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
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.
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.
24 September
Grand keynotes, Plenary Keynotes & Panel Discussions on design leadership, AI, and business impact, paired with curated roundtables, spark sessions and networking dinner.
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
JesvinYeo Puay Hwa
Associate Vice Provost (Strategy), Undergraduate Education, NTU
Jesvin Yeo Puay Hwa
Associate Vice Provost (Strategy), Undergraduate Education, NTU
Professor Jesvin Yeo is currently a Professor of Visual Communication Design at the School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and serves as the university’s Associate Vice Provost (Strategy) for undergraduate education. She leads strategic initiatives that advance institutional transformation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and global engagement. With extensive experience in design education, research, and academic leadership, she has been instrumental in shaping the strategic growth of design and creative disciplines within higher education. Her scholarship explores the intersections of design, culture, heritage, innovation, and emerging technologies, with a particular interest in how design can address complex societal challenges. As an educator and strategist, Professor Yeo promotes design as a catalyst for driving human-centric innovation, sustainable development, and responsible technological advancement.
Know More
DougPowell
Executive Design Leader | VP of Design | Former IBM & Expedia | Lead Lecturer, iF Design Academy
Doug Powell
Executive Design Leader | VP of Design | Former IBM & Expedia | Lead Lecturer, iF Design Academy
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.
Know More
JoseCoronado
Advisor, Interim Head, Product & Design, Digital Impulsum
Jose Coronado
Advisor, Interim Head, Product & Design, Digital Impulsum
Jose Coronado is a recognized Design & Operations executive. His experience spans financial services, management consulting, and enterprise technology, with a focus on leading global teams. As a Strategic Advisor, Jose partners with Chief Design Officers and Global Heads of Design to help them solve critical problems within their organizations. Jose brings his experience scaling design organizations, directing large-scale transformation programs, and building world-class teams at Fortune 50 companies. Most recently, at Target, he built the Strategic Planning & Operations practice from the ground up, establishing business processes to support its growth. Jose has held leadership roles at JPMorgan, McKinsey, Accenture, ADP, and Oracle, where he amplified the impact and maximized the business value of design investment.
Know More
Prof.Kirti Trivedi
Project Head & Visiting Distinguished Professor, School of Innovation, IIT Indore
Prof. Kirti Trivedi
Project Head & Visiting Distinguished Professor, School of Innovation, IIT Indore
The initiator and the founder of India’s first Master of Design Programme in Visual Communication in 1981; Kirti Trivedi (born 1948, Gwalior, India) is a former Professor from the Industrial Design Centre, IIT, Bombay. After a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he did postgraduate studies in Industrial Design from IIT, Bombay, and the Royal College of Art, London. In 1981, he worked as a UNESCO Fellow in Japan, under the guidance of Prof. Kohei Sugiura, and was introduced by him to the intellectual depth and the richness of Asian Design. Besides teaching and design research, he is active as a design consultant in the areas of Graphic Design, Book Design, Exhibition and Museum design, Environmental Graphics, Signage, and Product Design: with numerous publications and awards both nationally and internationally. In 2011, he was invited by the School of Art, Design and Media at NTU, Singapore to help set up a Centre for Asian Design, and introduce new programmes in Asian Design, Projection Arts and Islamic Design. He is frequently invited to speak at International conferences and seminars on design; and presentations have included those at ICOGRADA, Nice; Design for Development, Nairobi; Oullim Millennium Congress, Seoul; ISIS-Symmetry Congresses at Budapest, Hiroshima and Sydney; Vision Plus 8, Vienna; Asian Design Round Table, Japan. He was one of the six international educationists invited to help draft the Manifesto for the Future of Design Education, presented at Oullim 2000, in Seoul, South Korea. Among his recent major projects are the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial at Dandi, Gujarat; and Mahapratapi Bhoj Museum at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. His current research is in developing appropriate interaction design solutions for Indian needs based on emerging technology possibilities. He is also engaged in developing a new model for design education, appropriate for the digital age, with the changed context of AI tools and a new student profile. Besides mentoring the B. Des. program at Centre for Design Studies, Indore; he is working with IIT Indore as a Visiting Distinguished Professor; and is the Project Head for India’s first School of Innovation, which has admitted the first batch of students to its B.Des. program from August 2025.
