UXINDIA26

DESIGN LEADERSHIP WEEK 2026 · TRACK 01

Leadership
Summit 2026

For senior design professionals, heads of design, CXOs, CDOs, and strategic decision-makers shaping design inside their organisations.

WHEN

23–25 September
2026

WHERE

Leela Bhartiya City,
Bengaluru, India

WHO

CXO, CDO, CTO, CPO, Heads of Design, Senior Designers etc.

Overview

The Leadership Summit 2026 brings together the most influential design voices to shape the future of design leadership.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS

23 September

Full-day, hands-on workshops across parallel rooms — dive deep into design methods, tools, and craft with expert facilitators in small, focused groups.

CONFERENCE DAY 1

24 September

Grand keynotes, Plenary Keynotes & Panel Discussions on design leadership, AI, and business impact, paired with curated roundtables, spark sessions and networking dinner.

CONFERENCE DAY 2

25 September

Deep Dive talks, panel discussions, and spark sessions, closing with leadership networking and conversations that carry beyond the stage.

Why Attend

Built for leaders who decide.

This is where strategy meets craft. Step away from the day to day to think bigger exchange hard won lessons with peers who face the same decisions, pressure test your ideas in intimate roundtables, and leave with sharper conviction, a stronger network, and a clearer view of where design is headed next.

Speakers

Doug Powell

DougPowell

Executive Design Leader & Coach Former VP of Design, IBM & Expedia, Past President, AIGA

Grand Keynote

Doug Powell

Executive Design Leader & Coach Former VP of Design, IBM & Expedia, Past President, AIGA

Doug Powell is an award-winning designer and executive design leader with more than 30 years of experience in a wide range of design disciplines. A recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Sam Fox School of Design at Washington University in St. Louis, and the 2014 Fellow Award from AIGA Minnesota, Doug is a lecturer, commentator and thought leader on design issues. He has presented at a variety of global conferences, forums, and universities including Beirut Design Week in Lebanon, Fortune's Brainstorm Design in Singapore, and Yale School of Management. He was on the jury of the 2018 Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Awards. Between 2011-2013 Doug served as the national president of AIGA, the professional association for design, the largest and most established design organization in the world. In the past decade Doug has served as Vice President of Design at IBM and Expedia Group, where he oversaw design practices, design systems, designer career and leadership programs, as well as the scaling of cross-functional design thinking practices across the companies. He is the producer and host of This Is A Prototype: The Design Leadership Podcast. Alongside his leadership training and coaching practice, Doug serves on the faculty of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University, and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Art at Washington University in St. Louis.

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Jose Coronado

JoseCoronado

Advisor, Interim Head, Product & Design, Digital Impulsum

Plenary Keynote

Jose Coronado

Advisor, Interim Head, Product & Design, Digital Impulsum

Jose Coronado is a bilingual Product and Design Executive specializing in enterprise operating model transformation across global markets. He partners with executive teams to scale product and design organizations, align strategy with execution, and drive measurable performance inside complex, regulated institutions. His work sits at the intersection of strategy, operations, and organizational design. He leads large-scale transformation efforts that modernize operating models, strengthen governance, elevate talent systems, and translate design investment into sustained business impact. Jose advises major financial services institutions across Latin America on enterprise transformation, operating model redesign, and scaling design impact. Fluent in English and Spanish, he helps align executives across regions, accelerate decision-making, and navigate the cultural and regulatory complexity of multinational banking. At Target, Jose built the Strategic Planning & Operations practice from the ground up, hiring and developing senior leaders and establishing the business infrastructure required to support growth at scale. Before that, he served as Executive Director of Experience Design at JPMorgan's Corporate & Investment Bank, where he built and scaled the global Design organization as a strategic capability within a highly complex financial environment. Earlier in his career, Jose partnered with organizations including McKinsey, Accenture, Bain Capital, Aquent, and AIG, advising Fortune 10, 50, and 500 companies such as ADP, Oracle, and AT&T on strategy, transformation, and organizational effectiveness. He also serves as a board advisor and speaks internationally on leadership, operating model evolution, and scaling design for business performance, with more than 100 engagements across North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.

