Meet Our teachers and mentors
Natalie Anson-Wright
Empower Arts
Natalie Anson-Wright
Empower Arts
Natalie is an actor, writer, director and head coach at Empower Arts. She has been teaching acting for over 20 years helping professional actors and non-actors improve their performance skills. She trained at The Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and has an accreditation in the Ivana Chubbuck Technique for Coaching.
Simon Gough
Simon Gough
Simon is a service design consultant, facilitator and writer with clients ranging from FMCG companies to central government. Over the past decade he has focused on developing an expanded toolkit that brings together design thinking, systems thinking, data and with working on projects that combine environmental, social and technology themes. Most of his work involves helping to facilitate design processes and capabilities, from helping to create and grow new services and startups to building design capacity in large enterprises.
Ajit Singh
Harbinger Health
Ajit Singh
Harbinger Health
Ajit has spent over 15 years as a partner at Silicon Valley-based Artiman Ventures, focusing on early-stage technology and life science investments, with over $1 billion in assets under management. He now leads 2 ground-breaking biotech companies focused on cancer detection and building scientific ventures. He also serves on the boards of Sofie Bio, Leo Cancer Care, Artidis and Positrigo. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Foundation, the oldest and largest cancer research organisation globally.
Joy Nazzari
DNCO
Joy Nazzari
DNCO
Joy Nazzari is the founder of DNCO,
a studio of experts in place branding working with cultural leaders, governments, developers and businesses with clients including the City of San Francisco, the Mayor of London, blue chip corporates and great cultural institutions including the V&A and National Galleries of Scotland. After studying economics, Joy started her career in investment banking and later the tech industry before choosing a career in the creative industry.
Margaret Ochieng
Margaret Ochieng
Margaret is an organisational psychologist specialising in inclusive leadership, talent and culture. She works across the UK, US and Sub-Saharan Africa, enriching knowledge by designing thought-leadership models and evidence-based frameworks that are accessible, intellectual and practical.
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group
Don Norman
Nielsen Norman Group
Don probably doesn't need an introduction. He is a legend in the design industry who has been advocating for a human-centred approach for more than 40 years. He was a Vice President at Apple and has been
an advisor and board member for numerous companies. His books have been translated into over 20 languages, including
The Design of Everyday Things and Living with Complexity. Don is an active board member at NN/g and a member of the nonprofit charity The Don Norman Design Award and Summit.
Alan Cooney
Frontier lab
Alan Cooney
Frontier lab
Alan is one of the UK's leading AI researchers, working on empirical control and alignment. He recently led the Autonomous Systems Research Team at the UK AI Security Institute (AISI), helping mitigate extreme risks from the world's most advanced AI models. Previously, Alan developed tools to understand the inner workings of AI models, which are often considered black boxes, by examining them at the individual neuron level. Prior to working in AI safety, he was an investment consultant and start-up founder, with his company Skyhook being acquired in 2023.
Manmit Shrimali
Turing Labs Inc.
Manmit Shrimali
Turing Labs Inc.
Manmit co-founded Turing Labs Inc., which raised over $20M, and is focused on harnessing the power of AI to revolutionise the consumer product space. With over a decade of experience in decision sciences and prescriptive analytics, Manmit has dedicated his career to transforming data into actionable insights.
Rachel Varrilly-Gierula
Rachel Varrilly-Gierula
Over the last 25 years, Rachel worked in the operations and learning space, with
a focus on leadership development, culture and transformational change. Today she brings her cumulative experiences to the table when working 1-on-1 with individuals, teams and clients dealing with topics like navigating politics, influencing and effecting positive change, managing egos, hierarchy and stakeholders; to build the best possible outcome for the customer, the business, and the team.
Tony Browne
NHS
Tony Browne
NHS
Tony brings together digital, human-centred design and organisational change to supercharge organisations and deliver fantastic customer experiences. As an experienced director and coach, he's helped industry leaders deliver transformational change across a wide range of cultures and sectors – some of his previous clients include IKEA, Linkedin, Ford and H&M Group.
