Aug 2021 – Mar 2023 · 1 yr 7 mos

• As a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, I provide connection and counsel for emerging and established creative executives so they can confidently lead through transformational moments in their careers, companies and communities.
• These services are provided through We Must Be Bold & our Creative Counsel-related offerings.

Jun 2021 – Mar 2023 · 1 yr 9 mos

Dec 2020 – Mar 2023 · 2 yrs 3 mos

• Fortune Connect is a community for mid-career professionals who are on the executive track, rising fast, and leadership bound. It is designed to help the next generation of top leaders prepare for this change with a special focus on purpose-driven business, stakeholder capitalism and inclusive leadership.

Dec 2020 – Jun 2022 · 1 yr 6 mos

• We are a collective of individuals who design the systems, storylines, and symbols that inspire movements towards deep, generative connection.
• While our Guides have been recognized for their high achievement, we are united by our shared intentions rather than our individual accolades. Our unique perspectives on community amplify fierce commitments to diversity & inclusion, social entrepreneurship, and generational change.

Jul 2020 – Mar 2023 · 2 yrs 8 mos

• We Must Be Bold is a community design studio helping clients connect with the people who love them most.
• We’re a director-level team of creatives, researchers, strategists, community organizers, and producers. Our process uses a research-based methodology to create lasting customer, civic, or community engagement for our clients.
• We reveal and engage the symbols, stories, and systems that create meaningful connections:
• For organizations investing in people through research, strategy, and design.
• For those individuals that create communities and seek counsel while facing questions about moving forward through our Creative Counsel process.
• And through The Great Discontent, a connection-focused platform that amplifies the stories of artists, designers, and the broader creative community.
• We’ve partnered with clients as varied as the Corita Art Center, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Paramount Pictures, Center for Wrongful Convictions, Bennington College, and the City of Los Angeles, to name a few, creating opportunities for connection with the people that love them.
• Read more about us at WeMustBeBold.com and we’d love to hear from you.

Jan 2020 – Jan 2020 · 0 mo

• Design Observer was founded in 2003 by Jessica Helfand, Michael Bierut, Rick Poynor, and the late William Drenttel as a collaborative platform for independent thinking and provocative conversation about design and the larger world, bringing that conversation to an audience including—but not limited to—designers. For more than fifteen years, Design Observer’s commitment has served to provoke, sustain, and elevate conversations about design, from traditional publishing ventures to alternative media projects to podcasts and live events. All of these enterprises are rooted in the original mission to engage a broader community by sharing ideas on ways that design shapes―and is shaped by―our lives.

Nov 2019 – Mar 2023 · 3 yrs 4 mos

• The Great Discontent (TGD) is a media company and thriving community committed to celebrating the untold stories of today’s artists, makers and risk-takers. Focusing on beginnings, creativity, and risk, TGD provides a memorable look into the lives of creatives via long-form interviews in digital and print, short features, film-based projects, podcasts, and events.

Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 · 1 yr

• Design for America is a national, university-based network of campus studios that harnesses design to co-create local and social impact.
• DFA uses a design framework that partners students with community members in order to foster local impact and long-term capacities for social change.
• DFA has a national network of 1,300 current students on more than 40 campuses and a growing network of young alumni, currently numbered at more than 1,700. Since its inception at Northwestern University, DFA has engaged more than 3,000 students who have worked on more than 650 projects in the areas of education, health, economics and the environment.
• In 2018, DFA received the National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, honoring “excellence, innovation, and enhancement on the quality of daily life.”

May 2017 – Jun 2020 · 3 yrs 1 mo

• As the profession’s oldest and largest professional membership organization for design—with 75 chapters and more than 20,000 members—we advance design as a professional craft, strategic advantage, and vital cultural force. From content that defines the global practice to events that connect and catalyze, we work to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines on business, society, and our collective future.
• Hugh served on the National Board of Directors, its Executive Committee, its Executive Director Search Committee, and as Chair of its Membership Committee.

