John Maeda

Before that he was a research professor at the MIT Media Lab leading advancements in computational design, low-code/no-code, and creative commerce.

John Maeda was born in 1966 in Seattle, Washington, where his father owned a tofu factory. Maeda studied computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became fascinated with the work of Paul Rand and Muriel Cooper. Cooper was a director of MIT's Visible Language Workshop. After completing his bachelor's and master's degrees at MIT, Maeda completed his PhD in design at Tsukuba University's Institute of Art and Design in Japan. He also has an MBA from Arizona State University.

He is formerly executive vice president, chief experience officer at Publicis Sapient where he developed the LEAD (Light, Ethical, Accessible, Dataful) doctrine for technology products and services. Prior to that he was Global Head, Computational Design and Inclusion at Automattic where he sought to address the diversity gap in tech by exploring how inclusion could be a key ingredient for success in the technology industry. Before that he was Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) where he advised startups on the business impact of design and continues as a strategic advisor. He also served on the Board of Directors of consumer electronics company Sonos and global advertising firm Wieden+Kennedy. From 2019 until 2020, he was an executive vice president and chief experience officer at Publicis Sapient where he helped businesses bridge strategy and engineering with computational design.

He was a professor at the MIT Media Lab for 12 years where he fostered a community of designers who could code and engineers who could design called the Aesthetics + Computation Group, and then created the Physical Language Workshop with Henry Holtzman. Shortly after the launch of the Design By Numbers project to teach artists and designers how to code, he helped to accelerate the Scratch language project in an NSF proposal with outreach across the digital divide. He resigned from MIT in 2008 to become the president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) during the 2008 financial crisis.