Meet The Jury – 2020

Sharon Klotz has been an exhibit designer and leader in museum education for more than two decades, with key roles at Discovery Place (Charlotte), The Tech Museum of Innovation (San Jose), Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Royal Alberta Museum (Edmonton), and currently with Smithsonian Institution as part of a team focused on invention and innovation. Sharon’s award-winning museum work has included cross-disciplinary exhibitions for visitors of all ages; online and immersive tech; and innovative events and community gatherings.

Sharon holds a Physics degree from MIT and a certificate in nonprofit Board leadership from BoardSource. She has taught design at all levels, including as an instructor in Museum Studies programs at Seton Hall, Bank Street, and Pratt Institute, where she also led a graduate-level Toy Design Studio. She currently serves on the Design Advocacy Board for University of Kentucky’s School of Design.

I believe that in all the spaces we inhabit and pass through – personal, professional and public spaces – design tells us how to behave, how to interact, and even how to feel. In a very real way, design can shape the very possibilities we perceive, so bringing more innovation and courage to our design options is a form of future-casting.

Elizabeth Pinkham is responsible for Salesforce’s global real estate strategy, overseeing the company’s real estate portfolio and workplace design, as well as creating one-of-a-kind experiences for Salesforce’s employees, customers, partners, and the community.

Under Pinkham’s leadership, she’s unveiled ten Salesforce Towers across the globe spanning the company’s headquarters in San Francisco to Indianapolis, Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Dublin, London, Tokyo, and Sydney. Bringing her brand influence to the workplace experience, she introduced the Ohana Floor, an open flexible hospitality space located at the top of the company’s Towers. Typically a space for executive offices, Pinkham took a unique approach to designing these floors by opening them up to the community. During the day, the space is available for employees and their guests and on weeknights and weekends, the Ohana Floor is open to non-profits and education groups to host their events at no cost.

A Salesforce veteran of over 19 years, Pinkham was previously responsible for global strategic events. She oversaw a wide range of brand and event experiences, including management of the company’s annual Dreamforce event in San Francisco since its first program in 2003 to Dreamforce 2016, which drew 171,000 registered attendees and 16 million plus online viewers.

Before joining Salesforce, Pinkham held marketing positions at Oracle and Sybase. Pinkham holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rex Miller started his career as a project manager in the architecture and construction department for Southwestern Bell now AT&T, in 1978. He has worked as an owner, manufacturer, distributor and sub-contractor. His background has given Rex unique insight into the current and future challenges owners and providers face.

Rachel Gutter is President of the International WELL Building Institute (IWBI), a public benefit corporation with a mission to improve human health and well-being through the built environment.

Rachel came to IWBI after nearly a decade at the U.S. Green Building Council, where she served as Senior Vice President of Knowledge and was Founding Director of the Center for Green Schools. Under her direction, the Center mobilized $275B+ investments in LEED certified educational facilities, deployed over 750,000 volunteers in 73 countries to transform schools on every continent, and published 1,000+ pages of technical guides and original research. At USGBC, her dynamic leadership helped convene international corporations, globally recognized institutions, and government entities to achieve putting every student in a green school within this generation.

In 2016, as IWBI’s Chief Product Officer, Rachel expanded the WELL Building Standard to address all building types, as well as whole districts and communities. Becoming President in 2018, she led the effort to bring a new version of WELL to market, shaped IWBI’s research and education platforms to accelerate market transformation, and developed the WELL Portfolio program and IWBI Membership platform. Rachel leads an incredibly talented team doing business in more than 50 countries that includes market development and salespeople, dedicated coaching contacts, researchers, and subject matter experts who develop and evolve the WELL Building Standard.

A widely sought after expert and inspiring speaker, Rachel’s game-changing contributions to sustainable building have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, FOX News, and CNN, as well as in leading industry publications including Fast Company, Metropolis, Grist, and GreenBIZ.

Rachel received the 2012 World Green Building Council’s Chairman’s Award and was honored by Martha Stewart’s Whole Living Magazine as an eco-heroine in 2011. Rachel joined the Garrison Institute’s Board of Directors in 2015 and became Co-chair in 2018 with founder, Jonathan Rose. Rachel is a member of Urban Land Institute’s Advisory for health and social equity and the Walgreens CSR Advisory Council.

Rachel is a frequent guest lecturer and instructor at the Harvard School of Public Health’s Center for Health and the Global Environment and has lectured at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, the University of Connecticut School of Business, and Tufts University and other institutions.

Ryan Simonetti is the CEO and co-founder of Convene, the company that designs and services premium places to work, meet, and host inspiring events. His unique expertise in real estate acquisitions, development, and structured finance has helped catapult Convene to become a pioneer in the commercial real estate industry.

