Co-Founder

Kai Tran has over 10 years of design experience. Her design journey has spanned from game cinematics to environmental design, and from print to interactive. In all her diverse experiences, one thing has been central: innovation.

Alec is the CEO and cofounder of Learners, a platform and community for UX professionals aiming to make career learning free for everyone. Prior to that, Alec has extensive experience in user research roles in startups of all kinds, and specializes in bridging the gap between founders and their early users.

Michael Carrick CEO & Co-founder of XDS | Experience Design Systems Inc.

Wendy Johansson is a founder, entrepreneur, and Product Experience leader who has spent her career building equitable teams and products in tech.

Liya is co-founder of The Center for Deep Self Design. She joined the Center as it was re-incarnating post-pandemic, bringing a welcome set of insight and expertise that is harmonious and complementary to the mission.

Maggie Hsu is a Co-Founder of Gold House, a nonprofit collective of pioneering Asian leaders dedicated to systematically accelerating the Asian diaspora’s societal impact while enhancing the community’s cultural legacy.

Christian, a New Jersey native, is an award-winning technology leader, previously holding leadership roles at multiple start-ups and award-winning advertising agencies like Crispin Porter + Bogusky and Doner.

Don Bora has been a professional software developer in Chicago since 1990. In his career, Don has started 6 companies two of which he sold and two of which are still alive and making a lot of noise.

Adam’s passion is the exciting world of Tabletop Gaming! In 2016 he co-founded XYZ Game Labs and created the card game called RobotLab with his team. He currently spends most weekends playing, talking about or designing tabletop and board games.

Jay Newton-Small is cofounder of MemoryWell, which tells the life stories of those suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia.