In her role as VP of Hardware Design at Google, Ivy Ross brings creative expertise in everything from fashion and jewelry to toys and art and even sound healing and Mien Shiang (the Chinese art of face-reading). She dropped out of college right before graduating to open a design concept store in NYC, but still managed to attend Harvard Business School and was recently given an honorary PhD from FIT, her would-be alma matter. Ross is creative yet decisive, sensitive yet bullish. Perhaps, when combined, this has resulted in her untraditional career path which includes brands like Calvin Klein, Mattel, Gap and Swatch in senior positions that toe the line between marketing and design. Though she knows how to navigate the corporate sphere, she's also an artist whose metalwork is featured in museums around the world. Ross joined Google in 2014 to head up Glass and endured the rollercoaster of that product, ultimately landing it in the enterprise space. She began her current role looking after all hardware design about 16 months ago. This month, the fruits of her labor have come to bear as a new suite of mobile and home products designed and built by Google. It’s the company’s first cohesive collection of physical product and sets an exciting path forward for the brand.
Interview: Ivy Ross, Google's Head of Hardware Design