Leaders translating past lessons into future breakthroughs

Our Visionary Speakers

These are the leaders building what's next. Spanning AI, UX, research, and design strategy across some of the most influential organizations in the world, our speakers brought real-world perspectives, hard-won insights, and a shared belief that innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines.
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Nick Allen

Former Head of Design
Fidelity Investments

Nick Allen is a design and innovation leader with 20+ years spanning Lean Thinking, Six Sigma, and Design Thinking, shaped by mentors including Steve Wozniak, Doug Dietz, and teachings from IDEO and the Stanford d.school. After senior roles at GE Healthcare and Fidelity, he now serves as Chief Strategy Officer in Healthcare IT private equity. He regularly speaks and leads workshops at major CX and UX conferences, bringing a practitioner's perspective on making complex systems simple and human.

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A smiling man in a suit with a high-tech digital background, featuring neon and circuit-like designs, and the Microsoft logo. The text reads 'Varun Kapoor'.
Portrait of Bennett Hornbostel in a digital, futuristic background with circuitry and people in the distance, wearing a suit with digital circuit patterns, with the Amazon logo and his name displayed.

Bennett Hornbostel

Principal UX Researcher
Amazon

Bennett Hornbostel is a UX researcher with 15+ years of experience, currently working on Amazon's Rufus AI shopping assistant after leading research for Alexa's shopping features. His work focuses on how mental models evolve as AI reshapes existing shopping interactions and unlocks entirely new ones, giving him a front-row perspective on one of the fastest-moving spaces in consumer technology.

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Varun Kapoor

Lead Product Designer
Microsoft

Varun Kapoor is a Lead Product Designer at Microsoft with 11+ years of cross-industry experience spanning developer tools, AI-integrated experiences, and enterprise design. Having worked at Docker, Amazon/AWS, GE Healthcare, and IBM, he specializes in bridging technical implementation with user-centered design. His work ranges from enterprise dashboards and CLI-to-GUI concepts to hands-on experimentation with computer vision hardware and AI-powered agents.

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A professionally dressed man in a dark suit, white shirt, and tie, smiling against a background of pink and purple digital light streaks, with the name Kevin Yuda and GE Healthcare logo at the bottom.

Kevin Yuda

Senior Director, UX
GE Healthcare

Kevin Yuda is the Senior Director of User Experience and Creative Director of Software at GE HealthCare, where he leads a global team building the platforms and AI-driven tools shaping how clinicians and patients experience healthcare technology. His work on the Ethos Design System has earned Red Dot, iF, New York Product Design (Gold), and Design Management Institute awards, and he holds multiple granted patents with 14 filed.

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Suzanne Currie

Former Director of AI/UX Research
Geico

Suzanne Currie is the former Director of AI/UX Research at Geico, with a career spanning healthcare AI, enterprise systems, and Amazon moonshot labs. At Elevance Health she led AI-driven clinician decision support strategy; at Amazon she helped shape and launch Amazon Key and Amazon Care. She brings a "powers of 10" approach — connecting executive vision to tactical execution through research, futures thinking, and human-centered AI design.

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A woman with gray hair smiling, wearing a black jacket with blue neon lines and a colorful logo on her chest, standing against a digital background with screens and data visualizations. The text reads 'Ashley Craig' and 'Answerlab'.
A man in a dark suit with glasses smiling in front of a digital, futuristic background with neon purple and pink lines, and the logos of Bold Insight and a multicolored abstract design on his chest.
A man in a purple suit with a glowing logo on his chest, crossing his arms, surrounded by glowing purple digital lines and particles, with text "Anthony Bynum" and "Institute of Design" at the bottom.

Ashley Craig

VP, Research & Product Strategy
AnswerLab

Ashley Craig is a research and product strategy leader with 15+ years of experience across big tech, startups, and agency work, currently leading product research at AnswerLab. She specializes in translating human insight into clear direction for teams navigating AI-enabled experiences and complex product decisions. Earlier she led research at Lenovo across AR/VR and enterprise collaboration, and applied behavioral science to digital learning tools.

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Gavin Lew

Managing Partner
Bold Insight

Gavin Lew is a UX leader with 25 years of experience, currently managing Bold Insight. He previously founded User Centric, one of the largest UX consultancies in the country, which made Inc.'s 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list six consecutive years before being acquired by GfK. His work pushes beyond surface-level satisfaction toward the qualities — intuitive, engaging, inspirational — that make products genuinely memorable.

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Anthony Bynum

Associate Professor & Director
Institute of Design Executive Academy 

Anthony Bynum is an Associate Professor and Director of the Executive Academy at the Institute of Design, where he focuses on early-stage problem framing, innovation strategy, and humanizing the value of emerging products and experiences. He brings a catalyst-driven approach to helping organizations connect design thinking to growth — through qualitative insight, concept development, and strategic frameworks that shape what comes next.

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Sarah Wallace, a woman with long auburn hair, wearing a burgundy blazer with a digital logo on the shoulder, standing against a vibrant purple and pink digital background with light streaks and particles, representing technology and innovation, with her name and company logo at the bottom.
Digital portrait of Casey Hudetz, a man smiling in a dark, futuristic setting with glowing digital checkmarks and lines, wearing a dark suit with a neon logo on the chest, promoting Docusign.
A man wearing a futuristic black jacket with blue glowing lines, standing in front of a digital, sci-fi background with pink and purple light streaks and geometric patterns. The jacket has a multicolored logo on the chest. The text overlay reads "NOEL CHILDS" and "DIGITAS" with a horse icon.

