Whipsaw

Dan is President/CEO and cofounder of Whipsaw. He is also the Principal Designer, and directs the strategic and conceptual direction of most accounts. Dan is a passionate and consumate designer, with a keen eye, a unique perspective, and a strong drive to innovate.
Throughout his prolific 29 year career, Dan has designed hundreds of highly successful products for clients such as Acer, AT&T, Braun, Cisco, Disney, Eton, GE, Intel, Leapfrog, Logitech, Motorola, Optovue, Topcon, and Sony.
Dan has won over 125 design awards (IDEA, Red Dot, Gmarks, IF, MDEA) and has been granted over 150 design and utility patents. Dan’s views and work have been featured in Axis, Business Week, CNN, Design, Domus, Fast Company, Form, Fortune, Metropolis, Newsweek, Time, and Wired. His work is in the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Chicago Athenaeum, and the Pasadena Museum of California Art.
Prior to cofounding Whipsaw in 1999, Dan was the President of frogdesign where he designed many products and led the company for ten years. Before frogdesign he was a designer at Henry Dreyfuss Associates, George Nelson Associates, and Richardson Smith (Fitch). Dan graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture and Art in 1982.

Bob is Chief Technical Officer and cofounder of Whipsaw. He is also the Principal Engineer, providing extensive technical knowledge and program leadership while directing the mechanical engineering department. Bob is an accomplished engineer who is driven by functional perfection, sound logic and purposeful innovation.
Bob has directed the engineering development of several major programs for clients including Cisco, Leapfrog, Extreme Networks, Luminous, Motorola, Nike, Pelican, Roku, and Securimetrics. He has been granted dozens of design and utility patents, and has contributed to many awards including the reputable Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase Award.
Prior to cofounding Whipsaw in 1999, Bob was an Engineering Director at Silicon Graphics and served in management and engineering roles at Apple Computer and Hewlett-Packard. Bob graduated from San Jose State in 1982.

Hiro is VP Design at Whipsaw where he has worked since 2000. Hiro directs many client projects and helps to guide ID team development. Hiro has over 29 years of design experience, and has designed products for many international corporations including Gateway, Eton, General Dynamics, Lufthansa, Mitsubishi, Packard Bell, Shachihata, and Zebra Technologies.
Hiro has won over 50 design awards and his work has been published in Business Week, Fortune, ID Magazine, Nikkei Design, Form, Time, T3, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Prior to joining Whipsaw, Hiro was the VP Design at RKS Design, and also held design positions at Frogdesign, Ashcraft Design, Henry Dreyfuss Associates, and Digital Equipment Corporation.
Hiro graduated with honors from Art Center College of Design in 1984 and also holds a BA degree from UCLA.

Gerson has been with Whipsaw since 2000. He not only leads many projects, but he is a highly accomplished hands-on mechanical engineer. He has engineered products and systems for many Whipsaw clients including Cisco Systems, Dynatherm, Leapfrog, Luminous, Roku, Securimetrics, and Thermo Scientific. Gerson was the primary engineer for the Topcon line of products, which was awarded the highest level in the prestigious Japanese G-Mark award. He has been granted several utility patents for his mechanical inventions.
Prior to joining Whipsaw, Gerson served as R&D Engineer at Agilent Technologies and Manufacturing Engineer at Hewlett-Packard.
Gerson has a BSME and MSME from Stanford University.

Greg is a business development specialist and also provides key account management. Prior to joining Whipsaw, Greg had ten years of experience as a designer in several firms including Propane, Beyond Design, Ignite, and Visualize, where he designed products for Bosch, Dell, Philips, Panasonic and Apple. His wealth of design and product development experience helps him to excel at business development – he understands client needs from the get-go and his overarching goal is to bridge business objectives with design solutions. Greg graduated from the University of Illinois in 2000.

Chris joined Whipsaw in 2008. He has been an Industrial Designer for 17 years, and has designed many successful products for clients such as Alcatel, Cisco Systems, Dell, Digital Persona, Hewlett Packard, Logitech, Sun Microsystems and SGI. Chris specializes in creating new and innovative products which bring pleasure and meaning to people’s lives. Chris has over 35 design patents and several design awards, including a recent Red Dot for his work on the Cisco Umi, and a recent Popular Mechanics Editors Choice award for his Phone Halo design. Prior to joining Whipsaw, Chris was a designer at Hewlett Packard, Montgomery Pfeifer, and GVO. He earned a BFA of Industrial Design from California College of the Arts, which he received in 1994.

