Jury Alumni

• 

  Daanish Masood

  Innovation, Dept of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, United Nations

  2020 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Daanish Masood Alavi is an investigator at BeAnotherLab, a transnational interdisciplinary group that uses art, science, and technology to promote empathy and perspective taking among diverse communities; thereby facilitating shared civic action across identity fault lines. The group uses virtual reality and techniques derived from cognitive science research in developing critical applications in art, scientific research, social projects, healthcare and education, putting a strong emphasis on the impact of the work in people’s lives. BeAnotherLab’s work is based on an inclusive and distributed model of action-research and collaborative design. From 2014-2015, Daanish was a research affiliate at MIT’s Arts, Culture, and Technology program, which enlists science and technology in cultural production, critique, and dissemination at the civic scale.
  
  Daanish also serves at the United Nation’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, where he co-leads the Innovation Team, which focuses on collaboratively using human centered design, new tools and technology (AI and Machine Learning, satellite imagery, XR) to meet on-the-ground needs of UN peacemakers.

• 

  Kotchakorn Voraakhom

  Founder and CEO, Porous City Network

  2020 Design for Social Impact Jury Member

  Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a landscape architect from Thailand who works on building productive green public spaces that tackle climate change in urban dense areas and vulnerable communities. She created the first critical green infrastructure for Bangkok, the Chulalongkorn Centenary Park, and is currently planning the opening of a 36-acre urban farm rooftop featuring the biggest urban farming green roof in Asia.
  
  Voraakhom was featured in the 2019 “TIME 100 Next” list as one of 15 leading women fighting against climate change and the “Green 30 for 2020” by Bloomberg. She is Chairwoman on the Landscape Architects Without Borders working group of the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Asia Pacific Region (IFLA APR).
  
  Voraakhom received her Master's in landscape architecture from Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Currently she is also a TED Fellow and an Echoing Green Fellow.

• 

  Ben Gaffney

  VP of International Design Development, L. Ercolani

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Captain

  Ben Gaffney is the Vice President of International Design Development for L. Ercolani, the 100-year-old U.K. design brand, and Founder of AileenJames, Retail and Design Partners. Ben is an industry veteran who has collaborated with Norm Architects, Design Within Reach, Menu A/S, HNI Group, and Atlason studio to bring innovative design solutions to a global market. Prior to his work with L. Ercolani and AileenJames, he was the Head of Product Development for Design Within Reach.

• 

  Steven Harrington

  Co-Founder, National Forest

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Steven Harrington is a Los Angeles–based designer and cofounder of design firm, National Forest. Steven is best known for his bright, iconic work that encourages a two-way conversation between the artist and viewer. Embracing a multimedia approach, Harrington’s portfolio includes large-scale installations, limited-edition books, product designs, graphic design, illustration, fine art and sculptures. Alongside his commercial work, Harrington has exhibited artwork in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona, Tokyo, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Brussels, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Montreal, Melbourne, and Dallas. Recent work examples include an installation at the MIMA Museum in Brussels, a product collection for Nike, A category launch
  for BAPE, and a permanent outdoor sculpture for Loft 1 Korea.
  
  Ongoing sample clients include: Apple, Google, Hypebeast, Moleskine, Nike, International Olympics Committee & Bape.

• 

  David Kennedy

  VP of Sales, Berndhart Design

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  David Kennedy is the Vice President of Sales at Bernhardt Design, the globally renowned design brand. A life-long design enthusiast, David is an experienced executive having spent over 20 years’ in luxury furniture sales, design and manufacturing. Prior to joining Bernhardt Design, David has held executive positions at Design Within Reach / Herman Miller, DEDON, Brown Jordan and Century Furniture. David is a former ASID national board member of and serves as a corporate advocate of Be Original Americas.

• 

  Hlynur V. Atlason

  Founder, ATLASON

  2020 Furniture & Lighting Jury Member

  Hlynur V. Atlason, leads his eponymous design studio ATLASON, based in Manhattan. Leading a team of world-class strategists, innovators and designers, practicing a method of design, deeply informed by research, brand and craft. ATLASON delivers strategy, design innovation and manufacturing expertise, guaranteeing everything imagined, can be made.
  
