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Get ready to hear from leading design, business and sustainability visionaries from around the world, exploring design-led solutions to the climate crisis. Check out the programme:
We are striving to showcase a breadth of voices from across the global design sector. To drive real change, we need everyone to join the conversation, no matter what stage they are at on their Design for Planet journey, with a readiness to make a positive difference.
Adam Fairweather is the Co-founder and Technical Director of Smile Plastics, a design-led materials studio reimagining waste and reshaping the built environment. Since 1994, Smile Plastics has been at the forefront of sustainable innovation, transforming 100% recycled and recyclable plastics into large-scale decorative panels for the architecture and design industries. Based in South Wales and exporting globally, the studio operates within a closed-loop manufacturing model, repurposing discarded materials into high-specification design surfaces with distinctive character and provenance.
Adam brings over two decades of experience in circular design, materials development, and sustainable manufacturing. His early work includes the creation of ‘Çurface’ — a pioneering composite made from recycled plastics and used coffee grounds — which set the tone for a career spent pushing the boundaries of material innovation. A longstanding advocate for the circular economy, Adam has advised companies across sectors on sustainable strategy, resource efficiency, and the creative reuse of industrial byproducts.
Having first encountered Smile Plastics through mentorship with its original co-founder Colin Williamson, Adam eventually acquired the business and relaunched it in 2015 alongside co-founder Rosalie McMillan. Together, they’ve shaped Smile Plastics into a globally respected brand — known not only for its bold aesthetics, but for its commitment to circular principles and storytelling through material.
The common thread in Alexei’s life has been about creating and nurturing divergent ideas and teams that have the potential to bring about positive change. Alexei kicked off his career working in the nascent Supply Chain technology space at US based i2 Technologies (Blue Yonder). After stints in Software solutions companies such as MatrixOne (Dassault), MRO (IBM) and Ariba (SAP), Alexei struck out on his own moving to Poland and building a small team offering consultancy to the industry. Later Alexei co-founded the Innovation Consultancy UnfroZenmind based in Paris.
After returning to the UK Alexei teamed up with colleagues to co-found the award winning Abundance, an FCA regulated Crowdfunding company that has to date brought in over £120m from the crowd to fund over 20 renewable energy projects in the UK. Having successfully fundraised and established the team Alexei left the venture to spend a year working at the South India based Kanthari, an NGO that provides a year long Leadership Development programme for blind and disabled would be social entrepreneurs. Working with 18 incredible visionaries from across the world to help them imagine and establish their projects, Alexei worked with the founder Sabriye Tenberken to develop a curriculum that became the basis of the programme today.
Alexei chose to stay on in India and established the social business ixspark, an innovation and product development lab based in Kerala enabling various social innovation initiatives and NGO, corporate and government collaborations.
In India Alexei co-founded CU Wellness together with a world class product development team between Silicon Valley and India as a means of bringing disruptive consumer wearable products including Smart Buckle, Fasting Culture and Poppins to people across the world.
Alexei also co-founded Desolenator, a gamechanging technology that transforms almost any water source into clean drinking water using only the power of the sun. The patented solar powered desalination device Desolenator has gone on to win awards from NASA, Singularity University, Climate KiC and includes early customers such as Dubai Government (DEWA) and Carlsberg.
Alexie Sommer is a designer, communication expert, and business consultant delivering positive environmental impact through research strategy and design intuition. With communication design training and dedication to sustainability since 2004, she applies both strategic thinking and a systems approach to design projects, creating solutions that support transformation, raise awareness, and evoke beneficial behavioral change. Collaborating with an extensive network of design practitioners, she creates teams to support organizations to intelligently communicate their value and creatively transform their brands.
She is a founding member of URGE collective, Co-Instigator of Design Declares, Sustainable Human at Group of Humans, mentor for Fashion For Good’s Asian Innovation Programme, and recently a consultant strategist with Pentagram London. Previously, she was the creative director at Thomas Matthews and design director for creative at The Guardian and The Observer newspaper group. Her past clients include Interface, Useful Projects, Think-Up, Constructivist, 100% Design, The Get It Right Initiative, EBO essential beauty oils, Arlette Gold, Foster & Partners, LOCOG, Mayor of London’s office, British Council, Rix Mix, Saatchi & Saatchi Design, and Philips electronics.
Angela is Global Sustainability Director at Kearney. She advises clients in the automotive, transportation, retail and consumer goods sectors on sustainability strategy and adoption.
She was appointed Transport lead by the Climate Champions for COP26, where the ZEV declaration and the Playbook for Zero Emissions Mobility were launched.
Angela previously worked as Head of Sustainable Mobility at Ingka Group (IKEA Retail), as part of the Policy and Strategy team. During her time at IKEA, she focused on sustainable transport and mobility, circularity and sustainable investing. Angela studied Social Science at The University of Gothenburg and has a Master of Laws from Lund University. She has had a diverse career including organisations such as PWC and Scania.
After 30 years in various executive and design management positions in the automotive industry, Global Executive Director at General Motors in charge of the Design of the group's eight brands, and Renault Design Director for the Twingo, Clio & Scénic programs, Anne ASENSIO joins Dassault Systèmes in 2008 as Vice President Design Experience. She created the ""Design"" discipline and design research department of Dassault Systèmes as well as the DESIGNStudio entity, bringing together a multidisciplinary team in innovation strategy through design, experience design, upstream thinking, design research, design management.
Advocating a participatory approach with regard to new technologies and virtual universes, the DESIGNStudio supports Dassault Systèmes’ customers in fast-growing industrial sectors in their needs for transformation, digital and sustainable innovation, towards new business models for a circular economy, towards virtuous design processes, as a manifestation of their value proposition to their end customers.
Anne collaborates with designers, artists, maverick thinkers, innovators in diverse industry and public sectors. Imagining alternatives strategies to transform the world we live in in a more sustainable and desirable one, Anne enables cross-thinking, colliding nature inspired and technological approaches through creation and ultimately leverage the value of design for users, citizens and humans’ well-being.
Anne Asensio contributes to a number of publications, is a member of several boards in industry, business and academia, as well as a regular jury member internationally.
Anne holds a Master of Arts in transportation design from Detroit-based College for Creative Studies and a DSAA of industrial design from Paris-based Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués (ENSAAMA). Anne has been made Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite.
Bas van Abel is an entrepreneur and designer with over 20 years of experience in social innovation. Passionate about transforming the economic system through a design-driven approach, he believes that businesses play a crucial role in driving the transition toward a more sustainable economy. As a designer, Bas explores the invisible complexities of production systems, uncovering hidden challenges and bringing them to light. Through his companies, he demonstrates that alternative, more sustainable ways of doing business are not only possible but essential for meaningful change.
Bas is the founder of the most sustainable and ethical smartphone in the world, Fairphone (fairphone.com) and Co-founder of circular startup De Clique (declique.com).
He advises companies in their sustainability transition, co-authored the book “Open Design Now” and is an Ashoka fellow, a network of the world's most prominent social entrepreneurs.
His work has earned him global recognition, including being named Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum and receiving the Global Economy Prize. Fairphone has been recognised for its groundbreaking impact, featuring in Time’s Best Inventions (2020 & 2022) and receiving the United Nations Momentum of Change Award, presented by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. It was also named the most sustainable consumer electronics company in the world by Greenpeace and has won multiple design awards, including winner Product Design at the New York Design Awards, and voted the Coolest Dutch Brand amongst countless others.
Ben Sheppard is the co-founder and Chair of Design for Good, a global charitable alliance spanning 30 countries working pro bono to develop products and services with the goal to improve ten million lives by 2030 and advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He brought together the founding members, including General Mills, LIXIL, Logitech, McKinsey, Nedbank, Nestlé, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Philips and the Royal College of Art.
Ben works with Boards and CEOs to grow innovative, design-led businesses and has recently taken interim leadership roles of cutting-edge medical technology companies. A former long-standing Partner at McKinsey & Company, he led the firm’s global research on design, including the Red Dot-winning Business Value of Design series. For many years, he convened the Chief Design Officer Roundtable—a forum of 50 of the world’s most senior design leaders, whose work touches the lives of seven in eight people on the planet.
Ben is Senior Advisor to the Design Council, a member of Fortune's Global Advisory Council on design, a former Dezeen master jury member, and a visiting lecturer at institutions including the Royal College of Art.
Bethany Koby is the co-founder and Chief Vision Officer of Fam Studio, a trailblazing research and design consultancy developing play-led technologies, learning programs, and planet-friendly experiences into powerful tools for positive change. Through the lens of design innovation and future thinking, Fam Studio envisions a world where every family can thrive in uncertainty, no matter their location. Their global influence touches lives from Africa and the Middle East to the United States and Europe, with a broad expertise spanning early childhood to adolescence and beyond.
Previously, Bethany co-founded and served as CEO of the award-winning edTech company Tech Will Save Us. Her leadership in educational technology has earned her a place on the board of trustees at the Institute of Imagination (iOi) and The Visionaries, as well as fellowships with the Bio Leadership Program and the Learning Sciences Exchange program (LSX), backed by New America and the Jacobs Foundation.
Bethany’s transformative impact has been widely recognized. She was named one of the Sunday Times Maserati 100, nominated for Best High Growth Woman Founder at the UKBAA awards, and awarded Innovator of the Year at the Technology Playmaker Awards. She was honored as Seven Hills’ Change Maker of the Year and recognized as one of Wired Magazine's “Designers that Matter” and one of Creative Review’s Top 50 Creative Leaders. Her accolades also include Barclay’s Entrepreneur of the Year, a spot on Computer Weekly’s list of the 50 Most Influential Women in Tech, and the prestigious Leader of the Year award from the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Originally from Los Angeles, Bethany now calls both London and Somerset home, where she lives with her husband, two sons, and 300 cows.
Bharat Kapoor is the founder of Kearney PERLab, leading design-driven product innovation guided by Kearney’s Impact First philosophy—balancing business success with environmental and social responsibility. He spearheads Velocity Lab, Kearney’s agentic AI platform that transforms how designers and enterprises approach product development through intelligent orchestration and accelerated workflows.
His pioneering work demonstrates the evolution of design thinking—from developing early SaaS models and contributing to modern smartphone design at Motorola to integrating agentic AI into design processes. With engineering training from NITK Surathkal, a master’s degree from the University of Central Florida, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Bharat bridges technology, AI, and human-centered design to create transformative impact for business, consumers, and the environment through sustainable design innovation.
Brian Eno - musician, producer, visual artist and activist first came to international prominence in the early seventies as a founding member of British band, Roxy Music, followed by a series of solo albums and collaborations. His work as producer includes albums with Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, James, Jane Siberry and Coldplay, while his long list of collaborations include recordings with David Bowie, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd, David Byrne, Grace Jones, his brother, Roger, on ‘Mixing Colours’ and recently with Fred Again. In January 2024, ‘Eno’, a generative film about his life was screened at Sundance film festival to critical acclaim. It was accompanied by a soundtrack release with new unreleased songs and classic Eno recordings spanning five decades.
Eno’s visual experiments with light and video continue to parallel his musical career, with exhibitions and installations all over the globe. He has exhibited extensively, as far afield as St. Petersburg’s Marble Palace, Ritan Park in Beijing, Arcos de Lapa in Rio de Janeiro and the sails of the Sydney Opera House. He is involved in multiple activist work, such as the climate charity Earth Percent and HardArt, both of which he co-founded, as well as the Stop The War coalition. He is a founding member of the Long Now Foundation, a trustee of Client Earth and patron of Videre est Credere. In 2023, Brian was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Biennale Musica. He has recently written his second book, “What Art Does” co-authored with Bette A and based upon his experience as an artist. Published by Faber, it was released in January 2025.
Cameron is an experienced founder and inventor of multiple technologies in the life science and genomics space. Over the past 15 years he has founded and led multiple technology companies, which have together raised nearly $200 million dollars in venture capital. He has built commercial partnerships with leading life science brands in the US and Europe, has helped bring multiple products to commercial launch, and is now focussed on bringing the highest integrity nature data into broad commercial use.
Carlo Chen-Delantar is a Partner and Head of ESG and Circular Economy at Gobi Partners, a leading Asia-focused venture capital firm with $2 billion AUM. He champions responsible investments and tech ecosystem development through the Gobi-Core Philippine Fund, backing startups like Kumu, Cloudeats, and Tier One. Carlo is recognized in social entrepreneurship, climate action, and circular economy. He collaborates with organizations like the World Economic Forum, Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations, serving on startup, nonprofit, and government boards. He’s a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and Circular Economy Pioneer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Cecilia Brenner is the Managing Director of Design for Good, a global alliance dedicated to creating lasting, measurable impact for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since joining in May 2024, Cecilia has successfully led the charity in mobilising hundreds of designers to collaborate and cocreate with NGOs and affected communities worldwide.
With over 25 years of international experience in design and leadership, Cecilia is a catalyst for inclusion, innovation, and impact. She previously served as an Experience Design Director & Business Partner at Philips, where she spent 17 years building high-performing, engaged global design teams and community of practises, as well as leading transformational programmes with a unique blend of network leadership, team-building excellence, and strategic insight. Cecilia’s approach embraces her ability to unite diverse talents, fostering a culture of collaboration rooted in empathy.
Beyond her executive role, Cecilia is a dedicated mentor in effective leadership, and life-centred design—empowering the next generation to improve life through design. With a strong foundation in experience and system design, Cecilia is driven by a mission to collectively harness the power of design to create a positive impact for all life.
Charlot is a 2022 Earthshot Prize Winner! Orphaned at the age of 10, she grew up in Mukuru, one of the biggest slums in Nairobi, and became a mother at age 16. Charlot was moved to provide safer cooking technologies for her community when her daughter got burned by a traditional stove and has dedicated her time, skills, and experience fighting household air pollution, Energy poverty and Malaria. Her organization, Mukuru Clean Stoves, has manufactured and distributed over 550,000 life saving cookstoves, impacting the lives of 2.7 million Africans living in poverty and just launched the first in the world, patent pending, mosquito repellent fuel.
She has been recognized and awarded by Global Citizen, World Bank, United Nations. She is one of the 100 most influential Young Africans and was named a Forbes Sustainability Leader and Independent Climate 100 in 2024. Charlot is an Echoing Green Fellow, Schmidt Futures Fellow, Africa Business Hero, Global Good Fund Fellow, Stanford Global Energy Hero, Cartier Fellow, Forbes under 30 lister, Forbes Africa Youth Icon, One young World Entrepreneur of the year, Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awardee and a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst. She sits on the board of three international funds and William, the Prince of Wales proudly calls her the queen of Africa!
Céline Semaan is an award-winning designer, author, social entrepreneur, and social & environmental justice advocate. She is the founder of Slow Factory, a movement organization and knowledge lab designing and building infrastructure for cultural freedoms for Indigenous & Global South-led communities. Recently, she has launched Everything is Political, a media platform at the intersection of politics and culture, serving as editor in chief and creative director. Her recent book, A Woman is a School, expands on design, Indigenous knowledge and climate survival in a post-war environment focusing on Lebanon, her native land, as the case study for radical imagination.
Dr. Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah has been Chief Executive of NEF since January 2024. His previous roles include CEO of Oxfam GB, Secretary General of CIVICUS, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society, Interim Director of the Commonwealth Foundation and various posts at the Institute for Public Policy Research. He is a Trustee of the Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, a member of the UN’s High Level Advisory Board on Economic and Social Affairs, and a member of Quadrature Climate Foundation’s Advisory Board. Danny holds a Masters and Doctorate from Oxford University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney, and is the author of "Power to the People" (Headline Press, 2024).
Professor Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, PhD, is a Senior Researcher at the Royal College of Art, where she co-directs the UKRI-funded Becoming Regenerative Lab. She also serves as a Research Professor and Chair of the Regenerative Art and Design research group at the Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT).
Delfina holds a BA in Biology and completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art in the School of Design (SoD), where she has taught in the MA Design Products, MSc/MA Innovation Design Engineering, and MA Fashion programmes. Driven by her interest in ecological thinking, reflective practices and inter-relations as a systemic response to the environmental collapse, Delfina’s critical practice examines material ethics of care and the necessary paradigm shift in design.
She co-founded the Design Research Society (DRS) Special Interest Group on Design and Ethics. In 2021, she was chosen as one of the Future Observatory Design Researchers in Residence (DRiR) at the Design Museum, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Delfina has been a crit and Visiting Lecturer in several institutions, including The Bartlett, Architectural Association, Central Saint Martins (UAL), The Design Museum, Manchester School of Art, University of Brighton, Liverpool University, University of Leeds, Loughborough University, École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Politectino di Milano, Domus Academy, Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), Syracuse University, Rice University, Fab City Foundation, Linnaeus University, Critical Media Lab Basel and TU Berlin, among others.
Dr Ramit Debnath is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Social Design at the University of Cambridge. He is the director of the Cambridge Collective Intelligence & Design group. His interdisciplinary research integrates engineering and computational social sciences with systems thinking, socio-technical design, and behavioural interventions to address barriers to climate action. Using a social design lens, he focuses on how individual behaviours influence collective decision-making dynamics and explores the potential of emergent AI to replicate these mechanisms to solve global challenges. Ramit is a fellow and director of studies in design at Churchill College; he teaches mathematics to design students and is passionate about leading the polymath revolution at Cambridge.
Dr. Graeme Heyes is the Director of Sustainable Innovation at Litmus Sustainability and the Founder of the Manchester Doughnut Economics community. He has over 15 years of expertise in helping organizations understand their sustainability challenges and think creatively about thriving in a low-carbon economy. His career is built on a portfolio of work with a diverse range of over 300 clients from the European Commission to major international clients, SMEs, and local community groups.
Formerly a Senior Lecturer in Strategic Sustainability and Systems Design, Graeme's multi-award-winning work includes the 2023 European SDG Initiative of the Year and the UK Net-Zero Business Collaboration of the Year 2023, and his sustainability training has been recognized by the UK Government as the ""Gold Standard in Green Skills Training."" His experience spans circular economy, eco-design, Doughnut Economics, Carbon Literacy, environmental management, carbon accounting, business model innovation, and strategic innovation. Graeme is deeply passionate about sustainability and sustainable practice and has written and spoken widely on these themes through a range of talks, lectures, keynotes, and writings.
Harry has spent the last eight years focused on design research and innovation, and is particularly interested in how purposeful creativity disrupts systems of thought, reframing problems and combining ideas across disciplines. He has commissioned and managed a number of design research and innovation programmes, including the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, Innovate UK’s Design Foundations competition, and the Catapults’ Design to Deliver programme. He is currently Head of Design at Innovate UK Business Connect.
Indy is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) and Open Desk (open source furniture company).
Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School.
Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association - 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20.
He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University.
He was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022 and an MBE for Services to Architecture in 2023.
Jacob Mathew is a product designer trained at the National Institute of Design (NID) and is currently the Principal Advisor to the Industree Foundation. Jacob served as Design Principal at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, where he founded the Impact Edge Lab. He co-founded Tessaract Design, Idiom Design and Consulting, Spring Health Water and Dovetail Furniture.
Jacob spent the first 25 years of his work life using design to transform businesses; he now leverages business, design, and entrepreneurship at the bottom of the economic pyramid to transform society in India and Africa.
James is a sustainability strategist and systems thinker with twenty-five years’ senior management experience in sustainable finance and business. He has provided leadership for organisations and projects and served on a wide range of business and charity boards and governing bodies.
Through RePattern, James is a strategy advisor to a number of regenerative agriculture-tech companies and has led the development of the WWF Nature-based Solutions Accelerator. James was previously Group Director of Strategy for Triodos Bank – Europe’s leading international sustainable bank and investment manager. In his career at Triodos, James set up and managed the UK investment business comprising corporate finance and crowdfunding services, venture capital fund management and fund distribution.
Jo Barnard is the Founder and Creative Director of the product design and innovation consultancy Morrama. From the early strategy through to manufacturing and distribution, Jo works with brands looking to challenge what has come before and make the world better through design. Her design approach is rooted in storytelling, resulting in products that intuitively resonate with users in categories from tech to packaging. Jo believes in the power of design and innovation to accelerate our transition to a sustainable future and is co-director of the not-for-profit Design Declares. Jo’s award-winning work has been featured in The Times, Fast Company, Forbes, and Dezeen. She has been named one of the top 10 women to watch in tech and STEM. Outside of her work at Morrama, Jo is a mentor, speaker, and former Associate Lecturer of Design Futures at RCA.
Joanna Choukeir is Director of Design and Innovation at The RSA, and is responsible for championing how design and innovation is applied across the RSA community and policy and impact work to transition systems to be more regenerative for people, places and planet. She is a leading life-centric designer with four hats: practitioner, researcher, thought leader, and educator; with 20 years of experience in the UK and Lebanon.
Prior to joining the RSA, Joanna was Health Director at FutureGov (now TPX Impact), and had spent 10 years co-leading Uscreates – a pioneering design agency for health and wellbeing – through growth and onto acquisition. Before that, Joanna worked in advertising and industrial design sectors for global corporate clients.
In 2015, Joanna completed a PhD on design for social integration at the University of the Arts London. Alongside leadership, research and practice, Joanna is a PhD supervisor and visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London, Ravensbourne University and Kingston University. She is also founder of micro-social enterprise Design My Family Tree.
Julia Watson, Australian-born and of Greco-Egyptian descent, is a connoisseur of localized traditional ecological knowledge. She is the author of the 'Lo—TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism' (Taschen, 2019), which showcases the soft, earth-based technologies of Indigenous peoples the world over. Julia has travelled the world over to understand these technologies and respectfully share the messages of their makers with the world. Watson grew up in Australia, where aboriginal science and knowledge is not only acknowledged in the school system but systematically integrated into university curricula. She is thus driven to steer other nations towards properly respecting and integrating Indigenous knowledge into the “mainstream.” She studied landscape architecture at Harvard, taught for over a decade at institutions like Columbia, Harvard and RISD, cofounded the Lo—TEK Institute, and runs a design studio in Brooklyn, New York.
Julie Hjort is the COO at the Danish Design Center and spearheads the Center’s mission to accelerate the transition to a circular economy through design. She has been a driving force in developing a design-based approach to mission-oriented innovation, which she has applied at the DDC and in external partnerships to tackle sustainability challenges. For over a decade, Julie has worked with design, innovation, leadership and transformation in interdisciplinary and public/private partnerships.
Julie is Chair of Maker, an association for physical entrepreneurship that runs an urban prototyping lab in Copenhagen. She is a seasoned speaker on the topic of circular transformation and mission-oriented innovation. Julie was profiled as a prominent circular designer by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (fall 2023). Julie holds an MA in Contemporary Culture and Dissemination from the University of Copenhagen.
Justin McGuirk is the director of Future Observatory, the national design research programme for the green transition, a partnership between the Design Museum and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He is also the former chief curator of the Design Museum. A writer and curator, he has produced numerous high-profile exhibitions and publishing projects. His writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, e-flux and many other art and design journals. He is the author or editor of ten books, including Radical Cities (2014) and More than Human: Making with the Living World (2025).
Kate Raworth is an ecological economist and creator of the Doughnut - a concept that aims to meet the needs of all people within the means of the living planet - and Co-founder of Doughnut Economics Action Lab.
Her internationally best-selling book 'Doughnut Economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist' has been translated into over 20 languages and has been widely influential with diverse audiences, from the UN General Assembly and Pope Francis to Extinction Rebellion. Kate is a Senior Teaching Fellow at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute and Professor of Practice at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.
Over the past 30 years, Kate’s career has taken her from working with micro-entrepreneurs in the villages of Zanzibar to co-authoring the Human Development Report for UNDP in New York, followed by a decade as Senior Researcher at Oxfam. She holds a first-class BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and MSc in Economics for Development, both from Oxford University and has honorary doctorates from the University of York, University College Dublin, KU Leuven, and Business School Lausanne.
Kyle’s work centres around product and service design, facilitation, and community-building with a strong interest in complex adaptive systems, regenerative practice, participatory democracy, and community engagement. Currently, he is the Partnerships & Product Manager at B Lab UK, the non-profit supporting the B Corp mission to transform the economic system.
With a First-Class degree in Law with Politics from the University of Manchester, Kyle spent his first decade working as a criminal lawyer for the Serious Fraud Office. He was inspired to move into design and innovation following a sabbatical on the Year Here social innovation programme and continues to support access to social entrepreneurship as a trustee for the Year Here Foundation.
Now based in Manchester, Kyle runs Brickolage, a facilitation business that specialises in the use of the Lego Serious Play methodology to help organisations improve communication through storytelling, and PechaKucha Night Manchester, a fast-paced event featuring speakers sharing stories using just 20 images with 20 seconds per image. He is also helping to launch the doughnut economics and design justice groups to provide space and opportunities for communities to learn about systems change through design. For his work, he has been recognised as a Top 50 Northern Gamechanger 2023 by Elevate and Top 50 Great Northerner 2018 by Northern Soul.
Leland is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of COLLINS, the transformation consultancy honored as “Firm of the Year” 5 times in the last 5 years by AdAge and the D&AD. Between 2016 and 2021, Leland stepped away from his day-to-day duties at COLLINS to lead Chobani, then a regional American yogurt manufacturer, as its first Chief Creative Officer and, eventually, Chief Brand Officer. In those five years, he was part of a small executive team that 10x’d the company’s valuation, transforming the single-product yogurt maker into an international iconoclast brand. At Chobani, he built Ad-Age’s “2018 In-House Agency of the Year” and won top honors from major global award shows such as D&AD, Cannes, The One Show, among others. During his five years of leadership, Chobani topped Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Companies in the World” list five times – something not achieved by the manufacturer before or after his tenure. He has earned recognition from the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, from IBM as “Design Thinking Leader,” from Ad Age as a “Young Influencer” and from the Association Of National Advertisers as a “Master of Marketing.
Leo is the CEO and founder of EdenLab the global green growth and sustainability innovation consultancy. EdenLab is 100% focused on switching demand to greener, cleaner products, brands and business models.If you need help picturing a viable future he’ll help you figure it out, if you’ve got the right products he’ll help you get them to market at scale, and if you don’t he’ll help you design them.EdenLab works on commercialising sustainability for clients like The FT, The FA, The Trainline, Unilever, Danone and EDF Ventures as well as a number of promising ClimateTech firms working in carbon capture, biodiversity monitoring and waste upcycling.Previously he was CEO of world famous ad agency Grey London, where he had also been Chief Strategy Officer, before launching Grey Consulting a management consultancy within WPP.Leo gained a distinction in Business Sustainability Management from the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability Leadership and has an MA from Oxford. He’s a domain expert adviser to Carbon13 the Cambridge-based venture builder for the climate emergency. Leo has recently lectured at The Saïd Business School, the London School of Economics, UCL, Oxford University and The Marketing Society.
Leyla Acaroglu (PhD) is a leading sustainability strategist and provocateur – an expert on life cycle and systems thinking in design, production and consumption. Named Champion of the Earth by the UNEP in 2016, she is a designer, sociologist, educator and passionate proponent of sustainability in and through design. Leyla is also a well-respected international speaker, with over 1 million views on her TED talk. She developed the Disruptive Design Method for activating change, founded the UnSchool of Disruptive Design as well as the creative agency Disrupt Design, and created the rural regeneration, CO Project Farm in Portugal. Her award-winning designs and cerebrally-activating experiences, gamified toolkits, and unique educational experiences help people around the world to challenge the status quo and make positive social and environmental change.
Lisa Lang has gained international recognition on Forbes Europe’s Top 50 Women in Tech, Sustainable Thought Leader by Vogue Business and has been listed as one of the 50 most important women for innovation & startups in the EU.
Lisa Lang is the General Director of the Open Connector Foundation, a fundraising institution to push for a global transformation of the textile industry.
OCF is bridging private and public funding to push for a consolidated textile waste management, digitalisation and local manufacturing in partnership with NetZeroCities, United Nations and major industry partners across the globe.
Formerly the director for EU Affairs & Policy for the European Institute for Innovation and Technology on Climate (EIT Climate KIC), Lisa has been in the middle of European policy making with her global activity as Chair person for the Cultural & Creative Taskforce for UNFCCC United Nations Global Innovation Hub (UGIH).
Lisa Lang is on the advisory board for the Munich Sustainability Fashion Award, Fashion Innovation Centre as well as a member of EU groups for Pact for Skills, EU Industrial Forum and the US/EU Trade & Technology Council.
The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, is the founder and Chairman of Sancroft International, a consultancy that advises both businesses and investors on all areas of Sustainability and ESG. Between 2012 and 2023 he was Chairman of the UK’s Independent Climate Change Committee. Lord Deben was also the UK’s longest serving Secretary of State for the Environment (1993-97) having previously been Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. His sixteen years of top-level ministerial experience also include Minister for London, Employment Minister, and Paymaster General in HM Treasury. Lord Deben is currently Chairman of Valpak Ltd and of PIMFA, the trade body representing financial advisers and wealth managers. Throughout his political, business, and personal life Lord Deben has consistently championed an accord between sustainability and business sense.
Mariam Issoufou is an architect from Niger. She studied architecture at the University of Washington. In 2014, she founded Mariam Issoufou Architects, an architecture and research practice that tackles public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects from our offices in Niamey, New York and Zurich.
Issoufou’s design explorations are informed by rigorous research and a process rooted in conversations with end-users and collaboration with local crafters, masons and builders. The firm’s completed projects in Niger include the Hikma Community Complex, Niamey 2000, and Dandaji Regional Market. Upcoming projects include Yantala Office in Niger, the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development in Liberia, and Bët-bi Museum in Senegal.
Hikma Community Complex was awarded two LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture, while Niamey 2000 was shortlisted for 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Mariana Mazzucato (PhD) is Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London (UCL), where she is Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose. She is winner of international prizes including the Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2021, Italy's highest civilian honour, the 2020 John von Neumann Award, the 2019 All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values, and 2018 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought. She is a member of the UK Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) and the Italian Academy of Sciences Lincei. Most recently, Pope Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy for Life for bringing ‘more humanity’ to the world.
As well as The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths (2013), she is the author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy (2018), Mission Economy: A Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism (2021), and most recently The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies (2023). She advises policymakers around the world on innovation-led inclusive and sustainable growth. Her roles have included for example Chair of the World Health Organization's Council on the Economics of Health for All, Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economics of Water, a member of the South African President’s Economic Advisory Council, and the Co-Chair of the Group of Experts to the G20 Task Force for the Global Mobilization against Climate Change.
Michael Bennett is a social activist, philanthropist, and designer. His work is a fusion of his diverse experiences, from his prior career as a Super Bowl champion and Pro Bowl defensive end, to his ongoing activism and passion for social justice. Michael’s architectural philosophy revolves around spatial justice and creating communal spaces that evoke a deep sense of connection, belonging, and tranquillity.
Michael Bennett’s journey from the world of professional football to the realm of design and architecture is marked by a shift in focus from the gridiron to the study of spatial theory and architecture, all in pursuit of reclaiming public spaces for meaningful human interaction. While design has always interested Michael, his activism catalysed an interest in the power of architecture to create Black agency, particularly through reinvigorating traditional typologies for gathering and communing, such as domestic and sacred spaces.
Michael is a graduate of the Heritage School of Interior Design and a current student in architecture at the University of Hawaii. In 2020, he founded Studio Kër, a platform for visionary design concepts, where he serves as creative director.
Beyond his design endeavours, Michael Bennett is celebrated as an activist raising awareness about significant social issues, and a devoted family man. Michael’s advocacy extends to philanthropic efforts, including establishing endowments for students from low-income backgrounds pursuing creative arts degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design. He provides grants to organisations such as the Rebuild Foundation, Mass Design, and Humble by Design, furthering his commitment to fostering positive change through design, education, and social justice initiatives.
Michael Pawlyn is an architect, writer and public speaker. He has been described as an expert in regenerative design and biomimicry. He established his firm Exploration Architecture in 2007 to focus on high performance buildings and solutions for the circular economy. The company has developed a ground-breaking office project, an ultra-low energy data centre, a zero waste textiles factory and progressive solutions for green cities. Michael Pawlyn jointly initiated the widely acclaimed Sahara Forest Project; the latest version of which was opened by the King of Jordan in 2017.Prior to setting up Exploration, Michael Pawlyn worked with Grimshaw for ten years and was central to the team that designed the Eden Project. He is regularly booked as a keynote speaker on innovation and his TED talk has had over 2 million views. He has written two books - Flourish: Design Paradigms for Our Planetary Emergency (co-authored with Sarah Ichioka) and Biomimicry in Architecture – both of which have been the respective publisher’s best-selling title. In 2019 he jointly initiated ‘Architects Declare a Climate and Biodiversity Emergency’ – a global call to action which has spread to 28 countries with over 7,000 firms signed up.
Milica Apostolovic is a sustainability and resilience consultant specializing in terrestrial nature-based solutions. She has worked in over 20 countries in the last decade, spanning across East Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. Over the past three years, Milica has been managing the Natural Capital Laboratory, a research project that aims to restore 100 acres of forests in the Scottish Highlands and reintroduce lost species, while also acting as an on-site laboratory for identifying, quantifying and valuing the impacts of ecosystem restoration. Prior to joining AECOM, Milica worked as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) on forest landscape restoration, urban forestry, and mechanisms for monitoring the state of world’s forests. Milica was also the technical lead behind the WWF/FIDIC Playbook for Nature-Positive Infrastructure Development, an award-winning guide for integration of different nature-based solutions across multiple infrastructure sectors that is now part of UN’s global course on sustainable infrastructure.
Norman Foster is the founder and executive chairman of Foster + Partners, a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design, rooted in sustainability. He was born in Manchester, and after graduating in architecture and city planning from Manchester University in 1961, he won a Henry Fellowship to Yale University, where he was a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College and gained a master’s degree in architecture.
In 1967, he established Foster Associates in London with his late wife Wendy. Over more than five decades the practice has evolved and been responsible for a strikingly wide range of work, from urban masterplans, public infrastructure, airports, civic and cultural buildings, offices and workplaces to private houses and furniture design. Major projects include Beijing Airport, Millau Viaduct in France, 30 St Mary Axe (also known as the Gherkin) and the Great Court at the British Museum in London, the Hearst Headquarters tower in New York, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Recent projects include Apple Park in California, Bloomberg’s European Headquarters in London, the Comcast Tower in Philadelphia, and the Norton Museum of Art in Florida. Some of his current projects within the practice include 425 Park Avenue in New York, the Narbo Via museum in Narbonne, the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Center in Cairo, and a community boathouse in Harlem.
He is president of the Norman Foster Foundation, based in Madrid with a global reach, promoting interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists anticipate the future. He became the 21st Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate in 1999 and was awarded the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture in Tokyo in 2002. In 2009, he became the 29th laureate of the prestigious Prince of Asturias award for the Arts and was awarded the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was appointed by the Queen to the Order of Merit in 1997 and in 1999 was honoured with a Life Peerage in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, as Lord Foster of Thames Bank. His passions include cross-country skiing, cycling and aviation.
Paul A. Rodgers is Professor of Design at the University of Strathclyde. Previously, he was Professor of Design at Imagination, Lancaster University and Northumbria University School of Design, Reader in Design at Edinburgh Napier University, and Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Engineering Design Centre. He has over 25 years of experience in product design research and is the author of more than 180 papers and 16 books, which have been translated into several languages including Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Taiwanese.
From 2017 to 2021, he was the AHRC Leadership Fellow in Design where he led projects under his Design Research for Change agenda that highlighted wide-ranging social, cultural, environmental and economic impact across the UK and abroad. He is the Series Editor for Routledge’s Design Research for Change book series.
His current research explores the discipline of design and how disruptive design interventions can enact positive change in health and social care. He is Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded Design HOPES, one of only four Green Transition Ecosystem (GTE) Hubs in the UK, that are part of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory. Design HOPES aims to transform NHS Scotland’s health ecosystem through design-led research, while contributing to the UK’s urgent net zero targets.
With over 20 years’ experience in the packaging industry, working in manufacturing, design, with Proctor & Gamble and in food retail with Sainsbury’s, Marks and Spencer and Prêt, Paula joined the WWF in 2019 as part of the specialist technical team supporting the ambitious Tesco partnership.
As a Senior Policy Adviser, she is involved in policy thinking relating to wider resources and waste issues including a global treaty to combat plastic pollution, supporting a shift to a circular economy and advocating for ambitious domestic policy measures to tackle the impacts of resource consumption. She played a leading role in influencing Government to adopt Greener UK’s priority amendment for the Resource and Waste chapter of the Environment Act. She is the current Chair of the Wildlife and Countryside Link’s Circular Economy Working Group, an adviser on UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge and was appointed as the joint eNGO representative on the pEPR Scheme Administrator Interim Steering Group.
Pete Broadbent is Head of Design and Analysis at Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for transport, the built environment, cities and local growth. With over 25 years of experience across user-centred design, innovation strategy and public sector transformation, Pete champions the role of design in driving systemic change.
He led the flagship Design to Deliver programme, a cross-Catapult initiative funded by Innovate UK, focused on embedding design capabilities across innovation ecosystems to accelerate impact from lab to market. Pete plays a central role in aligning design, policy and business strategy, ensuring that innovation efforts are inclusive, scalable and grounded in real-world needs.
Starting his career in the early days of digital media, Pete has since held senior roles in design consultancies, management consultancies and government departments. He specialises in building high-performing multidisciplinary teams and is an advocate for design as a powerful enabler of economic growth, sustainability and social equity.
Professor Christopher Smith is the Executive Chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and International Champion for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He has been Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews since 2002, and he was also Vice-Principal (2007-2009), before being seconded as Director of the British School at Rome, the UK’s leading humanities and creative arts research institute overseas, from 2009 to 2017.
He is the author or editor of over 20 books from textual editions to museum studies. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of the Academia Europaea.
Sara Gry Striegler is founder of Kindred Lab for Transitions, where she helps leaders and organisations navigate change, bridge sectors, and shape more sustainable futures.
Her work builds on deep, hands-on experience from senior leadership roles—most recently as CEO of Nordic Health Lab, where she brought the public healthcare system and private companies together to co-create future-facing solutions. Before that, she served as Director for Social Transition at the Danish Design Center, where she pioneered futures design and mission-oriented innovation to explore, challenge, and reimagine responses to complex issues in societal challenges.
Sara is internationally recognised and was named one of the Top 50 Most Influential People Revolutionising Governance by the World Economic Forum and Apolitical in the Futures Thinking category (2020). She is an experienced speaker and the author of several books on public sector innovation.
Sevra is the Director of Architecture Design and Fashion, the British Council, and Commissioner of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. She is an experienced architect, design advocate and leader in design for social innovation. Sevra studied architecture and urban design and worked in professional practice for over ten years in the US, the UK and Finland before moving to roles focused on design enabling.
Previous roles include Head of Learning at the Design Museum and Director of Design at the RSA. At the RSA she developed design research and design education programmes focused on design for positive social, environmental and economic impact. She has worked on a number of projects exploring and promoting the journey toward a more sustainable future and a circular economy. She speaks and writes frequently about the role of design in an increasingly complex world and in the context of the climate emergency.
Sille Krukow is a globally recognized expert in Behavioral Design, Nudging, and consumer communication, with a strong focus on design elements that measurably change consumer decisions. With over 15 years of pioneering work, she has become a leading authority in designing behavior change interventions that influence how consumers engage with products and environments. Her expertise spans key design aspects such as color psychology, iconography, packaging aesthetics, labeling strategies, and in-store design—ensuring that visual cues effectively guide consumer behavior. A key focus of Sille’s work is designing for zero-emission choices, leveraging behavioral insights to create sustainable design solutions that encourage greener consumer behaviors. Through thoughtful strategic design interventions, she helps brands and organizations nudge consumers toward lower-impact choices, from eco-friendly packaging to energy-efficient product selections.
Sille’s impressive portfolio includes collaborations with prestigious organizations like the European Commission, Procter & Gamble, Heineken, and Electrolux, where she applies design-driven insights to create impactful and sustainable solutions. Beyond her consultancy work, she is a respected academic, sharing her expertise as a guest lecturer at renowned institutions such as Northern Arizona University, Pratt Institute, and the University of St. Gallen.
With a background in advertising, Simeon joined Faith In Nature in 2017 and has spent his time since reimagining what it means to be a green company in today's world.
In 2022, Faith In Nature became the first company in the world to make Nature a director - giving the natural world a voice and a vote in all of its decision making.
The entire process has been open sourced on Faith In Nature's site so that other companies can do the same and he continues to share learnings from the idea on natureontheboard.com
Sophie has been a campaigner and leader in sustainable and circular design for nearly 30 years. Her passion for garbology (exploring human behaviours by digging in the rubbish) and belief that waste is a design flaw started early and still drives her curiosity, and she is often found peering into waste bins.
Her design studio, Thomas.Matthews, was an early pioneer in creating exhibitions, packaging, and signage using waste and sustainable materials from 1997. She is the only designer in the UK to be honoured as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Waste Management.
In 2012, Sophie set up and ran The Great Recovery project with the RSA and InnovateUK, taking over 1,000 designers to waste sites to see where their products die and to rethink design using circular principles. Since then, she has worked with the industry to look at how everything - from oil rigs, sofas, shoes, and mobile phones - can be designed for reuse and recovery. She works with businesses to radically reconsider material use through design research and innovation.
In 2022, she co-founded the climate-tech venture studio etsaW, which supports and builds innovation in the transformation of waste streams into new materials and helps set up new businesses that exploit their use.
Dr Stephanie Hare is a researcher, broadcaster and author focused on technology, politics and history.
She co-presents “Artificial Intelligence: Decoded” on BBC television and contributes to the BBC World Service programme “Business Matters”.
Her first book, 'Technology Is Not Neutral: A Short Guide to Technology Ethics', was named a Financial Times Best Technology Book of summer 2022, and her writing has featured in the Financial Times, The Washington Post, the Guardian/Observer, the Harvard Business Review, WIRED and Computer Weekly.
She has worked at Accenture, Palantir, and Oxford Analytica; held the Alistair Horne Visiting Fellowship at St Antony’s College, Oxford; and earned a PhD and MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a BA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, including a year at the Université de la Sorbonne (Paris IV).
Suma is an Associate Creative Director at Purpose, where she creates campaigns that move people to remake the world. Her core strengths lie in art direction, branding, and creative strategy. At Purpose, she has partnered with leading impact organisations like IKEA Foundation, the United Nations, TikTok and the Packard Foundation, to create movements that address pressing issues - from the climate crisis to making healthcare more accessible and equitable.
Her campaign work is rooted in empowering communities to spark collective action and drive systemic change. From local interventions to global campaigns, she brings a tailored approach to every project. Most recently, she has been working on Verified for Climate - a global initiative shifting climate narratives from fear to hope. It illustrates that when communities can envision a better future and see their role in creating it, they become advocates for the policies and practices that make the renewable energy transition possible.
