Kara Pernice has spent thirty-five years figuring out how people actually use technology, not how we assume they do. As President and CEO of Nielsen Norman Group, she leads work that’s shaped design at Google, American Express, Capital One, and the IMF, discovered the F-Pattern of reading, and built NN/g’s UX Certification Program, now certifying thousands. At DesignUp26, Kara draws on a career spanning every major disruption in the field to ask what survives this one.

Vaibhav Kumaresh has been making Indian characters move for two decades. Founder of Vaibhav Studios, Mumbai, since 2003, he's behind some of India's most-loved animation—the Amaron Battery campaigns, the Vodafone Zumis, Simpoo on Channel [V] and Lamput, an Emmy-nominated micro-series for Cartoon Network. In 2026, his studio self-funded Return of the Jungle, which ran nine weeks in cinemas. He trained at NID Ahmedabad and serves as Honorary Secretary of The Animation Society of India. At DesignUp26, Vaibhav shares his stories for his people.

Oded Klimer, Chief of Design at Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK), brings 25+ years of Design leadership. He played a pivotal role in Rubrik's IPO and growth beyond $1.6B ARR, with design as a key differentiator. Leading design at HPE, Micro Focus, Microsoft, and SAP, his expertise spans enterprise, medical, and consumer solutions impacting millions. His innovation yields multiple patents alongside prestigious Red Dot and iF Design Awards.

Alysha Naples designs experiences that take care of the people inside them: their bodies, minds, and spirits. Working where art meets technology, she taught for over a decade at top US arts institutions and has won a Webby, a DA&D Silver, and Graphis Gold Instructor distinction. She juried the VR section of the 2019 Venice Biennale, and her work has shown at the Serpentine Gallery, the V&A, and Pioneer Works. With degrees from NC State and Yale, she lives in Amsterdam as a designer, artist, coach, and somatic practitioner.

Barry Fiske works where creativity, technology and business transformation meet—and lately, that means agentic AI. As Chief Experience Officer at Merkle, he leads Experience Creative across North America, Brazil and India, helping organisations rethink not just what they make, but how. He doesn't see AI as a productivity tool so much as a provocation: what becomes possible once intelligent systems stop assisting and start participating? A longtime Lean Startup and Agile Design Thinking practitioner, Barry experiments with the future while figuring out how to ship it inside real organisations.

Kimya Gandhi draws letters most designers overlook. A type designer from Mumbai now based in Berlin, she specialises in Devanagari typefaces, pulling inspiration from India’s dense visual landscape to reinvent vernacular type for a new generation. As a partner at type foundry Mota Italic, alongside Rob Keller, she’s built custom and retail typefaces for Škoda, Audi, Google, and Apple. She also teaches, runs workshops, and makes a mean homemade pasta. At DesignUp26, Kimya argues Indic scripts remain unfinished design work.

Tey Bannerman has spent his career translating between technology’s promise and its implementation reality. From digital studios to startups to Head of McKinsey Design Europe, he’s led AI implementations for global banks and retail giants across five continents—learning firsthand what separates the 5% that succeed from the 95% that fail. Now an independent advisor, he combines technical depth with cultural intelligence and trust calibration. At DesignUp26, Tey delivers a keynote on the messy, human reality of putting AI to work.

George Aye calls himself a Pissed-Off Optimist—and built a studio on that contradiction. He co-founded Greater Good Studio in 2011 to use design to heal, be just, and be restorative, after seven years at a global innovation firm and a stint as the first human-centered designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. He teaches at Northwestern and sits on the boards of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago and the Chicago Children’s Museum. At DesignUp26, George asks what design owes to power.

Rukmini S wants India to argue with better numbers. Founder and Director of Data For India, a public platform for understanding the country through data, she’s the award-winning author of Whole Numbers & Half Truths, and was earlier Data Editor at The Hindu, where her journalism won the international Sigma Award. She’s a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Advanced Study of India. At DesignUp26, Rukmini asks what gets lost when decisions run on vibes.

Danish Husain revived an art form that had nearly disappeared. An actor, poet, and director, he brought back Dastangoi, the lost art of Urdu storytelling, evolving it into his own format, Qissebaazi, through his company The Hoshruba Repertory. His screen credits include Bard of Blood, Bombay Begums, and Delhi Crime, alongside Netflix’s Lucca’s World; his poetry, spanning English, Hindi, and Urdu, appears in anthologies including Usawa Literary Review. At DesignUp26, Danish explores what carries forward when a tradition is retold.

