Amanda is the Head of UX for Amazon Business, where she is currently working to create a next-generation enterprise commerce platform. Before her time at Amazon, Amanda was at Meta for seven years, working on the Facebook app and the AR/VR team and as the head of design for Meta AI. Amanda has written several articles about AI and design, defining UX's role in the AI product process and ensuring AI is deployed responsibly. 

Amanda is both an organizational leader and a product innovator. She has led several large-scale product redesign and rebrand efforts throughout her career and built thriving UX organizations at companies like Asana, Intuit, and Wells Fargo. LinkedIn

Gene is a design leader with a rich history of over 25 years at notable tech companies, including Atlassian, Autodesk, and Mailchimp. Currently Vice President of Design at Atlassian, Gene leads a talented multidisciplinary team that delivers cohesive and seamless user experiences.

Before Atlassian, Gene served as VP of Design at Autodesk and Chief Experience Officer at Mailchimp, leading customer experience across brands and products. Gene's career also includes leadership roles at Sony PlayStation, Nickelodeon, Scholastic, Landor, Y&R, and other prominent brands, where he directed efforts in experience, branding, advertising, analytics, research, operations, and design.

Gene's leadership approach is deeply rooted in a customer-obsessed, data-driven, and systems-oriented mindset. His focus is on optimizing touchpoints throughout the entire end-to-end journey, both internally and externally. He fosters a culture of inclusive co-creation, collaborating closely with peers in strategy, product, marketing, engineering, and customer support, all with the aim of benefiting both customers and the business.

Gene's work has not only advanced business goals but also fostered strong connections within the CX and Design communities. He is a passionate advocate for exchanging ideas, learning, and insights with other professionals. Gene's philosophy of 'Be humble, Be teachable, and always keep learning' is a testament to his unwavering dedication to professional growth and excellence, inspiring others to follow suit. LinkedIn

David is a design leader with a wealth of experience, bringing a commitment to design excellence central to successful technology organizations. His ability to grasp complex, multi-dimensional problems and deliver simple, highly effective solutions has been a hallmark of his approach. David has a track record of incubating, designing, and producing new experiences that align business goals with user needs.

David founded several design studios, from his design agency to new design studios for IBM & Ontada (a McKesson business), and led Design Strategy for Samsung’s San Francisco studio. His approach to team building, innovation, and design excellence has helped drive business results, such as the foundation of the Surface business within Microsoft, the mobile EHR for Ontada, and IBM’s DSX (now known as Watson Studio).

David has led design innovation in multiple fields: mobile, healthcare, data science & AI, computing, and consumer products. An Art Center College of Design graduate, David has lectured at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and received multiple international design awards. LinkedIn

Marcus is a product designer and leader specializing in research and designing 0-to-1 experiences that create immeasurable impact. His ability to navigate complex human-computer systems and ease their mental models, thus making them human-usable, is second to none. His bottom-line approach and product obsession can be seen throughout his career with his multiple startup exits, where his crucial decision-making and design expertise led to successful acquisitions.

At Google, he is one of the founding designers of the AI wing and the lifeblood of the Google Ads and Sales teams. He works closely with DeepMind and other AI teams at Google to help advertisers make critical market decisions that make their business dreams a reality.

In the past, he worked on multi-modal haptics at Immersion, designing vital patents that codify interaction models in the touch-screen devices we use daily. He also worked at Oracle on creating NLP experiences, at Intuit on Mobile Finance & Banking UX, and Salesforce as one of the founding designers on Salesforce IoT, which later became Einstein AI.

Along with product design, he has a background in art, music, industrial design, and computer science, which makes him a stellar collaborator. He loves to give his time back to the UX community as a mentor and speaker. LinkedIn

Kendall Klien is a prominent figure in product design, boasting over 17 years of invaluable experience within Silicon Valley's dynamic tech landscape. Currently serving as the Director of the prestigious Silicon Valley UX Awards, Kendall's journey through the tech industry has been marked by innovation, vision, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

Kendall's career trajectory began in 2007 when she became one of the pioneering minds behind the burgeoning wearable tech revolution. Joining Fitbit during its nascent stages, she played a pivotal role in shaping the intersection of physical and digital products. Her early contributions laid the foundation for Fitbit's groundbreaking designs, setting new standards for user experience in the wearable technology market.

Building upon her success at Fitbit, Kendall transitioned to a pivotal role at Dropbox, where she spent seven transformative years on the consumer application team. Here, she honed her expertise in crafting seamless, user-centric experiences that resonated with millions of users worldwide. Kendall's tenure at Dropbox was marked by a string of innovative product designs and a relentless drive to push the boundaries of UX design.

As a testament to her exceptional talents, Kendall was recruited by Google, a tech giant, to spearhead the development of Material Design. This design language has since become synonymous with Google's products across the globe. As part of Google's esteemed product design team, Kendall played a crucial role in shaping the visual identity and user experience of some of the most widely-used digital platforms. Her five-year stint at Google solidified her reputation as a visionary leader in UX design.

Today, as the Director of the Silicon Valley UX Awards, Kendall continues to champion innovation and excellence in user experience design. Drawing upon her wealth of experience and deep understanding of industry trends, she leads the charge in recognizing and celebrating the most innovative UX designs emerging from Silicon Valley and beyond. Under her guidance, the Silicon Valley UX Awards have become a coveted platform for showcasing groundbreaking design solutions that shape the future of technology.

Beyond her professional endeavors, Kendall is passionate about mentoring the next generation of UX designers and fostering a culture of collaboration and creativity within the tech community. Her commitment to pushing the boundaries of design innovation and her unwavering dedication to elevating the user experience make her a true trailblazer in technology. LinkedIn

Silke, a Design & DesignOps Executive with over 20 years of experience at esteemed corporations such as PepsiCo, Mars, Beiersdorf, Vodafone & Colgate, took on the role of Global Head of Design at Weleda in 2023. Weleda, a purpose-driven B-Corp renowned for its regenerative business model and holistic, anthroposophic products, provided her with a platform to further her leadership and design expertise. 

Since 2011, Silke has honed her skills in building functions from the ground up and driving transformational change. Her ability to effectively integrate and scale design within complex, ambiguous organizations is a testament to her strategic thinking and adaptability.

Her innovative approach has earned her numerous awards, both for integrating and scaling design within organizations and for creating iconic, highly successful brand designs and experiences. Her achievements span many innovative products, strategies, and approaches, including destination strategies, new business models, office prototyping, and enterprise-wide programs.

As a strategist and system thinker, Silke continuously reinvents her role to adapt to the dynamic environment and evolving economy, with the ambitious goal of making her initial job redundant by proactively reshaping it to the needs of the future. In 2023, she expanded her expertise into recruitment, recognizing the ongoing changes in the job market and seeking to innovate and contribute to her community. 

Silke brings a wealth of diversified, global experience, having worked at agencies and corporations in both headquarters and regional roles and across various reporting lines, including R&D, Marcom, Marketing, and Supply Chain. She has led multi-billion-dollar icons and small brands, managed mono products and complex portfolios, and overseen the entire process from FEI to production, ensuring end-to-end, multi-sensory, and omnichannel excellence.Description goes here LinkedIn