We See Things Differently
Our Leadership
Each of our principals has more than 30 years’ experience in operational design for complex enterprises. Our roots extend to the largest global industrial software development efforts, and we cut our teeth in an internationally respected technology-design firm, working with leading global brands such as IBM, Ford, Exelon, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Bloomberg, NHS, and many others.
Johanna Hambrose
Chief Executive Officer
“
We have taken such care in building a team of the most talented, and kind people, I have ever had the pleasure of working alongside. Zenda is exceptional in what we do because of who we are.”
Prior to founding Zenda in 2016, Johanna co-founded the internationally recognized technology-design firm Electronic Ink, leading an industry for 25 years by defining the human experience with technology-driven products. Johanna brings 30 years of business law experience, as both practitioner and business executive, to Zenda. It is her personal commitment to excellence that distinguishes Zenda in its promise to exceed client expectations.
Establishing Zenda as a certified woman-owned business, Johanna has created a safe environment which supports the free exchange of ideas, challenges norms, and encourages exploration. Bringing diverse perspectives and experiences to our work continues to attract top designers who see beyond the computer screen. Johanna is again transforming an industry through Work Design™.
Mary Caracappa
Chief Operations Officer
“ My operational experience for 30+ years has continued to prove out that your people can often best articulate the challenges in performing their jobs. Zenda’s approach enables your people to have a voice in solving for your business issues”
Mary joins Zenda® following a 30-year, cross-disciplinary career as a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and as a former client and believer in applying HCD to solve complex business problems.
An accomplished executive with a powerful blend of strategic agility, execution-focused leadership, and financial acumen, Mary steered global transformation initiatives to create efficiencies, mitigate risk, and scale businesses during significant growth periods and amid a changing regulatory environment. Her global leadership roles include Head of New Products; CAO/CIO for Merchant Banking; Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Officer; Operational Risk Head for Finance; and Head of Internal Audit for corporate functions.
A recognized change agent with a strong bias towards action and ability to tackle business complexities, Mary successfully led distributed work teams across disciplines and business lines to remediate operational deficiencies, build new infrastructure and capabilities, enhance internal controls, and evolve the financial reporting landscape.
Harold Hambrose
Chief Strategy Officer
“ Every day I have the privilege of seeing our consultants effect how our clients’ businesses run. It’s hard to say which is more rewarding – witnessing the value that our people bring to this new area of work, or the meaningful, positive transformations they are bringing to workers across so many verticals.”
Harold was among the first professionals forging a path for design in the technology industry. He co-founded Electronic Ink, the first technology-design firm dedicated exclusively to the human-centered design of software, and attracted landmark projects, including operating systems, early banking machines, medical record systems, and financial services platforms.
Over thirty years of designing enterprise systems, Harold extended the voice and impact of design beyond software user interfaces. Recognizing a need for improved collaboration among the diverse disciplines inside business enterprises led to the development of operations modeling: human-centered analysis informing the creation of models articulating the relationships, risks, and opportunities among the enterprise’s human context, business processes, technology, and data.
Harold is the author of Wrench in the System, published by John Wiley & Sons. He has taught courses at various universities and has lectured at conferences around the world. Harold served as an expert in design and technology for international legal proceedings. He received the Alumni Achievement Award from Carnegie Mellon University for significant contributions to the design and technology industries and is a member of the Advisory Board of CMU’s College of Fine Arts.
Our Team
The Zenders
Our team members are well-credentialed and experienced practitioners in fields like architecture, communication design, industrial design, service design, UI/UX design, the behavioral sciences, finance, business management, and the law. As important as their degrees and job history is their curiosity, thoughtfulness, and sincere interest in how people organize and perform work.
More About Us
Message from Johanna Hambrose, CEO
I started Zenda in 2018 as a certified woman-owned business to create an environment in which diversity of thought and life experiences inform the rich, multi-dimensional environments in which we work. At Zenda, we believe that diversity in all of its forms — education, expertise, ethnicity, language, culture, perspective — ensures that an understanding and respect for the nuances that drive any work event are neither dismissed nor overlooked. Diversity, acceptance, and inclusion have served as the driver in all we do and remain key to our business success.
