Terry Branson
Founder and President
Necessity is truly the mother of all invention. Growing up on a farm in Kansas, Terry Branson got his first lesson in product development and design from his family of inventors and mechanics. “If you wanted it, you made it.” Terry thrives on challenge and embraces change, drawing from real-life experiences that provide him with an unwavering “gut” for what to do next. He went on to study Aeronautical Design and moved to the Silicon Valley in the summer of 1976 where he worked for a variety of high tech start-up and medical device companies. Terry founded M3 Design in 1996, now one of the largest product design firms in the southwest. With the vision of serving as an integrated design firm, M3 helps start-ups to Fortune 50 companies bring products to market. Clients such as Dell, AMD, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, BP, PetSafe, and Zebra Imaging afford opportunities for Terry and his staff to continually innovate with new products and ideas. At the end of the day, Terry never forgets his original desire to “create things that help people.”
Cyril Keilers
Director, Electrical Engineering
Cyril began his career at a precision timing and frequency control company where he served as the lead systems engineer for a tactical ground station product. He drove the product architecture from paper to production, working with a multidisciplinary engineering team and supporting field testing with the Air Force and other agencies. At the time of the product’s release, it was the highest revenue generating product for the company’s government systems division. Since joining M3 in 2007, Cyril has continued to act as an electrical engineering lead on multidisciplinary programs for Stryker, IBM, L3 Communications, GE Security, Emerson, and others. Cyril has the proven ability to solve highly focused problems without losing sight that the solution must meet the client’s business objectives … but most would expect nothing less from a graduate of Texas A&M University (Whoop!).
Jayson Simeon
Director, Industrial Design
Jayson joined M3 in 2011 as a seasoned industrial designer and account manager. He brings experience from diverse industries including consumer products, toys and children’s products, medical devices, consumer electronics, sporting goods, retail environments and industrial equipment. Educated at the Cleveland Institute of Art, and graduated as IDSA Merit Award winner, his career is shaped by his rewarding experience at an elite list of design firms including Fuseproject, Kaleidoscope, Nottingham-Spirk and M3 Design. Jayson has led research, strategy, industrial design, UI/UX teams through complex product development programs to create successful product experiences for his clients.
Key Clients include: Jawbone, SeaDoo, Logitech, Camelbak, Tippmann, Emerson, NetApp, The Cleveland Clinic, Radio Flyer, Zippo, Sigg, Procter and Gamble, Church and Dwight, General Mills, Invacare and Conair.
John Bernero
Chief Operations Officer
John joined M3 in 2008 bringing with him extensive experience translating surgeons’ ideas into orthopedic products. John began his career with Sulzer Orthopedics in 2000 and later joined Amedica Corporation in 2004. During that time, John led design efforts for Spine, Hip and Knee products. He was instrumental in bridging the gap between ceramics technology and medical applications in orthopedics while Amedica’s Director of Product Development. Since joining M3, John has added a unique perspective to the company’s holistic approach to designing products that significantly improve the stakeholder experience. In this capacity, John has worked with a range of clients, from start-ups seeking to launch innovative products to top-tier medical device manufacturers offering proven systems. John has a Biomedical Engineering degree from Northwestern University and is a patent holder with multiple patents pending.
Gray McCord
Chief Technology Officer
Gray uses his decades of product development, business strategy and technology experience to help M3′s clients understand “what’s next”, and how to best take advantage of it. Prior to joining M3, Gray led engineering, program, quality and design teams at such companies as Ford Motor, Texas Instruments, Compaq and Xyterra Computing as they created and delivered advanced products as diverse as fault-tolerant super computers, automated vehicle test systems and generations of personal computing devices. Since joining M3, Gray has assisted companies as diverse as Emerson, Microsoft, Advanced Pharmacy, Stryker, Cypress Systems, Y Dreams, Dell and Petsafe uncover, develop and deliver creative and effective products. He is a frequent contributor to the M3 Design Journal as well as publications such as MD&DI and has spoken at such events as South by Southwest and the Central Texas Digital Convergence Initiative. Gray holds a BSEE from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and an MBA from the University of Houston.
Walt Carver
Director, Mechanical Engineering
Sitting in the middle of a production line, Walt learned early on about the importance of quality and sound product design during his first job as a manufacturing engineer. In his next job he wrote over two thousand change orders as a sustaining engineer on the EH-60A helicopter project. He moved on to designing products that mounted to the outside of F-18 fighters and spent hundreds of hours performing environmental testing. Walt developed extensive analytical skills and has designed products to withstand everything from explosive blasts to seismic tremors. He recently architected a cooling system for a 100KW high density server project. Walt’s 25 years of experience from manufacturing through mechanical system architecture has given him an outstanding perspective of the entire product development process. Walt’s highest priority is to deliver the highest possible value to our clients. He has received patents for his electronic package architecture and was recognized as a top 4% performer at a fortune 500 company. Key clients include: Sun Microsystems, LSI Logic, HP, Brocade, Chatsworth, KLA Tencor and IBM.
Liz Rogers, Ph.D.
Director, Design Research & Strategy
A cultural anthropologist by training, Liz specializes in discovering unmet user needs and developing innovative product solutions that expand and open up new market opportunities. She is a passionate advocate of the benefits of seamlessly integrating research and design early on in the process of developing new products and services, and she is experienced in a wealth of research methods – qualitative and quantitative, generative and evaluative. She has conducted extensive research in the US and abroad (including China, India, Brazil, Russia, and Western Europe). Her true strength, however, lies in her ability to translate research findings into actionable insights and strategies through her close collaboration with clients and colleagues. Over the course of the past 12 years, she has worked for and with an impressive group of high-tech, industrial, consumer, pharmaceutical, and retail companies, including Dell, Kodak, Emerson, Merck, Sanofi-Aventis, JC Penney, and Wal-Mart. Liz has a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has taught courses in anthropology at SUNY Brockport, as well as University of Rochester.
