Prof. Min Wang

Chief Academic Officer
Professor: Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) ,Tongji University
Former Dean: School of Design at CAFA

Min Wang is professor at Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing. Min was Dean of School of Design at CAFA from 2003 to 2016, Chair Professor at School of Design of Hongkong PolyU in 2013. Min was council member of Creative Economy, World Economic Forum and he is member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) and was President of AGI China Chapter from 2013 to 2016. 

Min was the Design Director for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Committee from 2006 to 2008. And the founding Director of Art Research Center for Olympic Games at CAFA, under his leadership, the Center had created the medal, the pictogram, the color system, the image and identity guidelines, etc. for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Min was Vice President of ICOGRADA (the International Council of Graphic Design Associations) from 2007 to 2009.  He was the key person for organizing the ICOGRADA World Design Congress 2009 and the founding of Beijing Design Week, and advisory committee member of International Center for Creativity and Sustainable Development under the auspices of UNESCO (ICCSD).

Min was Design Manager, Art Director at Adobe for 8 years. Min received MFA from Yale University in 1988. In 1989, he began lecturing in graphic design at Yale University, teaching graduate students until 1997.  

Prof. Srini Srinivasan

Chief Operating Officer
Senator & Former President: World Design Organization
Visiting Professor: Politecnico di Milano
Adjunct Professor: Tongji University
Tongji University International Advisory Board

Srini Srinivasan is a highly accomplished designer & entrepreneur in creative design and technology development, with over 25 years of work experience in the Silicon Valley, United States, Europe and India.

Presently, Srini is one of the Senators of WDO (World Design Organization, formerly Icsid), after serving as its President until Feb 2022. He has been working with its global members to promote sustainability and design for a better world.

Srini is also the Founding President of WDO Foundation, a non-profit entity set up to work with Cities, Municipalities and local governments to execute projects that help create a better lifestyle for citizens.

Srini is the Chairman & CEO of LUMIUM DESIGN, Inc., a Silicon Valley based, world class, award-winning product Design Company that has developed 300+ products in the Consumer Electronics, Medical, Industrial Goods, Security and Surveillance domains. Lumium has design studios in San Jose (USA), Ahmedabad (India) and in Tokyo, Japan to execute creative design projects for global clients.

Srini is a visiting Professor of Industrial Design at Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Tongji College of Design & Innovation, Shanghai and also a member of its International Advisory Board. In his role as Advisory Board member, Srini helps and mentors educational institutes and technology start-ups to help them grow.

Srini has been a Keynote Speaker on several Design Conferences across the globe on Innovation & Design topics. He has been the Jury Chairman and Member of the Jury on several well-known Design Awards across the globe. Srini is an active member of IDSA, the professional body for Industrial Designers in the US. Srini attended UC Berkeley for his executive education in Product Management. Presently, Srini is pursuing his Ph.D. in Sustainable Development.

Srini lives in Shanghai and travels extensively around the globe. He is also an avid singer, golfer and an occasional pilot.

Prof. Simon Collins

Chief Creative Officer
Former Dean: School of Fashion, Parsons
Visiting Professor: Tsinghua University
Former Creative Director: Nike

“I’ve seen the excellence of Chinese designers in every country and design team I’ve worked in. So I’m delighted to be able to help create a Chinese Design University that lives up to their endless potential.”

Creative advisor, keynote speaker, board member, distinguished professor and writer, Simon Collins is a former Dean at Parsons in New York and creative director at Nike in Asia. He has spoken at the Cannes Lions in France and the United Nations in NY, and he’s been featured in Forbes, Business of Fashion, AnOther Magazine, WWD, SCMP, China Daily and The New York Times.

After working with Nike, Polo and Zegna, he spent seven years as Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons where he helped turn the quietly respected design school into a global mega-brand. Featured in The Business of Fashion’s Global 500 and Fast Company Magazine’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. Assouline published his book“The School of Fashion” in 2014 and he joined the Parsons Board of Governors. He then chaired the Advisory Board for Global trend group WGSN and advised WME IMG on reinveting NYFW. He joined the Advisory Council for NYU Stern Luxury EMBA and was appointed an Honorary Ambassador for the China Institute in New York, and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University.

In 2016 he founded the Fashion Culture Design Unconference in New York and in 2017 he founded the global design education platform WeDesign.org

Simon Collins is dedicated to helping everyone create beautiful solutions. Based in Shanghai he is the Chief Creative at Design Innovation Institute Shanghai where he is focused on creating the world’s first Design University.

