Benedikt is a seasoned design executive with the heart of a maker and 20+ years of expertise in creating products people love and leading the world-class teams that make them. His leadership has shaped how billions of people interact with technology.

He is the founder of 74West, a sleeves-up, hands-on advisory practice for CEOs, executives, or boards who are navigating pivotal moments in their organizations. Drawing on his insights and experience from two decades of transformational creative leadership – from startups to Fortune 10 big tech – Ben works 1:1 with a client at the intersection of customer experience, design integration, and strategy execution.

Benedikt also serves as an Entrepreneurship & Design Fellow and Adjunct Professor at Princeton University, where he teaches aspiring entrepreneurs both during the academic year (EGR 380-381 “Creating value in the real world”) and the eLab summer program at the Keller Center. His work explores the convergence of entrepreneurship, humanistic design, and business leadership with a focus on AI and co-creativity, neuroaesthetics, and the socio-economic responsibility of design.

As a board member of the Design Executive Council (DXC) Ben helps shape the standards of humanistic design and strategic leadership as AI transforms experience design and business strategy.

Until January 2025, he was the Chief Design Officer at Stark tackling Digital Accessibility, which he sees as “one of this century’s biggest design problems that’s affecting 2B+ people on the planet.”

As Chief Design Officer of SAP, he led 1000+ designers and engineers, reporting directly to SAP’s Executive Board to transform the customer experience across the global portfolio, enabling the company’s transformation into a cloud- and AI-first business. 

As a design executive at Microsoft, Ben directed key UX teams, including Office and M365 Experience,s while leading the evolution of the Fluent design language and aligning all mobile apps across platforms.

Benedikt joined Microsoft through the $150M+ acquisition of Wunderlist, where he was Chief Design Officer. He scaled the product team to 70 people and helped secure funding from Atomico and Sequoia Capital.

He is the author of Typoguide, an international keynote speaker, and angel investor in design-driven startups. His award-winning hardware, software, and brand design work has been featured in publications worldwide.

Born in Saarland, Germany, to a family of craftspeople, Ben’s appreciation for purposeful, well-crafted work runs deep. He divides his time between Princeton, NJ, and Kingston, NY.