Jan 2015 – Jan 2016 · 1 yr

• The Global Shapers Community is a network of city-based Hubs developed and led by young leaders between 20 and 30 years old who want to develop their leadership potential towards serving society. To that end, Hubs undertake local projects to improve their communities.
• Shapers are highly motivated individuals who have a great potential for future leadership roles in society. They are selected on the basis of their achievements, leadership potential, and commitment to make a difference. Through the Global Shapers Community, Shapers are provided with opportunities to connect with the worldwide network of Global Shapers, to network with other World Economic Forum communities, and to represent the voice of youth at World Economic Forum events. Shapers are united by a common desire to channel the members’ tremendous energy and enthusiasm into building a more peaceful and inclusive world.
• The Global Shapers Community is one of several multi-stakeholder communities at the World Economic Forum. Other communities include the Young Global Leaders, the Global Agenda Councils, and the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.
• Website: http://www.globalshapers.org/

Jan 2014 – Jan 2017 · 3 yrs · Sioux Falls, SD

• Held annually in Sioux Falls, SD and throughout the world, the Bubble Parade welcomes people of all ages to get outside, share a walk (filled with bubbles) and enjoy a popsicle at the finish. The Bubble Parade was founded by then five year old, Emerson Weber and her dad, Hugh. In 2015, the Bubble Parade drew over 3,000 people and raised funds for Ronald McDonald House Charities.
• The event is currently hosted annually by the Ronald McDonald House Charities of South Dakota.

Jan 2014 – Jan 2017 · 3 yrs · Sioux Falls, SD

• In April 2014, leading design voice, Roman Mars, visited Sioux Falls to participate in an event focused on creativity and community, OTA14. During his presentation, he noted that only three major United States cities lack a city flag: Fargo, ND; Hilo, Hawaii; and Sioux Falls, SD. In the immediate aftermath of that event, we received dozens of emails and calls recommending that the creative community lead the charge to change that fact. We were eager to do so.
• The CESFBCSF (Committee to Establish A Suitable Flying Banner for the City of Sioux Falls) was brought together to help move the flag initiative forward. This committee and the effort it lead reflects the true spirit of collaboration in our community. Three organizations, OTA, AIGA South Dakota and the Sioux Falls Design Center pooled time, talent and resources to organize and lead the process of education, engagement and community empowerment that resulted in 91 submitted designs and a final flag chosen both "Best in Show" and "People's Choice." Ted Kaye, a vexillological expert and author of "Good Flag, Bad Flag" stated that the design would be considered one of the best city flags in the United States.
• After years of formal organizational effort, the flag was embraced as "The People's Flag" by a grassroots community coalition. This group of local leaders and businesses, who printed flag merchandise long before it was official, deserve full credit for its final unanimous approval by the Sioux Falls City Council on July 10, 2018.

Jan 2013 – Jan 2016 · 3 yrs · Sioux Falls

• Hugh served as Co-President of AIGA South Dakota.
• Hugh previously served as Director of Special Projects from May 2013 - June 2015.
• AIGA advances design as a professional craft, strategic advantage and vital cultural force. Founded in 1914 as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA remains the oldest and largest professional membership organization for design and is now known simply as “AIGA, the professional association for design.”

Jan 2010 – Jan 2015 · 5 yrs

• In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. The first TEDxSiouxFalls, [extra]ordinary lives, was held June 2011 at Augustana College. The second event, Modern Pioneers, was held at the Sioux Falls Design Center in August 2012. The third event, Building Through Generosity & Gratitude, was held at the Institute of Possibility in January 2014.

Jan 2009 – Jan 2017 · 8 yrs · MN, ND, & SD

• Weber founded OTA, a for-purpose organization focused on sparking transformation through creative connections and collisions in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. OTA has convened 11 large-scale events, hosted over 150 national thought leaders, commissioned 35 micro-documentaries and a full-length feature, and invested approximately $2 million in the creatives who call the region home.

Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 · 2 yrs

• Hugh served as co-chair of SDAF's Addy Awards event & Program Chair during his term on the board. He also served as Secretary and Second Vice President during this term.

Jan 2006 – Jan 2020 · 14 yrs

• Deep Bench uses a variety of emergent research techniques and innovative community design practices to reveal the rich stories, vibrant cultures, thriving networks, and infinite possibility that often lays hidden in the communities, organizations and people that we love most.
• Hugh has provided thought leadership and general management for award-winning marketing, online and social media campaigns, as well as research, story discovery and strategic management for branding in niches including colleges and universities, biofuels, technology, health care, tourism, fatherhood, community development and churches.