Maia Holder-Monk
Evolve Outdoors
Lead Technical Product Designer
I’m a technical apparel designer, and a 2019 OP Design graduate. My passion, purpose and skillset intersect in creating functional design for the outdoors, ergonomic patternmaking, and exploring how good apparel can shape the ways people engage with their environment and their own bodies.
Nikki Linwood
Mons Royale
Creative Lead
After graduating in 2007, Nikki pursued a Postgraduate Diploma focusing on merino bike apparel and sustainability. She then travelled across the ditch to enhance her skills at various design studios. By 2015, Nikki returned home and joined Mons Royale, a local brand making waves globally. As Creative Lead, she has been shaping the Mons brand for over eight years while raising her family in Wānaka. Nikki’s belief in natural fibres and sustainability drives everything she does.
Sheena Denmead
Make It Better Ltd
Design Director
Sheena is an industrial designer with 20 years of experience working with global outdoor, wellness, and lifestyle brands that seek to produce more responsible products. Sheena and the Make It Better team work across hard and softgoods design, materials and supplier sourcing, and sustainability projects. She lives in Queenstown, so she can ski, ride her bike, and be surrounded by beauty.
James Fagan
Osprey Packs Inc.
Senior Product Designer
As a design student at OP, I became fascinated with pattern making and sewing. Since then, I have been designing outdoor gear for over 15 years. At Osprey, I am part of a global team that works relentlessly to create the most functional, ergonomic, and responsible products possible.
Harry Wager
Kathmandu
Apparel Designer
I'm a full-time runner and part-time designer (contractually the other way around ... ) with a passion for lowering the environmental impact that our performance clothing has on the planet.
Chris Thomson
Syrp
Founder
Chris has extensive experience in design, engineering, and marketing gained from a career in human-centred, design-led innovation companies. Currently, he invests in and works with various startups to help them bring their products to market. Chris has strong business design and innovation leadership skills, remains focused on industrial design, and enjoys developing and launching physical and digital products.
Rob Stirling
Scannable
CEO & Co-Founder
Rob graduated Product Design in 2009 and has spent his career in design & product management of sports and safety equipment in the UK & EU. Rob now leads Scannable, a tech startup that exists to digitise safety and make all PPE (personal protective equipment) smart.
Mike Maguire
Aeroe
Co-Founder
Raised in Dunedin. I used to spend a lot of time down at the Polytech as kid, mucking about while Dad (Pat Maguire) was teaching there. These days I'm helping grow aeroe with our awesome team, to bring the world's most user-friendly rack system for E-bikes / bikes, to riders everywhere.
Derek Manson
Fi Additive & Complete 3D
Advanced Manufacturing Manager
Graduating in 2003 and with a trade background, I have since operated in various consulting, operations, and design roles, specialising in additive manufacturing, both polymer and metal. I now head up two divisions of Fi Innovations, the additive bureau Fi Additive and the additive machinery reseller Complete 3D as well as overseeing the design activities for Fi Innovations.
Alex Broad
Evolve Outdoors Group Ltd.
Senior Product Designer
I basically draw a few pictures, manage a team of super talented designers, and hustle suppliers. It’s my team’s job to create epic hunting and fishing gear that lets our customers experience ‘boundless wild adventures’ in the most sustainable way we can.
Demetre Tryfiatis
Zero Co
Head of Product
Over the past 10 years I've been working within product innovation units. These are usually based around a single technology or system and change the company as a whole. While making stuff is great, making it in a manner which is sustainable is what we need to be doing right now.
Lauren Palmer
Fisher & Paykel
GM – Product Design Integration and Product Content
Lauren joined the Fisher & Paykel team in 2007 as a graduate industrial designer, fresh from Victoria University in Wellington. Based in the Dunedin Design Centre, Lauren has held management roles in industrial design and product development. Lauren is currently leading the transformation of product content to develop & deliver technical content to our customers, users & specifiers. She also leads the alignment of Industrial Design’s brand language roadmap ensuring consistency.
Gina Dempster
Wanaka Wastebusters
General Manager
I lead a team of 50+ at Wastebusters in Wānaka, working to keep tonnes of stuff in circulation and out of landfill. Our passion project is the transformation of Wastebusters into a bigger and more beautiful Circular Economy and Education hub; a microcosm of a future global system where repair, reuse, recycling and sustainable consumption is the norm, and waste has been designed out of the picture.
Tim Hunt
Arup
Lighting Design & Digital Lead
With a background in industrial design, Tim Hunt leads Arup’s lighting team in Melbourne. He likes to innovate and challenge convention to find new ways of approaching problems through creativity, research, testing and embracing new technologies. Tim has a desire to put people at the centre of every strategic decision, allowing him challenge briefs and push boundaries, working clients to solve challenges and create inspiring spaces after dark, continuously improving how humans interact with light.
Zoe Morehu
Ngāti Marū Runanga
Kaitiaki - Kai mahi
After completing my Honours in Design Degree last year, I have been summoned back to my whenua to contribute towards our Marae revitalisation project. Our aim is to reconnect people back to our Marae – Mātai Whetū through our kaumatua programme, Te Uru Kahika.
Adam Bartlett
Rocket Lab
Launch Technician
Adam is an engineer at Rocket Lab with a background in product design. Passionate about board sports, jiu jitsu, and building cars, he's also a dedicated father and aspiring content creator on YouTube.
Emily Mackenzie
Logan Park High School
Design Teacher
Emily is a secondary school technology teacher based in Dunedin. She is focused on designing and implementing a Product Design course tailored to meet the interests and needs of her students. This includes curriculum development, project-based learning initiatives, fostering innovation and rethinking how to achieve practical design projects in the classroom.
Jacob Earles
Virtuo Design
Junior Designer
After studying Design at Otago Polytech, I joined the team at Virtuo where I’ve had the privilege of being a part of a wide range of projects over the last three years. Alongside this is Apex Lures, a passion project combining my creative interests with my love for fishing. This little startup now has a worldwide customer base which keeps me busy.
Alice Wassell
Otago Furniture
Design and Sales
I graduated from Otago Polytechnic in 2022 and now have a Design and Sales role at Otago Furniture, where I do a little bit of a lot of things, including design, technical drawings, social media, and showroom sales.
Griff Hadland
Tabula
Product Designer
I'm a Dunedin-based product designer focused on market-leading GPS technology for the agricultural sector, covering both aviation and ground operations. I bridge technical expertise with user needs, ensuring our products are innovative, powerful, and valuable for businesses.