Microsoft Hires Former Everbridge, Publicis Sapient Exec For AI, Design Role | CRN

December 05, 2022, 5:31 PM EST

John Maeda now holds the title of vice president of design and artificial intelligence at Microsoft.

Microsoft has hired John Maeda, an influential technologist and former chief technology officer of Everbridge, as its new vice president of design and artificial intelligence, according to its LinkedIn account.

His LinkedIn post announcing his move to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft garnered more than 110 comments and more than 840 reactions.

Commentators included Jason Wild, Microsoft vice president and CEO of co-innovation and customer engagement; Scott Robinson, President and CEO of FreshForm; Nick Gernert, VIP CEO of WordPress, and Chris Taylor, CMO of SmartAsset.

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CRN has contacted Maeda, Microsoft and Everbridge for comment.

In his post, Maeda wrote that he tried to get an internship at Microsoft as a teenager in the Seattle area, but “failed the operator precedence rules in C.”

“I told the interviewer that I could type fast enough to get the right combination (I could never do that well in one shot and I always did it iteratively) so it didn’t matter” , he wrote. “Of course he didn’t believe me ;-). And back then, there wasn’t the word “dyslexia” to more properly explain my brain’s propensity to reverse sequences of objects. »

Maeda recently worked as CTO of Everbridge, according to her LinkedIn account. Everbridge is a Boston-based publicly traded critical event management (CEM) software provider and has a partner program for channel partners, service partners and other vendors, according to the company.

In this role, Maeda led “Everbridge’s technology and product vision to enable RESILIENCE at the enterprise, city and country level” with a focus on “Big Language Models (AI/ML ), results-oriented visualization approaches and Japanese craftsmanship. kintsugi (金継ぎ) applied to digital products/services,” according to his LinkedIn.

Maeda was hired by Everbridge in 2020 with the title of Director of Customer Experience, according to a statement at the time.

Maeda was previously one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century”, according to Everbridge’s statement. Wired magazine once compared Maeda’s role in design to that of Warren Buffett in finance.

The exact reason for Maeda’s separation from Everbridge was unclear. In July, Everbridge hired a new CEO, David Wagner, former CEO of Zix.

In November, the company reported revenue of $111.4 million for the third quarter of its fiscal year, a quarter that ended September 30. This turnover increased by 15% year-on-year. The company posted an operating loss of $19.2 million, about the same as a year ago. And Everbridge reported a net loss of $22.1 million for the period, about 20% lower than the net loss recorded in the same period a year earlier.

The company also announced that 200 positions would be cut before the end of the year.

Maeda previously worked at technology services provider Publicis Sapient for about a year, leaving the company in 2020 as executive vice president and chief experience officer, according to his LinkedIn account.

At Publicis Sapient, Maeda “co-developed the LEAD (Light, Ethical, Accessible, Dataful) system to reshape the overall experience capability to be ‘AI Ready’ – with an incredible leadership team at every level “, according to his LinkedIn account.

His resume includes around three years with parent company WordPress Automattic. He left the company in 2019 with the title of Head of IT Design and Inclusion, according to his LinkedIn account.

For more than five years, Maeda served as the 16th president and CEO of the Rhode Island School of Design, according to his LinkedIn.

“Together with my leadership team, we have raised RISD’s profile to number one by dramatically increasing scholarship funding, expanding student access to digital technologies and careers, engaging a new generation junior faculty and advancing the STEM to STEAM movement in the US Congress,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

Maeda worked at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a professor before joining RISD. He is also an author, publishing “The Laws of Simplicity”, “Redesigning Leadership” and “Design By Numbers”.

Maeda’s career has included consulting roles with Google and eBay, a guest artist role at Reebok and time as a design partner at Kleiner Perkins, according to her LinkedIn account.