Katja Forbes is a fearless CX innovator and award-winning leader who challenges the boundaries of customer experience and AI. Named one of Westpac/AFR's "100 Women of Influence" and ranked among CX Network's Top 20 CX Leaders in AI and Financial Services, she transforms corporate cultures into client-centric powerhouses. Previously an Executive Director at a Global Financial Services firm, Katja blends human-centered design with cutting-edge technology, establishing her organisation as a thought leader. An outspoken advocate for women in leadership, her compelling voice, sharp insights, and magnetic on-camera presence make her an industry standout. She is the author of the acclaimed book Machine Customers.

Justin Maguire leads design for enterprise and emerging products at Atlassian, after moving between agency and in-house work at Salesforce, Microsoft, and frog Design. He’s spent that career pushing customer-centric design deeper into organisations, leading distributed teams building product and service ecosystems for the AI era. What he’s chasing is what he calls rare alchemy: cross-disciplinary teams that elevate the human condition and still move the market. At DesignUp26, Justin unpacks why that alchemy is so hard to get right.

Narayan Gopalan has spent his career helping ideas move from spark to reality. An independent consultant specialising in interaction design, he built his craft at The Brand Union, Human Factors International, and Adobe before founding Locomotive, a UX consultancy blending strategy, design, and identity into digital experiences that are clear, functional, and scalable. He's worked with startups and large corporates globally on new digital products and services. In 2016, he co-founded DesignUp — the conference now entering its tenth year.

Meru Vashisht designs for the people humanitarian systems most often miss. As Human Centered Design Lead at the International Rescue Committee, she leads HCD within its Research and Innovation lab, reducing barriers to care for vulnerable women and girls across rural India, South Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria, Congo, and Somalia. She’s built with adolescents, displaced communities, sex workers, and queer and trans individuals to make health systems more responsive. At DesignUp26, Meru asks what human-centred design means at the edges.

Roshan Abbas has spent three decades turning ideas into institutions. Co-founder of Kommune, a 24-city storytelling network, and creator of Spokenfest, one of Asia’s most awarded cultural IPs, he’s produced original works like We Belong, winner of the Adelaide Fringe Prize for Poetry Performance. Before that, he built Encompass into a ₹250 crore agency under WPP, working with Netflix, Diageo, and Tanishq. He’s currently touring his solo show, Indradhanush. At DesignUp26, Roshan explores building IP that outlives its founder.

Oliver Weidlich has spent eight of his twenty-five years in UX chasing one question: how spatial computing changes the way we interact with computers, and with each other. As Director of Design & Innovation at Contxtual, he’s carried that question from co-authored academic research to mentoring and industry stages in seven countries, running projects worldwide—from cognitive training, to documentary experiences, to the future of retail. At DesignUp26, Oliver explores what design looks like once the screen disappears entirely.

Ankur Sardana has led design teams at Amazon, Samsung, Zomato, OLX, and Tata Digital over two decades—four patents deep, with work displayed at the Samsung Museum in Suwon. Then he found improv. Trained in Seattle and New York, he founded Nautankibaaz Improv Collective and now runs Yes And Play Consulting, having coached 2,500+ students and brought improv into Google, HSBC, and Shell. At DesignUp26, Ankur asks what “yes, and” can teach design teams stuck saying no.

Nikhil Ravichandar has made a career out of overthinking human behaviour—and given himself the job title to match. As Executive Producer and self-styled Head of BS (Behavioural Science, obviously) at LURU Magazine, he studies why people do what they do for a living. At home, though, his best research subject remains undefeated: a two-year-old who negotiates like a seasoned pro and wins every single time. At DesignUp26, Nikhil brings that same curiosity about behaviour to the stage.

Kriti Monga has spent twenty-two years working at the intersection of artistic expression, strategic design, and hands-on craftsmanship. As founder-director of Delhi-based studio Turmeric Design, her practice stayed rooted in the intimacy of making – spanning brand building, book design, visual art, illustration, and creative mentorship. Trained at NID and the Barcelona Academy of Art, she now teaches design and typography programmes around the world from Bangalore. At DesignUp26, Kriti makes the case for slow tactility of material and multi-sensory experience.

Mukul Bisht is the Senior Director of Product Design at Rubrik (NYSE: RBRK), where he leads product design for the entire portfolio and global teams across Palo Alto, Tel Aviv, and Bangalore. With 20+ years of experience, he transforms complex AI, enterprise, cybersecurity, and cloud challenges into intuitive, award-winning user experiences. Previously driving design excellence at DocuSign, Citrix, IBM, and FICO, he holds 15+ patents and prestigious Red Dot, iF, and UX Design awards.

