Christopher Ireland

Maria Giudice

Innovator, artist, protagonist, and positive provocateur, Maria has pursued a vision of intelligent, elegant, people-centered design throughout her professional life. Her grasp of the pragmatic, the authentic, and the essential have kept her at the forefront of design and business for over 20 years. Under Maria's leadership, Hot Studio, the experience design firm she founded in 1997, grew from a two-person outfit into a full-service creative agency with an impressive list of Fortune 500 clients. Facebook paid Maria the ultimate compliment in Mar 2013, by acquiring her and most of her employees in their largest “acqui-hire” to date. Maria’s new roles as Director of Product Design at Facebook allows her to experience first-hand the challenges and opportunities DEOs face.

Christopher Ireland

Researcher, strategist, idea generator and alliance builder, Christopher started her career with the notion that businesses could benefit from a better understanding of people and culture. Her ability to create simple explanations of complex human behavior and to translate those insights into effective design and development strategies attracted a wide range of clients including Microsoft, HP, Pepsi, Levis, Gap and more. As a co-founder and CEO of Cheskin, a firm that pioneered design research in Silicon Valley, Christopher had a ring-side seat to unrivaled feats of creation, innovation and reinvention.