-
Industrial Design Manager, Product Designer, Kenmore Laundry
WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION
Benton Harbor, MI
2016 - 2018 (2 years)
Chosen by leadership to represent Whirlpool and manage all aspects of Kenmore-by-Whirlpool Laundry product design and development for Sears. Orchestrated product leadership and design appropriate for Kenmore brand positioning. Developed relationships with clients and vendors.
• Provided critical design thinking during contract negotiations. Core contributor to internal innovations.
• Exceptionally talented in articulating ideas in the form of Ideation, sketching and concept generation.
• Often sought out for workshops to help deliver great ideas and problem solving on the fly.
• Core contributor to the house brand laundry, subsystems for major top load initiative.
-
Lead Industrial Designer, Global Refrigeration Studio
WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION
Benton Harbor, MI
2014 - 2016 (2 years)
Chosen by VP to join refrigeration studio. Selected as subject matter expert in refrigeration and product development manager for french door architecture. Promoted to studio lead to facilitate creative efforts.
• Innovation Award CES 2017, contributions to “French Door-within-Door Refrigerator”
• Innovation Award CES 2016, contributions to “French Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator”
• Led and delivered 3 consecutive multi million-dollar refrigeration programs resulting in many award-winning products and best-in-class features, innovations, and aesthetics.
• As a leader, transformed the culture by mentoring, sharing knowledge, skills, process, and strategy. Drove better collaboration by transforming studio layout and process resulting in an efficient creative space.
• Pioneered first ever product graphics management process impacting thousands of graphics per year.
-
Lead Industrial Designer, Kenmore Refrigeration and Dishwashers
WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION
Benton Harbor, MI
2010 - 2014 (4 years)
Internally chosen by the leadership to manage all aspects of Kenmore-by-Whirlpool refrigeration product design and development for Sears. Orchestrated product leadership and design thinking appropriate for Kenmore brand positioning. Developed collaborative relationships with clients and vendors
• Pioneered and successfully navigated a complex designer/client relationship by distilling the design process down to a system that was digestible and efficient. Quickly became the preferred OEM for Sears.
• Provided critical design thinking during contract negotiations. Core contributor on internal innovations.
-
Lead Industrial Designer, Amana Brand Studio
WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION
Benton Harbor, United States
2008 - 2010 (2 years)
Sought out to Join Global Consumer Design at Whirlpool, as a full-time contract employee, to help define the new face of Amana brand. Worked on-site and gained a broad understanding of all categories including refrigeration, washers, dryers, and cooking architectures.
• Delivered design thinking to the development of the Amana visual brand language across the product portfolio across all categories.
• Enjoyed the day-to-day design thinking and contributions including sketching, concept generation, concept development, rendering, and Rhino surface modeling to create desire through product leadership for the Amana brand.
-
Lead Industrial Designer, Product Design Consultancy
TIGER STUDIO
Holland, United States
2007 - 2008 (1 year)
This opportunity found me, as well, while running into the staff at an IDSA event. Asked to join a natural, agile and inventive industrial design consultancy to help serve local industries and community. Provided a consumer-centric problem-solving process to develop highly successful products and services for clients. Thrived under pressure while providing core industrial design skills, design thinking, contributions, and design strategy to many design programs with highly compressed schedules. Consistently exceeded clients expectations by delivering classic industrial design skills and problem-solving. Markets we served ranged from consumer products, automotive, office furniture, and equipment. Great studio and wonderful people.
-
Senior Industrial Designer, Product Development
AMERICAN SEATING COMPANY
Grand Rapids, United States
1995 - 2007 (12 years)
Asked to join full time after working as contract. Delivered many award winning and patentable product initiatives by applying classic industrial design skills and consumer-centric problem solving to their three industries. Prolific in sketching, ideation, concept generation, concept development, 3d modeling, rendering, animation and physical model making. Established as a subject matter expert in transportation seating, indoor and outdoor fixed public seating, stadium and arena seating, and contract furniture segments.
• IDSA GOLD Award for concept explorations “Kabe” wall system
• IF Design Excellence Award for contributions to “InSight” seat
• Featured in INNOVATION Magazine, Yearbook of Industrial Design Excellence, “Kabe”
• Featured in BUSINESS WEEK Magazine, “Kabe”
• GOLD winning product on display at IDSA NATIONAL CONFERENCE EXHIBIT, “Kabe”
• Featured in THE KENDALL PORTFOLIO, “Alumni Earned IDEA Gold Award”
• Featured in PANSTADIA Magazine, “Spirit Stadium Seating”