I serve as a Chief Design Officer focused on customer-centered organizational strategy, design advocacy, and digital experience.
With thirty years of driving digital transformation at corporate and industry levels, I build and lead teams that change how companies do business. My experience spans technology start-ups through Fortune 500 firms, covering digital in geoscience-tech, infrastructure engineering, creative content, enterprise search, micro-finance, digital asset management, and telecom.
FROM COMMERCE TO COMMUNITIES, FROM APPS TO PLATFORMS
I develop human-focused solutions that enhance the work lives of people worldwide. I’ve founded successful start-ups and worked at Fortune 500 companies, helping businesses understand how people, brands, and technology intersect.
Customer-informed design transformation on an organizational level.
HELPING COMPANIES MOVE TO INFORMED DECISIONS
My approach to transformation is grounded in a view of both the company objectives and the customer’s experience simultaneously. I bring a unique fusing of design, product, and software development along with an affection for problem-solving creativity.
CURRENTLY
I am the Chief Design Officer at Bentley. We empower people to design, build, and operate better, more resilient infrastructure by adopting our intelligent digital twin solutions. I drive company-wide action in this role to deliver world-class experiences to thousands of daily users.
WHO IS BENTLEY?
Bentley Systems (Nasdaq: BSY) is the infrastructure engineering software company. We provide innovative software to advance the world’s infrastructure, sustaining the global economy and environment. Our industry-leading software solutions are used by professionals and organizations of every size, for the design, construction, and operations of roads and bridges, rail and transit, water and wastewater, public works and utilities, buildings and campuses, mining, and industrial facilities.
Our offerings include MicroStation-based applications for modelling and simulation, ProjectWise for project delivery, AssetWise for asset and network performance, Seequent’s leading geosciences software portfolio, and the iTwin platform for infrastructure digital twins. Bentley Systems employs more than 5,500 colleagues and generates annual revenues of approximately $1.3 billion in 194 countries.
PREVIOUSLY
Previously, I was Acting Chief Customer Officer and Director, Experience Design at Seequent.
Seequent believes that a better understanding of the earth creates a better world. Its staff creates and integrates software that empowers customers to solve complex problems that benefit people and the planet.
Seequent’s vision and innovative approach to technology solutions for complex decision-making about some of the world’s most significant challenges are a unified focus of its people, customers, and partners worldwide. In 2021, Seequent was acquired by Bentley Systems for $1.05B.
Prior to Seequent, I was Sr. Director, Technical Operations at Dissolve.
Dissolve is one of the most recognized and loved stock footage companies in the industry, renowned for its inspirational video marketing.
Dissolve’s work has won 6 Vimeo Staff Picks (with over 5 million organic views) and has been acclaimed by Time Magazine, Mashable, BuzzFeed, Adweek, Fast Company, Advertising Age, Wired, The AV Club, and many others.
Prior to Dissolve, I was Director, Interaction and Design at Corbis.
Corbis was one of the world’s leading visual media providers of commercial and editorial photography, illustration, and footage. In 2007, Bill Gates and Corbis acquired Veer (see below).
As home to some of the world’s most iconic photography (such as the Bettmann Archive), Corbis was more than a creative powerhouse; it was a repository of some of the world’s most historically relevant imagery.
Prior to our acquisition by Corbis (and Bill Gates), I was Co-founder and Director, Worldwide Community at Veer.
Veer became the first “love-mark” in the stock image industry. To millions of creatives, Veer was synonymous with inspiration (delivered in catalogs, on the web, at conferences, and on social media).
Veer’s work has been acclaimed by Communication Arts, the Type Directors Club, the Webby Awards, SXSW Web Awards, HOW Magazine (including a “Perfect 10” award), and the Direct Marketing Association (including a prestigious ECHO award).
Veer’s culture was steeped in sharing ideas and stoking innovation through action in the field. I was honored to introduce Stefan Sagmeister in Buffalo, NY while taking that notion of collaborative connection to our global creative community.
Early experiences.
I started working on the internet during its early days. In 1994 I hired myself out to ISPs and Telecoms with a focus on interaction and UI design. My introduction to high-tech company life was at Image Club Graphics, the world’s first creative content aggregator on the web. Here, I met and mentored under famed typographer and digital interface pioneer Grant Hutchinson.
My early career took me to Adobe, where I developed products, honed an understanding of customer-led design, and helped build some of their earliest commerce sites. Then I moved to Verity/HP, where I focused on bringing simple, intuitive UX to broad, unstructured enterprise search. Eventually, I made my way back to Canada from California to start Veer with the folks who’d influenced the early days of my career.
Let’s do something great together or get familiar with my history first.