Meet The Jury – 2023

Carly Klaire is a Lead Designer at Acrylicize with a B.F.A. in Communications Design from Syracuse University. Designing spaces and installations for the built environment, Carly aims to create work which drives an emotional response with its users. From ideation to installation, Carly’s inspiration is rooted in her passion for storytelling, pattern, color, and craft.

Prior to joining Acrylicize, she held a position at Gensler as an Environmental Graphic Designer, working alongside interior designers across market sectors including workplace, retail, and hospitality. Today, she translates that expertise and executes a cross-market design approach to create impressive and interactive art works for clients such as LinkedIn, Spotify and UiPath. She also leads conversations around cultural strategy and conceptual development for public artwork and experiences. Carly spoke at the SEGD Branded Environments Conference 2022 on the importance of keeping the workplace creative in a talk titled “Art School Attitude”.

Yasmien is Head of Workplace Design & Experience for TD Bank. Her role is to drive global workplace innovation, leading a team that activates experiences, enables flexibility and enhances collaboration for colleagues across the enterprise. She has spent her career creating resonant, inclusive and universal experiences with a human-centric focus. Her career spans consulting and client-based design and real estate strategy in workplace, retail and hospitality sectors.

Hassan Shaikh is a South African born workplace strategist and an accomplished real estate professional, with a proven track record of success with global real estate projects & workplace innovation strategies. Over a two-decade career, he has managed diverse projects for renowned organisations in biopharmaceuticals, property funds, aviation, retail, & design, transforming workplaces through innovation to drive competitiveness, agility, and sustainability, while empowering users with people-centric spaces.

He is currently based in Germany at Boehringer Ingelheim and part of the Global Real Estate and Facilities (GFE) team serving as Senior Manager Workplace Strategy. He is a PhD candidate pursuing a Doctorate in Design through the University of Hertfordshire (UK), with research emphasis on developing a new workplace model advancing diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) and a speaker at industry-related conventions and summits throughout Europe and South Africa.

With an impressive record of leading large transformation workplace design, change, and experience initiatives for several large companies and institutions, Heard has shown himself to be a gifted leader with a talent for future-focused design thinking and strategic direction. He has successfully managed multidisciplinary design teams yielding results across a wide portfolio of projects including his own entrepreneurial pursuits. Together with stakeholders, he utilizes integrative design solutions to drive creativity, collaboration, and to solve complex organizational problems. His advanced training in agile management allows him to anticipate and adapt to ongoing changes. Faithful commitment to creative research and the ability to digest a matrix of perspectives and insights allows him to rise above competing internal and external interests to connect the dots. His vision is to employ the true power of design to evolve the workplace, push the boundaries of ancillary integration, and excite a culture of imagination.

Living and leading by example, Jennifer A. Ingram’s career has been forged through her greatest passions – inspiring others to embrace their journey, live their truth, and thrive authentically while promoting a unified vision for more equitable and inclusive communities. A student of life and continuous learner, Jennifer has traveled the globe visiting six continents and over forty countries. She approaches differences with curiosity and humility seeking to understand how others experience life, foster a sense of belonging, and celebrate differences.

Jennifer is the Founder and CEO of Calibrated Lens, LLC, a boutique global consulting firm with the mission of inspiring clients facilitate sustainable change to optimize performance, presence, and productivity by centering equity and inclusion. Before launching Calibrated Lens, she served as the first Vice President of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) at the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. In this role she gained national attention for the publication of the organization’s inaugural DEI Community Report.

Jennifer is also Founder and CEO of 3011Whitney, LLC a real estate investment company that acquires and rehabs properties to provide high quality affordable housing options for all that is built on a legacy of strengthening communities through pride in residence. Most recently the team successfully acquired and completed a historical preservation project with a $200k+ budget in the West End of Cincinnati. Lastly, Jennifer serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in University of Cincinnati’s Political Science Department.

Elise earned her M. Architecture degree from Washington University in St. Louis. After a 40+ year career, she has retired from her retirement job as Contributing Editor of Work Design Magazine.

Although her initial plans were to focus on adaptive reuse of buildings her career trajectory veered into the domain of contract interiors focusing on workplace planning and design. In the mid nineties she crossed over to the client side, moving from design firms to the corporate real estate sector where she focused on facility planning and design as an owners rep. Managing the design and build out of her employer’s various work environments, offered the opportunity to plan and execute projects throughout the US and internationally.

She is looking forward now, to concentrating on her collection of unfinished craft projects, and being a juror for this year’s WDM competition.

As Global Head of Real Estate for CBRE, Peter leads CBRE’s corporate real estate organization and is responsible for managing the firm’s rapidly-growing 500+ office portfolio spanning over 7M sq. ft. Peter oversees a global team delivering real estate strategy, transactions, lease administration, construction, ground-up development, design, occupancy planning, and facility operations. Under Peter’s leadership, his team led the relocation of CBRE’s headquarters to Dallas and the Development of a 131,000 sq. ft. shared services center in Richardson in 2020. 

