SPEAKERS

ROGER ROHATGI

Chief AI Officer, Chai
Former Chief Design Officer, BP

  • Former Chief Design Officer, BP

    Roger Rohatgi leads digital design and change at bp, a global team of innovative thinkers, user experience (UX) professionals and creatives focused on supercharging human experience design (HXD) and enabling change. Human-centered design is the North Star he followed to create and deliver the first bp design discipline and system. This includes driving design best practice and digital circularity across the company, as well as introducing an award-winning ‘sustainable design’ methodology and an inclusive design mindset.

    Prior to bp, Roger spent 25+ years with creative, transformative teams, spearheading digital
    innovation and delivering captivating customer and user experiences with agencies, media outlets, and top brands such as Verizon, Twitter, Hyundai, Vine, Motorola Solutions and major TV networks such as CBS, NBC Universal, MTV, FOX, CNBC Arabia, ZEE TV and more. His TV, film and commercial work has been featured on the likes of MTV, ESPN, Nickelodeon, NBC, and ABC, and he has won awards both as a film producer and in design, including the Oracle CX Innovation Award for inclusive UX. Some of his work has also been seen in Fast Co., Wired, USA Today, LA Times, Hollywood Reporter, Advertising Age and Forbes.com.

    Roger sees the strategic role of HXD in the changes needed to achieve a brighter, more equitable and more sustainable future. He gets super energized by designing better, more human experiences with digital and the sustainable impact we can have for people and planet through design.

DEBORAH
DAWTON

Chief Executive

  • As Chief Executive of the Design Business Association, Deborah works with the industry to champion the tangible and measurable impact of design and its capability for change in business and government, nationally and internationally.

    Her passion for design as a strategic tool that boardrooms must recognise, and her experience of the UK’s diverse and competitive design sector enable her to lead the DBA as it works tirelessly to build universal confidence in design investment and support the design industry to deliver on this promise.

KEN
MUSGRAVE

Head, Digital Product and Experience Design

  • Ken Musgrave is a design leader with accomplishments across diverse industries and seeks to be at the intersection of business and design. He has found the most success through the integration of digital, physical, and service design domains.

    Recently, Ken was tasked with building and leading Ford’s Global Human-Centered Design capability, positioning the company for a smart, connected, autonomous, and service-driven future. Previously, as Vice President of Experience Design at HP, he rebuilt the company’s Global Experience Design capability and reimagined its entire digital and physical portfolio. Prior to HP, he established and led the Global Experience Design competency at Dell Technologies.

    Ken began his career in healthcare technology, where he developed a deep understanding of how human-centered design and immersive user research can drive meaningful outcomes. Currently, he is collaborating with Whirlpool Corporation’s senior design leader on key strategic initiatives.

    He holds an MBA from the University of Utah, an MS in Design from Georgia Tech, and a BS in Industrial Design from Auburn University.

MATTHIEU
AQUINO

VP & Chief Design Officer at KraftHeinz

MELISSA DALRYMPLE

Partner

  • Melissa Dalrymple is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and leads their global Innovation and Design practice. Her client work focuses on consumer-facing industries, including travel and hospitality, CPG, and emerging technologies. By combining design thinking methods business strategy, and technology advances, her teams design and deliver the kinds of compelling new businesses that have the power to reshape categories and disrupt industries.

    Melissa’s research efforts focus on the Business Value of Design and the evolving role of design leadership. Her work has had broad coverage in the media, including Fast Company, Forbes, The Financial Times, and McKinsey Quarterly, and is frequently credited with helping elevate the role of user-centered thinking within large organizations, especially those seeking to redefine their purpose to meet shifts in consumer behavior.

    Prior to McKinsey, Melissa spent nearly two decades in the design and innovation industry at firms including IDEO and Doblin. She has also consulted to multiple early-stage startups on their products and funding models in both Europe and the US.

    She has been a lecturer on the business value of design at multiple at MBA programs, including Ross, LSE, and HBS. Melissa is a graduate of Yale University, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard Business School. She lives in Chicago with one husband, three kids, and two dogs.