Divye Bokdia has spent nearly two decades making complicated products feel simple. He currently leads design at Atlassian, shaping Jira Service Management, AI-enabled experiences, and the company's growing design team in India—after leadership roles at Upstox, AWS, Amazon, and gaming work at NVIDIA. He holds a degree from IIT Guwahati and a master's in Human-Computer Interaction from Michigan. At DesignUp26, Divye shares what it takes to connect design work to outcomes a business will fight to keep funding.

Beatrix Fey has spent twenty years designing the maps that quietly get you where you’re going. Based in Berlin, she’s led map design and feature development across web, mobile, and in-car environments—exploration, navigation, traffic, EV routing, public transport, indoor and outdoor—for platforms spanning Europe, North America, and Asia. Her practice runs concept to implementation, but her real discipline is restraint: the art of omission. At DesignUp26, Beatrix argues that the best navigation design is the kind you never notice.

Priti Saini has spent twenty-five years bridging business strategy and technical execution—and lately, that means Agentic AI. A design strategist, leader, and self-described AI generalist, she drives digital transformation, mobile development, and business modernisation across BFSI, fintech, healthcare, insurance, and enterprise tech, scaling design practices and architecting digital-first strategies along the way. She’s also visiting faculty at design schools and Agile business groups. At DesignUp26, Priti explores what leadership looks like when the tools keep changing under you.

Rajarshi—Ray to most—is a design leader whose work refuses to sit inside one discipline, crossing between products, services, systems and organisations. He holds an M. Design from IIT Bombay and a PhD in Service Design & Strategy. As Group Director of Experience Design at dentsu, he leads teams across Bangalore, Pune and Mumbai, drawing on architecture, systems thinking, service design and technology to make sense of complex problems. What interests him now is what happens to design when making gets easier and boundaries disappear—he suspects the designer's edge lies less in tools, more in judgement, curiosity and taste.

Mehr Chatterjee draws stories that don’t sit still. As co-founder of Improper Design + Animation in New Delhi—alongside partner Aditya Dutta—she’s spent over a decade building illustration-based animation and motion design across advertising, film and TV title sequences, and motion branding. The studio’s visual voice is recognisably theirs: playful, off-centre, built to connect across platforms rather than perform on just one. At DesignUp26, Mehr unpacks what it takes to keep that voice consistent across wildly different briefs.

Rajeev Raja spent 25 years living two lives—National Creative Director at DDB India by day, one of India's finest Jazz and Fusion flautists by night, fronting the Rajeev Raja Combine - a band chosen as cultural ambassadors by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. In 2011, he merged both into BrandMusiq, a sonic branding company built around his own MOGO® concept, composing for Mastercard, Zomato, HDFC Bank, and Air India Express. He's also a TEDx speaker. At DesignUp26, Rajeev explores what a brand sounds like once it finds its key.

Nishita Mohta wants to put ease and courage back into the creative process. A business consultant, educator, and author with a background in architecture and graphic design, she works closely with creative founders and studios across India to build systems for healthier, more sustainable ways of working. Her book, Inspired: The A-Z of Creative Unblocking, helps creatives push past fear, perfectionism, and burnout. At DesignUp26, Nishita makes the case that untangling chaos is itself a design skill.

Jay Demetillo has designed across five countries and never stopped moving—Twitter, Pinterest, Yahoo, Grab, now Principal Designer at Canva. He took Canva Sheets, an AI spreadsheet, from zero to launch with Magic Formulas and Magic Insights; at Grab, he led GrabFood’s regional redesign and safety features like Facial Recognition. His range runs wide: civic design for SFPark, community art for Bay Lights, a full build for Gaspar Brasserie. At DesignUp26, Jay makes the case for designers who refuse to specialise.

Dave Calleja likes operating where design gets slightly uncomfortable—somewhere between experience, technology, engineering and whatever comes next. As VP of Global Experience Design at Merkle, he leads its Experience Design & Innovation community and is helping shape Design Engineering, using AI, code and new tools to move faster from idea to something real. Across financial services, SaaS, automotive, aviation and the public sector, he's pushed to close the traditional gaps between designers, engineers and the things they ship together.