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Pontus Warnestal

PontusWarnestal

Head of Design, Ambition Group

Plenary Keynote

Pontus Warnestal

Head of Design, Ambition Group

Award-winning designer, researcher (PhD), and educator with over two decades of practical experience integrating human-centered design with emerging technologies and AI in academic, industrial, and startup environments. - Published Author and Researcher: Author of 40+ peer-reviewed publications and books, including "Designing AI-Powered Services" (2021; 2022; 2023), providing practical insights on AI and design integration. Featured in 20+ podcasts since 2019, sharing expertise on AI and human-centered design. - Education and Learning: Program Director, and lecturer with 25 years of teaching experience. Designed and leads AI and Design education at Ambition Empower, returning guest lecturer at YRGO, and have delivered 150+ keynotes and invited talks since 2020. Published innovative studio pedagogy work, earning two Best Paper Awards. Recipient of the Excellent Teacher Award twice. - Leadership and Strategy: Deputy Vice Chancellor and Program Director at Halmstad University, where I launched and led the Digital Design and Innovation program, collaborating with 90+ companies. Experience leading UX, service design, and AI initiatives across diverse industries, including roles as Head of Design at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe, Head of Design Direction at inUse, and Design Lead at AI agency eghed. - Internationally Recognized Research: Developed the award-winning "Give Me a Break" app for child cancer survivors, receiving the Livestrong Innovation Prize and a nomination for the Swedish Design Award. Recognized for pioneering participatory design methodologies for children in sensitive contexts and human-centered design for real-world urban and architectural projects, earning a Best of CHI Honorable Mention Award. - Technical Expertise and Design: Skilled in both strategic design thinking and coding, I created design frameworks for business innovation and crafted adaptive spoken dialogue systems for Nokia Home Communication, which led to a patent for its dialogue model implementation, detailed in my PhD thesis. Decades of experience in crafting UX design solutions.

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Kaladhar Bapu

KaladharBapu

Design Executive, Founder, UMO Design Foundation & Curator, UXINDIA

Opening Keynote

Kaladhar Bapu

Design Executive, Founder, UMO Design Foundation & Curator, UXINDIA

Kaladhar Bapu is an award-winning design leader, entrepreneur, and strategist with over 25 years of experience helping organizations harness design as a driver of innovation, business growth, and organizational transformation. He is the recipient of the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award 2026 for 1 Million Women in Design and AI, an initiative that aims to equip one million women with design and AI literacy by 2030.Throughout his career, Kaladhar has led product design and digital transformation initiatives for global organizations including BNY Mellon, Goldman Sachs, Citi, and Microsoft, working at the intersection of design, technology, and business strategy.He is the Founder of the UMO Design Foundation and Curator of UXINDIA, one of Asia's longest-running and most influential design leadership platforms. Over the past 25 years, UXINDIA has connected and inspired more than 90,000 designers, researchers, product leaders, educators, and innovators, helping shape the evolution of the design profession across India and beyond.An alumnus of IIT Bombay, Pratt Institute, New York, and The Wharton School, Kaladhar advises organizations on building design-led cultures and preparing teams for the opportunities and challenges created by AI. His work focuses on helping designers evolve from execution to leadership, creating professionals who influence strategy, drive business outcomes, and lead meaningful change.Kaladhar believes the future belongs to Designpreneurs, leaders who take ownership of outcomes, not just outputs.