PHIL DUNCAN

Chief Design Officer
Design Leader, Fabric Care OU

  •  Phil holds a dual role as Chief Design Officer and Design Leader for our Fabric Care OU. Phil’s deep mastery in Design, Brand Building, and integration of the Vectors of Superiority to achieve a superior consumer experience is a big asset to P&G. Phil will continue the Design team’s transformation, deepening and elevating the team’s “designing” mastery, and integration of technologies to enable our design work to be increasingly effective, desirable, and productive. 

    Phil maintains his responsibilities as P&G’s Chief Designer Officer (CDO), a role he has held since 2008. As CDO, Phil is accountable for the overall superiority of our product and package designs, and helping build a superior consumer experience, integrating across our five vectors of superiority. Phil continues to lead the transformation of Design from a largely “design management organization” to a “designing and design leadership” mastery capability. Phil continues in his leadership role to maximize value creation with our Olympic sponsorship, and with our P&G Architect team to create world-class employee and guest experience with our facilities -focusing on the Cincinnati General Offices. 

    Prior to his P&G CDO role, Phil was the President of Europe and the Middle East, for Landor Associates, a branding and design agency -part of WPP. Phil spent 13 years with Landor, successfully growing and expanding their business globally, including with a diverse portfolio of P&G brands from Fabric and Home Care, to Beauty, FemCareand Oral Care.

    Phil is an experienced Brand Builder and Creative –with mastery across many capability spaces including brand architecture, package design, Design sprints, and visualization techniques. He is an experienced leader, passionate about the delighting consumer, building business-centric creative cultures, and bringing out the best in individuals and teams. 

PHIL GILBERT

Author of Irresistible Change. Former General Manager of Design at IBM. Board Trustee, Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity. Keynote speaker and executive advisor. 

  • Phil Gilbert is a serial entrepreneur, author, and former General Manager of Design at IBM, where he led one of the most ambitious cultural transformations in modern business—changing how nearly 400,000 employees across 180 countries worked, without the authority to mandate any of it. Instead, he treated change as a product that teams chose to adopt, an approach that became the foundation of his book, Irresistible Change: A Blueprint for Earning Buy-In and Breakout Success (Wiley, 2025). The IBM transformation has been the subject of a Harvard Business School case study, the award-winning documentary The Loop, and features in The New York Times, Fortune, Fast Company, and others. Phil now serves on the Board of Trustees for the Eames Institute for Infinite Curiosity and advises senior leaders navigating high-stakes change driven by AI, design, and culture. He lives in Austin, Texas. 

    Melissa’s research efforts focus on the Business Value of Design and the evolving role of design leadership. Her work has had broad coverage in the media, including Fast Company, Forbes, The Financial Times, and McKinsey Quarterly, and is frequently credited with helping elevate the role of user-centered thinking within large organizations, especially those seeking to redefine their purpose to meet shifts in consumer behavior.

    Prior to McKinsey, Melissa spent nearly two decades in the design and innovation industry at firms including IDEO and Doblin. She has also consulted to multiple early-stage startups on their products and funding models in both Europe and the US.

    She has been a lecturer on the business value of design at multiple at MBA programs, including Ross, LSE, and HBS. Melissa is a graduate of Yale University, Johns Hopkins, and Harvard Business School. She lives in Chicago with one husband, three kids, and two dogs.

