Joe Schappler

Highlights

• Graduated University of Notre Dame, BFA Industrial Design 1982
• 36 years of product design experience
• Numerous patents received for product development
• Small business owner and business management experience since 1990
• Diversified product design experience from military to consumer
• Experience working with inventors, small companies and up to Fortune 500
• Cofounded companies in identity verification and digital hiring

History

After graduating from Notre Dame in 1982, Joe moved to Dallas Texas to work for Howmet Aluminum, now part of Alcoa. He gained valuable design experience in aluminum extrusion design and fiberglass for the commercial and consumer industries. Tasks included conceptualization, presentations, mechanical drawing and prototyping.

Next he moved to the Greater Boston area and worked for Roche Harkins Design and Latham Brefka Associates as an industrial designer. He advanced his skills in conceptualization, rendering, mock-ups and presentation. He learned about processes and the challenges of getting an idea into a manufacturable product.

In 1986 Joe moved to Rochester NY to join the industrial design team at Eastman Kodak. In the next 4 years, he contributed his design skills in camera design, both traditional film and digital, healthcare products, office products and retail walk-up photography kiosks. He received several patents during this period and was the lead designer on the Kodak Cameo pocket camera line, one of Kodak’s best selling product lines in history. The innovative flip-up flash and ergonomic design solved many user issues and were very popular.

In 1990, Joe and his family moved to New Hampshire for his wife’s medical career, and Joe founded Helix Design (first known as Identico Inc.). Helix continued developing camera designs for Kodak as well as taking on new clients in many diversified industries. Helix began adding personnel to meet the demands of the industry and is now in its fourth space, a 12,000 square foot restored mill building providing design research, industrial design, mechanical engineering and in-house prototyping.

Joe was also fortunate to be a co-founder of Image Data Inc., a start-up targeted at proactively stopping identity fraud for the consumer, while protecting privacy. His role there, in addition to running Helix Design, was to be a part of the executive team and run the product development group, consisting of manufacturing, software and hardware design. Joe and his partner successfully raised $22 million to develop and pilot their “True ID” technology before selling the company in 2003. In 2014 he became cofounder of NextHire, a digital hiring platform to disrupt traditional hiring by improving efficiency, speed and the finding of qualified candidates.

Joe is currently Owner of Helix Design, Inc. in Manchester NH.