is the director of Undergraduate Studies in Industrial Design and a Clinical Associate Professor atthe University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Previously she was the Director of Graduate Studies from 2015-2022 and a lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for many years at the beginning of her academic career.

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  Rebecca Goesling

  Design Director, Goesling Group

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Rebecca is the Director of Design for Goesling Group. She works at the intersection of forecasting, branding, and color material finish design to create visions for independent startups to Fortune 500 companies. Her experience spans from home appliances to activewear and decor to consumer electronics. In addition to her applied practice, she produces illustrations for culinary, fashion, and furnishing clients. She holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign where she cultivated skills in research, artistic development, and technical application.

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  Zeeshan Hakkim

  Senior Industrial Designer, Minimal

  2023 Home & Living Jury Member

  Zeeshan Hakkim is an Industrial designer born and raised in India based in Chicago, Illinois at MNML. He completed his master’s degree in Product Design Management at ISD Rubika. His passion for design stems from an obsession towards creative problem solving by using, learning and adapting new tools into an ever-evolving design process. He believes that good design resides at the intersection of empathy and craft. Over the last 6 years he has had the opportunity to collaborate with small startups as well as fortune 500 companies to bring to life products from lifestyle brands, medical products, consumer electronics and furniture to name a few. Zeeshan’s skill sets span across multiple disciplines that include industrial design, product development, mechanical engineering, graphic design, packaging design, and branding.

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  Margaret Lee

  Leadership Coach, Design Dept.

  2023 Interaction Jury Captain

  Margaret Lee is a Leadership Coach helping Design and Product executives and practitioners to lead with authenticity and confidence. Prior to coaching with Design Dept., Margaret was a User Experience leader at Google, where she built and led teams in Chrome, Search, and Maps. She led Google Maps UX from its early days as a groundbreaking desktop experience, to an indispensable tool for navigation and local exploration. Margaret also served as Director of UX Community + Culture at Google, a program she founded to serve and empower the company’s global User Experience organization. Decades in the tech industry has shaped her current commitment: to create conditions for teams to flourish and individuals can uncover their unique potential and leadership style. Margaret speaks and writes about her personal journey as a leader, the importance of a healthy culture in the workplace, and our collective responsibility to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

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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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  Ye-Jeong Kim

  Head of Gmail UX, Google

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Ye-Jeong Kim is a Korean-born, US-based principal designer and UX leader who has continuously navigated IC and management paths across her career. Currently, Ye is leading Gmail UX at Google. In her time at Google, Ye led teams and efforts building products in the areas of Search, Assistant, Android, Geo, Payments, Social, and Ads. As a founding member of Google Now, Google Assistant, and Search’s innovation and strategy UX team, Ye has extensive experience building assistive experiences and molding innovative technologies to help people in their everyday lives. Prior to Google, her focus was on information visualization and building tools for people to collaborate and make sense of data through shared visualization of information and understanding. Ye appreciates her name to be pronounced Yay!, pronounced with a ghost of joy!

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  Scott Lederer

  UX Designer

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Scott is someone who throws around words like design, product, and strategy, but ultimately just likes working with interesting colleagues on exciting software products for people who need them. In recent years, he has led design at Capitol AI, a startup aiming to modernize and simplify data storytelling, and Azavea, a geospatial software shop committed to civic, social, and environmental good. Some time ago, he designed & stewarded the local search experience on Google Maps for about 4 years. And threaded throughout his career are sundry adventures in design & strategy for startups known & unknown. He lives in Philadelphia and is desperate to tell fewer dad jokes.

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  Farai Madzima

  UX Manager, Shopify

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Born in Zimbabwe, Farai was going to be a doctor but didn’t get the grades. Now he’s a designer. Make of that what you will.
  Using words, scribbles, and pixels he’s spent the last 14 years helping design and build products and teams in the UK, South Africa, and Canada.
  Today, he makes a living designing interactions and leading a team as a UX Manager at Shopify in Ottawa.
  In South Africa, Farai designed banking apps used by many across the continent. He grappled with unique design challenges because most internet users have never used a laptop or desktop. And some buy data by the megabyte.
  Farai enjoys speaking about bridging knowledge gaps between designers. He’s appeared at events worldwide, including IXDA Interaction and IASummit.
  He organizes Pixel Up!, a series of UX and design conferences and meetups in South Africa. These events connect designers and developers in Africa with their peers around the world.
  Also, he adores verbiage, in all languages, township jazz, nerdy hip-hop, and the number 127.
  