STEPHEN BAIRD

Shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, LLP Minneapolis

  • Nationally recognized trademark and intellectual property attorney with substantial intellectual property experience spanning virtually every industry, with a focus on trademarks and the legal implications of branding. Frequent speaker and author on trademarks, brand management, and related intellectual property subjects. Considered a gifted writer, speaker, creative thinker, and legal strategist, with a professional passion for winning, building, teaching, mentoring, and also supporting selected pro bono clients. Recognized by the Wall Street Journal as the "legal brain" behind the successful 1999 decision of the USPTO canceling the Washington R*dskins trademarks as disparaging to Native Americans. Has a rare background as a pharmacist, serving life sciences, pharmaceuticals, dietary supplements, and medical device brands. Substantial experience in helping Indian Tribes build their intellectual property rights and solve their legal issues involving intellectual property. Substantial trademark and branding experience in the outdoor sporting, hunting and shooting industry. Substantial experience in trademark and branding matters for start-ups, restaurants, casinos, software companies, banks and financial institutions. Served as Judicial Clerk to the Honorable Wilson Cowen of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. Currently counsels clients on trademark usage and clearance, branding strategies, domestic and worldwide portfolio management, litigation and enforcement, Internet domain name disputes, licensing and prosecution. Specialties: Although the ethical rules governing lawyers carefully control the use of the word "specialty," Steve is widely known for having substantial experience in advising clients on the legal implications of branding, non-traditional trademarks such as color and product configurations, naming, trademark registration strategies, internet issues, trademark enforcement and policing, among others.

PETE
BLACKSHAW

Co-Founder and CEO of BrandRank.AI

  • Pete Blackshaw is the Co-Founder and CEO of BrandRank.AI, a Cincinnati-based SaaS platform that helps brands measure, protect, and grow trust in an era defined by AI-driven search and discovery.

    He regularly contributes to Ad Age and is the author of the forthcoming book The Answer Economy: How AI Agents Will Decide Your Brand’s Future (Wiley).

    Previously, he served as Global Head of Digital at Nestlé in Switzerland, where he led digital strategy, social media, and online reputations management for the world’s largest food company. In that capacity, he ran Nestlé’s Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost, built its Open Innovation platform, and spearheaded a 200,000-person internal social network.

    He later served as CEO of Cintrifuse, a nationally recognized startup catalyst and venture fund backed by Procter & Gamble and Kroger. Earlier, he was CMO of NM Incite, a Nielsen–McKinsey joint venture focused on social intelligence and analytics.

    Pete began his career in brand management at Procter & Gamble, where he co-founded the company’s first Interactive Marketing team, and later founded PlanetFeedback.com, a venture-backed consumer feedback platform acquired by Nielsen.

    He has also served as National Chairman of the Better Business Bureau and led the Consumer Goods Forum’s development of the industry’s first Consumer Engagement Principles.

    He is the author of Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000 (Doubleday) and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

ELLEN
MORIARTY

Associate Creative Director at Taxi Studio

  • Ellen Moriarty is an Associate Creative Director at Taxi Studio, helping some of the world’s most recognized brands evolve and stay relevant in a rapidly changing market. Since joining Taxi Studio, she has contributed to global work for brands including Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark, as well as well-known UK brands, helping shape distinctive identities that cut through in culture and deliver real commercial impact.

    Before Taxi, Ellen spent eight years at Jones Knowles Ritchie, working across iconic brands including Heinz, AB InBev and P&G. During that time she partnered with organizations across a wide range of categories — from global CPG to purpose-led organizations — helping them navigate moments of change and rethink how they connect with modern audiences.

    Ellen thrives at the intersection of creativity and strategic commercial thinking. She believes the most powerful brands are built by embedding distinctiveness whilst solving real business challenges. She is passionate about using design to help organizations move forward.

ALEX BANE

Founder & Chief Growth Officer at Taxi Studio

  • From Qatar to the USA to China - across Corporate, FMCG, and Health & Wellness - Alex brings a truly global, cross-category perspective to brand growth. His views and provocations are trusted by CEOs and CMOs alike, shaped by decades of experience working with leading organisations including Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark.

WENDY ORNER

SVP & Global Head of Design at Colgate-Palmolive

  • Wendy Orner is the SVP, Global Design Experience at Colgate-Palmolive, where she drives creativity and innovation as an engine for business growth. Before joining Colgate in 2025, Wendy gained over two decades of experience leading design and innovation for some of the world's most iconic brands at Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

    Wendy's approach centers on ensuring that the design team’s skills and the brands they build remain relevant in a rapidly changing landscape. She joins THE FUTURE OF… to share her perspectives on leading in dynamic times and creating strategies to future-proof Design within large organizations.

