Design as a Strategic Business Issue March 15, 2006

more info here: http://www.aigasf.org/events/event_apple.html
and here: http://www.apple.com/pro/design/aiga/index.html

Sara Beckman is on the faculty at the University of California's Haas School of Business where her focus is design and innovation management. An Industrial Engineer by training, her passion for design was kindled by a former student whose background as a fashion designer caused her to question the lack of design focus in business schools. Subsequently, they jointly developed a class on the strategic use of design in business and Sara went on to develop a highly popular course on the design and innovation process that involves business and engineering students from UC Berkeley as well as design students from the California College of the Arts. Sara has also taught for Stanford University's Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and been a visiting faculty member at MIT where she taught in the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) Program.

Prior to and concurrent with her involvement at the Haas School, Sara worked for the Hewlett-Packard Company, most recently as Director of the Product Generation Change Management Team. This group was responsible for supporting strategic decision-making, workforce planning and design, manufacturing education and training, and environmental, health and safety management throughout the company. Sara worked in the Operations Management Services practice at Booz, Allen and Hamilton where she had an opportunity to develop manufacturing strategy with companies in diverse industries from pharmaceuticals to aerospace.
Sara has B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Stanford University and an M.S.in Statistics from the same institution. She serves on the boards of the Building Materials Holding Corporation and the Corporate Design Foundation.