Alexander Baumgardt Email & Phone Number

California, United States

San Francisco Bay Area

Renowned California College of the Arts (CCA) is one of the leading design schools in the United States. I am teaching Systems, Prototyping, Design Strategy, and Experience Design in CCA's pioneering Interaction Design (BFA/MDES) and Design Strategy (MBA) programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels, incl. the Experience Studio, a studio-based class focusing on the creation of people & planet centered product-service ecosystems. Prior to joining the CCA faculty, I helped the founding Chair of the Interaction Design program to co-conceive and plan the foundational program vision and structure as a member of the inaugural program advisory group.

San Francisco Bay Area

Copenhagen Area, Denmark

The Royal Danish Academy is the leading academy in Scandinavia in the fields of architecture, design, and conservation. Among the schools' alumni are esteemed designers, such as Arne Jacobsen (who studied at the School of Architecture), Hans Wegner (who studied at the School of Design), and Børge Mogensen (who attended both schools).

San Francisco Bay Area

SYSTEMIC is my design-centric management consulting practice – working with renowned organizations such as Berggruen Institute, General Electric, Goethe Institute, Google, and Visa.

San Francisco Bay Area

Spotify transformed music listening forever when it launched in 2008. Discover, manage and share over 100 million tracks and over 5 million podcasts titles, for free, or upgrade to Spotify Premium to access exclusive features for music including improved sound quality and an on-demand, offline, and ad-free music listening experience. Today, Spotify is the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with 515m users, including 210m subscribers in over 180 markets.

Los Angeles, California

The Berggruen Institute was established in 2010 to develop foundational ideas about how to reshape political and social institutions in the face of the great transformations humanity is facing. From capitalism, to democracy, to the global order, our institutions are faltering. The very meaning of the human is fragmenting. The Institute works across cultures, disciplines and political boundaries, engaging great thinkers to develop and promote long-term answers to the biggest challenges of the 21st Century.I advise the Transformations of the Human (ToftH) program leadership at the Berggruen Institute. ToftH is designed as a philosophical study and artistic exploration of the manifold ways in which artificial intelligence and biotechnology challenge our established conceptions of what it means to be human. By placing philosophers and artists in key research sites to foster dialogue with technologists, the aim of the program is to render AI and biotech visible as unusually potent experimental sites for reformulating our vocabulary for thinking about ourselves. The program’s ambition is to feed its findings back into the production of both artificial intelligence and biotech and to thereby contribute to both human and non-human flourishing.

San Francisco Bay Area

A division of PCH, Highway1 is widely viewed as one of the premier hardware accelerators in the world. I mentor hardware startups on using human-centered Experience Design to build integrated product-service ecosystems.

San Francisco Bay Area

Futuredraft is an experience design consultancy that solves complex problems using co-creation throughout the design process. The company's depth and experience allow it to leap into ambiguous spaces, connect knowledge to action, and quickly generate results. Bringing Silicon Valley design innovation to projects ranging from start-up acceleration to Fortune 500 company products and services, we work in industries like Health Tech, Renewable Energy, Industrial Internet, FinTech, Transportation, E-commerce and Consumer Internet.

San Francisco Bay Area

As a member of the global executive team, I oversaw integrating d.light's brand, product, and service design into a unified brand experience – including human-centered research, design, and marketing practices. I am very proud and humbled by the opportunity d.light gave me to help co-create and launch the world's most affordable high-quality solar light in July 2015 – the d.light A1 Solar Lantern.d.light is a global leader and pioneer in delivering affordable solar-powered solutions designed for the two billion people in the developing world without access to reliable energy. d.light provides distributed solar energy solutions for households and small businesses that are transforming the way people all over the world use and pay for energy. Through four hubs in Africa, China, South Asia, and the United States, d.light has sold over 20 million solar light and power products in 70 countries, improving the lives of over 100 million people. d.light is dedicated to providing the most reliable, affordable, and accessible solar lighting and power systems for the developing world.

San Francisco Bay Area

I helped the Design & Experience Group leadership (now GE Digital) appropriating design systems, strategy and training programs to drive experience design at scale and enable faster, more adaptive new product conceptions.

Berlin, Germany

I co-founded De:Bug – an independent print- and online- magazine focusing on the cutting edge of everything considered electronic culture – covering music, art, technology and business topics alike. Published monthly the print magazine is available at German, Austrian, Swiss and selected international newsstands. Being on the market since 1997 the magazine has become the respective opinion leader of its domain.

Berlin, Germany

MetaDesign is Germanys no.1 branding agency (ranging among europes top10 branding agencies). MetaDesign is part of the LBI Group. I was responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of their interactive branding department – a 15+ team comprised of visual- and interaction-designers, technologists, strategists and program managers. Clients including Deutsche Post / DHL, ENTEGA, Younicos, Solon AG, AUDI, Volkswagen, iGuzzini, and NZZ Neue Züricher Zeitung.

San Francisco Bay Area

Method is an international renowned experience design firm with offices based in San Francisco, New York and London. Their clients are best described as owners of progressive, era-defining brands, and include Google, Comcast, Nordstrom, Sony, Samsung, Nokia, Microsoft, Time Warner, Intel, and BBC. Collaboratively, Method helps them create brands, products, and services that are smart, beautiful and extendable.

Berlin, Germany

At the time MetaDesign was Germany’s leading corporate design firm. I co-built & led their initial digital design and strategy group leading a team of interaction designers, business strategists and creative technologists. During my tenure I helped to grow a 4 people team into a 40 people department, accounting for two thirds of the firm’s annual revenue.