BOB JENNINGS

CEO at 3D Color

  • Bob Jennings is a passionate leader at the forefront of supporting designers, dedicated to disrupting traditional approaches to mockups, prototypes, and sales samples. Previously leading the CPG business at Numerator, he helped leading brands leverage data to shape stronger consumer connections. As owner of 3D Color, Bob applies that same transformative mindset to revolutionize how brands visualize and refine their designs before they hit the market. 3D Color helps you shape a lasting first impression at internal reviews, consumer tests, retail sell-ins, and with color accurate heroes.

ANTHONY
WOLF

VP - AI Activation & Process Engineering Canadian Tire

  • Anthony Wolf is the Vice President, AI Activation and Business Process Reengineering at Canadian Tire Corporation. He leads modernization and AI transformation across the company, reimagining workflows, deploying advanced AI capabilities, and enabling teams to work smarter and more creatively. Anthony collaborates with senior leaders to accelerate innovation, enhance decision-making, and maximize Canadian Tire’s value from data and technology.

    Anthony is a champion of Design Thinking and Doing, using human-centred principles to understand customer and employee needs and drive innovation. This approach helps Canadian Tire teams create solutions that are technologically robust, empathetic, and practical, ensuring each initiative delivers meaningful value.

    For over a decade Anthony created and led the Product Design and Development function at Canadian Tire delivering Owned Brand products across categories ranging from Kitchen, Sporting goods, Tools, and Automotive to Home and Holiday Décor, Apparel, and more.  The team continues to act as an internal design function delivering meaningful margin accretion and differentiation for the business, while helping customers with the Jobs and Joys of life in Canada.

    With a career spanning product development, innovation leadership, and engineering-driven problem solving, Anthony combines strategic vision with practical execution. He champions integrating AI into business processes and customer experiences, ensuring solutions are advanced and aligned with real needs and long-term growth.

BRIDGET LITZINGER GREVER

Head of Brand Design & Operations W.K. Kellogg Company

  • Bridget Grever is the Head of Design Operations at WK Kellogg Co, ensuring creative excellence for sustainable brand growth and expanding internal design capabilities. Prior to Kellogg’s split in 2023, she managed design across all three product categories – cereal, frozen, and salty. During the separation into WK Kellogg Co and Kellanova, she led the Intellectual Property requirements for all shared brands and continues to be the IP consultant for the organization.

    Before WK Kellogg Co, Bridget led the seasonal strategy for Mars Wrigley Confectionery, shaping global LTO packaging for brands such as Skittles and Starburst. Her global experience includes living on‑site in Dubai, leading the redesign of AquaGulf water and supporting the roll-out of Kitco, the #1 regional snacking brand. This was an immersive experience, deepening her perspective on culturally relevant brand expression.

    With 20 years of experience across agency and in‑house environments, Bridget brings a proven track record of delivering strategic design leadership, improving operational processes, and fostering relationships. Her experience spans some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Smucker’s, Pillsbury, Folgers, Dial, Budweiser, Marlboro, Pringles, Cheez‑It, Eggo, Frosted Flakes, and Special K.

MICHELLE
STUHL

President & CEO

  • Michelle is President and CEO of Michelle Stuhl & Company, a global retained Executive Search firm committed to helping leaders build and grow their companies. The company is a strategic and research-driven practice with deep expertise in Creative/Design, Innovation, Digital, Marketing and Merchandising across all sectors. 

    The company has significant international experience, including placements of C-Level and Senior Executives in leadership roles in the U.K., Europe, Asia, and South America. Notable clients include Nike, PepsiCo/Frito-Lay, Johnson & Johnson, Philips, MillerKnoll, Virgin, LVMH, Estée Lauder Companies, e.l.f. cosmetics, The Obama Foundation, The MoMA, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Michelle champions diversity and inclusion, and for more than 20 years over 60% of placements have been filled with diverse candidates. 

    Michelle has established herself as a thought leader in the field, writing a notable article for Forbes Magazine examining the rising role of the Chief Design Officer, and is a frequent guest lecturer at prestigious universities across America, including the ArtCenter College of Design. In addition, Michelle has participated in and moderated panels at DMI (Design Management Institute) Symposiums. 