Matt Fenby-Taylor
Unobravo
Matt Fenby-Taylor
Unobravo
Matt is a product leader and advisor who builds consumer and business-facing products and marketplace businesses. Currently, he is the CPO at Unobravo – a company that is revolutionising mental health care with the most empathetic, clinically impactful, and accessible product available. Previously, he was building products in the personal finance space at ClearScore, for travellers at Skyscanner and for creators at SoundCloud.
Karen Sargent
Karen Sargent
Karen Sargent is a Business Psychologist and Executive Coach who draws on 20 years of experience developing leaders in organisations such as the BBC, Unilever, Lloyds of London, Deutsche Bank, Thomson Reuters, Gilead Sciences, Schneider Electric, Coca-Cola, The Co-Op, NHS and more. This combined with her experience as a Brand Manager and leading a remote team of over 100 people gives her an in-depth understanding of the key challenges managers and business owners face.
Emily Saltmer
Emily Saltmer
For more than 22 years, Emily has worked in Global Fortune and FTSE 50 companies including Experian, Legal & General, Unilever, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC. She has extensive training, qualifications and accreditations in psychology, coaching, health and fitness. Emily combines her corporate experience, skills and qualifications to offer a holistic approach that is focussing on utilising client strengths to build confidence, capability and resilience to help achieve long-term healthy, sustainable outcomes.
Chloe Scott
Chloe Scott
Chloe is a registered Occupational Therapist with over 15 years of experience working within a broad range of clinical mental health settings. Chloe works collaboratively to gain a shared understanding of what is important to the person. She incorporates her knowledge and extensive training in Dialectical Behavioural Therapy and Compassion Focused Therapy to support emotion regulation and work with what is getting in the way of living a meaningful life.
Abi Wright
Abi Wright
Abi has over 20 years of experience in Alexander Technique and coaching. In 2019, Abi co-founded Festival of The Girl,
a not-for-profit initiative with a mission to inspire and engage girls of primary school age to realise their full potential that created a lasting impact by inspiring future leaders in all sectors, industries, and endeavours. She also co-founded Arrive in Politics in 2021, a cross-party mentorship programme for young women at all levels of UK politics to further create a more equal society.
Vincenzo Migliore
Monday.com
Vincenzo Migliore
Monday.com
Vincenzo builds revenue and teams for ambitious companies, from Seed to Series A. He's built and run the Go-To-Market strategies for CEOs and founders across ESG, HR, legal tech and AI. His recent wins include a first multi-year deal worth over 50% ARR and a first Big Four proof of value for a Series A AI business. Before this, he spent over 11 years at LinkedIn, leading various commercial roles and becoming a two-time President’s Club winner. Vincenzo specialises in outbound strategy and revenue system design, combining strong commercial execution with a modern, data-driven approach to scaling sales performance.
Harry Pearce
Pentagram
Harry Pearce
Pentagram
Harry is a Partner at Pentagram – the world's largest independent design consultancy. He has worked around the world devising identities, installations, packaging and books for clients as diverse as Liberty, Thames & Hudson, WITNESS, Waitrose & Partners No.1, Abu Dhabi Cultural Quarter, Phaidon Press, Pink Floyd Records, Saks Fifth Avenue, Science Museum and the UN. He also created identities for Ai Weiwei and Anish Kapoor for their major retrospectives at the Royal Academy of Arts.
Emma Wee
Emma Wee
Over the past 30 years, Emma has successfully combined a broad design portfolio with education and research projects. She enables individuals to tap into their innate creativity and apply it, not just to produce creative work but also to develop skills in self-advocacy, communication and leadership. For the last nine years, she has focused on neurodiversity strategy coaching, working with clients such as Universal Music Group, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers. She adapts working practices for the neurodivergent community, helping them reach their full potential.
Andy Cottrill
Q5
Andy Cottrill
Q5
Andy is an organisation design expert with experience across the private and public sectors. He is currently a Partner at Q5 – an award-winning organisational health consultancy, where he leads teams through complex restructuring and change programmes – from cost-saving initiatives and value-chain redesign to operating-model transformation. His clients include Burberry, the BBC, NBC News, easyJet and HSBC. Before Q5, Andy worked at Accenture and within the Civil Service Fast Stream.
