• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 19, 2019

Publicis Sapient has appointed John Maeda Chief Experience Officer. The Publicis Groupe unit said that in addition to spearheading design globally Maeda will spend time on developing talent for the firm.

Maeda joins Publicis Sapient from Automattic, where he served as the global head of computational design + inclusion.  

He currently serves on the Board of Sonos, the Smithsonian Design Museum and Weiden + Kennedy, and is the author of five books including the bestselling, "Laws of Simplicity."

Maeda was the recipient of the White House's National Design Award, the Tribeca Film Festival's Disruptive Innovation Award, and his work is represented in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Prior to Automattic, Maeda held the roles of Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins and Design Advisory Board Chair of eBay, Inc. Before that, he was a tenured research professor at the MIT Media Laboratory and 16th President of the Rhode Island School of Design.