Ryan co-founded Convene in 2009 with the intention of disrupting the commercial real estate industry and transforming the workplace experience by capitalizing on converging trends in real estate, technology, and hospitality. His vision – to infuse hotel-style services into meetings, events and flexible office spaces – has been Convene’s guiding force for the last 11 years, during which they have expanded to 32 locations across the US and UK.

With Ryan at the helm, Convene has raised $410M in funding to date, and has been named one of America’s 100 Most Promising Companies by Forbes and a Best Workplace by both Inc. and Fortune Magazine. Ryan has been recognized for his transformative achievements on Real Estate Forum’s 50 Under 40 list, Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30,” a list of America’s Most Promising Young Entrepreneurs, was named “Top Entrepreneur” by Crain’s New York, and a finalist in Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year® New York Awards.

Ryan, the first in his family to attend college, graduated from Villanova University, where he developed the concepts for and ran several “start-up” companies designed for students. His professional career began as a real estate banking analyst in the global real estate group at Lehman Brothers, where he focused on the structuring and securitization of commercial mortgage-backed securities. Following Lehman Brothers, Ryan joined Gramercy Capital Corp. as a vice president where he was responsible for the restructuring of a billion dollar loan portfolio including $600 million of hospitality related real estate investments.

Ryan is an active supporter of the Urban Land Institute, CoreNet Global, IACC and was selected to be a member of New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s Small Business Working Group. In addition, he is an active venture investor and advisor to several start-up technology companies and their founders. Outside of work, he enjoys golfing, fishing, reading and thinking of the next ‘big idea.’ Ryan and his wife Lisa live in New York with their children Riley and Harley.

Leigh helps clients create inspiring, sustainable and high-performing workplace environments that facilitate collaboration and enhance wellness and productivity, and leads workplace research for EYP. Her diverse projects include master plans for the Architect of the Capitol and workplace strategies for GlaxoSmithKline, The MITRE Corporation, Zurich Financial, American Express and Georgia Pacific. She has conducted major workplace research studies for the GSA and Ernst & Young, as well as facility programs for Heathrow Airport and Columbia University Medical Center School of Public Health and Dentistry.

Leigh has been interviewed for her work by CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America as well as radio and podcasts hosts everywhere. She is the author of two best-selling books, The Green Workplace: Sustainable Strategies that Benefit Employees, the Environment and the Bottom Line and The Healthy Workplace: How to Improve the Well-Being of Your Employees – and Boost Your Company’s Bottom Line. Leigh also regularly writes for a number of magazines and newspapers about how space plays a role in health, wellness, engagement, and performance.

Leigh is currently collaborating with Harvard University’s School of Public Health, the Center for Active Design in New York, and the AIA DC Chapter on Health and Well-being to create new tools to connect like minds and to blur the boundaries across industries in order to advance our improve our well-being at work. She is excited to be on the Advisory Board of a new nonprofit organization, Global Women for Wellbeing.

Shawn relocated to Baltimore in 2007 to join Under Armour (UA) as director of design for retail store and fixture design.  He returned to living in Maryland after leaving the state in the early 70’s.  Shawn is married with 3 children, living in Harford County.

Shawn represents UA on most community related issues and resides on the board for the BCTB, Baltimore Convention & Tourism.

Shawn is the Director of design for the UA Global Real Estate, over seeing the design, development and execution of office and showrooms space to meet the projected growth of the company.  Shawn’s primary role is the daily oversight of all Baltimore real estate design and branding initiatives along with direct engagement with the city Planning Department and the Locust Point Civic Association.

Shawn has over 30 years of design and marketing experience, with expertise in Architecture, Interiors, Retail Branding and Marketing, Tradeshow Design and Fabrication, Signage and Graphics. 

Raymond A. Ritchey serves as Senior Executive Vice President of Boston Properties. Prior to his appointment to this position in January 2016, Mr. Ritchey served as Executive Vice President, Head of Boston Properties Washington, DC Office and National Director of Acquisitions and Development since April 1998 and Senior Vice President and Co-Manager of the Washington, DC office. Mr. Ritchey is responsible for all business development, leasing and marketing, as well as new opportunity origination in the Washington, DC area. He also directly oversees similar activities on a national basis. Mr. Ritchey joined Boston Properties in 1980, leading the company’s expansion to become one of the dominant real estate firms in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. For four years prior to joining Boston Properties, Mr. Ritchey was one of the leading commercial real estate brokers in the Washington, DC area with Coldwell Banker. Mr. Ritchey is the President of the Board of Spanish Education Development (SED) Center; a member of the Federal City Council; a member of The Economic Club of Washington; Founding member of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP), Northern Virginia; Chair of the JDRF Real Estate Games; and an active volunteer with numerous civic, charitable, and real estate industry organizations. A sampling of Mr. Ritchey’s professional honors include: ULI Lifetime Achievement Award; Man of the Year, CREW; Brendan McCarthy Award, GWCAR; Good Scout of the Year, Boy Scouts; Trendsetter of the Year, Transwestern; Developer of the Year (numerous organizations); and Junior Achievement Man of the Year. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California.