Jeremy Lindley
Diageo
Jeremy Lindley
Diageo
Jeremy is one of the world’s most respected design leaders, known for transforming design into a strategic driver of business growth, cultural relevance, and positive change. As the Global Design Director at Diageo, an award-winning multinational alcoholic beverage company, he leads creative direction across a portfolio of more than 200 brands, including Guinness, Johnnie Walker, and Smirnoff. His leadership spans award-winning commercial impact and beauty through to sustainability and inclusivity. A former Chair of the Design Business Association, Jeremy remains a leading advocate for inclusive design and measurable creativity.
Steve "Buzz" Pearce
tem
Steve "Buzz" Pearce
tem
Buzz is a multidisciplinary executive, designer and advisor. He has led design teams for iconic brands including Skype,
the BBC, Lonely Planet, LEGO, Alexander McQueen and Jamie Oliver. He also served on the board of the Design Council, advising government and policymakers on the societal impact of design.
Monika Linton
Brindisa
Monika Linton
Brindisa
Monika founded Brindisa in 1988,
a pioneering food importer and distributor of fine Spanish food. In 1996, she opened the Brindisa warehouse for outlet shopping in Borough Market and was one of the first retail outlets in the area. Later on, it was established as Brindisa Tapas Kitchens, with the first tapas restaurant opening in Borough Market in 2004. Brindisa now has five groundbreaking tapas bars and restaurants in Central London. Monika’s aim has always been to bring excellent food and ingredients from the most remote parts of Spain to Britain and to champion selected smaller producers and their skills.
John "Sinx" Sinclair
ustwo
John "Sinx" Sinclair
ustwo
Sinx is a founding partner of the digital product design studio ustwo with offices in New York, Malmö, London, Lisbon and Tokyo. You've probably heard about Monument Valley – the most beautiful BAFTA-winning game they've created that even appeared in House of Cards TV show and during the official presentation of the new iPhone.
Paul Albert
Element Human
Paul Albert
Element Human
Paul has over 20 years of experience
across startups, scaleups and turnarounds. Before joining Element Human, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Rest Less.
Paul launched four different multi-million businesses in Europe and drove
a turnaround with another. At Payhawk, Paul led the professionalisation of their sales organisation, scaling it from €3M to €12M and expanding the team from 30 to 110 people across sales, customer success, pre-sales and customer support in one year. Paul's leadership career began at Vision Сritical where he grew the EMEA business from £0 to £8M. He then launched Zappi
in Europe, scaling it from £0 to £8M in
four years.
Ratnesh Bagdai
Brindisa
Ratnesh Bagdai
Brindisa
Ratnesh is the Director and Co-Owner at Brindisa. He appreciates the importance of supplying chefs and restaurateurs with accurate financial information as soon as it can be made available. His accountancy company looks after 60 restaurants and 17 restaurant groups. He launched Spanish food supplier and restaurant group Brindisa with Monika in 2004.
Tim Greenhalgh
Like a Moth
Tim Greenhalgh
Like a Moth
Tim has spent over 30 years with Fitch, Conran and lately Landor & Fitch. During his three-decade tenure at Fitch, he was the driving force behind a huge breadth of brand experience work – from McLaren, Hilton and Harrods to Lego and Adidas. More recently, he has helped author the Landor & Fitch creative ambition and been integral to numerous client, cultural, new business and thought leadership initiatives. Tim managed the creative output of 20 multinational design studios, driving design standards and influencing the shape of brand and retail design worldwide.
Paul West
Dalziel & Pow
Paul West
Dalziel & Pow
Paul is a strategy and transformation expert with experience spanning creative direction, architecture, service design, brand consulting, digital and experiential. He is currently Director of Strategy & Transformation at Dalziel & Pow – a global strategy and design studio – where he connects the dots between disciplines to transform businesses in a holistic way. His global clients include Adidas, Volkswagen, LEGO, Nike, Johnnie Walker, Guinness, EE, ZKB and Knight Frank, to name a few.
Adrian Talbot
Miroma Group
Adrian Talbot
Miroma Group
Adrian is an award-winning, highly commercial and versatile Chief Financial Officer, with over 20 years of international experience in marketing and communications. He is the CFO at the Miroma Group, a global marketing transformation company. Before joining Miroma, Adrian was the Global CFO at Hotwire, a leading global technology communications and marketing consultancy. In previous roles, he also worked as a Commercial Director at the advertising agency BBH and was CFO during the sale of Instinctif Partners to private equity.
