Rob began his career in product research and development in the automotive industry at Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and then spent 17 years at Johnson Controls Automotive becoming Chief Engineer of Interiors Innovation for the Overhead Zone.

Rob left Johnson Controls in 2013 to form G3 Acoustics and pursue his entrepreneurial interests with business partner, Dr. Brian Servis. Their startup mission was to leverage technologies discovered in the automotive industries and apply them entrepreneurially to other business markets such as aviation, marine, and hospitality.

Among other efforts, G3 Acoustics partnered with technology partner Bongiovi Acoustics to form an equity partnership, Bongiovi Aviation LLC, which provides speaker-less audio for private and business jet cabins. Bongiovi Aviation is on track to reach $3M in annual sales in 2024.

Tyler Blair is the Chief Executive Officer of Bit-Farms, a sustainability-focused smart-farming provider. He is a passionate advocate for sustainable agriculture solutions. Tyler began his career in food service focusing on corporate and higher education dining. Inspired by Detroit’s urban farming movement, Tyler transitioned from food service to farming.

A West Michigan native, Tyler returned home after the birth of his son and worked as greenhouse lead at Revolution Farms. He later became the Director of Campus Operations at urban farming company, Square Roots. At Square Roots, he played a key role in the organization’s partnership with Gordon Food Service. This led Tyler to the founding of Bit-Farms, a venture born from the learnings of the GFS-Square Roots partnership.

Tyler’s mission is to reconnect people with their food and ensure high-quality food is accessible to everyone.

Tim Murphy is an innovative Product Development Leader with a proven track record in consumer electronics. As the founder of Airdrop Gaming in 2013, he spearheaded its evolution into Audio Radar, a cutting-edge technology company. Tim’s expertise spans Design Management, Industrial Design, and Business Development. He holds a bachelor’s in industrial design from Kendall College of Art and Design. Passionate about creating products that enhance user experiences and meet unmet needs, Tim continues to drive innovation in the industry.

Jason is the founder of First Domino, a consultancy that works with organizations of all shapes, sizes, tenures and markets to connect their strategy, insights, and ideas to true innovation. Most of his work focuses on teaching and guiding teams through the processes and nuance of creativity, value creation, enterprise innovation and opportunity framing.

Prior to founding First Domino, Jason led several design, innovation and insights teams at Newell Brands. There, he led front-end innovation for a variety of household brands, like Rubbermaid, Sharpie®, Graco®, Coleman®, Rubbermaid Commercial Products®, Yankee Candle®, Paper Mate®, FoodSaver®, Dymo®, EXPO®, Elmer’s®, Oster®, NUK®, Spontex® and Marmot®. Before Newell, Jason led NewNorth Center for Design in Business, teaching executives and innovation teams the fundamentals of design thinking and innovation management. He and his wife Molly life in Zeeland and have five kids; in his free time, you can find him reading, riding his bike, enjoying the outdoors and building LEGO (with and without his kids).

Brian Beardsley is a highly experienced Senior Business Executive and Commissioned Military Officer with a track record of over twenty-five years leading successful teams in operations and commercial solutions for top companies in the healthcare industry, including Tyco Healthcare, Covidien, and Teleflex. His strategic vision and functional leadership have been instrumental in the launch of healthcare products and medical devices.

He is spearheading Gentex’s corporate development efforts to establish a new vertical for health-centric solutions, a groundbreaking endeavor for the company. In his current position, he oversees the strategy, M&A activities, and partner relations for a portfolio of over half a dozen companies.

Originally from Virginia, Brian and his family relocated to Michigan eight years ago.

Dominic joined Haworth in January 2014 as the Director of Technology and Shared Workspaces Business Unit. In this role, he was responsible for driving growth of revenue and profit margins. The business unit grew almost 300% in 2 years – achieved by executing a series of business development initiatives that expanded sales, discount management, improved quality and improved processes related to field sales education and training.

As of September 2019, Dominic accepted the role of Global Design and Sustainability Director (GDS). In his new role he focuses on strategy and planning of the development pipeline, new product development productivity, technology and process scouting, support development of robust concepts with sound business plans and sustainability team leadership. All of which include working closely with our global colleagues to ensure transparency and alignment of strategies, roadmaps, launch plans, etc.