Prakash Sharma calls himself a fanatical advocate for Behavioural Science—and means it. As co-founder of 1001 Stories, a Bangalore strategy firm, he analyses and influences human behaviour to build better products, brands, and people, while serving as president of Diversifi Global, a network of 22 Applied Behavioural Science firms worldwide. Between keynotes and guest lectures at IITs, he writes on the science behind why people do what they do. At DesignUp26, Prakash unpacks the behaviour inside every design decision.

Jyothish VM has no engineering background. In April 2026, over a weekend, he built NammaKasa anyway—a civic reporting platform where anyone can flag garbage in under 30 seconds, no app, no login, no team. Within a month it drew 3,000+ verified reports across 369 Greater Bengaluru Authority wards, with 130+ spots cleared and zero marketing spend. Government bodies are now adopting it; copycats have sprung up nationwide. At DesignUp26, Jyothish shows what civic accountability looks like when a designer ships.

Faris Mohammed builds the tools designers use to design. As Lead Product Designer at ThoughtSpot, he leads Connected Insights and Radiantplay, an AI-native prototyping playground, after nine years shaping consumer, B2B, and SaaS products at Udaan—India’s largest B2B marketplace—and Goibibo Hotels. On the side, he built BlrBloom, a live tracker for Bangalore’s flower season that pulled ~100K visitors in under two months. He’s also into photography. At DesignUp26, Faris shares what side projects teach him that his day job can’t.

Kenneth DSouza spent twelve years building multi-market products and running design teams at Practo, Gojek, and Jiva.ag—then stepped away from all of it. A product designer with a master’s from NID, he’s currently on sabbatical: making apps with AI, teaching AI workshops to other designers, and hosting Design Demo Nights, a running showcase for people building in public. At DesignUp26, Kenneth shares what he’s learned building alone with AI after a decade spent building with teams.

Saranic Banerjee is an experience strategist with a background that spans industrial design, UX, interaction design and service design. As Experience Strategy Lead at Dentsu Global Services, he built the Experience Strategy practice from the ground up—proprietary tools and methods now used by global teams. His work has cut enterprise turnaround times by 50%, accelerated vendor onboarding, and sharpened pricing accuracy for enterprise clients. Beyond client work, Saranic mentors emerging designers and speaks on how design education must evolve as AI reshapes the craft.

Soumya Bhowmick counts what economies forget. An economist at the messy intersection of trade and inclusive growth, he researches Inclusive Wealth—valuing human, physical, and natural capital. With a PhD in sustainomics and a decade in policy research, he remains constantly in transit across think tanks in New Delhi, Europe, and D.C. His bylines include The Indian Express, The Diplomat, and CFR.

At DesignUp26, Soumya argues GDP was the last century’s most consequential design decision—and what comes next must measure economy, society, and environment together.

Jay Dutta has spent thirty years making things that matter, and the people behind them—leading design across Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Adobe, Aarogya Setu, and Deutsche Bank's global Investment Banking platform, from startups to institutions, from typefaces to pipelines carrying $3 trillion a day. But the real through-line has always been teams: three decades spent seeding, nurturing, and scaling design careers and culture. He's the founder and curator of DesignUp, now in its tenth year, and a two-time TEDx speaker who's taken the stage at Adobe MAX, Collision, and SAP DesignDay. At DesignUp26, Jay opens the Decade he built.

Akilandeswari K left the design industry to restore machines nobody else wanted. An NID and NIT graduate, she co-founded Printing with Types—alongside partner Arunkumar B—a Bangalore studio devoted to letterpress, teaching herself the craft from scratch, rebuilding vintage equipment, and researching techniques the industry had largely forgotten. What began as a leap of faith is now a working archive of a nearly lost art form. At DesignUp26, Akilandeswari makes the case for slowness as a design choice, not a limitation.

Aditya Dutta gives stillness a pulse. As co-founder of Improper Design + Animation in New Delhi—alongside partner Mehr Chatterjee—he’s spent over a decade building illustration-based animation and motion design across advertising, film and TV title sequences, and motion branding. The studio’s visual voice is recognisably theirs: playful, off-centre, built to connect across platforms rather than perform on just one. At DesignUp26, Aditya unpacks what it takes to keep that voice consistent across wildly different briefs.

Rasagy Sharma can’t stop sketchnoting—even his job titles read like one: information designer, design educator, data artist. He leads design for DataLabs at Capital One, after 13+ years designing data-heavy products at Microsoft, Barclays, and Mapbox. In his free time he turns data about identity and lived experience into art, exhibited in Berlin, Kochi, and the Swiss Embassy. He also teaches at NID and IDC IIT Bombay. At DesignUp26, Rasagy explores what data says once you let it be beautiful.