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Vyoma Pathak

VyomaPathak

Sr. Design Practice Lead, Mouri Tech

Spark Session

Vyoma Pathak

Sr. Design Practice Lead, Mouri Tech

Vyoma Pathak is the Head of User Experience (UX) Design at MOURI Tech, where she leads multidisciplinary teams across UX strategy, research, visual design, and digital transformation initiatives. Her experience spans healthcare, HR tech, AI-powered solutions, lifestyle products, and enterprise platforms, with a strong focus on creating human-centered experiences that align user needs with business and technology goals. Over the years, she has worked with both startups and global enterprises, leading projects from concept through execution while mentoring and growing high-performing design teams. She has previously spoken at UXINDIA Conference on UX Writing and participated in mentor panel discussions supporting aspiring designers in their professional journeys. Beyond enterprise UX, Vyoma is also currently co-building HUDAK, a community-led initiative exploring culture, heritage, and local storytelling in collaboration with members associated with INTACH. Her recent interests explore the evolving relationship between UX, AI, culture, and responsible design innovation.

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Ish Awasthi

IshAwasthi

VP, UX Research, JPMC

Spark Session

Ish Awasthi

VP, UX Research, JPMC

With over 13 years of experience spanning UX research, product design, entrepreneurship, and cross-functional leadership, I have built products and teams across very different contexts - from enterprise tools for asset managers and bankers in the U.S. to mobile experiences for drivers in India. I have built design functions from the ground up, mentored teams, and created processes that improve user experience and product outcomes. My work spans the full spectrum of UX research, product design, and design systems, supported by hands-on experience in product management, business development, and project management. This allows me to approach product building not just through the lens of design, but through the wider realities of business, execution, and growth. The diversity of my journey reflects a continuous evolution in self-understanding, constantly drawing me toward new challenges, unfamiliar domains, and opportunities to keep learning.

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Mario Van der Meulen

MarioVan der Meulen

CXO, Aleph Labs

Plenary Keynote

Mario Van der Meulen

CXO, Aleph Labs

Mario Van der Meulen is a design executive, author, and international speaker known for helping leaders unlock meaningful innovation through human-centered design. With 2+ decades of global experience across sectors, he brings depth, clarity, and provocation to every stage. He leads large-scale design systems and outcomes in regulated environments, integrating strategy, design governance, and AI-enabled workflows. Designing coherent, human-centred systems across physical, digital, operational, and service layers.

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Samir Dash

SamirDash

UX Arch Senior Manager, Accenture

Workshop

Samir Dash

UX Arch Senior Manager, Accenture

Samir Dash is a UX Architect and AI Design Strategist with 21+ years of experience across global tech firms like Cisco, IBM, Redhat, Samsung, Dell and Accenture. Currently a UX Arch Senior Manager at Accenture, he leads AI-driven enterprise design related re-invention initiatives as part of OpsInteractive, TFO. An award-winning innovator and mentor, he bridges design, technology, and AI-driven product experiences and specializes in human-AI interaction, ethical design, and scalable intelligent experiences. Have authored several books and academic papers on design-led automation, UX, AI-facilitated Design Thinking across industry and academia. He also has been continued to advocate for AI-powered web and application accessibility.

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More speakers

announced soon.

Venue

The Leela Bhartiya City exteriorThe Leela Bhartiya City groundsFalak rooftop bar and restaurant at The Leela Bhartiya CityThe Leela library lounge with chandelierGrand foyer corridor at The Leela Bhartiya City

The Leela Bhartiya City

6/2, Thanisandra Main Road, Thirumenahalli, Bengaluru 560064

An iconic five-star destination known for its grandeur, world-class amenities, and impeccable hospitality. The perfect setting for design leaders to connect, collaborate, and shape the future.

By Air

Kempegowda International Airport (BLR) is approximately 35 km from the venue, with convenient taxi and ride-share options available.

By Train

Bengaluru City Railway Station is well-connected to major cities. The venue is accessible via metro and local transport.

By Bus

Kempegowda Bus Station (Majestic), the city's main KSRTC and BMTC terminal, offers extensive intercity and local connectivity, with taxis and ride-shares available to the venue.

Directions

Located in the heart of Bengaluru, our venue is easily accessible by all major modes of transportation. Use the map to get directions or click the button to open full directions in Google Maps.