Sarah Wallace

Customer Experience Strategist
Proprietary Insights

Sarah Wallace is a customer experience researcher and strategist who helps organizations turn insight into clear, consequential decisions. Over the past decade she has led hundreds of research and alignment engagements across 20+ industries, working with product, design, and operations leaders navigating misaligned incentives and high-stakes internal dynamics. She is known for naming the forces that quietly shape outcomes and building practical paths forward that hold up under pressure.

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Casey Hudetz

Senior Product Design Manager
Docusign

Casey Hudetz leads AI and design strategy at Docusign, overseeing a team shaping intelligent agreement experiences that are transparent and user-empowering. A published contributor to The UX of AI and speaker at SXSW and Design Matters Copenhagen, he has spent his career exploring the intersection of emerging technology and human experience. His background spans filmmaking, writing, and agency work in emerging tech — all grounded in a deep interest in how technology shapes our well-being.

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Noel Childs

SVP Group Experience Design Director
Digitas

Noel Childs is SVP Experience Design Director at Digitas Chicago, where he has spent over a decade leading experience design for clients including Dunkin', Kellogg's, and Whirlpool. With 30+ years in the industry, his background spans experience design, AI, branding, and design thinking — and he is a vocal champion of AI-empowered design. He also hosts A76, a podcast exploring the future of design through deep conversations with creative makers.

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Portrait of David Kazaryan in a futuristic, tech-inspired outfit with neon purple and blue accents, standing against a digital, circuit-like background. Text overlay with his name and the United Airlines logo.
Photo of Bob Nesbitt in a purple suit with a digital circuit design, smiling, against a dark purple background with a neon glow, promoting Abbie.
A smiling man in a dark suit with pink neon lights and digital data in the background. He wears a blazer with an AR logo on the pocket. The text says 'Ben Shown' and 'blink, an Mphasis company.'

David Kazaryan

Senior Product Design Manager
United Airlines

David Kazaryan is a Sr. Manager of Experience Design at United Airlines, leading a team that shapes the end-to-end digital travel experience — from flight search and booking to travel management. With 15+ years spanning travel and financial services, his work sits at the intersection of experience strategy, innovation, and AI-enabled design. He is passionate about maturing design organizations, embedding generative AI into the design process, and developing the next generation of design talent.

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Bob Nesbitt

Former Director of Portfolio Strategy
AbbVie

Bob Nesbitt is a product development leader with decades of experience in healthcare, human factors, and medical device design. At Eli Lilly he led the team that brought over a dozen drug delivery devices from concept to market; he later led the Human Factors group at AbbVie, focusing on patient needs for early-stage delivery systems. A contributor to US and international medical device standards since 1999, he recently served as ISO International Chair for TC84.

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Ben Shown

Head of Design
Blink UX

Ben Shown is Head of Design at Blink UX, where he helps organizations like Amazon, Microsoft, NASA, and the New York Times orient around ambitious futures they can actually move toward. He brings equal parts design rigor and playful curiosity to complex challenges, with a deep commitment to user-centered, equitable technology. Beyond agency work, he teaches at Northeastern University, spreading his enthusiasm for making tech less frustrating and more human.

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A man in a dark suit with an illuminated logo on his chest stands against a neon-lit, digital background with streaks of purple and blue light and an abstract network pattern. The text below reads 'Matt Alverson' and 'IA Collaborative'.
Portrait of Kyle Schulz wearing a dark suit with a futuristic digital background, featuring neon pink and blue lines and patterns, with a logo on his chest.
A man in a business suit smiling with arms crossed, standing against a digital, futuristic background with purple and blue light streaks. The Wal-Mart logo is visible and the text reads "Eric Smallwood, Ex-Walmart."

Matt Alverson

Partner
IA Collaborative

Matt Alverson is a Partner and AI Lead at IA Collaborative, helping organizations like Google, Nike, Airbnb, and the United Nations navigate the future of AI-enabled work. His focus is on what he calls Collaborative Intelligence — the redesign of work itself as AI moves from tool to active collaborator. Recognized as an Innovation Visionary by IFA Germany, his work has earned accolades from Fast Company, SXSW, and Red Dot.

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Kyle Schulz

Deputy of Strategic Advancement
Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)

Kyle Schulz is Deputy of Strategic Advancement at CMAP, where he drives regional strategy and partnership across northeastern Illinois. His work focuses on positioning Chicagoland as a global destination in emerging industries, and his efforts have secured over 75,000 jobs — including the single largest economic development deal in Illinois history.

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Headshot of Linnea Hagen in a dark suit with glowing digital pattern background, smiling, with her name and Netflix logo below.

Linnea Hagen

Consumer Insights Manager
Netflix

Linnea Hagen spent over a decade at Amazon leading UX research across Shopping, Advertising, and Prime Video — most recently as Senior Manager of UX Research for Prime Video. She now brings that depth of experience to Netflix, where she focuses on Core Member Experience. Her work centers on building high-impact, curious research teams that blend rigorous qualitative and quantitative methods to directly shape product vision, roadmaps, and customer experience.

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Eric Smallwood

Former Director of Design
Walmart

Eric Smallwood is a Baltimore-based UX and product design leader with 17+ years applying human-centered design to complex systems. Previously Director of Design at Walmart, his client work spans NASA, CMS, the London Symphony Orchestra, and more. He is also the founder of Aether & Stone Design, a practice focused on mission-driven, human-centered digital products.

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