“Roger is brilliant, dynamic, and an innovative problem-solver! I met Roger last year through Bloomberg Philanthropies, where he served as my grant competition coach. Roger pushed, educated, and challenged Lansing in a way that caused us to grow beyond our expectations. I believe that everyone needs a Roger Mader in their life!”
– Judy Kehler, CPFIM, ACPFIM
Chief Executive Officer | President
“Roger was my professor in my first semester of the MFA Interaction Design program at SVA. His was the best class, taught with Criswell Lappin, because he helped me become a strategic and socially responsible designer.
As an Asian woman coming from a homogeneous country, I could deeply learn about the serious health inequity issue triggered by racism in the U.S. where diverse people exist.
Roger gave objective feedback and encouragement for our work, so inclusive of international students like me who lack speaking English skills, I could speak out for the project with less pressure.
He was so professional at managing the time and trying to teach students additional things every time. His class was the education that I expected from the U.S.”
– Suri Namkoung
Product designer / Studying MFA Interaction Design at SVA
“Roger delivered a tour de force for my Marketing class in the NYU Stern MBA program. The students were enthralled. His wrap-up took the cake. I couldn’t have asked for a more powerful way to close out the semester.”
– Ruth Stevens
B2B Marketing Consultant, Author, Educator | Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern
“It was a remarkable meeting at NY by the end of 2019 winter… and for sure, it was a important game changing point of my professional life! You were a beautiful Spark, pushing me to my big reset and reinventing my career, bringing a new purpose for my work! For that, thank you very much! You are a inspiration for many people for sure! Cheers!”
– Bernardo Hiragami
Founder da B88 Assessoria de Negócios | Professor na EGG | Board Member
“Roger was, without question, the most influential professor during my graduate education at SVA. In class, he fostered a culture of creativity and sweat the details of our student projects — motivating us to become better practitioners. As a mentor, Roger was always available. He is a sincere & empathetic listener that provides honest and candid feedback. Roger helped me discover my calling, and I am confident he will do the same for future SVA students.”
– Scott Zachau
Senior Strategic Designer at BCG Digital Ventures
“I am so glad to join Roger and Criswell’s SIPSD class this semester. The whole class is meaningful. It gives me opportunities to work with Worthi launched by Citi Ventures and trains me lots of skills to work with classmates and different coworkers.
I learned a lot in this class, how to design a product in the whole process, how to find users’ pain points, how to make and present a project more interesting, and what is business mode background which all mean a lot to me.
Roger is really nice. He gave prompt feedback on our teamwork, took care of our design progress, and answered all my questions to improve my design skills.”
– Yuxuan Hou
MFA Interaction Design Candidate at SVA
“Roger is one of those people who can impact people’s career exponentially even without realizing it. About 6-7 years ago Roger reached out to a senior executive in his contact list after he got wind that I was interviewing for a brand position at a global hospitality company. His endorsement sealed the deal and landed me the job, which led to the opportunity of leading the launch of the company’s fastest growing global brand of boutique hotels. Thanks to this experience in hospitality I was subsequently hired into a high profile strategic innovation position with a global architecture firm. And all of this is now opening amazing new possibilities as a strategist. Roger’s simple act of kindness propelled my career into a whole new direction and I’m sure I’m just one of hundreds of people he has impacted.”
– Roberto Seif
“Roger was my professor in the MFA program for Interaction Design at the School of Visual Arts. He taught a very inspiring class called “Strategic Innovation in Product/Service Design”. He is incisive and precise when he critiques my work. I appreciate the way he teaches because he like to use case studies to explain methodologies. The most important thing I learned from him is the way to think and the attitude and intuition I shaped when I looked at problems in different scopes. I also appreciate the opportunity he brought to us to work with real clients in the design industry. He is a great mentor and supporter.”
– Yumeng Ji
Product Designer
“Roger is a remarkable force of nature with SVA graduate students. From his exceptional way of motivating students in his design strategy course to his diplomacy in connecting students with prospective career futures, Roger is progressive, candid, and wildly prolific. A master connector, counselor, and instigator, he is a tremendous positive force to students, alumni, and his faculty colleagues.”