David Sheldon-Hicks
Territory Studio
David Sheldon-Hicks
Territory Studio
David is a creative and technical director with a background in film, digital media, music videos, and advertising. He is the Founder of Territory Studio, a creative VFX design agency, best known for creating blockbuster film UI and screen graphics. His work includes high-profile projects such as The Dark Knight, Casino Royale, and title sequences and visual effects for studios including Marvel, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros.
Ciaran McClellan
ME+EM
Ciaran McClellan
ME+EM
With 19 years of experience in e-commerce and retail, Ciaran has expertise across all aspects of marketing and e-commerce disciplines, from digital marketing and CRM to brand management and data analytics. He currently serves as Growth Director at the luxury fashion brand, ME+EM, where sales have increased fifteenfold in the last six years. He has also been an integral part of the executive teams at The Cotswold Company and Long Tall Sally, both of which have achieved successful exits.
Marian Holties
Nucu
Marian Holties
Nucu
Marian is an award-winning marketing leader with over 20 years of experience in international marketing roles, working with companies such as Abbott, Peloton and Activision. She is currently an Advisor at Nucu, a Finnish wellness company founded in 2016 to help babies and families sleep better. She excels in building brands, driving go-to-market plans and developing innovative campaigns that engage customers and fuel growth. Marian is recognised by Marketing Week and Campaign Magazine as one of the top marketing leaders in the UK.
Robert Stevenson
Ford Motor Company
Robert Stevenson
Ford Motor Company
Rob is a product design and experience leader with over 20 years of experience connecting human insight, business strategy and product development. He is currently the Product Design & Experience Chief at Ford Motor Company, where he leads human-centred product and experience strategy for Ford of Europe, shaping the strategic direction of new vehicle programmes. Before Ford, Rob worked at Sichuan Changhong Electric, Kohler Co. and Samsung Electronics. His work includes the ModernLife collection at Kohler, recognised by Red Dot and iF Design Awards, and early curved-display concepts at Samsung.
Lottie Whyte
MyoMaster
Lottie Whyte
MyoMaster
Lottie founded one of the UK’s fastest-growing health and wellness businesses and is one of only ten British business-owners backed by Google. She launched MyoMaster in 2021, scaling the company to millions in revenue and achieving a £20m valuation in just four years. Before MyoMaster, Lottie was the youngest ever board member at M&C Saatchi. Lottie now sits on the board of several companies, passionate about empowering others. Known as the ‘Dragon Slayer’, her steadfast conviction in her business and objection handling created one of the most-watched pitches in the history of the show 'Dragons' Den' with over 30 million online views.
Lusine Tarkhanyan
Method
Lusine Tarkhanyan
Method
Currently serving as the Director of Data and AI practice at Method, Lusine provides data-driven digital strategies and delivers transformation project portfolios to a variety of industries, from consumer retail, healthcare, industrial, finance, and innovation sectors. She established the Data Design practice at Method, advocating for a data-driven design philosophy that merges Design Thinking with Data Science to shape and monetise data for value creation.
J. Paul Neeley
J. Paul Neeley
J. Paul is a designer and researcher based in London, with a background in service design, speculative design and strategy. He is currently exploring the social, cultural and ethical implications of emerging technologies – from climate change and healthcare to AI and synthetic biology. Before this, he led teams at Mayo Clinic, Teton Radiology and Unilever.
Katey Harvey
Koto
Katey Harvey
Koto
Katey is the Managing Director of Koto. Her core focus is making space for creativity – leading the studio's efforts across people, growth and creative excellence. Originally an illustrator, she has worked in Client Service and Creative Production for 15 years and established many of Koto's retained clients, shepherded rebrands for household names such as Coca-Cola, Airbnb and Fanta. She also supported founders as they launch the start-ups of tomorrow.
