Ken Pickar

Karen Hofmann

Karen Hofmann is serving as the Chair of the Product Design department at Art CenterCollege of Design in Pasadena since 2010. She has been an instructor at the collegesince 2001. Over the last decade she has been instrumental in developing designresearch processes, strategy and curriculum for the department. Along with hercolleagues she is responsible for identifying and shaping vision-casting projects withnumerous sponsors including Panasonic, Nokia, Honda, Nestle, Nike and Samsung.She leads the innovative study abroad program with INSEAD international businessschool where designers collaborate with MBA students to develop new ideas forproducts and services. Karen also developed innovative educational models such asDesignStorms®, a compliment to Art Center’s traditional trans-disciplinary studios.These creative immersive projects with partners such as Adidas, Volkswagen, AveryDennison, Disney Consumer Products, Unilever, and Research in Motion haveintroduced new ways of partnering with sponsors to explore future market opportunities.

Karen is also currently the Director of the Color, Materials, and Trends ExplorationLaboratory (CMTEL). For the last six years, she has been responsible for creating thestrategy and developing this resource at Art Center, working collaboratively with foundingpartner Nokia Corporation to develop a unique educational program around color,materials and trends.

Prior to her full-time commitment to Art Center, Karen was a senior project consultantwith o2studio, a design strategy and research consultancy focusing on color, materialand trend. Clients included Milliken Automotive, Nokia, and Plantronics. Prior to teachingat Art Center and working with o2studio, she was the Strategic Research Manager inthe Consumer Research department at Johnson Controls, Automotive Systems Group,Michigan. Karen began her career at Johnson Controls after graduating from Art Centerwith a degree in product design. She joined the advanced design studio and began togrow her storytelling skills as she gravitated toward the front end of the design process- translating research into stories and ideation. Karen has a passion for understandingpeople’s needs and solving for them as she also holds a degree in psychology fromCalifornia State University, Northridge. During her time at Johnson Controls ando2studio, she was instrumental in recognizing and translating relevant social and culturaltrends, defining projects and processes that influence advanced initiatives, and inspiringdevelopment teams to think different about their product experiences.

Aaron Fyke

Erik Hovanec

Erik Hovanec is the Executive Director of The Design Accelerator. The Accelerator applies proven entrepreneurial management techniques, world class design mentorship and a relentless focus on key value drivers in order to help early stage companies secure funding and grow. As Executive Director, Mr. Hovanec is responsible for all aspects of the Accelerator. He is especially focused on harnessing the power of great design within the confines of traditional corporate and startup environments. Mr. Hovanec has been a technology company CEO, an executive at two startup companies that ultimately exited for $B valuations, an active Angel investor and advisor, and a strategic management consultant.

Prior to helping found the Art Center Accelerator, Mr. Hovanec was CEO of LeisureLink, the leading guest generation system for vacation properties worldwide. In his six years as CEO of LeisureLink Mr. Hovanec built and launched innovative dynamic pricing and distribution products that helped independent lodging companies maximize the value of their perishable inventory. LeisureLink was recognized as a Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 500TM recipient as well as a member of the Inc. 5000. Mr. Hovanec raised several rounds of venture capital from leading southern California venture firms and secured a long term strategic partnership and equity investment from Wyndham Worldwide, Inc, a Fortune 500 company.

Before LeisureLink Mr. Hovanec served as General Manager of the Network division for the Green Dot Corporation, a major player in the multi-billion dollar prepaid financial services industry. Mr. Hovanec worked at Green Dot during its pre-IPO growth phase. Prior to Green Dot he worked for five and a half years at GoTo.com and its successor company, Overture Services, Inc. Mr. Hovanec was a very early employee at GoTo.com, where he led product management and oversaw the creation of the company's cost-per-click search advertising platform and advertiser business development. GoTo / Overture went from zero revenue at launch in 1998 to over $600M at the time of its acquisition by Yahoo! in 2003 for $1.6B.

Mr. Hovanec began his career in management consulting working as a Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group and an Associate Consultant for Marakon Associates. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Political Science from Princeton University.

Erik Hovanec lives in Pasadena, CA with his wife, a professor at Caltech, and two children.

Andy Wilson

Kevin Scanlon

Dr. Kevin J. Scanlon’s career includes: academic medicine, senior management in the pharmaceutical industry, a CEO in three start-up companies and an angel investor. He is the Chairman of Pasadena Angels Investment Group. Kevin is also an executive member of the Los Angeles Network of the Tech Coast Angels. Dr. Scanlon has worked with governments in Ireland, China and New Zealand to create an innovative culture at their universities. He was Co-Founder and CEO of the cancer diagnostic company, Melanoma Diagnostics that was sold to Myriad in December 2010. As a Vice President at Berlex-Schering (Germany), he was responsible for their cancer program in the US, Europe and Asia. He is also on the faculty and an advisor for the FEMBA program at UCLA School of Management. Dr. Scanlon received his Ph.D. degree from the University of London in Molecular Biology and trained in Cancer Research at Yale Medical School. He was a Leukemia Society Scholar, awarded the Paul Martini Medical Research Prize in Cancer (Germany), the past President of the International Society of Cell and Cancer Gene Therapy (England), a participant at 400th Anniversary of Uppsala University (Sweden), he is an advisor at the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology (Ireland), Co-Editor/Co-Founder of the Nature journal “Cancer Gene Therapy”, co-authored over 135 original scientific articles, edited nine medical books and has seven issued patents.