Carlo Ratti loves cities and the built environment. Ranked as one of the top ten most-cited scholars in urban planning and one of the leading designers in America, he focuses on intelligent systems and the convergence between the natural and artificial worlds. Recently nominated curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, he aims to foster a public conversation on our urban habitat, starting from his work at the intersection between academic research, innovative design,
and start-up entrepreneurship.
An architect and engineer by training, Carlo Ratti works on the future of cities and the built environment. He is a Professor of the Practice of Urban Technologies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, where he directs the Senseable City Lab, and is a Full Professor in the Department of Architecture, Built Environment, and Construction Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.
Carlo Rati is a founding partner of the international architecture and innovation office, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, who designed the 2026 Winter Olympic torch, which has been named “Essential,” paying tribute to its minimalist design.
Carlo Ratti has established several tech start-ups in the United States and Europe. He graduated from the Politecnico di Torino and the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, and later carried out his MPhil and Ph.D. work at the University of Cambridge, completing his Ph.D. thesis as a Fulbright Scholar at MIT. Carlo Ratti is the Director of the Venice Biennale Architettura 2025.
Ratti’s work has been exhibited worldwide at venues including New York City’s MoMA, the Venice Biennale, the Science Museum in London, Expo 2015 Milan, and Expo 2020 Dubai. His focus on many scales of innovation– from products to buildings to cities – has led CRA to become the only design firm in the world to feature on TIME’s “Best Inventions of the Year” list three different times (2007, 2014, 2019). He has appeared as one of “50 people who will change the world” according to Wired. Fast Company hailed him as one of the “Most Influential Designers in America,” and Blueprint Magazine listed him as one of its “People Who Will Change the World of Design.” Bloomberg dubbed him the “Sensory City Philosopher.”
Born in Dumfries, Scotland, Callum knew he wanted to design cars from a young age, inspired by a trip with his grandfather to see an E-Type in the window of the Jaguar Glasgow dealership. His passion for cars and design led him to the Ford Design Studios where he started his career by contributing to the creation of the Escort RS Cosworth and the Ghia Via Concept. He then took on the role of chief designer at TWR Design, where he was responsible for the Aston Martin DB7 and Vanquish.
Joining Jaguar in 1999, he spent two decades with the manufacturer. Callum and his team created, amongst others, the R-Coupe, RD-6 and C-X75 concepts, the Jaguar F-Type, F-PACE and the World Car of the Year Award-winning I-PACE.
When Callum decided to leave, it was clear he wasn’t planning on retiring any time soon. Instead he became one of the founders of CALLUM, an eponymous design and engineering business to create bespoke and limited-edition products. The team’s first creation is the Aston Martin CALLUM Vanquish 25, created over two decades since Callum first penned the design. Having started as a passion project, it has become a limited run of 25 vehicles featuring more than 350 design and dynamic changes to create a GT car for today’s driver.
It’s yet another incredible accolade to add to Callum’s design collection, which has led him to being one of the most respected and celebrated British car designers. Recognising this, GQ named Ian Callum its Car Designer of the Year at the 2021 GQ Car Awards.
Bob Baxley is a design executive who lives and works in Silicon Valley. He most recently served as the Head of Product Design at Pinterest where he built, led, and managed a multifaceted design team responsible for both the consumer and business facing elements of Pinterest.
Prior to that, Bob spent over eight years at Apple, where he served in senior leadership roles for Apple’s retail and e-commerce teams. As a Director of Design, Bob hired and led the creative team responsible for a broad variety of applications including the Apple Online Store, the Apple Store app, and the transactional areas of iPhoto and GarageBand
As Director of Design for Yahoo! Search, Bob built and led the design team that created Yahoo! Answers and designed other search-centric properties. Bob’s career as a designer began at Claris Corporation where he was Lead UI Designer for the initial releases of ClarisWorks and MacProject Pro.
The author of “Making the Web Work”, Bob is also a sought after public speaker sharing his experiences and observations about a range of topics related to design, technology, innovation, and the culture of Silicon Valley.
