Jim McNerney
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
The Boeing Company

W. James (Jim) McNerney, Jr., is chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of The Boeing Company, effective July 1, 2005. He has served as a member of the company's board since 2001.

McNerney oversees the strategic direction of the Chicago-based, $61.5 billion aerospace company. With more than 153,000 employees, Boeing is the largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft, with capabilities in rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, satellites and advanced information and communications systems.

Previously, McNerney held the position as chairman of the board and CEO of 3M, a $20 billion global technology company with leading positions in electronics, telecommunications, industrial, consumer and office products, health care, safety and other businesses. He joined 3M in 2001 after 19 years at the General Electric Company.

McNerney joined General Electric in 1982. There, he held top executive positions including president and CEO of GE Aircraft Engines and GE Lighting; president of GE Asia-Pacific; president and CEO of GE Electrical Distribution and Control; executive vice president of GE Capital, one of the world's largest financial service companies; and president, GE Information Services.

Prior to joining GE, McNerney worked at Procter & Gamble and McKinsey & Co., Inc.

McNerney is a director of Procter & Gamble and serves as a trustee of Northwestern University. He is the chair of the US-China Business Council and The Business Council. He also serves on The Business Roundtable and the American Society of Corporate Executives. McNerney is a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of The Field Museum Board of Trustees in Chicago, and is on the Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Board, where he serves on the Finance Committee.

A native of Providence, R.I., McNerney earned a B.A. degree from Yale University in 1971 and an M.B.A. from Harvard University in 1975. McNerney is married and has five children. He enjoys skiing, golf and sailing.

Sam Lucente
Vice President, Design
Hewlett-Packard Company

Working at the intersection of design, innovation and customer experience, Sam Lucente leads HP’s design practice in creating world-class designs across all customer touch points to build an iconic brand. His work entails building a community of design professionals that use design as a strategic business tool and infuse the company’s products and services with a unique HP look and feel. This drives efficiency, makes offerings more competitive and creates a better experience for HP’s customers.

Prior to joining HP, Lucente led his own design company, providing consulting services in the area of integrated hardware and software design. He also provided creative consultations on web-based experiences, web utilities, wearable devices and mobile computers for companies such as Nissan and Nokia.

Among his other roles, Lucente has also acted as director of User Experience in the Technology Group at Netscape, where he managed a team of 30 designers responsible for the user interface of client and server products, including Netscape’s browser and email offering. At Netscape, Lucente played a critical role in “Constellation,” an advanced technology and design effort that won Best of Show at Comdex in 1996.

Lucente began his career at IBM, where he led the ThinkNExt advanced design and development team which was responsible for a number of highly successful design, branding and technological innovations. He was the lead industrial designer on the ThinkPad 560 and 710, also known as “The Butterfly,” and he pioneered the “Leapfrog” limited production concept computer.

Lucente is a frequent speaker and lecturer at universities, conferences and design symposiums. His work has been recognised with major design awards and is in permanent collection at the San Francisco and New York MOMA, the Smithsonian National Design Museum and other collections. Lucente graduated magna cum laude from the College of Design, Architecture and Art at the University of Cincinnati.

Iain Roberts
Co-Leader, Consumer Experience Design Practice
IDEO

Iain leads the consumer experience design practice in IDEO’s Chicago studio. He is responsible for directing & collaborating with project teams in the design of brand relevant, product focused consumer experiences. Cross dresser, schizophrenic, t-shaped, designer, creative engineer are all ways in which Iain has been described.

First and foremost Iain’s passion lies in making things, products, appliances & experiences that people can relate to and find value in and most of it he can blame on his 10th grade art teacher. ‘Everything has to be designed’ were the words that set him on the path to where he is now.

Three years of characterizing airflow around airfoils convinced him that the world of pure engineering wasn’t the right outlet for his creative energies and a chance encounter with those fateful words ‘everything has to be designed’ led him to the Royal College of Art where he and a handful of engineers began their journey into the world of design.

Iain joined IDEO in 2001, spending his first years in the company bridging the gap between industrial design and mechanical engineering; he worked on a variety of projects from medical to furniture, fast moving consumer goods to consumer electronics before he realized that the most value he could bring was in considering and designing the experience of use of an object.

Before joining IDEO, Iain headed design and engineering studio for ‘white goods’ at Dyson appliances in the UK. Iain holds an MA in Industrial Design Engineering from the Royal College of Art and a BEng in Aeronautical Engineering from Southampton University.