During my 2023–2025 term, I helped strengthen WDO’s financial mechanisms by optimizing budget control and introducing contingency plan to ensure efficient resource allocation. As an Executive Committee member, I contributed to key decisions addressing organizational, personnel, and operational challenges, supporting WDO’s stability and innovation.

I also advanced design-led urban strategies, including enhancing the sustainability framework of the Bengaluru WDP and initiating the first City Design Index to systematically assess design competitiveness and impact.

Having previously led the 2011 IDA Congress and World Design Capital 2016 in Taipei, I value WDO’s role as a global platform. To realize the vision of ‘design for a better world’, we must develop a clear strategic roadmap and foster deeper collaboration—positioning design as a catalyst for equity, sustainability, and systemic transformation.

When I first shared my intent during the 2023 election, I underlined the role of design as a force capable of creating positive impact. That belief has only grown stronger throughout my service on the Board. Building upon the legacy of World Design Capital Valencia 2022, we have continued to champion initiatives that bring design closer to citizens, cities, and the planet.

My work within the committees has been deeply focused on Design for Circularity: embedding sustainability into our core strategic direction, advocating for circular and regenerative design as non-negotiable foundations for the future. This effort is not solitary, it has been enriched by the teamwork and shared vision of my fellow Board members. Together, we have confronted complex issues, from climate change to social equity, knowing that WDO provides the global platform and the tools to transform policies into action.

On behalf of Andreu World, a global family-owned company with more than 70 years of sustainable manufacturing, we want to share our call to action with the entire industry: to embrace design as a transformative tool for addressing the urgent challenges of our time. Through initiatives such as the Circular Design® Challenge, we have seen how creativity, innovation and collaboration can provide tangible solutions to global challenges, while also giving visibility to new talent and driving innovation across the sectors with the Andreu World International Design Contest and World Industrial Design Day activations.

Our journey on the Board has shown that this is not an individual effort, but a collective one. Teamwork with the rest of the Board has been essential in facing important challenges that affect citizens, designers, cities, and ultimately our planet. For us, WDO is more than an organization: it is a powerful tool to activate policies, mobilize resources, and guide design toward impact.

On a personal level, I am convinced that “Manufacturing a Better World” is more than an aspiration, it is our responsibility. Every project, product, or policy we shape carries the potential to influence not only industry but also the lives of communities and future generations.

Looking forward, my message to all WDO members is clear: let us continue to design for impact. By uniting our skills, perspectives, and values, we can make design the catalyst for a regenerative future, one that restores industries, ecosystems, empowers people, communities, cities and inspires hope across the world.

‘Design in India. Design for the World.’ This is the Indian Prime Minister’s message, and my nation is waking up to the tangible soft power of design. In this time of transition and transformation when India is embracing design at scale, it is a huge privilege and responsibility to serve on the WDO Board as a woman, and design leader from India.

Leading the professional committee, developing tangible initiatives and recommendations towards creating greater value for the profession. Developing a manifesto for WDO, member engagement thrusts and an outcome orientation. Serving on the Financial Committee to ensure the financial health, fiscal prudence and strategic sustainability of our prestigious organization.

This process of working together forges friendships, nudges us to understand how minds (and accents ) work differently across the world, showing us that we need to bring different perspectives together for one holistic, diverse and inclusive view. I greatly admire the value and contribution of a steady and patient Secretariat that has the dual complex responsibility of serving the members daily while working alongside the Board on long view strategic initiatives.

Joint efforts of the Indian Design Community and WDO led to Bengaluru’s designation as the inaugural World Design Protopolis™, a five-year WDO programme. Given my extensive strategic engagement with governance, I am in a position to share advice on the way forward. Being on multiple University Advisory Boards provides me the springboard to spread the ‘Design a better world’ message to Education Leadership and next gen designers. A Design Open gathering themed ‘Our World Now’, shaped the idea of integrating India and the World, by design with an opportunity to host the WDO President in Bengaluru and South India; inviting academia and business leaders, members and non members from across India.

A Sanskrit phrase urges us to realise that the world is one family ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbaka’. I wish WDO all the best to design this ideal.

When I look back at my statement of intent from 2023, I realize it wasn’t just an intent –  it was a manifesto. As a design professor, my goal is to use design to create a better world.

Over the past two years, as the Master Designer for Busan Metropolitan City in Korea, I’ve successfully infused design principles into key public sectors. For the first time, Busan launched its ‘Future Design Headquarters,’ which has played a central role in major city policies and projects since its inception. This headquarters acts as a vital bridge between the city, designers, design associations and institutes, as well as citizens.

