Announcing our 2021 IBM Design Principals
On behalf of the IBM Design Leadership Board and as its chair, it is my honor and privilege to announce our newly appointed 2021 IBM Design Principals. These professionals are exemplars of design practice, craft, and leadership, and they are an integral part of IBM’s industry-standard design program.
We have placed a special emphasis on nurturing great design leaders as we have built the program and practice of design at IBM over the past eight years. Design leaders at IBM must not only be experts in creating amazing human-centered outcomes that drive business results; they also have to have a deep understanding of the technical and industry domains in which they work and lead the way for design-driven change in a complex global enterprise.
Design Principals
These are IBM’s newest Design Principals:
- Miroslav Azis, IBM Design Program Office
- Eleanor Bartosh, IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software
- Sadek Bazaraa, IBM Brand Experience & Design
- Kathryn Briscoe, IBM Systems
- Herman Colquhoun Jr., IBM Systems
- Warren Hunt, IBM iX
- Soo Yun Kim, IBM CIO
- Pascal Potvin, IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software
- Christina Schiffler, IBM iX
- JD Speer, IBM Systems
- David Stone, IBM iX
- Rikki Storey, IBM iX
- Hal Wuertz, IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software
- Shell Zhu, IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software
We would like to offer our heartfelt congratulations on this incredible achievement to our new IBM Design Principals, and we look forward to the impact they will have on their organizations, studios, geographies, and across the broader community of IBM Design and beyond.
With this cohort, we see the continued expansion of our community of design leaders across the IBM company and around the globe. We have the first-ever Design Principal in our IBM Studios location in South Africa, as well as in our IBM Quantum and IBM Storage organizations within IBM Systems. With this announcement, we now have a total of 63 Design Principals at IBM.
Please join me in congratulating our newest IBM Design Principals!
Design Principal
Design Principal is the highest non-executive technical role in the IBM designer career framework. They are top technical practitioners who take on leadership positions to fulfill specific missions in their business unit. Their roles involve the advancement of design through scalable and reusable artifacts, thought leadership and intellectual property, and driving their organization’s utilization of design and design thinking. Design Principals also contribute to developing IBM’s design practices, initiatives, technical vitality, and reputation both internal and external to the company.
Design Leadership Board
Comprised of 25 of the company’s technical and managerial design executives, the Design Leadership Board receives an extensive application form, a portfolio of work, and executive references for each candidate and then goes through a meticulous and thorough review process to determine which candidates meet the high bar of being appointed IBM Design Principal.
Karel Vredenburg is Director of Design responsible for IBM’s global design leadership, culture, external engagement, and academic programs. He blogs at karelvredenburg.com and is “@karelvredenburg” on the major social networks.
Sincere thanks to Lauren Swanson for her tireless and meticulous running of the Design Principal program and for her enthusiastic and thorough support of the nominees, their managers, and the Design Leadership Board members.
The above article is personal and does not necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies, or opinions.