Ken Wilson is a Design Principal and the Design Director for Interiors in the Washington, DC office of Perkins and Will. He is also one of two Co-Global Design Directors for Interiors and serves on Perkins and Will’s Design Board and Sustainability Council. Ken has been practicing for over 35 years and his portfolio includes architecture, interiors, graphics, and product design. He is the only architect to hold fellowships in the AIA, IIDA, and the Green Building Certification Institute (LEED Fellow). His projects have been published in seven different countries and have received over 120 national and local design awards. In 2005 Ken was named “Designer of the Year” by Contract magazine, and in 2018 he received ASID’s Designer of Distinction Award which annually honors one professional who has established a body of superior work demonstrating creativity, excellence, and innovation.

Ben Waber, PhD, is the president and co-founder of Humanyze, a workplace analytics company. Humanyze analyzes existing corporate data to apply its one of a kind analytics to measure Organizational Health and its components of employee-engagement, team-productivity, and organizational-adaptability. These analytics are used by enterprises to answer specific questions related to the impact of Workplace, HR, and Digital Transformation. He is a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, previously worked as a senior researcher at Harvard Business School, and received his Ph.D. in organizational science from MIT for his work with Alex “Sandy” Pentland’s Human Dynamics group. Waber’s work has been featured in major media outlets such as HBR, Wired, The Economist, and NPR. He has consulted for industry leaders such as LG, McKinsey & Company, and Gartner on technology trends, social networks, and organizational design. His book, People Analytics, was published by the Financial Times Press in 2013.

As Director of Workplace Strategy at Google, Josh leads a team that focuses on how to deliver spaces and services which enable high levels of creativity, productivity, and well-being across a diverse set of business units, locations, and users. Josh has been at Google since 2007 and during that time has led large teams of employees and vendor partners in positions that included Workplace Programs, Real Estate and Workplace Services business Partner organization, and his current role in Workplace Strategy. He has a deep interest in human and team performance as well as business strategy and seeks to combine those in his work.

Clive Wilkinson is an architect, designer, writer and strategist with particular expertise in the application of urban design thinking to interior design, specifically in workplace and educational communities. He was born in South Africa and educated in the United Kingdom, where he received his degree from the prestigious Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.

His practice, Clive Wilkinson Architects, was established in Los Angeles in 1991 and is an acknowledged global leader in workplace design. He has created unique spaces for Disney, Google, Macquarie, Microsoft, Nokia and TBWA\Chiat\Day. In 2005, Clive was inducted into the Interior Design ‘Hall of Fame’. In 2006, he was named as a ‘Master of Design’ by Fast Company and, in 2011, a ‘Pioneer of Design’ by IIDA. His firm’s portfolio of work has been selected as a Finalist for two years running in the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum National Design Awards. In 2012, the firm was honored as the Winner for excellence in the category of Interior Design. Clive is a former Board Director of AIA|LA, a member of the GSA National Peer Registry, and has served as a keynote speaker at global media and design conferences. His designs have received over 150 awards to date.

As FOX Architects Chairman and Principal, Bob Fox chairs the firm’s advisory board, focusing on building the firm to design more complex, integrated projects, while also helping to increase value for clients. Bob is a leader in the architecture and interior design industry and is well respected for his open-minded and innovative approach to workplace design. In 2003, Bob founded FOX Architects, an integrated, award-winning architecture and interior design firm in Washington, DC. Bob possesses more than 30 years of experience, is an active member of the design community, and speaks regularly at industry events focused on the future of the workplace. Education, Certifications & Affiliations: -Temple University, Bachelor of Architecture -Registered Architect in over 25 states -Member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) -Certified by the National Council of Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) -Professional member of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) -Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP)

Hanns Lee is a Managing Director with Hines in its Office of Innovation where he is leading strategic new economy initiatives within Hines’ global portfolio including the launch of its flexible workplace platform. Hanns has nearly 20 years of experience in acquiring, developing and managing Class A office buildings, office campuses and office-anchored mixed-use projects. Previously he served as the Irvine Company’s and Lowe Enterprises’ top executive for their respective Northern California regions. Hanns earned his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania after serving as a military officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and earning his B.S. in civil engineering from Stanford University.