Whenever possible he travels the world sharing his adventures and passion. Here’s a speech he gave in August 2021 to launch Stockholm Fashion Week https://www.fashionfuturesthlm.com (Simon’s speech starts at 2min).

WeChat, Twitter, Instagram: @SimonCollins08  

Aldo Cibic

Chief Advisor
Founder: Cibicworkshop
Founding Member: Memphis
Honorary Professor Tongji University

Aldo Cibic was born in Schio, Vicenza, Italy in 1955, and quickly developed a self-directed interest in the world of design.  In 1981, as a partner in Sottsass Associati, he was a founding member of Memphis, an artists’ collective that was to mark an epoch-making transition in the universe of design and architecture. By vocation and inclination an innovator, one who has never favoured generic labels nor stylistic excesses, Cibic adopted "experimentation as praxis”. In the late 1980s he founded the Studio Cibic and launched “Standard” (1991), his first self- produced collection.  At the same time, he became a teacher at the Domus Academy and set up research activities with various schools, while developing his ideas around the "design of services". His projects, such as "The Solid Side" (1995) and "New Stories New Design" (2002), fostered a dynamic relationship between people and space and offered a new mode of designing places based on social interactions. He continued in this vein in subsequent years with "Microrealities" (2004) and "Rethinking Happiness" (2010). Both were presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, and both originated contemporary narratives aimed at multiplying opportunities for meetings, exchanges and sharing in community life. In 2015 he curated the Venice Architecture Biennale of the Arts & Craft exhibition at the Venice pavilion. 

In 1989 he founded the Cibic Workshop, not only a design studio, but a multidisciplinary research centre. Cibic Workshop strongly focuses on alternative sustainable project types aimed at enhancing local areas and defining new cultural, emotional and environmental awareness of public space.  Aldo Cibic teaches at Politecnico Milano, the IUAV, Venice, and the Domus Academy; he is professor of practice at the Tongji University College of Design & Innovation in Shanghai.

In 2019 he has been selected as High-End Foreign Expert by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China.
His design pieces and drawings are exhibited in the permanent collections of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Groninger Museum, the CCA (Canadian Center for Architecture) in Montreal, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Triennale Museum of Italian Design in Milan and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. 

Aldo Cibic has been included by the architecture magazine Domus in the guide to the world's best architects “100+ best architecture firms 2019”. Inter alia, Domus editors Alessandro Mendini and Joseph Grima put forward a selection in favour of giving a voice to practices that show how “it may be possible for social architecture to really bloom in the future”.

www.cibicworkshop.com

Yanping Wang

Executive Director, Hillhouse Investment
Secretary-General, Gaoling Foundation
Former GM of Public Affairs, LinkedIn China

Mr. Wang Yanping is currently Executive Director of Hillhouse Investment and secretary General of Gaoling Foundation. He is responsible for Hillhouse Philanthropy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Foundation Management, Donation Project Operation, International Public Policy, and supports Strategic Development, Education and Academic Cooperation. Before joining Hillhouse, Yanping worked for LinkedIn, the world's largest career social platform, as the General Manager of Public affairs, developing and executing overall China policy strategy, leading LinkedIn’s Economic Graph projects in China, and overseeing platform operational compliance team, content as well as customer service teams. Prior to joining Silicon Valley Internet, he worked for Chinese Internet and was vice President for Dangdang.com, Public affairs Director for Baidu.com, and Deputy Secretary General for Chamber of Commerce of Chinese Cultural Industry for the Private Sector. Prior to that, he worked in various positions in the Beijing Municipal Government.

Yanping holds a Bachelor's Degree in Diplomacy from China Foreign Affairs University; a Master Degree in Foreign Language and Applied Linguistics from University of International Business and Economics; a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Business School Nederland. For the public sector, he also served as Vice Chairman of the Sharing Economy Working Committee of the Internet Society of China; Executive Council Member of Center for China and Globalization(CCG); Council Member of China Society for Research on International Exchange and Talent Development；and Executive Council Member of China Association of Human Resource Development Intelligent Industry Branch. He has published 9 researches including: Digital Transformation of the China’s Economy; Top 15 City Talent Migration Insights; Innovative Cities and City Clusters in the Era of Digital Economy; University Alumni Insights. These researches were recognized and broadly reported by mainstream national media such as Xinhua News Agency, Global Times and China Daily and also received “China Technology Excellence Awards 2020” by HK Business Magazine. The core findings were cited by 1)”International Talent” – the only national research journal under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and 2) “Transition and Opportunity: Strategies from Business Leaders on Making the Most of China's Future” by Springer Nature.