SEGD has named Clive Roux, an industrial designer and former CEO of the Industrial Designers Society of America, as its new CEO effective December 3, 2012.
Roux brings significant experience in building and running global multi-disciplinary creative and business groups. Prior to serving as IDSA CEO from 2009 to 2012, he spent 15 years leading creative units for Philips Design, the product design arm of Royal Philips Electronics, The Netherlands.
“Clive brings an amazing skill set to SEGD,” says Amy Lukas, SEGD President and Partner with Infinite Scale. “We’re thrilled to welcome him to our community and look forward to seeing SEGD benefit from his broad experience in managing business, creative, and marketing functions across the spectrum from a design association to a large multinational corporation.”
As CEO of IDSA, Roux led the world’s largest industrial design association from a shrinking membership and financial position to a strong growth track and reinvention for the 21st century. His approach focused on setting clear operational and financial goals, redesigning the budget and strategic planning process to create realistic targets and focus on member needs, adding new and strengthening existing educational programs, and redesigning IDSA’s digital presence, resulting in more than 50% growth in traffic and added member promotion platforms.
Roux predicts the role of visual communications in the built environment will be increasingly important as technology changes the world we live in. SEGD, he notes, is in a strong position to influence how technology is integrated with the physical environment.
“I’m excited to be able to contribute to the growth of SEGD,” he says. “In the 1990s I did a lot of design research into the future of technology with Philips Design. We predicted smart handheld devices—and smart phones and pads delivered that promise in the early 2000s. It was predicted that these devices would then give way to intelligent environments as we continued to dematerialize our culture. This is one part of the intersection that SEGD represents as the world moves from devices to smart environments. And environmental graphic designers are uniquely qualified to help thoughtfully integrate technology into the ‘real world.’”
A native of South Africa, Roux graduated with a bachelor of technology in industrial design from the University of Johannesburg. He started his industrial design career at Philips’ Eindhoven headquarters as Senior Designer, large screen television. In 1993, he relocated to Hong Kong as part of a turnaround team tasked with bringing Philips’ portable audio business back to profitability. From 1993 to 1999, he developed multidisciplinary design studios in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vienna, and a satellite studio in India. During this time, he introduced a research-based, consumer-focused, analytical approach to design that gained the trust of the business and trade alike. He was instrumental in defining the visual design language of Philips audio products and packaging and achieving global market-share leadership in four of the seven audio market categories for Philips.
In 2000, Roux became Senior Design Director for Philips Consumer Electronics in the U.S. In this role he supported the development of the Philips brand in the U.S., and was responsible for creating visual communications and websites supporting the introduction of new products and technologies. From 2003 to 2007, he was Senior Director of new business and design research in the U.S., creating a successful sales and marketing function to drive the development of design consulting with companies outside of the Philips group. Roux developed relationships with Fortune 500 companies including Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and General Motors, delivering one of the biggest projects for GM in 2006, when he and a team of 50 completed a demonstration of the potential for future in-car consumer experiences in a fully working car prototype.
Roux replaces former SEGD CEO Jessica W. London, who resigned in May 2012. He will be based in SEGD’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.
