Phil Gilbert is an entrepreneur and self-proclaimed "startup guy". At IBM, his mission is grand: to transform one of the world's most iconic companies - and the technologies it creates to power the systems of the world. Phil was born in 1956, the same year that IBM's Thomas Watson, Jr. hired the company's first head of Design, Elliot Noyes. When Phil was ten, Watson declared "good design is good business." At the age of 27 - in 1983 - Phil started his first company and worked with the inventors of the Lisa, Macintosh and Windows. Startup #2 came in 1997 and #3 in 2002. When Lombardi Software (startup #3) was bought in 2010 by IBM, Phil assumed that #4 was just down the road. And then the strangest thing happened...

With support from the U-M College of Engineering.


Established with the generous support of alumna Penny W. Stamps, the Speaker Series brings respected emerging and established artists/designers from a broad spectrum of media to the School to conduct a public lecture and engage with students, faculty, and the larger University and Ann Arbor communities. Additional support is provided by series sponsors Michigan Radio, WUOM 91.7 FM and Arts @ Michigan.

Unless otherwise noted, all programs take place on Thursdays at 5:10 pm at the historic Michigan Theater, located at 603 E. Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor, and are free of charge and open to the public.