Hari Nair is a design leader with a global footprint and extensive experience in academia and corporate design practice. He provided visionary design leadership for major corporations and has built communities of practice, establishing design studios around the world, recruiting talent in US, Europe and Asia.

Over 15 years at Whirlpool Appliances, he was able to develop unique methodologies for generating innovative concepts for home appliances of the future. He founded the Advanced Design team in Chicago and was instrumental in the development of several product concepts, highly successful in the market and setting up an innovation road map. One of the Washing Machines (ACE) introduced in the Asian market won the Edison Awards (Silver) in 2009. He was the Chief Design Officer for Whirlpool China based in Shanghai, until 2017.

He is currently CEO and thought leader at Design for Winning LLC providing design strategy services for start-ups and large corporations. Design for Winning LLC became a member of the World Design Organization (WDO) in 2019 and Hari Nair was a key note speaker at the World Design Organization Assembly in Hyderabad in October of that year. Hari also Jury member of various design and innovation competitions such as Spark Awards, Asia Pacific Design Competition (APDC) and Edison Awards.

Hari Nair is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai and Syracuse University, New York with Masters degrees in Industrial Design. He has a pioneering role in design and innovation in the corporate and academic contexts. He initiated computer graphics and digital media integration in the design curriculum at the University of Cincinnati, Rhode Island School of Design and Emerson College, over the years. This integration led to the development of new programs and curricula in Digital Media, Interaction Design and Computer Aided Design, at these institutions cutting across Product Design, Architecture and Media Studies. His design and digital visualization for a Newsstand for the City of New York won the Worldesign88 award instituted by the Mayor of the City, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Industrial Design Society of America (IDSA)

Hari is a world citizen having spent substantial periods in the US, Asia, Europe and South America. He has a global family with kids living in New York, Amsterdam, Hefei (China) and Santa Caterina (Brazil). He currently shuttles between his homes in Orlando and Savannah and enjoys travel, social work, golf and fishing.