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EBay Creates Design Advisory Board, Hires KPCB Design Partner

By TechTaffy Desk

ebayEBay has appointed John Maeda, former president of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), as chair of the newly-created eBay Design Advisory Board.

Mr. Maeda will work with product development and design teams across PayPal and eBay Marketplaces and eBay Enterprise business units, in helping evolve the company’s overall design thinking. Mr. Maeda will report to eBay president and CEO John Donahoe.

John Donahoe (CEO, eBay): In today’s technology-driven commerce environment, design thinking is critically important at the intersection of business and technology to create seamless experiences consumers love.

Mr. Meade left his position at the Rhode Island School of Design, and is joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as a design partner in January 2014 in addition to his role at eBay.

Mr. Maeda has served as President of RISD since 2008. Previously he served as associate director of research at the MIT Media Lab and is currently on the boards of Sonos, Quirky, and Wieden+Kennedy, and on the Davos World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership. Maeda received the AIGA Medal in 2010 and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

[Image courtesy: eBay]

 

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