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  Inna Lobel

  Design Director, Head of Industrial Design for North America, frog

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Captain

  Inna is a design leader focused on designing thoughtful products and experiences. She is currently a Design Director at frog, and leads the North American Industrial Design and Product Design team, as well as the New York Ventures Practice (interim). Her work is cross-disciplinary, with clients ranging from pre-seed to Fortune 50 companies, and spans a broad range of industry verticals and product types, including consumer electronics, healthcare and transportation. In addition to working with clients, she teaches entrepreneurship and human-centered design at NYU. Before joining frog, Inna architected next-generation technologies and brought many products to market as a senior member of Apple’s Product Design team. She is an inventor on multiple patents and a graduate of the MIT Media Lab. She is the winner of the 2022 Women in Innovation Rising Star Award.

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  Kaitlyn Benoit

  Design Director, Rivian Automotive

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Kaitlyn started her career at KitchenAid small appliances where she focused on building out the ecosystem around the Stand Mixer including attachments and specialty bowls. From there, she headed to Smart Design, taking a user-centered approach to work for clients like OXO, Gatorade, Leesa, Merck, Shark, Ziploc, Frabill, Tropicana, and Caboodles. Most recently, she led the ID team at Rivian Automotive where she and her team expanded the vehicle’s ecosystem through a suite of Adventure Products, Chargers, and vehicle accessories.
  
  When she’s not designing, you can find her exploring art museums and local running trails, seeking out the perfect cup of coffee, or whipping up a new piece of clothing for her next adventure.
  
  Kaitlyn holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Notre Dame. She is currently taking time off to travel.
  

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  Marcelo Coelho

  Faculty, MIT Department of Architecture

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Marcelo Coelho is Head of Design at Formlabs and Faculty at the MIT Department of Architecture. Spanning a wide range of media, processes, and scales, his work explores the boundaries between matter and information, fostering new forms of collaboration between human and artificial intelligence.
  
  Marcelo’s work has been exhibited internationally, including places such as the Rio 2016 Paralympic Ceremonies, Times Square, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Ars Electronica, and can be found in museums, private collections, and millions of products sold all over the world. Recognition for this work includes two Prix Ars Electronica awards, Design Miami/ Designer of the Future Award, Red Dot Design Award, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Award. He holds a doctorate degree from the MIT Media Lab.
  

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  Jessica Covi

  Head of Design Identity, Design Media & Design Events, BMW

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Jessica Covi is an Austrian-born industrial designer who specializes in experiential and holistic product design. After her master's studies at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, and working in Zurich, Switzerland, Jess moved to New York City to work as an industrial designer at the design firm, frog design. Before joining BMW Group she worked as a design consultant and creative director, with clients such as Google, Hyundai, Unilever, and Anheuser Bush inBev across industries including hospitality, architecture, consumer goods and retail.
  
  Before joining BMW Group she worked as a design consultant and creative director, with clients such as Google, Hyundai, Unilever and Anheuser Bush inBev across industries including hospitality, architecture, consumer goods and retail. She provides creative vision and leadership for multidisciplinary teams creating innovative products and experiences at the junction of design, culture, and product realization.

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  Jonas Damon

  Industrial Design Consultant, Office for Design

  2023 Lifestyle Accessories Jury Member

  Jonas Damon is an industrial designer and creative director, collaborating with startups and established companies through his New York City-based consultancy Office for Design. Jonas engages with a wide range of industries, including technology, personal care, furniture & lighting, architecture & construction, food & beverage, and retail & hospitality, interested in outcomes that explore aspects of discovery, engagement, and play.
  
  Prior to Office for Design, Jonas held leadership positions at Starbucks, where he founded the company's first internal industrial design team, frog design, where he led the firm's North American industrial design and mechanical engineering teams, and an earlier iteration of Office for Design.