Know More
ProfIna Conradi
Artist, Educator, multidisciplinary artist - 2023 Best of Show Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH Asia - 2018 Lumiere Award by Advanced Imaging Society AIS Hollywood
Prof Ina Conradi
Artist, Educator, multidisciplinary artist - 2023 Best of Show Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH Asia - 2018 Lumiere Award by Advanced Imaging Society AIS Hollywood
Ina Conradi (USA/SG) is a transdisciplinary media artist and Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University Singapore since 2007. Her digital artworks, animated and adaptable to variable media spaces, creatively employ digital painting and 3D animation. Based in Singapore and Los Angeles, her work harnesses emerging technologies to bridge the gap between art and science, making complex concepts more accessible through artistic expression. Her experimental animation 'Moirai: Thread of Life,' developed in collaboration with quantum physicists, won Best in Show at SIGGRAPH Asia Computer Animation Festival (CAF) 2023, marking a first for Singapore. Chrysalis earned her the 2018 Lumiere Awards from the Advanced Imaging Society (AIS) and VR Society’s Hollywood and 2017 Europe chapters. She also received the 2019 Raw Science Film Festival Award for a collaborative project with Fraunhofer MEVIS, combining digital medicine, arts, and STEAM. In 2019, her co-produced art-sci project Quantum Logos (Vision Serpent) premiered at Ars Electronica Deep Space 8K for the festival's 40th anniversary. Ina has presented her works at major events like SIGGRAPH, UCLA Art|Sci Center, Beijing Film Academy, Ars Electronica (2010-2024), where she was a jury member in 2019, Beyond Festival ZKM Karlsruhe, Media Architecture Biennial, SGIO Tokyo, FMX Stuttgart, ISEA, and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, among others. In addition to her artistic practice, Ina curates Media Art Nexus (MAN), a platform for urban digital placemaking, and initiated NTU's inaugural Campus Exhibition at Ars Electronica 2023. MAN is a highlight of NTU Museum’s Campus Art Trail and connects artists globally with institutions like UCLA Art | Sci Center + Lab, Elbphilharmonie Concert Hall in Hamburg, and others across Europe and the UK. Media Art Nexus has been part of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) since 2020. She has served as a jury member for the 2019 Ars Electronica Animation Festival, NTU Singapore's Global Digital Art Prize, and as a mentor for the Julius Baer Next Generation Art Prize. Her contributions to education have earned her the Koh Boon Hwee Scholars Award and the Nanyang Education Award.
Know More
PontusWarnestal
Head of Design, Ambition Group, Deputy Professor, Halmstad University
Pontus Warnestal
Head of Design, Ambition Group, Deputy Professor, Halmstad University
An award-winning designer, researcher (PhD), author, and educator with over two decades of experience, he brings together human-centered design, emerging technologies, and AI across academia, industry, and startup environments. With 40+ peer-reviewed publications and books, including *Designing AI-Powered Services*, he is an internationally recognized voice in AI and design and has delivered more than 150 keynotes and invited talks since 2020. His 25 years in education span program leadership, innovative studio pedagogy, and AI and design learning, earning him two Best Paper Awards and the Excellent Teacher Award twice. As Deputy Vice Chancellor and Program Director at Halmstad University, he launched and led the Digital Design and Innovation program in collaboration with over 90 companies, alongside leadership roles at Crispin Porter + Bogusky Europe, inUse, and AI agency eghed. His award-winning research and design work ranges from participatory design in sensitive contexts to AI-powered services, adaptive dialogue systems, and real-world UX solutions, earning recognition including the Livestrong Innovation Prize, a Swedish Design Award nomination, a Best of CHI Honorable Mention, and a patent stemming from his PhD research.
Know More
MarioVan der Meulen
CXO, Aleph Labs
Mario Van der Meulen
CXO, Aleph Labs
Mario Van der Meulen has spent nearly thirty years in design, the last twenty of them leading it. A CXO and experience design leader, he has built and run design functions across physical products, digital platforms, AI, and service ecosystems, agency-side and client-side, at organisations including frog, Foolproof, Deloitte, and Standard Chartered. Along the way he earned a reputation as a C-suite whisperer and a design politician, the person brought in when the work, the room, and the egos in it all need holding at once. He is the author of Counterintuitivity: Making Meaningful Innovation, and his second book, DesignMinded: Leading Design Without Losing Your Soul, publishes in 2026. A regular keynote speaker on creativity, change, and the design mindset, he is based in Singapore, where he cheerfully calls himself a graphicdesignosaurus: a designer who graduated BC - before computers, and, rather than going extinct, evolved.
Know More
KaladharBapu
Design Executive, Founder, UMO Design Foundation & Curator, UXINDIA
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.
