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Karel Vredenburg

Former Global VP of UX Research / Director of Global Design Leadership at IBM; now Industry Professor at McMaster and co-founder of Habits for a Better World

ExecutiveLeads from the backOld schoolEnterpriseSystemsOrg
He is one of the most consequential design-org builders in enterprise history, having moved an entire 100,000+ person company through a design transformation by reskilling people at scale — the people-protection axis embodied.

Signature win. Co-led IBM's 2013 design reinvention — building Enterprise Design Thinking and a worldwide design education program that scaled across the company and delivered 2x faster delivery and 300% ROI.

The case

editorial · CCBEI · with sources
CraftHeld IBM's design bar for 30+ years via User-Centered Design methodology, the One UI design system (Carbon's predecessor), and Enterprise Design Thinking standards; methodologist who set quality bars more than a hands-on maker.8
CommunicationAuthored 'User-Centered Design: An Integrated Approach,' rolled Enterprise Design Thinking to IBM units worldwide and hundreds of external companies, and is a sustained international keynote speaker and educator — making design legible at enormous scale.9
BusinessDrove documented outcomes from IBM's design transformation — 2x faster time to market, 300% ROI, 50% fewer design defects — tying design directly to durable enterprise results.9
Education[Education recalibrated toward editorial baseline] Built IBM's worldwide design education program, scaled Enterprise Design Thinking to whole business units and clients, named generations of Distinguished Designers/Principals, and now teaches at McMaster — his entire career is reskilling and elevating people.9
InnovationCo-led the landmark 2013 IBM Design reinvention with Gilbert and Hill and led design for Watson (early commercial AI); current GenAI work via Habits for a Better World uses AI to lift people, but his AI-era frontier output is lighter than his peak org-transformation work.7

Endorsed by peers

illustrative · opens with verified accounts
OverallI'd work for them111
CraftRaised my craft bar104
CommunicationMade the case for design117
BusinessMade design matter to the business117
EducationTaught me something I still use117
InnovationShowed me a new way to work91

Verified peers only — one tap with LinkedIn. Names stay private; we show role and industry. Bars are illustrative until the participation backend is live.

Stories

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