Steve Kaneko, FIDSA, is an award-winning designer who believes that design, in its best sense, is about creating empathic relationships between people and the man-made artifacts in their lives. Steve advises industry leaders on experience design strategy, and the structuring of high-performing engineering organizations capable of delivering human-centered solutions for today’s new era computing.

For nearly 30 years, Steve staffed and directed design, research, and envisioning organizations in Microsoft’s Hardware, Windows, Entertainment, Office, and Cloud divisions. A true design pioneer, Steve is the recipient of numerous Microsoft awards for his efforts in product and experience design, including the prestigious Award for Technical Excellence in 2014, which he shared with colleagues for their unification of the company’s design language and experiences across major software and hardware product lines. Before leaving Microsoft in April 2019, Steve was head of design for the Mixed Reality, Speech, and Computer Vision group, where he built a multidisciplinary team of designers, artists, researchers, and engineers to deliver the industry leading HoloLens experience.

Steve has received over 50 international awards for his design research and strategy, and industrial and interaction designs. His Microsoft Mouse 2.0 is part of the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. In 2005, Steve was inducted into the Industrial Designers Society of America Academy of Fellows for his contributions to the development of the profession. Most recently, the University of Washington School of Art + Art History + Design honored Steve with the 2019 Anne Focke Arts Leadership Award for his vision and “passion for providing pathways for growth to generations of emerging talent.”