Know More
RohanSridhar
CXO & Co-founder, Happening Design
Rohan Sridhar
CXO & Co-founder, Happening Design
Rohan Sridhar is Co-founder and Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Happening Design, an AI-first product transformation company with teams across the New York and Hyderabad. He helps enterprises bridge the gap between AI ambition and real-world adoption by identifying high-impact AI opportunities, designing trusted agentic and copilot experiences, modernizing complex enterprise platforms, building scalable design systems, and accelerating research-to-prototype cycles. Over the past two decades, Rohan has led transformation initiatives across telecom, banking, insurance, government, and enterprise SaaS. Beyond Happening Design, Rohan co-chairs UXINDIA, India's largest design conference, and the UMO Design Foundation, an initiative dedicated to democratizing design education and nurturing the next generation of design leaders. His work continues to focus on helping organizations turn AI roadmaps into products that people trust, adopt, and use at scale.
Know More
LydiaPung
Senior UX Designer, Aleph Labs
Lydia Pung
Senior UX Designer, Aleph Labs
Lydia Pung is a Senior UX Designer who, over the past five years, has helped governments, healthcare and financial organisations, and large enterprises make sense of complex problems through human-centred design. She is at her best turning what people actually do into product strategy, working across disciplines to shape digital experiences that hold up for users and for the business alike. Her work spans Singapore and the wider APAC region, where she has led research and design on national-scale platforms across healthcare and public services.
Know More
SunilGanesh
Head of Experience-led Transformation, BayOne
Sunil Ganesh
Head of Experience-led Transformation, BayOne
Sunil Ganesh is Head of Experience-led Transformation at BayOne Solutions, an AI-first technology advisory and consulting firm. In this role, he has been instrumental in shaping BayOne's evolution into an AI-first organization — defining not just what it builds, but how it thinks. Sunil believes that in the age of AI, experience is the differentiator — and that great design is a strategic capability, not a finishing touch. At BayOne, he has built and led teams that bring this philosophy to life for global enterprises, guiding leaders through the shift from traditional digital products to intelligent, adaptive experiences. A builder at heart, Sunil is known for his bias toward action — moving quickly from vision to working reality, and inspiring teams to do the same. His leadership style blends creative conviction with commercial clarity, making design a language the boardroom understands. Based in Chennai, India, Sunil champions BayOne's vision of intelligence made human, and is a vocal advocate for the region's growing role in the global AI and design landscape.
Know More
SamirDash
UX Arch Senior Manager, Accenture
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.
Know More
SiddarthKengadaran
Experience Strategist, BayOne
Siddarth Kengadaran
Experience Strategist, BayOne
Siddarth Kengadaran is an Experience Strategist at BayOne, part of the company's Experience Transformation practice. His role sits at the front of the design process — problem-framing, research strategy, and building the bridge from executive vision to buildable work — helping enterprise teams decide what's worth building before they build it. Siddarth's core thesis is that AI has made production cheap, shifting the defensible value of design upstream to context and judgment. His work focuses on a lean, strategy-led model that scales through AI-augmented accelerators rather than headcount, pairing synthetic research with human validation and holding every recommendation to a simple bar: could a board defend a decision based on this? Across his career in product strategy and design, he has worked at the intersection of experience, AI, and emerging interfaces, including spatial computing. He is an active contributor to the developer and startup community through GDG Coimbatore and FoF Coimbatore, including convening the product space.
Know More
IshAwasthi
VP, UX Research, JPMC
Ish Awasthi
VP, UX Research, JPMC
With over 13 years of experience spanning UX research, product design, entrepreneurship, and cross-functional leadership, he has built products and teams across diverse contexts—from enterprise tools for asset managers and bankers in the U.S. to mobile experiences for drivers in India. He has built design functions from the ground up, mentored teams, and established processes that strengthen both user experience and product outcomes. His expertise spans UX research, product design, and design systems, complemented by hands-on experience in product management, business development, and project management. This multidisciplinary perspective allows him to approach product building beyond the lens of design, considering the broader realities of business, execution, and growth. His journey reflects a continuous drive to explore new challenges, navigate unfamiliar domains, and keep learning and evolving.
Know More
SundeepVerma
Founder, Wingit.ai
Sundeep Verma
Founder, Wingit.ai
Sundeep Verma is a product builder and systems thinker working at the intersection of AI, relational computing, and human interaction design. His work focuses on building AI-native relationship systems that move beyond traditional chat interfaces toward continuity-aware, trajectory-aware interaction models. He has been exploring how concepts such as relational state, adaptive memory, trust drift, reinforcement loops, and behavioral continuity can function as foundational computational primitives for future AI systems. His current work investigates the gap between response generation and long-term relational coherence in AI-human interaction.