Marco has been with Whipsaw since 2006. He is a senior engineer and has managed several major client programs ranging from medical devices to enterprise infrastructure equipment. Some of these clients include Apnicure, Bobrick, Cisco Systems, Greenvolts, Luminous and Pelican. Marco has a keen interest in creating sustainable engineering solutions, whereby material, energy consumption and product disposal are fully considered. Prior to joining Whipsaw, Marco was an engineer at NPK Design in The Netherlands, and an industrial automation engineer at GTI. Marco has a BS in Industrial Product Design (ME+ID) from Haagse Hogeschool and a degree in electrical engineering.

Macshell is controller at Whipsaw, overseeing financial matters and various business details. She has extensive experience in her field, having worked at CAS Architects, iSmart Panache, Fuller Workstations, RDT Environmental Services, and RV Stich Construction. Macshell has an MBA in Finance and a BS in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Sam has been a key member of the Whipsaw design team since 2002. Sam possesses formidable talent and always conjures up unique and fresh ideas on every project he works on. He has designed several of our iconic award winning products including Eton radios, Cisco routers, Rio MP3 players, and Topcon GPS units. Sam’s work has garnered 35 design awards, including the Red Dot “Best of the Best” for the Eton FR Series radios. His work has been published in Time, Outside, Metropolis, and Fast Company magazines. Sam Graduated from Arizona State University in 1998, with a BSID.

Ari has been an Industrial Designer at Whipsaw for 10 years. He thrives on the opportunity to work on projects that create new avenues for improving user experience, human factors, and ultimately, livelihood. His specialties are in medical products and product systems where the attention to precision–of–communication and foolproof–usability are a must. He has designed for American Eagle Outfitters, Dell, Dionex, IGT, Infinite Z, M–Audio, Optovue, and Zebra Technologies, and many became successful award winning products. His design work has been seen in Axis, BusinessWeek, Business 2.0, Innovation, Instrument Business Outlook, PC Magazine, and Popular Science. Ari graduated from San José State University with a BS of Industrial Design.

Ting is an accomplished Graphic and UI designer and her skill set includes brand identity, packaging design, and interactive design. She believes good design serves to make complex messages easier to understand. She excels at discovering visual solutions for communicating ideas. Her design awards are accumulating and include American Design Awards, Adobe Design Achievement Awards, and AIGA Blue Ridge Poster Clash Awards. Ting graduated from San José State University with a BFA of Graphic Design.

Mick joined us in 2008 and is a senior level mechanical engineer. He has been a key contributor on several programs including Cisco telepresence systems, Luminous medical systems, and Nike consumer products. Mick specializes in solving tricky or complex mechanical problems. Before Whipsaw Mick worked at Navstar and Samsung. He has a BSME from the University of Kansas and a degree in journalism from SMU, Dallas.

Rob has been an Industrial Designer at Whipsaw since 2002. His specialties are in enterprise product systems, materials science, and technology. He has designed for clients such as Adiri, Bobrick, Cisco, IGT, M–Audio, Auria, and Zeebo, many of which became award winners. His work has been seen in ID Magazine, Axis, BusinessWeek, Innovation, PC Magazine, and Popular Science. Rob graduated from San José State University with a BS of Industrial Design.

Peter, with Whipsaw since 2007, has contributed to several programs including a sleep apnea device for Apnicure, a homeland security camera for Securimetrics, an all mechanical public tampon dispenser for Bobrick, and networking equipment for Meru. Peter brings a wealth of knowledge and mechanical ingenuity to the team. He worked at Apple Computer as a consulting engineer, and was an engineer at Process Metrix, United Technolgies, and GE before joining Whipsaw. Peter received his BSME from Oregon State University.

Kyle joined Whipsaw in 2008, and has rapidly become a key contributor to the team. He is a well rounded designer with skills in problem solving, human factors, and aesthetics. Kyle possesses an uncanny ability to find elegant formal solutions for complex functional problems, resulting in products that provide an excellent user experience. Kyle has worked on programs for Cisco Systems, Crossbow, Infinite Z, Dell, and others. Kyle interned at Black and Decker, Intel, and Calphalon. Kyle graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning in 2009.

