WDO Foundation Launch

Missed our live event? You can watch the full recording now.

WDO has long recognized and championed the role that design can play in improving the quality of life for communities around the world. With our members, and through our programmes, we have shown the value and impact products, services and systems can have at tackling the challenges our people and planet currently face.

In the presence of Srini Srinivasan, President of the World Design Organization, as well as other members of the organization’s international Board of Directors, WDO is hosting a special event to celebrate the launch of the WDO Foundation, a new initiative that furthers our mission of design for a better world.

Join us on 2 November to learn more about this branch of WDO’s vision and how it will invest in design research and support design endeavours internationally. Broadcasted from Montreal (Canada), this hybrid event will also showcase some of our most recent programming achievements and welcome a panel that will offer perspectives to discuss the past, present and future of WDO.

Moderator & Panelists

Moderator
Bertrand Derome
Managing Director, World Design Organization

Bertrand is a not-for-profit organization manager and sustainable design advisor with more than 20 years experience. He is a confirmed lecturer who eagerly advocates for design’s social, environmental and economic impacts, for the betterment of the world. After graduating from the School of Design at Université de Montréal, he practiced design in a studio, as well as in a manufacturing company. He joined the Institute for Product Development as the Sustainable Design Advisor and became the general manager of the Institute in 2012, where he developed private and public partnerships, both locally and internationally, helping organizations improve their innovation practices. He has also served as President of the Quebec Association of Industrial Designers (ADIQ) in Montreal (Canada) and participates as an advisor on many public and sectoral committees and juries.

Panelist
Srini Srinivasan

President, World Design Organization

Srini Srinivasan is a highly accomplished designer & entrepreneur in creative design and technology development, with over 25 years of work experience in the Silicon Valley, United States and India. Presently, Srini is the President of WDO as well as Chairman & CEO of LUMIUM DESIGN, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based, award-winning product design company that has developed 300+ products in the consumer electronics, medical, industrial goods, security and surveillance domains. Lumium has design studios in San Jose (USA), Ahmedabad (India) and in Tokyo (Japan) to execute creative design projects for global clients. Srini is an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Tongji College of Design & Innovation, Shanghai and also a member of its International Advisory Board. He is also a visiting professor and on the advisory boards of design school around the world.

Panelist
David Kusuma 

President-Elect, World Design Organization

David Kusuma is also the Senior Vice President of Product Management & Innovation at Oregon Tool. Prior to this, David served as the Vice President of Research & Innovation and Vice President of Product Development Worldwide at Tupperware Brands Corporation. During his tenure, he was tasked with subverting conventional boundaries of innovation by developing new technologies and materials to create game-changing product solutions. As a result, they developed 150 to 200 new products every year, and launched them in over 100 countries around the world. David has also worked at General Electric (GE) as Global Manager, Design and Vehicle Engineering, to develop the use of polycarbonate as a viable alternative to glass in automotive window systems. Prior to GE, David worked at Bayer Material Science.

Panelist
Thomas Garvey

Treasurer, World Design Organization

Prof. Garvey is Associate Professor at Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design in Ottawa (Canada). He specializes in product development and design for extreme and minimal environments. His interest in small-scale living spaces grew out of his work in New York on space station interiors and led to doctoral studies at the University of Tokyo on the topic of housing and urban density. For almost a decade he recorded imagery and data on how historical minimalist design philosophy can still be seen embedded in a range of contemporary approaches to lifestyle design, living environments, and the products that bring meaning to daily experience.

Panelist
Luisa Bocchietto
Past President 2017-2019, World Design Organization

Luisa works as a designer and architect in both the public and private sector, carrying out projects aimed at local development, urban reclamation, and renovation. Her projects and products are published on various specialized magazines. She has contributed texts on architecture and design for various publications, has organized exhibitions (Pop Design, D come Design) as well as attended conferences and served on international juries. Luisa also cooperates as visiting professor with universities and design schools. As a past president, Luisa serves on the governing council of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI). She is also a past president of the Association of Architects in Biella and was a member of the organizing committee for World Design Capital 2008 Torino.

Panelist
Brandon Gien
CEO, Good Design Australia
Past President 2013-2015, World Design Organization

Brandon is the CEO of Good Design Australia, Chair of the Australian Good Design Awards, and Deputy Chair of the Australian Design Council. He has spent the past 25 years passionately advocating for the value of good design to improve our social, economic, cultural and environmental quality of life. He is a qualified industrial designer and currently an Adjunct Professor of industrial design at both the University of Canberra and the University of New South Wales. He became a Senator of the World Design Organization (WDO), the global body for Industrial Design, after serving as President (2013-2015), the first Australian to hold this position.

Panelist
Luigi Ferrara
Dean, Centre for Arts, Design & Information Technology, George Brown College
Past President 2007-2009, World Design Organization

Luigi Ferrara is an architect, designer, urbanist and strategist and has been the Dean of the Centre for Arts, Design and Information Technology at George Brown College since 2002. Under his guidance, the Centre was ranked one of the top 60 design schools in North America, according to Business Week magazine, and its Institute Without Boundaries was ranked as one of the top 4 Urban Design programs in the world by Azure magazine. He has over 30 years of experience in private and public sector urban development and innovation and lends his expertise to almost a dozen boards and associations.

Panelist
Deane Richardson
Past President 1992-1993, World Design Organization

Deane W. Richardson, FIDSA, is co-founder of RichardsonSmith and Fitch Inc. and spent more than 40 years integrating research, design and development disciplines to solve tactical and strategic design problems for corporations worldwide. Over the years, Rrichardson Smith grew with locations in Asia, Europe and the United States. In 1990, the company merged with Fitch, a successful retail design firm in London which became Fitch RichardsonSmith, then in 1998, became Fitch. Notable companies such as Chrysler, Disney, Nissan, Hitachi, Xerox, Microsoft, Nokia, and Universal Studios were among their long list of clients. As co-founder, Richardson built his career on the management and planning of design processes within large and small companies. Fitch became a leader in the successful integration of design disciplines with experts in research, marketing and production. In 1985, Richardson chaired the Worldesign Icsid Congress in Washington, DC and served as President from 1992-1993.

Photos from the event