  ATLASON/studio, his own product design firm founded in 2004, has since built a comprehensive portfolio of furniture, consumer lifestyle products and packaging in collaboration with MoMA, DWR, Ercol, Umbra, Artecnica, Estée Lauder, Microsoft, and Stella Artois.
  
  Hlynur is an adjunct lecturer at School of Visual Arts, Products of Design Masters Degree Program, NYC.

• 

  Stephanie Yung

  Design Director, Smart Design

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Captain

  As Design Director at Smart Design’s New York studio, Stephanie has led projects across the continuum of wellness products and services including: public health, pharmaceuticals, devices, personal care, fitness, and reproductive health. Her personal journey of redesigning the fertility treatment experience as a single woman to be more accessible to all—which she called Project Junior—garnered national attention and was featured in Fast Company and 99u.
  
  In her spare time, Stephanie has shared her expertise in strategic design innovation with audiences ranging from venture capitalists to government agencies; across topics including—designing for social impact, saving women from bad design, and inclusive design. Stephanie also serves on the Board of Advisors as the user-centered design expert for Simprints, a non-for-profit tech company hoping to close the identification gap of over 1 billion people in emerging countries.

• 

  Emilie Lasseron

  Strategy Director, Fuseproject

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Emilie Lasseron is a seasoned leader working at the intersection of brand, innovation and design. A human-centered approach to products, systems, and storytelling drives her work.
  
  Most recently as Senior Strategy Director at Wolff Olins, Emilie created new brands for Sage Therapeutics, a biopharma focused on brain health disorders including the first and only treatment specifically approved for postpartum depression, and Zymergen, a molecular technology company using a unique integration of biology, machine learning, and high-throughput automation to create previously unimaginable materials.
  
  Previously, she led in-house design and innovation teams at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital and Celmatix, a biotech focused on women’s health. She also spent years at IDEO and other innovation consultancies working across diverse challenges including improving the bone marrow transplant process and repositioning long-acting birth control.

• 

  Gina Reimann

  Wearables Industrial Design Manager, Google

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  As Wearables Industrial Design Manager at Google, Gina leads a team making radically helpful products, bringing together the best of Google AI, software and hardware. Notable launches include Google’s headphone family and watch bands.
  
  Prior to Google, Gina has worked at the New York based innovation agency Redscout, Industrial Design agency Smart Design and Philips Design in The Netherlands.
  
  She’s designed for some of her favourite brands, including Nike, OXO, and Microsoft, and for which she has some fancy awards that decorate a shelf in her Santa Cruz Mountain home, where she lives with her wife and two cats.

• 

  Clay Wiedemann

  Head of Design, Zocdoc

  2020 Health & Wellness Jury Member

  Clay has been working in design and research since late last century, having shifted over from film and cultural studies. He spent much of his early career at frog, working in interaction and design research. There, he focused on complex design systems, innovation methods, and prototyping, and taught prototyping at SVA's MFA in Interaction Design program.
  
  He left frog to build the interaction team at Smart Design, and spent many days in awe of the physical prototyping skills of the industrial design team.
  
  He now leads design at Zocdoc, a service that help people navigate tough healthcare choices by quickly connect them to the right care. He remains focused on user-centered design, and works to ensure that everyone at Zocdoc develops a deep understanding of the patients and providers they help. Throughout his design career he has rescued cats.

• 

  Bret Recor

  Founder, Box Clever

  2020 Home & Living Jury Captain

  Bret is an expert in creating physical experiences that delight consumers and help companies lead market categories. Bret leads his Box Clever team to take ideas from concept to market and is committed to executing a challenge to its most brilliant realization. To do this, he balances creative vision with real-world experience of industrial design, brand strategy, and business ventures. Bret has applied his expertise to the launches of several high-profile products and initiatives, including Away, Nebia, and most recently Caraway. Bret has also launched separate studio initiated ventures including Fadestudio, with a flagship product, the Fade task light.
  
