Bios:

Paul King
Director of Product Design, Petmate
Petmate.com

Paul King is a distinguished design executive renowned for his innovative contributions across the consumer, toy & game, technology, and automotive industries. As Director of Product Design at Petmate, Paul works with cross-functional teams in developing products that harmoniously blend form, function, and enjoyment—ensuring commercial success and elevating user experiences.

With more than twenty-five years in the field, Paul’s career includes influential leadership roles at global brands such as Mattel and KidKraft, in addition to top design consultancies including Joss Design and Hauser. His design expertise extends to collaborations with companies like P&G, ACCO, and Johnson Controls, where he has delivered impactful product solutions.

Paul’s work has earned multiple nominations for the prestigious TOTY (Toy of the Year) Awards, and he has spearheaded the development of iconic products such as Mattel’s ViewMaster VR, Barbie Video Girl, and Barbie Girls MMO. These innovations have been recognized by CES, Popular Science, and the TAGIE Awards, underscoring his reputation for driving creativity and excellence in product design.
An accomplished designer, Paul excels at guiding product strategy, mentoring design talent, and helping organizations unlock creativity to achieve market success. He holds a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Kansas and has furthered his education at the Art Center College of Design.

Paul is passionate about nurturing innovation, building effective teams, and creating purposeful design solutions that engage users and foster business growth.

Dean Streck
CEO, APT Solar Solutions
www.aptss.com

Dean Streck is an accomplished entrepreneur and executive with more than 25 years of leadership in technology, energy, and industrial sectors. He is currently CEO of APT Solar Solutions, a Michigan-based company pioneering vertically stacked solar power systems for smart cities, IoT applications, and high-density renewable energy.

Dean previously served as Vice President of Global Professional Services & Customer Support at AiRISTA Flow, where he helped the company achieve Gartner Leadership Status for RTLS solutions. He also held senior roles at VI-grade, Avanceon, and V I Engineering, where he spent over two decades as CEO and Owner, delivering mission-critical solutions to organizations including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, General Motors, Rivian, Medtronic, Eli Lilly, Microsoft, and Fitbit.

A Harvard Business School graduate of the Owner/President Management program, Dean also holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University. He served seven years on the CSIA Executive Board, where he chaired the Best-Practices Committee and earned the Charlie Berman Man of the Year Award, voted by over 400 peers.

Jeevak Badve
CGO, SundbergFerar.com

Jeevak brings energy, passion & curiosity to his role at Sundberg-Ferar. With his unique blend of education and experience in industrial design, engineering and business, he is a rallying voice for the alignment and optimal inclusion of the end user’s un-met needs, unspoken wants in the core value proposition of a company’s products & service portfolio and the market-product fit, to generate sought-after shareholder value.

Jeevak has more than 25 years of professional design experience, first in India at Tata Motors, and then in the U.S. for 20 years at GM Design, ASC, Harman, RLE and now Sundberg-Ferar. Beyond his role at SF, He also served on IDSA’s International board for 6 years and chaired IDSA’s 2017 flagship International Design Conference: “Design IS Business”.

In his copious amounts of spare time, Jeevak can be found indulging in his love of kickboxing, and obstacle course running, or photographing birds in obscure parts of the world.