MEET EL 2011 KEYNOTE SPEAKER TIM KOBE

Sometimes called “Apple’s best kept secret” Eight Inc. is one of the most progressive crossdisciple
fi rms working today, helping to transform organizations to be relevant in the worlds
most highly competitive environments. Tim Kobe is a design leader and Founder and President
of Eight Inc. Mr. Kobe will share his experience with the Apple retail program, Virgin customer
experience and new transformations at Citibank by looking at the factors that drive successful
human interactions.

Eight Inc. employs leading designers and strategists working across 7 offi ces including London,
New York, San Francisco, Honolulu, Tokyo, Beijing and Singapore. 8 has received international
design awards and have been published in Asia, Europe, and the United States.

Tim Kobe has lectured about design at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena; the
California College of Arts and Crafts, San Francisco; the San Francisco Academy of Art; and at
the IDSA Awards Presentation, 1997. He has been an adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at
the California College of Arts and has lectured on behalf of the US State Department regarding
sustainability and architecture in Bangkok and Los Angeles. He has lectured at the prestigious
annual Picnic in Amsterdam, an annual design conference merging business and technology and
lectured at the annual Microsoft Symposium in New York in 2010.

In 2005 Kobe became a trustee at Art Center College of Design and currently serving as
Chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the
Grabhorn Institute in San Francisco California.

In 1996 Kobe received the top award for the professional competition “High Density on the
High Ground.” sponsored by McGraw-Hill Companies’ Architectural Record magazine and Tulane
University School of Architecture, a competition intended to serve as a catalyst to reassess,
re-envision and redesign New Orleans’ housing needs following the devastation brought by
hurricane Katrina. Kobe and his fi rm also were selected to represent the United States at the
Architecture Bienniale in Venice Italy and participated in a worldwide traveling exhibition on
the subject.