Leadership Team
The Akendi leadership team has the business experience, scientific expertise and design creative to deliver what will ensure organizational success and meet the goals of customers & users.
Tedde van Gelderen
Founder & CEO
Tedde infuses Akendi, its services and methodology with his strong belief that customer and user experience design must go beyond a singular product interface, service or content. It should become deeply rooted in an organization's research and design processes, culture, and ultimately be reflected in their products and services.
A graduate of Radboud University, the Netherlands in Cognitive Ergonomics, Tedde has more than 20 years in experience research, usability testing and experience design in both public and private sectors.
Prior to Akendi, Tedde was a founding partner of Maskery & Associates. He has worked for companies including Nortel Networks, KPMG Management Consulting, Ardelius and Philips Design.
Cindy Beggs, MLS
Partner, Director of Experience Research
Cindy brings a passion for understanding user needs and having those reflected in product and service excellence to Akendi. With 25 years of experience, underpinned by an honours degree in Psychology and Masters in Library Science, Cindy brings both a theoretical and practical understanding to the design and execution of user research and analysis.
Along with her expertise in library and information science, Cindy has conducted usability testing and applied the methods of user centered design to persona development, needs assessment and the articulation of business strategy and user goals.
A lifelong learner herself, Cindy has taught library programming and promotions at Seneca College, Toronto, facilitated focus groups and created training modules on electronic and web based information products.
Shaun Illingworth, Ph.D.
Partner, Managing Director
Ensuring research is relevant and actionable is what drives Shaun day-to-day. With over 17 years of experience in both enterprise and startup technology companies, Shaun is an experienced business strategist, creative thinker and market research executive with a rare focus on user-centered design and its resulting business value.
With extensive North American and European market research and market development experience, Shaun has successfully built several marketing and business relationships from the ground up – borne from a focus on customer values and the user experience. 
Shaun began his career in Boston as a product and market research consultant; he holds a Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Northeastern University and is a professional moderator and workshop facilitator.
Prior to joining Akendi, Shaun held a variety of senior management positions in strategic marketing, market research and business development, with companies like Nortel, March Networks, and Inuk Networks.
Dominira Saul, MSc.
Partner, Director of User Experience
Dominira believes that behind every well-designed product or service there is a thorough understanding of the actual users and their needs.
Having presented many influential research and design outcomes to clients at all levels of the private and public sector Dominira is very adept at putting his belief into practice. Dom remains focused on 
ensuring clear transfer of design recommendations and most importantly, rationale to our clients. Dom is committed to working closely with clients to ensure their success.
Dominira is a fluently bilingual communicator who has lectured at the university level, and delivered many training courses.
Dom has an MSc. in User Interface Design from London Guildhall University, a BA in Psychology from Carleton University and over 12 years of usability research and interaction design experience in the UK and Canada.
Let's Talk!
Please email Shaun Illingworth, Managing Director, at contact@akendi.com or 1.866.585.1660 x0 for questions and more information about how we help optimize your user experience design, digital product design, physical product design, or wayfinding & signage.