On the WDO Board, I was originally appointed chair of the membership committee but later declined the position due to my workload with Busan Metropolitan City. Instead, I contributed to the committee’s work on membership, strategy, and fundraising. I helped bring in new WDO members from Korea and China and laid the groundwork for financial sponsorships for 2025-2027 from major Korean companies like Hyundai Motor Group, LG, and Samsung Electronics. I hope to see tangible outcomes from these efforts in 2026.

I’ve used the WDO motto, ‘Design for a Better World,’ countless times over the past two years in various domestic and international, public, and private events. The more I use it, the more opportunities I see for us to further explain who design is for and how it can make a difference in the world.

As designers, we have our own real power and influence over society and people outside of our field. I often feel that designers live in a very small world of our own. We need to step out of the “design-box” and into the real world to truly make an impact. The first step toward this is to dramatically increase our membership and become financially strong!

Meghan Preiss

Serving in my second term as a Board Member of World Design Organization, I’ve remained deeply committed to shaping a more inclusive, strategic, and future-focused organization. With a clear passion for youth engagement and systems-level impact, I’ve worked to both strengthen the foundation of our global network and extend its reach.

This term, I was especially proud of the Young Designers Circle (YDC) programme, which I continue to champion. This term, the YDC launched a successful podcast spotlighting emerging voices, contributed to a World Design Challenge, and authored the first draft of their Design Oath for designers, an inspiring step toward codifying ethical practice in our profession.

I also chaired WDO’s Fundraising & Partnerships Committee, where we built a new strategy to define value exchange, align partnership expectations, and lay the groundwork for sustainable, mission-aligned fundraising. This work is a key step toward WDO’s long-term financial health and strategic influence.

In addition to governance responsibilities, I am honoured to actively participate in our community actively, speaking at Taiwan Design Week with Taiwan Design Research Institute, jurying varying design awards, and advising students through mentorship and educational programming at multiple universities. Each moment underscored the power of design to unite and uplift communities.

As WDO continues to evolve, I believe our future must focus on elevating the voices of practicing designers and corporations within our membership and reinforcing their value across industries and regions. At the same time, it is dire that we continue paving accessible paths for the next generation to be inspired by and supported through WDO.

Our work is both urgent and generational. I’m honoured to collaborate with my inspiring peers on the Board of Directors for this organization that holds the responsibility and the opportunity to design a more equitable, ethical, and empowering future for all.

During my tenure as a WDO Board Member, I have actively contributed to shaping the organization’s future structure and community engagement.

As Chair of the Membership Committee, I focused on fostering stronger collaboration among members. One of my key initiatives was proposing the structure and timeline for a recurring online meetup programme designed to transcend geography and create deeper connections across the WDO community. Together with the Secretariat, I have been prototyping this initiative to enable more accessible and inclusive dialogue among members regardless of location.

As Vice Chair of the Programmes Committee, I worked on evaluating and refining WDO’s existing programmes. I proposed a more integrated programme structure and helped initiate new strategic projects. One such initiative is World Design Heritage, a proposed registration system that highlights significant design destinations around the world. This programme would aim to provide member organizations with a platform to share their national design legacies on the global stage, while also establishing a potential revenue stream for WDO.

I have maintained a 100% attendance rate at Board meetings, participating in all in-person sessions except for one U.S.-based meeting, which I joined remotely due to visa complications.

With my background in branding and communication design, I have also supported WDO’s efforts in shaping clear messaging and improving web presence through active collaboration with other Board members and the Secretariat.

It has been an honour to contribute to WDO’s evolution into a more connected, strategic, and globally engaged organization.

Benjamin Wilson

What will community mean in the future?

When Icsid was founded in 1957, industrial design was about shaping a better world, informed by culture, industry, and society.

That still matters, but the context has changed. AI accelerates everything. Platforms flatten differences. Design is fast, global, and visual. In this, Haltung becomes essential.

Haltung means posture, position, mindset. In design and business, it’s knowing where you stand – not just how something looks, but why it exists, and what kind of world it enables.

This spirit shaped my career. My first Icsid event was in 2003, fresh from Australia, newly in Europe. Hannover opened my eyes to a global community grounded in ideas and responsibility.

I’ve seen that spirit again and again – in the material honesty of Germany, the sensitivity of Japan, the clarity of Scandinavia. Like Bashō said: “Don’t follow the masters. Seek what they sought! Design is not only an aesthetic, it is a way of doing things.”

On the WDO Board these past two years, I’ve seen Haltung in action. In the Braun Prize, Ideas to Keep. In Andreu World, a B Corp proving that design and sustainability can scale. These aren’t trends, they’re commitments.

Because community is more than a network. It’s a human space – for exchange, perspective, and care.

As the world moves faster, WDO becomes more vital, not to slow things down, but to ensure we carry forward what matters: a better future, by design.