Deanna has been with Whipsaw since 2007 and has engineered products for Bobrick, Cisco Systems, Flight Focus and Pelikan Technologies. Prior to Whipsaw Deanna was a design consultant for Dynamic Therapeutics, a startup medical device company. She also designed custom interconnect solutions for commercial avionics, space satellite, medical and telecom applications for Icore International in the UK. Deanna was also a product design engineer at Sabritec. She has a BSME & MSME from University of California Irvine where she graduated with honors. Recipient of the GAANN Fellowship & ASHRAE Student Scholarship.

Elliot joined us recently and is currently enjoying all aspects of the design process, especially advanced CAD surfacing, working on consumer electronics and medical equipment for various clients. Before Whipsaw Elliot worked as a designer at Alchemy Labs, and a design intern at DCA (England), and Samsung. Elliot has won several design awards including an IDEA award for his Perfect Pushup V2 product, and his work has been featured in three design exhibitions. Elliot graduated from the Academy of Art University San Francisco in 2008.

David has recently joined Whipsaw and is currently enjoying a wide range of projects. Prior to joining Whipsaw, David worked at Product Studio Inc. where he was a lead engineer on a variety of consumer goods; Macon Associates as a product developer and mechanical engineer; and Hasbro, where he was an engineer in the Tech Development Team. David graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008.

Marguerite recently joined Whipsaw and has been working on a variety of home appliances and consumer electronics. Prior to joining Whipsaw, she designed an educational toolkit to aid in the understanding of microbial fuel cells and bio-electrochemical systems for a Cambridge based start-up. Her interests include crocheting and creative writing. Marguerite graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010.

Matt joined Whipsaw in 2011, and is currently engaged in the development of a number of medical and consumer products. Prior to Whipsaw, Matt was an engineer and project manager at Apple Computer, working on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac product lines. Before Apple Matt was a lead engineer at Acorn Product Development where he designed, analyzed, and tested numerous products for Flip Video, Siemens Medical, Zillion TV, Brocade, the “Prototype This!” show on the Discovery Channel. Matt graduated first in his class from Cornell University in 2006 with a bachelors and masters in mechanical engineering.

Jee joined Whipsaw in 2009 and is enjoying designing consumer electronic products. One of her specialties is in color, material, product graphic and finish design. Before Whipsaw JeeYoon worked at Continuum, Barracuda, and Lunar Design. Her work has gained attention and praise in venues such as Spark, IDSA Connecting Exhibition, and Cooper Hewitt. JeeYoon graduated from the Academy of Art University in 2009 with a Master of Fine Arts and from the University of Seoul with a Bachelor of ID.

Zack joins us from the College for Creative Studies, and he is currently having a great time solving real world problems. Zack previously interned at Whipsaw, ChaseDesign, and Balance Product Development where he designed a variety of consumer products. Several of his projects have been featured on Gizmodo, Yanko Design, ecofriend.com, Trendhunter.com and the Detroit Auto Show.

Ji Sun is our ID intern from the Illinois Institute of Design where she just received her masters of Design. Prior to Whipsaw she was an intern at Motorola’s Consumer Experience Design Studio and she also had collaboration with T-Mobile and Samsung on a number of projects. Her ingenious umbrella design won a Red Dot award in 2010.

Sam joined Whipsaw in 2005. She is our jack of all trades in the operations department and she keeps us running smoothly. Sam assists clients and provides human resources, public relations, and business development support. Prior to Whipsaw Sam worked for the city of San Jose. She graduated from San Jose State with a Bachelor of Science in social work, class of 2003.

Heidi is Director of Finance and a Board member of Whipsaw. She was an early contributor to Whipsaw, having created the organizational and financial structure of the company. Prior to Whipsaw, Heidi was an accomplished award-winning Industrial Designer and held lead designer positions at Tandem Computers, Index Design, Human Factors ID (NYC), and Kato/Gobe/Hearst. Heidi graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Design Architecture and Art in 1982.

Julie is a Board member of Whipsaw. She was an early contributor to Whipsaw, building the operational team of the company while also performing as a mechanical engineer. Prior to Whipsaw Julie was a Materials Engineer and R&D engineer at Hewlett Packard and Agilent Technologies, where she was granted several patents for her work. Julie attended the University of Illinois and San Jose State.