Richard Alvarez

Richard Alvarez has a diverse and extensive work experience spanning over 25 years. Richard currently serves as the User Experience Research & Design Service Line Director at Apexon since 2022. Prior to this, Richard worked at Saggezza, where they held multiple positions including UX Practice Manager, Client Account Manager, and Lead UX Developer from 2015 to 2022. Before joining Saggezza, Richard was a Lecturer at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University from 2001 to 2016.

Richard has also been involved in founding and leading startups. Richard co-founded CafeXplorer, LLC in 2015, where they served as a Co-Founder until 2016. Richard also played a crucial role as the Director of Interactive Experiences at Method Engine LLC from 2005 to 2015.

Earlier in their career, Richard was the Principle at SurpriseMedia, Inc. from 2000 to 2005, focusing on strategic consulting and Flash design/development. Richard also worked as an Interactive Developer at Britannica.com from 1999 to 2001, where they were responsible for creating interactive features and implementing workflow processes.

Richard started their career as a Multimedia Developer at Jack Morton Worldwide in 1998, where they worked on multimedia projects for clients such as First Chicago, Navistar, IBM, and Abbott Labs. Richard also served as a Multimedia Specialist at Whittman-Hart and as a Lead Multimedia Developer at Design Access in the mid-1990s.

Throughout their career, Richard has demonstrated their expertise in user experience research and design, client management, team leadership, and strategic consulting.

Richard Alvarez earned a B.A. degree in English and Spanish Literature from DePaul University, attending from 1988 to 1991. In addition, they obtained a Google UX Design Certificate from Coursera in 2021. Richard has also acquired various certifications, including ChatGPT & Its Practical Use Cases from Skillsoft in August 2023, Academy Accreditation - Generative AI Fundamentals from Databricks in July 2023, and several certifications in UX design, generative AI, image generation, and transformer models from Google Cloud Skills Boost in July 2023. Furthermore, they have received certifications in mapping and diagramming, Miro essentials, web accessibility from edX, and various UX design courses from Google in 2021 and 2022. Additionally, Richard obtained the Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner certification from IBM and certifications in Adobe Experience Manager for Marketers and Design Thinking from Lynda.com in August and September 2019, respectively.