As Americas Lead, Client Solutions, Total Workplace at Cushman & Wakefield, Antonia leads a team of specialist workplace strategists and change managers who work closely with major space occupiers across the USA. In high demand since the pandemic elevated the issue of workplace relevance and experience to the top of the CEO agenda, Antonia is an industry leader and speaker who addresses the themes of strategic thinking, employee experience, dynamic and flexible workplace environments, and optimizing space to deliver organizational benefits.

Her work focuses on the role of the workplace in the success of the lives of its users and their businesses. In addition, she supports occupants with sophisticated change programs and campaigns that address behavioral adjustments needed to ensure success in the hybrid workplace. She is deeply interested in how the workplace needs to change to remain relevant to the culture of organizations and as a forum for the personal development, learning and growth of its people.

Educated as an architect in Australia, Antonia’s career and passion for learning about the experiences of people took her from Adelaide to Sydney and Hong Kong, where she supported clients in China and Singapore, prior to moving to the San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked with clients and delivered thought leadership across the US and Canada for over 20 years.

Rex Miller started his career as a project manager in the architecture and construction department for Southwestern Bell now AT&T, in 1978. He has worked as an owner, manufacturer, distributor and sub-contractor. His background has given Rex unique insight into the current and future challenges owners and providers face. He works at the intersection of numerous complex challenges including the common nightmare of delivering capital projects, workplace disengagement, toxic shadow cultures, workplace health, and well-being. Rex believes that healthy teams are the secret to strong teams. Rex has written numerous books including The Commercial Real Estate Revolution: Nine Transforming Keys to Lowering Cost, Cutting Waste and Driving Change in a Broken Industry; Change Your Space, Change Your Culture, The Healthy Workplace Nudge and WHOLE. He has won the CoreNet Global Innovator Award, Industry Excellence Award and IFMA’s Award for Excellence. Rex holds a master’s degree as a futurist and entered consulting after 25 years as a corporate leader. His unique experiences and skills allow Rex to guide leaders into new conversations forming new relationships that result in new realities. Some of his clients include Google, GoDaddy, Intel, MD Anderson, Atrium Health, UHS, DPR, FOX Architects, One Global Design, Haworth, and many others. When project teams hit a wall, owners will call on Rex Miller to quickly get to root issues, rebuild broken trust and realign the team around its mission. Rex lives in North Texas and recently celebrated 40 years of marriage, and has three children (almost off the payroll), and three dogs.

As Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)’s Director, Global Design, Corporate Real Estate, Gina Hermida oversees a multi-platform portfolio, designing extraordinary, sustainable spaces that serve RBC’s 16 million clients in 26 countries through its retail locations, while inspiring the workplace of RBC’s 86,000 dedicated employees.

Gina has a Bachelor in Architecture and MBA with over 20 years of experience in optimizing the “built environment” through the integration of branding and the creation of human experiences that align enterprise values and operational demands. She mentors newcomers to Canada with a design background, and believes that diverse voices at the table will always deliver better results and more meaningful solutions.

Primo Orpilla is the co-founder of Studio O+A, a multi-disciplinary San Francisco design firm at the forefront of new thinking about work and workplace. O+A’s groundbreaking designs for Netflix, adidas, McDonald’s, Yelp, Microsoft, Nike and many other companies have demonstrated the power of design to make the work environment a catalyst for creativity and a vehicle for change. In addition to his firm’s commercial work, Primo has overseen a diverse roster of experimental projects from pop-up art installations to speculative office prototypes to new wave furniture design. When the pandemic necessitated a global shift to working from home, Primo directed a team to develop new space types for hybrid offices and the next generation of work. A Toolkit for the Times and The Eco Playbook, two digital guides downloadable from O+A’s website, were the result. A frequent lecturer on design and the future of workplace, Primo speaks at schools and design conferences globally, encouraging young designers to make personal experience their model for creating a better world.

Steve is in his 12th year at Intuit and leads the Places Workplace Design Team and their work globally. He drove the workplace solutions component of a cross-functional team reimagining the workforce/workplace post-COVID, and serves as the liaison between the Places and Brand teams.

Steve has toggled back and forth between the design and client side of the equation for most of his career. Prior to Intuit, Steve has had leadership roles at Sasaki, Gary Lee Partners, Ratcliff Architects and Interspace. Prior to heading west, Steve spent 15 years at The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington DC leading the design team.

Steve was a member of the UC Berkeley Extension Interior Architecture Advisory Board, has served on the board of directors for the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) as well as the American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Interior Architecture Committee. He has been a Global Co-Chair of the Intuit Pride Network, an Ambassador for the AIDS Emergency Fund in San Francisco, a volunteer for the American Cancer Society and pro bono designer for the GLBT Historical Society.

Steve earned his architecture degree from Texas Tech University.