Suraj leads the Design & Technology practice across Nesta and the Behavioural Insights Team, where he oversees the design and delivery of solutions in pursuit of our missions and impact goals - such as accelerating home decarbonisation, reducing early years inequality and making our food environment healthier.
He is a senior leader and practitioner in design, product management and software development with a track record of using design, technology and data to develop and deliver products, services and increasingly policy for social good. As well as hands-on delivery expertise he has extensive experience of setting up, supporting and managing multi-skilled teams to develop and improve services for social impact across public, private and charitable sectors.
As Global Chief of Design at General Mills, Teman Evans brings with him a diverse background, including design leadership within agencies and global CPG organizations.
In his senior leadership role at General Mills, Teman is responsible for setting the design philosophy and approach for the Fortune 500 food company’s global portfolio of 100+ brands (e.g., Cheerios, Häagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Nature Valley), while leveraging design thinking to translate the company’s business priorities into growth-driving consumer products and experiences.
Before General Mills, Teman was the Global Director of Brand Design and Customer Experience Design at PepsiCo. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Branding and Strategy at FCB (Foote, Cone, & Belding) and also worked with renowned architects David Rockwell in New York City and Rem Koolhaas in Europe and Asia. As an entrepreneur, Teman co-founded DIOSCURI, a design and brand consulting agency with products sold around the world and appearing in several media outlets, including Time Magazine, The New York Times, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Teman holds a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he has also been a faculty member for the past 13 years, teaching courses in design thinking, branding, and strategic innovation.
Terry Behan is a Chief Design Officer working in emerging economies. He is head of design at Nedbank and adjunct professor of design at GIBS.
He specialises in product design and delivery aligned to the United Nations Sustainability Goals. Terry’s focus lies in guiding enterprises to develop and launch customer-centric products and solutions that make tangible commercial and social impact in diverse markets worldwide.
His portfolio encompasses product rollouts in diverse areas such as digital banking, micro finance, education, e-commerce, GBV prevention, child development, and mobile.
Beyond his professional practice, he is deeply committed to education. Terry collaborated with PARSONS in NYC to create and deliver their online programs focused on design and innovation. At GIBS, he teaches various design and innovation modules to Master's students and corporate executives.
Terry serves on the advisory council at Design For Good and is a board member of the South African Design Foundation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Brand Leadership and a Master of Science in Strategic Design. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Thomas Heatherwick is one of the world’s most inventive and celebrated designers, whose work is characterised by its originality, diversity and humanity.
His studio was founded in 1994 to bring together architecture, urban planning, product design and interiors into a single creative workspace. It is now an extraordinary organisation with 10 partners and 250 people dedicated to making the physical world that surrounds us more joyful and engaging.
Some of the studio’s designs include the 2012 Olympic Cauldron; Coal Drops Yard in King’s Cross; Google’s first ground-up campus in California; Little Island, a park set over the Hudson River in New York; the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town; and Azabudai Hills, a new neighbourhood in Tokyo.
From their studios in London and Shanghai, the team is currently working on over 30 projects in ten countries, including Seoul’s Nodeul Island; London Olympia; the new Changi Airport Terminal 5 with KPF; and MixC, the new district for Xian in China.
Thomas is a global advocate for human-centred architecture, campaigning against soulless new buildings, and calling for more interesting cities that put the public first. These ideas are captured in his bestselling book ‘Humanise: A Maker’s Guide to Building Our World’, published worldwide in multiple languages and editions.
Thomas and his team also run one of the largest educational programmes of any single art or design company, inspiring young people aged 10-14 to see themselves as creative.
Thomas has been appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a Royal Academician and in 2004 became the youngest Royal Designer for Industry.
Tori Tsui is a climate justice campaigner and author. She is a Senior Advisor for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and Climate Justice Lead for Brian Eno’s Earth Percent. Her debut book ‘It’s Not Just You’ was shortlisted for the Wainwright prize.
Global environment and Climate. In this role, she is responsible for Schneider’s environmental strategy and decarbonization roadmap. With 15 years of experience on climate change mitigation and adaptation in both developed and emerging markets, Vanessa has a deep understanding of energy transitions, and expertise across public and private sectors - from climate policy with the French Ministry of Energy to Microsoft and now Schneider Electric.
Prior to joining Schneider Electric, Vanessa was at Microsoft between 2015 and as Director of Energy Innovation and Impact; her group charted the way for Microsoft to be carbon negative by 2030. She started her career at the French Ministry of Finance, was part of the French climate change negotiation team, and then shifted to private equity finance of green infrastructure acting as Director of Strategy at Centuria Capital, where she developed the green infrastructure portfolio of the global asset manager and advisory company (USD $15B AUM).
Vanessa is an US department International Visitor Leadership Program alumni (2013), holds a master degree from Sciences-Po Paris, MBA from ESCP Paris, and graduated from Ecole nationale d’administration. She is an executive-in-residence at Insead and was an Assistant Professor at Sciences Po from 2010 to 2014. She holds French, American, and Indian nationality and fluent in French, English, and Italian.
Motivated by design’s power to create engaging and multisensory experiences, Ximena O’Reilly enjoys contributing to setting and driving brand strategies, identities, and storytelling. Since joining Nestlé in 2013 as Global Head of Design, she has influenced the direction of brand design experiences for many of Nestlé’s brands.
With her team, she focuses on ensuring all teams and partner agencies globally, regardless of function, understand and are equipped with tools, process, guidance, and technology to drive brand building activities for brand identity and design excellence.
Prior to Nestlé, Ximena was Director, Brand Design at Mondelez, where she guided design strategy for brands including Milka, Cadbury, Tassimo, and Toblerone. Earlier, Ximena worked mostly agency-side focusing on brand strategy and identity. She started her career in San Francisco working on technology and service branding.
Born in Chile, Ximena grew up in Europe and California, and spent time in Japan, France, and Chile during her studies.
Zoe is Co-Founder of nature tech startup Pivotal. She is a PhD ecologist who has spent 30 years working on solutions to biodiversity loss - as an ecologist in the forests of Africa, in the boardrooms of multinational corporates, as a British diplomat and now as a company founder. Zoe has designed and led biodiversity surveys in ecosystems throughout the world, from Liberia to Brazil, for both NGOs and big businesses. She has provided advice to major global corporates on nature strategy and targets, negotiated international environmental treaties, and is current leading the development of global efforts to measure and track ecosystem condition.