Know More
VyomaPathak
Sr. Design Practice Lead, Mouri Tech
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.
Know More
ShrutiMuktha
UX Arch Associate, Accenture
Shruti Muktha
UX Arch Associate, Accenture
Shruti Muktha is an UX Architect focused on designing user-centric, research-driven solutions that create meaningful impact. With a background in Architecture, she brings a systems-thinking approach to design, enabling her to navigate complex challenges and uncover opportunities for innovation. A published researcher, Shruti has presented and published academic papers at conferences like ICoRD, with her work featured in Springer proceedings. Some of her notable research includes applying design thinking and augmented reality (AR) to lifesaving education, as well as exploring women’s safety through design methodologies and emerging technologies to address real-world challenges. At Accenture, she has been actively involved in research around AI-assisted design lifecycle, exploring how context is created, preserved, and lost across design processes, and contributing to the development and validation of frameworks that bridge the gap between research, design, and implementation, and heavily contributing to the development of AgenticAI driven business-roadmap solutions. Driven by curiosity and continuous learning, she enjoys exploring the evolving intersection of design, technology, and AI to create impactful experiences that are both innovative and human-centered.
Know More
ManishVashist
Executive Design Leader, Innovation and Customer Experience, EY Studio+
Manish Vashist
Executive Design Leader, Innovation and Customer Experience, EY Studio+
Manish Vashist is an Executive Director and design leader at EY Studio+, with over 25+ years of experience across consulting, customer experience, digital transformation, enterprise UX, service design and innovation. He has led multidisciplinary teams across design, research, technology and business transformation, helping organisations simplify complexity, improve customer journeys and build more intelligent digital experiences. His work spans large-scale transformation contexts across telecommunications, enterprise platforms, customer service, digital channels, self-service, assisted service, onboarding, loyalty and B2B experience design. At EY Studio+, Manish focuses on AI-led customer experience transformation, Agentic AI and the future of human plus AI collaboration. His work explores how AI can help organisations scale creativity, improve efficiency, reduce manual effort and move from fragmented workflows to more intelligent, outcome-driven operating models. He previously spoke at UX India on the rise of agentic UX designers, where he explored how human designers and specialised AI agents can work together to accelerate delivery, improve decision-making and create new models of value. His current work builds on that idea by asking a larger leadership question: how should design leaders build the future operating model for human creativity and AI capability?
Know MoreMore speakers
announced soon.
Venue
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.
Schedule
Leadership Summit 2026
Please note: Speaker line-up and session timings are subject to change.
Registrations
8:00 AM
Room 1
9:00 AM
Growing and expanding design leadership
Jose Coronado
Advisor, Interim Head, Product & Design, Digital Impulsum
Participants will go through three areas of design leadership development to build a strong foundation of impact, adopt new behaviors, and evolve in their leadership journey.
Room 2
9:00 AM
Making the Case: Measuring and Articulating the Value of Design
Doug Powell
Executive Design Leader | VP of Design | Former IBM & Expedia | Lead Lecturer, iF Design Academy
iF Design Academy Lead Lecturer Doug Powell shares practical frameworks for measuring and articulating the value of design.
Room 3
9:00 AM
Lead[ing] the Room You're In
Mario Van der Meulen
CXO, Aleph Labs
In this session, the participants will see how these moments get built, and why the very instinct that made you a good designer can quietly work against you as a leader. Then you do something about it.
Coffee Break
45 min10:30 AM
Workshops continue in same rooms after coffee break
Lunch
1 hr 30 min12:15 PM
Room 1
1:45 PM
AI Design Accelerator: Fixing Context-Drift in Rapid AI-Assisted Design Lifecycle
Samir Dash
UX Arch Senior Manager, Accenture
Exploring how design teams can use AI to move from brief to prototype faster while preventing context drift through structured handoffs, scorecards, and human-led validation.
Room 2
1:45 PM
Workshop 05
TBA
Announcing Soon
Room 3
1:45 PM
Designing What Could Go Right: Building the Agentic Design Studio (+)
Manish Vashist
Executive Design Leader, Innovation and Customer Experience, EY Studio+
AI is changing design, but the real question is not what AI can generate. It is what design leaders must choose, shape, govern and protect. This hands-on workshop helps participants design an Agentic Design Studio where human creativity, judgement and AI agents work together responsibly.
Coffee Break
45 min3:15 PM
Workshops continue in same rooms after coffee break
End Of Pre-Conference Workshops Day