PREETI VYAS
Chairwoman and Chief Creative Officer
Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC)

Preeti Vyas is the Chairwoman and Chief Creative Officer at Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC).

Preeti is widely regarded as one of India’s foremost creative minds. In 1997 Vyas Giannetti Creative was the new kid on the block with the aim to transform the dreary Design and Communication landscape with cutting edge‚ media-neutral ideas that could be applied across a variety of media with longevity. Today the agency is a living testimony to Preeti’s early ideaology.

Her many achievements include:
One of the leading creative minds of India by an Economic Times Report. Amongst the 25 most powerful women in India by Business Today. Amongst the 50 most influential women by Verve magazine. Award winning supporter of women entrepreneurs. Jury member at Cannes‚ New York Advertising Festival and Sri Lanka’s first International creative awards. Indian representative at Indian Creative Showcase at Sao Paulo‚ Brazil. Speaker at Industry conclaves such as CII‚ Design and Communication events and India’s leading communication education schools. Columnist for the Times of India newspaper. Member of the CII Design Committee‚ Executive Committee of NID’s Design Entrepreneur Incubation programme. An advisor at Mudra Institute of Communication. Preeti and VGC are also featured in a communications case study at Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad. A passionate painter Preeti has exhibited her art in group shows and maintains and online gallery www.preeti.vgc.in.

CIARÁN ÓGAORA
Founder and Managing Director
Zero-G

Ciarán is founder and managing director of Zero-G‚ a brand‚ design and communications consultancy based in Ireland.

With twenty years experience in the area of complex national and international branding projects Ciarán combines creativity‚ business strategy and multi-disciplinary insight to manage change‚ focus vision and foster creativity within public and private organisations. He works with clients in Ireland‚ Europe‚ the US and India covering technology & innovation‚ tourism‚ retail‚ energy‚ publishing‚ culture and the arts.

He is a director of the Corn Exchange Theatre Company and a member of Ireland’s National Tourism Development Authority‚ Fáilte Ireland.

ESKILD HANSEN
Principal & Founder
Copenhagen Innovation and Eskild Hansen Design

"With increased global competition‚ design is a rich diverse resource with the capacity to transform business. Eskild Hansen is known as a global leader who can work simultaneously as a creative designer and business professional. This combination of skills is decisive as companies face the challenges of the future"‚ John Heskett

Eskild is internationally recognized for this design work that has been featured in a wide range of global media. He uses the proud heritage of Danish Design as a platform for his work within areas as consumer electronic‚ lamps‚ furniture‚ and medical devices. Eskild holds several design patents and awards

He combines his background of proven design experience mixed with business and leadership skills. This provides him with a unique perspective that has enabled him to lecture about design and innovation at universities and to become frequent key-note speaker at conferences and seminars all around the world.

Eskild was exposed to design from his early childhood with both his parents being designers. As a 5 year old he would sit at his mothers studio drawing alongside the designers and he would travel around the world experiencing great architecture and design with his parents.

After his industrial design education he moved to New York to the start his carrier that would lead him to be Head of the Cisco European Design Center‚ Global Director of design at Coloplast and designing project with the largest companies in the world from Bang & Olufsen to Deutsche Telecom

FRÉDÉRIC DEGOUZON
Head of strategy‚ Marketing & Development
L´École de design Nantes Atalantique

With a background in Fine Arts, Frédéric Degouzon joined L’École de design Nantes Atlantique in 2000, after several years as project manager for multimedia projects, especially in the field of e-learning. He launched the Interaction Design department at bachelor and master levels, now internationally renowed. He managed research policy, and he coordinated several international projects and events between 2005 and 2010 (international design workshops CREDO, international design exhibition, the CADI research journal).

Deeply involved in the development of L’École de design, a major player in the field of Design Education in France with an international visibility, he is now Head of Strategy, Marketing and Development, managing both tactical marketing and PR operations and long-term strategic projects for the future of the school.

