Terry Swack

Sustainable Minds

Terry Swack is a pioneer in the design and technology industries, and an Internet and environmental entrepreneur. In 2007, Terry co-founded Sustainable Minds, a software and information services company enabling product design organizations to create innovative and sustainable products. The company's mission is to bring sustainable product design into the mainstream in an accessible, empowering and credible way.

Early in 2007, Terry founded Clean Culture, a customer experience research and strategy consultancy focused on making clean tech and sustainable products more understandable and desirable.

In 2005, she founded Green Building Blocks and The Beam (which later became Blue Egg), a venture-backed Web 2.0 media company and marketplace for consumers, manufacturers, and service providers to power the demand for clean and green products and services.

In 2002, she became a founding team member of StillSecure, a network security software company. As VP of Customer Experience, in a unique partnership with the VP of Engineering, she co-managed product teams to bring three successful products to market in less than two years.

Terry's first company, TSDesign, was founded in 1985 as a graphic design firm and became an Internet strategy and product design firm in 1994. Clients ranged from startups to Fortune 500 stalwarts including 3M, Compaq, Dell, BankBoston, Cendant Mortgage, PlanetAll and Tripod. The development of the User Experience AuditSM in 1996, was the first offering of its kind and positioned the company as the industry leader in design analysis and user experience strategy. TSDesign was acquired in 1999 by Razorfish, a global digital services provider.

Terry has played a significant role in the evolution of the design profession. From 2001–2004, Terry served on the board of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). In 1998, she co-founded, with Clement Mok, the AIGA Experience Design community of interest. (Read about this at Boxes and Arrows. )

In 2003, with leaders from ACM’s SIGCHI, Terry co-created and co-chaired the DUX conference (Designing for User Experiences). DUX was the first design/technology joint conference on interactive digital design based on peer-reviewed case studies.

Terry has been a frequent speaker to business, technology and design audiences on designing effective digital business systems and the brand experience; and increasingly, on the intersections of sustainability, business innovation and the future of engineering software.

Check out some of Terry’s interviews and presentations:

AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford 2010 Meet the New Captains of Innovation

Prelude to COFES 2010: Terry Swack on Sustainability

Talk at Xerox PARC on Sustainable Product Design.

Interview with Sustainable Life Media: "Sustainable Product Design: Terry Swack on the Importance of User Experience"

Interview with John Udell from Microsoft: "A conversation with Terry Swack about design, green construction, and the business of sustainability"

Interview with Jonathan Bardelline, GreenBiz Radio: "How Sustainable Thinking Can Change Design"

Keynote address at COFES 2008: "Making Stuff Sustainably"

Greener by Design 2009: The New Metrics of Design - Walmart, SAP, Sustainable Minds