Women Owned
WBENC and WOSB certified since 2018
Member WBEC Metro NY
As a company that appreciates the power in diversity, Zenda is proud to employ extraordinarily talented people from many countries and many backgrounds.
60% of Zenda employees are women
65% of Zenda employees are diverse
Timeline
We Have History
Design Milestones
2020
Financial Reporting + Analytics Transformation
.Work Design unleashes workforce know-how in the design of improved operations for MDM, Forecasting and Close, Fortune 100 Consumer Products
2020
Transformation in Remote Work Environment
Design of remote Employee Experience and infrastructure, Fortune 100 Pharma.
2019
Salesforce - Work Design
Design of remote Employee Experience and infrastructure, Fortune 100 Pharma.
Timeline
We Have History
Industry Milestones
2020
Financial Reporting + Analytics Transformation
Work Design unleashes workforce know-how in the design of improved operations for MDM, Forecasting and Close, Fortune 100 Consumer Products
2020
Transformation in Remote Work Environment
Design of remote Employee Experience and infrastructure, Fortune 100 Pharma.
2019
Salesforce - Work Design
Operation model for platform integration across global sales lifecycle, Fortune 500 service company.
2018
Global Legal Operations
Rank leading OTS vendors according to the design of legal operations work within a global financial services firm.
2017
Design in Enterprise Technology
Keynote address to global technology leadership team at Johnson & Johnson.
2015
US Affordable Care Act (ACA) Compliance
Top selling, award winning employer portal providing the ability to manage compliance with America’s ACA.
2013
EE: Everything Everywhere
T-Mobile and Orange merger requires a single point-of-sale terminal design that unifies two workforces into a common customer care experience.
2012
London 2012
Public access interactive displays portraying Olympic event venue energy consumption real-time.
2011
MoMA: Talk to Me
Emergency Response Command Center design is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art’s Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects.
2010
SAP DKOM
Engineering Technology / Designing Innovation Keynote address to annual global developers’ conference at SAP, the world’s largest business systems developer.
2009
Wrench in the System
Wiley publishes Harold Hambrose’s book
2008
Reassessing the Bloomberg Terminal
Harold Hambrose is selected to reimagine a powerhouse industry platform.
2007
Research in Motion becomes Blackberry
In-context consumer research and lab-based usability testing for this leading technology supplier, at the height of their success.
2006
Global Web Frameworks
Partnered with Microsoft in the design and deployment of web site design and development standards and tools. Reduced web site implementation costs by more that 60% across this global pharmaceutical company.
2005
UK National Health Service
Chosen to partner in the research and design of the NHS clinical records system.
2004
Travelocity: A New Take on Sightseeing
Reimagined location information presentation through stylized high-level tourist maps containing information about neighborhoods and popular landmarks.
2002
UK Criminal Justice Portal
Partnered with Microsoft UK to connect work among all criminal justice agencies across England, Scotland and Wales.
2001
BBC Home Visits
Design researchers visit homes throughout Britain to evaluate the brand characteristics of control, trust and ease of use, across interactive television, radio and mobile channels.
2001
Norman Nielsen Top 10 Intranets
The design of Celanese AG’s intranet is recognized as among the best employee experiences of 2001.
2000
Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) Conference
Hambrose addresses “Mergers and Acquisitions: The changing practice of HCI and Design”
1998
Reuters Pictures: New Media Archive
Hambrose led customer experience design for global photographic archive.
1997
MBNA NetAccess
Defined user experience and design of first real time access to credit card charges
1995
Hambrose Presents at ACM World Conference
Harold presents design of Merrill Lynch’s Trusted Global Advisor user interface, winner of Microsoft Windows Open.
1993
First Data Card Services
Mainframe conversion of Call Center customer experience design.
1992
First Data Health Systems
Hambrose designs first of kind electronic medical record (EMR) and patient medical record graphical user interfaces (GUI).
1991
Citibank ATM
Hambrose designs user interface for Citibank’s first automated teller.
1990
IBM OS/2
Hambrose leads design of user experience with IBM Personal computer and mainframe platforms at IBM Warwick Software Development Laboratory.