L’École de design Nantes Atlantique is a non profit organisation managed by the Chamber of Commerce of Nantes Saint Nazaire, setteled in Nantes (France), Shanghai (China) and Bangalore (India).

http://www.lecolededesign.com/en/

HAGEN FENDLER
Global Chief Design Director (ID‚UI‚UE)
ZTE Corporation‚ Shanghai

Hagen Fendler is the Global Chief Design Director for the ZTE Corporation based in Shanghai‚ P.R. China. His role responsibility includes the development and implementation of ZTE’s global design strategy‚ including ID‚ UI and UE.

Mr. Fendler’s career has been highly successful; having worked for many years as Design Director for the international operating design company yellow design/ yellow circle based in Cologne Germany. He had previously joined Siemens in 2004 as their Head of Product Concepts. In 2007‚ Mr. Fendler became CEO of VanBerlo Strategy + Design before accepting the role of the Global Chief Design Director for Huawei Device in August 2010. In September 2012‚ Mr. Fendler took the role of Global Chief Design Director for the ZTE Corporation‚ Shanghai. Mr. Fendler has worked for major global brands throughout his professional career‚ for clients such as Siemens‚ Audi‚ BMW‚ Ford‚ Telekom‚ Lufthansa or Swatch.

He received 32 international design awards including "red dot best of the best"‚ "if award" together with "good design" awards.

He has been jury member of the "if design award" in 2010‚ 2012 and 2013.

Mr. Fendler has a professorship at the Technical University in Munich Germany for "Design Theory and History" as well as for "Brand Identity" within the Master Course Program. Mr. Fendler holds a degree in industrial design from the prestigious Pforzheim University in Germany.

He completed his international education in studying industrial design in Paris at the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Art’s Appliquees et des Metiers D’Art (1991) and in London at the Metropolitan University - Sir John Cass Department of Art‚ Media and Design (1992).

MAX BOSIO
Creative Director
Nascent Design

Max Bosio is the Creative Director at Nascent Design.

Max Bosio is an italian born architect and visual designer . His background includes a diverse range of experiences in‚ branding‚ retail design‚ graphic design‚ and interac -tive media. Max began his carrear working as an architect in New York with american archistar Peter Eisenman. Lately he decided to dedicate himself to graphic and visual design.

Over the course of more then 15 years of activity both in Europe and United States Max has developed a dual nature as creative and strategic marketing thinker‚ which gives him a unique perspective on the role brands play in answering specific marketing challenges. Before funding his own professional practice‚ Max worked in New York as Creative Director and senior Brand Strategist with global marketing consultancy firm marchFIRST. In this role‚ he helped define and evolve creative offerings for some of the most recognizable international brands such as: Audi of America‚ Timberland‚ Samsung‚ Saks Fifth Avenue‚ JP Morgan Chase and more. In 2003 Max founded in Milan his own design firm Nascent Design‚ which is specialized in delivering creative solutions that spam through a variety of disciplines.

SURYA VANKA
Principal Director of User Experience
Microsoft Corporation

Surya Vanka is a design leader who has worked over three decades as a designer‚ corporate design leader‚ design professor‚ speaker and author. Surya Vanka serves as director of user experience at Microsoft‚ overseeing best practices and engineering standards to create high-quality user experiences for Microsoft customers.

Surya has worked as a designer and manager for several products during his 15 years at Microsoft‚ and most has led large scale organizational change initiatives. His mission is to put users rather than technology at the center of the development process for all Microsoft products. Vanka serves as chief of staff of the User Experience Leadership Team and as discipline owner for user experience. He is the winner of two Microsoft Best Practice Awards‚ the Microsoft Accessibility Achievement Award and several industry recognition awards. Before joining Microsoft‚ Vanka was a professor of design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study.

He is the author of two books on design as well as several publications‚ and he has lectured on design in more than 20 countries. He serves on the advisory board of the Design Management Institute‚ and winner of a World Brand Congress Leadership Award. An exceptional speaker with a broad range of corporate and research experiences‚ Surya is frequently invited to keynote speeches at the most prestigious conferences‚ and has won top speaker awards three times. His work has appeared in numerous publications and news programs‚ including Form‚ I.D.‚ Design Council‚ WIRED‚ Interactions‚
the BBC and National Public Radio. He regularly speaks on interaction design‚ user experience‚ product development and strategic innovation‚ and he teaches courses and seminars on these subjects around the world.