– Liz Danzico
Product and Design Executive, Educator | Former NPR
“It would be hard to imagine a person more committed to finding the best possible answer arrived at in the best possible way. Roger is deeply appreciative of the strategic, organizational, and leadership dimensions that drive an organization’s success, and he is uniquely gifting in bringing all of those dimensions together to foster innovation. He possesses a rich, humane, and thoroughly unique capacity to bring the best out of people and ideas.”
– Richard Tyson
Senior Associate and Director, Intelligent Places at Gensler
“I worked closely with Roger for over a year when he co-led my multi-disciplinary innovation team advising a global healthcare life sciences company. The programmatic engagement included crafting an innovation strategy and developing human-centered, design-based innovations from initial opportunity identification to conceptual prototypes. The work he led engaged a cross-functional suite of F500 executives through immersive events to define a future vision– all of which occurred during an uncertain post-merger integration period. During the twists and turns of the high stakes engagement, I especially valued how Roger empowered our team and solicited multiple perspectives regardless of hierarchy and how he brought his unique brand of candor, passion and humor everyday.”
– YiLeng Lee
Innovation Senior Director at Salesforce
“Roger is a consummate professional and proven executive able to flourish in any environment. He brings honesty, high energy, innovation and strategic thinking to business challenges and opportunities. A natural leader with the ability to see individual prisms of greatness in people while others are blinded by the light, or disoriented.
Roger led a very successful strategic global account with my business development support for over four years. He is blessed with innate gifts and developed skills that build trusts with c-level and senior executives in short order. His thoughtfulness and ability to study a situation, open relevant lines of communication and listen before coming to any conclusions sets him apart.”
– James T. Carrigan
Director, Strategic Accounts – Business Development Leader – 25 Years of Experience Propelling Revenue – Winning Fortune 50 Clients
“Roger and I began our careers together at Accenture, and continue to be thought partners today. He is a brilliant, out-of-the-box thinker, who will challenge the norms and create a landscape of possibilities that is worthy of consideration. After recalibrating the starting point, he can clarify the options, design a strategic path forward, and lead an implementation to make it happen, with measurable results. And his exceedingly clever wit is entertaining throughout the journey. Beyond his work, he is gracious to share experiences and mentor our emerging leaders. Thank you for that! Roger is an A+ player to lead any team.”
– Marita Decker
Fueling confident, practical, resilient leaders
“Roger facilitated an unforgettable learning experience for an Innovation Strategy course last semester at SVA. As one of his students, I can attest that he is not only an instructor, but also an inspiring leader and mentor. He pushed us to define ambiguity, uncover product value, and deliver a compelling product pitch. The energy, insight, and delivery that he brought to class empowered us all to be better. I highly recommend him for teacher and advisor roles dealing with innovation and strategy.”
– Zella Vanié
Designer | Artist Designer | Artist
“Roger Mader brings extraordinary energy to everything he does. Regardless of the complexity of the role he undertakes, he brings everything he has to it. He also creates an environment that inspires every team member with whom he works to invest equally and enthusiastically in the work at hand. I had the pleasure of working with Roger on a organizational change project for over a year and found his passion and commitment contagious and highly motivating. Roger has exceptional project management skills, excellent analytic skills, and understands how to quickly and deeply immerse himself into an organization’s culture. He is also endlessly self educating and challenging himself. He is wonderful leader and colleague.”
– Sara Kearney
Hospitality, Operations And Brand Experience Professional
“Roger is a curious hybrid of innovation guru and a genuinely optimistic teacher of innovation. He is as comfortable in the C-suite boardroom as he is in the classroom.
I often marvel as he connects with these two audience extremes effortlessly. But of course it isn’t effortlessness – it comes from the only place it can – experience in the trenches.”
– Jared Richardson
Global Head of Design, Colgate-Palmolive