  Prior to founding Box Clever, Bret was a design director at fuseproject, working with clients like, One Laptop Per Child, Herman Miller, Johnson & Johnson, Issey Miyake, Jawbone, and the New York City Department of Health.
  
  Bret’s work has earned several awards around the world including INDEX, Spark, IDEA, iF, Clio, D&AD, FX, Spark, and Red Dot. His work is part of the permanent collections of NY MoMA, SFMOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou.

• 

  Ana Arriola

  General Manager & Partner, NeXT AI & Research

  2020 Home & Living Jury Member

  Business Insider's 23 most powerful Queer / LGBTQIA+ intersectional people in tech, Ana is a craftswomxn with 25 years of experience. Ana has shown creative leadership in product management, product design, and creative direction across new technology surfaces for consumer electronics, lifestyle experiences, UX/UI systems, and ethics & AI. Her talents have been recognized by iF Design Awards, Good Design Awards, EISA Awards, and Cool Hunting. Formerly with Facebook, Samsung, Monohm, Sony & PlayStation, Theranos and Apple, Ana is currently a General Manager & Partner leading product design, human research, design engineering for AI + Research, Search & Ads across Microsoft.
  
  Her values are grounded in principles that every experience crafted should be - Human. Simple. Authentic.

• 

  Dickon Isaacs

  Founder and Creative Director, We Design Clarity, LLC

  2020 Home & Living Jury Member

  Dickon Isaacs is the Founder + Creative Director of Clarity, www.wedesignclarity.com. Specializing in making sense of the complex, Dickon brings clarity to the abstract and unknown through innovative and commercially successful designs. He is an accomplished creative leader, combining his global corporate and consultancy experiences from Intuit, Motorola, and IDEO. Through deep experience, empathy and a fresh perspective, Clarity collaborates with speed to deliver design strategies, industrial design, and intuitive digital experiences. Current clients span a range of industries including FinTech, Home Automation, Sports + Leisure, and Precision Imaging.

• 

  Colin Owen

  Design Director, Elroy Air

  2020 Home & Living Jury Member

  Colin is an industrial designer and leads design at Elroy Air, a Bay Area startup developing autonomous cargo aircraft. He joined in 2016 and has led the design effort from conception through first flights. Colin is also tenured faculty at California College of the Arts in the Industrial Design program. Previously, Colin founded, Sparse, a component manufacturer focused on the urban cycle commute. He has also served a diverse set of clients including Autodesk, Nike, NASA, Terrazign, Intel, and Nokia. Colin was raised in the deep south on a steady diet of trails, mischief, and tinkering. He was made (mostly) civil at Rice University (B.A. in Arch, B. of Arch.) and Art Center College of Design (M.S.I.D.).

• 

  Nick de la Mare

  Managing Director, Head of Design for North America, Fjord

  2020 Interaction Jury Captain

  As a Managing Director and Head of Design for Fjord (a part of Accenture Interactive) in North America, Nick is responsible for leading the Region in the pursuit of paradigm-shifting, impact-driven digital and physical design that breaks new ground for clients and contributes to positive systemic change around the world.
  
  Prior to joining Fjord, Nick was Partner and co-founder of Big Tomorrow, an experience design agency focused in healthcare, education and entertainment, and an Executive Creative Director at the global innovation and design firm frog, where he led their flagship San Francisco studio.
  
  He received a Master's degree in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Graphic Design from Syracuse University.

• 

  Aric Cheston

  Assistant Vice President of Design, AT&T

  2020 Interaction Jury Member

  Aric Cheston is a product and service designer living and working in Austin Texas. He is currently the Assistant Vice President of Design at AT&T where he leads a multidisciplinary team focused on large scale transformational projects encompassing all aspects of the business. Previous to AT&T, Aric co-founded the experience design firm, Big Tomorrow, served as Executive Creative Director of Frog Design, and was a partner in the storied brand advertising and marketing firm Kirshenbaum Bond Partners. He has worked with clients across industries, most notably, BMW, HP, Disney, Comcast, and The University of Texas.
  
  Aric holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design.