    She has served on the Advisory Board for the Arizona State University Master of Science in Innovation & Venture Development program, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, the Arizona State University Museum of Art, and the Mesa Museum of Contemporary Art.  

    Michelle has an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and is a dedicated Fine Artist in her spare time. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the U.S. and internationally including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The DeYoung Museum, The Louvre, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and more. She maintains studios in New York and Arizona. 

    To learn more about our services, please visit https://michellestuhl.com/ or https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-stuhl-3347b34/

STEVE LAMOUREUX

CEO & Founder at Designalytics

VALERIE
AURILIO

Principal and Owner at Design B&B

  • With over 25 years of brand-building and design experience, Val has a proven record with the biggest names in consumer goods and corporate identity, including MARS, Kellanova, Kimberly Clark, Kraft-Heinz, BIC, Tropicana Brand Group, P&G, Microsoft, and Newell brands.

    Val embraces the connective power of Design in meaningful ways, from how a global brand flexes across markets to how a creative team partners with clients across disciplines. Val is a true business partner whose skills and experience span brand positioning, architecture, and go-to-market models. Yet, she is a designer at heart and remains a hands-on partner working along-side her creative team and her clients.

    In 2024, Val became owner and principal of Design B&B, where she is living out her belief that Design is a powerful, meaningful discipline both in business and for individuals building careers in this ever-evolving industry.

JENNY
PARK

Global Design Director - Home Improvement and Packaging & Expression at 3M

  • Jenny is a passionate design visionary with 15 years of experience amplifying the potential of individuals, brands, and innovation through purpose‑driven creativity. With a background in industrial design, brand strategy, and creative direction, she has designed across a wide range of categories, including medical, personal care, food and beverage, health and beauty, and housewares.

    Her experience spans agency and corporate environments, giving her a broad perspective on building brands and creating experiences that truly resonate. At the center of Jenny’s leadership and design philosophy is a deep passion for people. Empathy, authenticity, and diversity guide how she builds teams and approaches creative challenges. Having navigated life independently from the age of 15, she learned early the value of resilience and resourcefulness—lessons that strengthened her belief that meaningful outcomes come from collective effort, not individual achievement.

    Born and raised in Chicago, Jenny is a Korean American navigating life with her husband, Byron. Together, they are raising two children, Yonah and Maya, along with their two rescue dogs, Bella and Kona.

CARLY
PRICE

Senior Director, Customer & Partner Experience Design at ServiceNow

  • Carly Price is a design leader with 25 years of experience shaping products and experiences used by millions of people every day, for some of the world's most iconic brands. As Head of Design for Customer and Partner Experiences at ServiceNow, she leads the teams building the portals and self-serve digital experiences that help organizations worldwide learn, adopt, and unlock the full power of the ServiceNow platform, powered by Agentic AI and designed to scale from the world's largest enterprises to growing businesses everywhere.

    Her career spans digital UX, physical products, services, and environments, always with the customer at the center. At Walmart, she directed a team of 85+ designers, writers, and researchers to launch AI-powered personalized shopping experiences that drove measurable growth in digital adoption, engagement, and sales. At Chase, she co-led the development of the Community Center Branch format, now scaled nationwide, delivering a 16% increase in checking account openings and transformative gains in financial inclusion. She also founded Liv Labs, an NIH-funded wellness startup built around a patented product for women's health, and at Casper built a product design team that launched five products in two years, generating 50% of company revenue.

    A champion of "show don't tell," she drives big-picture strategy while keeping teams laser-focused on execution, building high-performing creative cultures that deliver beautiful, human-centric design at scale.

VIRGINIA
HULTMAN

Executive Director

  • Virginia has spent 20 years building brands that connect, with experience spanning global portfolios and categories from home & air care to food, beverage, pet, baby, technology, health & wellness.

