Publicis Sapient appoints John Maeda as Chief Experience Officer

Publicis Sapient, a digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe, has announced the appointment of John Maeda as Chief Experience Officer. The selection of Maeda, one of the world’s creative leaders of computational design - the convergence of design and technology - signals Publicis Sapient’s ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of how businesses create exponential value for their customers and markets.

“John Maeda is one of the most extraordinary designs and technology thinkers of our age, with an exceptional pedigree as a leader helping companies to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation to reimagine their business and industry. said Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient. 

In this role, John joins the Creative Executive Collective of Publicis Groupe whereby creative leadership is multi-faceted and structured to develop the necessary broad palette of creativity for the modern world – dynamic creativity brought to life through stories, experiences, and innovation. 

Maeda’s role as Chief Experience Officer forges an engineering and design partnership at the highest level, unconventionally decoupling experience from the traditional creative lead, and instead, pairing it with the EVP of Engineering. This action draws on the strength of Publicis Sapient’s history of tightly synergistic technology and experience and signals a deeply technologically grounded future where creativity is fully integrated. 

Along with spearheading design globally, Maeda will spend time on people, bringing his commitment to inclusion and talent development to the table - vital components to unlocking real value for clients.

“Our clients have long been seeing a need for technology and media to work hand-in-hand without losing or degrading the creative product. Maeda’s history of fostering inclusive thinking as the key to excellence in creativity is exactly in line with the strategic pillars for Publicis Groupe in our talent and culture development,” said Carla Serrano, CSO, Publicis Groupe.

John Maeda said, “When a technology becomes commoditized, the quality of experience becomes the key differentiating factor. But you can’t have a great experience without being paired with great technology. Publicis Sapient brings to its clients full-stack engineering capabilities blended with its rich history at the forefront of creativity technologies — stretching back to the 90s back when I first knew about them in my MIT days. Aspiring to empower established businesses at all scales to realize great experiences for their customers to push back on Big Tech is in line with where my heart is right now. I’m looking forward to the impact we can make and excited to join this great, multi-disciplinary team.”

Maeda joins Publicis Sapient from Automattic, where he served as the Global Head of Computational Design + Inclusion. Maeda 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. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering + Computer Science from MIT, an MBA from Arizona State University, a PhD from University of Tsukuba in Japan, and has received three honorary doctorate degrees.

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.