Contact
Monica Gasser Weickart
T +41 41 248 61 09
Head of programme
Jan-Erik Baars, Head of Design Management, International
After his design studies in Wuppertal, Germany, he started his career in 1990 as an industrial designer at Philips Design in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. There he held various positions, initially as a product designer, later as design manager and branch director. From 1998 till 2003 he managed Philips Design’s Branch in Vienna, Austria, were he was responsible for a diverse service offer. His design work won various prestigious design awards, amongst them the Rotterdam Design Award and the IF-award in Gold. After 19 years with Philips, where his last position was the one of CDO (Chief Design Officer) for Consumer Electronics’ business unit peripherals and accessories, he moved to Deutsche Telekom (T-mobile) in 2009, to head design management. Till leaving in December 2010, he was responsible for strategic design projects at Deutsche Telekom, after initially heading design management during the build-up phase.
Since January 2011 he is an associate partner to VanBerlo Strategy & Design, one of the leading design and engineering firms in Europe, where he develops and directs the business in German speaking countries. As of September 2011 he also holds a professorship in Lucerne, Switzerland where he will head the BA Design Management, International. Next to his professional activities he is regularly invited to speak or attend juries for design awards, and actively blogs in German on designfokus.de, addressing topics on design, brand and economics. As a guest-lecturer he has taught at various universities and is part of an international network of design-thinkers.
T +41 41 248 61 32
jan-erik.baars@hslu.ch