    Virginia’s love for building brands is driven by her passion for people. She believes the best outcomes come from understanding what motivates consumers, seeing clients as true partners, and creating an environment where teams can do their best work. A strategic navigator with visual perspective, Virginia helps brands articulate their challenge by not being afraid to ask questions and then rolling up her sleeves to find the solution.

    As Executive Director, Virginia shapes both the work and the experience at Design B&B. She is instrumental in defining how the business shows up, bringing a thoughtful, adaptive approach that reflects the studio’s belief in the power of design.

JASON HAUER

CEO, HauerX Holdings

SEAN RILEY

Chief Executive Dude at Dude Wipes

ANDREA (ANDI) WEGNER

Experience Designer at IBM

  • Andi is a human‑centered designer and researcher skilled in translating complex business challenges into intuitive, data‑driven solutions. Currently an Experience Designer on IBM’s Client Engineering team, Andi partners with clients, engineers, and sellers to lead discovery-to‑delivery projects focused on AI‑driven transformation. She facilitates design thinking workshops with executive stakeholders to analyze business processes and pinpoint opportunities for improvement. Andi brings a research‑grounded perspective shaped by usability testing, user interviews, and journey mapping, and is passionate about designing inclusive experiences. She also serves as IBM’s Chicago Women’s Network Group Lead, advancing community and career development programming.

    Andi received her degrees in Psychology and Information from the University of Michigan, where she focused on UX design. Her research explored trust, safety, and the nuanced needs of marginalized users through the design of a social media content moderation resource.

HOSTED BY

  • John enjoyed a rewarding career at Procter & Gamble that spanned more than 2 decades. John’s global responsibilities in customer services, operations, international trade, strategic sourcing, and design & innovation – and touched all categories, most brands, and all regions at some point during his career.

    Notably, a member of P&G’s global Design Leadership Team, John was a part of P&G’s initial, formative journey to elevate and leverage Design more strategically in its businesses, and in its DNA and culture.  One of the largest and most transformative “Design journeys” on the planet.  In this role, John was responsible for all of P&G’s external design and innovation agency relationships – interfacing with almost 400 design, innovation, and creative agencies, and creating the processes and criteria used to identify, select, and on-board exceptional talent and capability, as well as to evaluate existing agency relationships. 

    John also led external benchmarking programs with Fortune 500 corporations who sought to better understand the strategic role of Design, and how it might be a catalyst for growth… and not just a “decoration station”. 

    Inspired by this “balcony view” of the industry - and a wide range of experiences, observations, insights, and patterns of behavior - John saw the opportunity to help both “sides” of the industry accelerate their respective Design, marketing, & creative services journeys… to better serve consumers, and drive better business performance.  To be better, together.

    In early 2007, John left P&G to launched A Better View Strategic Consulting, LLC to “enhance the intersection of creative relationships”. 

    John and A Better View have advised more than 120 leading, consumer-facing corporations, dozens of smaller/newer brands and start-ups, and has had the opportunity to coach more than 2,000 agencies - shaping their value propositions, elevating client engagement skills, and expanding the value they create for their clients.    

    John is passionate about the role, influence, and impact that Design might deliver for organizations and for greater business results… as a catalyst for growth… an advocate for consumers, customers, colleagues, and communities… influencers of culture and collaboration… a source of curiosity and action… and a champion of long-term and long-lasting brand propositions.

    John created the Design Leaders Council for the prestigious economic research and leadership organization, The Conference Board.  This peer-to-peer council launched in 2017 with “Head of Design” members from 47 well-known corporate enterprises, including:  Google, Procter & Gamble, Mastercard, Mayo Clinic, Salesforce, SAP, Expedia, BNSF Railways, Nike, Rockwell Collins, Pacific Gas & Electric, and many other equally renowned corporations. 

    John co-founded The D Event… a round-table event exclusively for client-side Design & business leaders.  He teaches a Design Thinking course in the MBA program at the University of Notre Dame.  And John was elected to the Board of Directors of the Design Business Association in the UK – the world’s leading authority on Design effectiveness.

    In short, John hopes that his experiences, perspective, influence, & impact provide… well… a better view.