Bob holds a B.A. in History and a B.S in Radio/Television/Film from the University of Texas at Austin as well as a Master of Liberal Arts from Stanford University.
Marty Neumeier is an author, designer, and business adviser whose mission is to bring the principles and processes of creativity to industry.
Neumeier attended Art Center College of Design from 1967 to 1969. For 15 years he worked in advertising and brand design, as a communication designer and writer in Southern California. In 1984 he moved to Silicon Valley to work with clients such as Adobe, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Symantec. By 1998 his firm Neumeier Design Team created retail packaging for software products, including Filemaker, Norton Antivirus, Apple system software, and HP LaserJet. During this time he served as a contributing editor for the magazine Communication Arts.
In 1996 he founded the "seminal but now-defunct design magazine Critique", a quarterly publication about design thinking.
In 2002, Neumeier started Neutron, a San Francisco consulting firm that specialized in internal branding. There he wrote three books on branding: The Brand Gap, Zag, and The Designful Company. He also served on the Board of Directors of AIGA, known until 2005 as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, developing the organization's first mission statement. He was president of AIGA Center for Brand Experience, where he edited and published The Dictionary of Brand.
In 2009, Neutron merged with Liquid Agency, which named Neumeier the firm's Director of Transformation. At Liquid he wrote two books on business creativity, Metaskills and The 46 Rules of Genius, as well as an updated version of The Dictionary of Brand for Google.
Graduated at the Polytechnic of Milan, in 1977 he founded Studiodada Associates, one of the best known design studios of the Radical period. Since the beginning Marco Piva has been working in Italy as well as abroad on architecture, interior and industrial design projects, earning commendations and awards in Italy and abroad.
From 1987 to 1990 he was member of the Presidential Board of Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI), the Industrial Design Association in Italy. In 1987, Marco Piva also founded IDA, International Design Agency that was an Italian interface for a World Design Network system.
In 1990, he also founded his own brand, Studio Marco Piva. From 1988 to 1991 he held the position of Italian Commissioner for the European Community Spring project for innovation and technology transfer. Along with a variety of designers, sociologists and marketing experts from Germany, France and England, he created the EDEA (European Design Expert Association), a strategic design consulting company. From 1997 to 2002 Marco Piva coordinated Hot Group (Hotel Technologies Group), the first interdisciplinary group of companies specialising in technologies for hotel and hospitality clients.
In 2001, a variety of experiences in strategic consulting in the field of design and hotel contract work culminated in consulting work with the hospitality division of Federlegno Arredo. Since 1999, this remarkable activity has been combined with teaching positions at universities and design institutes both in Italy and abroad, and the organisation of the post-graduate Master’s degree program at the Politecnico di Milano, the Scuola Politecnica di Design (Polytechnic School of Design) and the Istituto Europeo di Design (European Institute of Design) in Milan. In 2002 Marco Piva established “Atelier Design”, a design cell inside the structure of his own practice, where research and development are the fundamental keys of design.
From 2007 to 2009 he was scientific curator of Italian Contract Design, a project of Federlegno Arredo.
Architect, urban planner and inventor Janjaap Ruijssenaars is internationally known for his innovative projects, such as: Gravity Energy - a patented technique that harnesses the omnipresent force of gravity to generate electricity in a more efficient way, Floating Bed - a piece of furniture on a magnetic field that was awarded best invention of the year, Landscape House - an infinite building without an end or a beginning that will be 3d printed and Square House - a world premier that revolutionised terraced housing by giving more living quality at a higher density.
Janjaap talked on his inventions at many venues amongst which TEDX Maastricht (Netherlands), University of Cambridge (England) and NEXT Berlin (Germany). In his talks he elaborates on the creation ofan eco-system of internationally acclaimed partners to make those inventions a reality.
He will share the latest hurdles he took and progress he is making towards success.
Janjaap was educated at the Technical University Delft (Netherlands), University Barcelona (Spain) and Western State College of Colorado (USA). After graduating as an architect he started Universe Architecture Ltd. and, later on, Gravity Energy Ltd. As senior urban designer he works with stakeholders on the densification of Amsterdam. The city is facing an enormous task of building 50.000 houses before 2025.