Dan Witchell
Koto
Dan Witchell
Koto
As Executive Creative Director of Koto, Dan brings over 25 years of branding expertise. He previously founded Proud Creative, his own award-winning studio, which he led for a decade. He also co-founded and curated the acclaimed Kemistry Gallery – London’s only gallery dedicated to graphic design. A frequent lecturer and awards juror, Dan’s award-winning work has been featured in brand publications and exhibitions globally.
Philip Eaves
GXO Logistics, Inc
Philip Eaves
GXO Logistics, Inc
Philip is a seasoned board-level operations leader known for delivering results and managing P&L responsibilities across diverse organisations. He has extensive experience in highly complex organisations across e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, B2C, B2B and 3PL models. In his previous role as Director of Operations at Farmdrop, Philip played a strategic role in directing business operations to drive efficiency, growth, and development across the supply chain, customer fulfilment centre operations, and customer experience.
Christoph Rauscher
Method
Christoph Rauscher
Method
With 15 years of experience in R&D and Product Management in consumer electronics and the telecommunications industry, Christoph followed his passion for products & services and joined the Design & Innovation Consulting sector in 2012. As a firm believer in the power of Human-Centred Design, he works with Designers, Strategists, and Technologists to help clients across different sectors to untangle complex challenges, leading engagements with a transformative outcome.
Dem Gerolemou
Google Climate & Science AI,
Dem Gerolemou
Google Climate & Science AI,
Dem worked at DeepMind – one of the top AI research laboratories in the world and currently works at Google Climate & Science AI, where he researches, incubates and launches products and services to tackle the climate crisis through emerging technologies and explores the future of scientific exploration and discovery. Passionate about building a fairer and healthier world, he also helps non-profit organisations use AI and new technologies for good.
Julia Whitney
Julia Whitney
Julia is a design leader turned executive coach. She works with leaders to help them realise their full potential. Her clients include leaders and leadership teams from AWS, Condé Nast, Dropbox, Spotify, Financial Times, IDEO and many more. Julia brings her board-level experience to her coaching practice. She’s led design teams for more than 20 years in the US and the UK. She was General Manager and Executive Creative Director for the BBC’s 150-person UX & Design department. She’s a regular public speaker and runs retreats and online group coaching programmes for design leaders.
Dick Powell
Seymourpowell
Dick Powell
Seymourpowell
Dick founded Seymourpowell 42 years ago where he and his team have designed a wide range of products, including the world's first cordless kettle, the BSA Bantam motorcycle, Casio Baby-G watches, and, more recently, the interior for Virgin Galactic's SpaceshipTwo. Other clients include BMW, Nokia, Clairol, Ideal Standard, Panasonic, Yamaha, and Ford. Seymourpowell has won several design awards, including the Design Week Award, D&AD Silver Award, and BBC Design Award. Dick also serves on the boards of the Design Council, the DBA, Samsung’s IDAB and Design Singapore’s IAD.
Paolo Privitera
Events.com
Paolo Privitera
Events.com
Paolo is a global tech entrepreneur
with over 30 years of experience. He has founded 6 companies, invested in over 100, and advised countless, including being
an LP in 8 funds. He has raised over $300M across startups and funds. Paolo received 10 career awards, and 4 of his companies had an exit. His latest company, Evensi,
the world's largest events platform, raised $100M and was acquired by Events.com. Paolo is actively involved in M&A
and Corporate Development, assisting companies with global scaling, fundraising, and achieving successful exits.
Ivy Ross
Ivy Ross
Ivy and her team created the design language for the Google hardware products that launched in 2017, winning over 240 design awards over the last three years. Business Insider recently named her one
of the 15 Most Powerful Women at Google. In 2019, she was voted number 9 of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. Previously, she held executive positions ranging from head of product design and development to chief marketing officer and president of several companies, including Calvin Klein, Swatch, Coach, Mattel, Bausch & Lomb, Old Navy, and Gap.
Eric Norman
Pioneer Fund
Eric Norman
Pioneer Fund
Eric specialises in early-stage investments
and innovative product development.
With a robust background in motor vehicle manufacturing and technology, he combines engineering management expertise with a keen eye for startup potential. Eric has a proven track record
of leading cross-functional teams and developing cutting-edge solutions, including smart consumer electronics that have garnered significant media attention.
Anirudh Ramanathan
Signadot
Anirudh Ramanathan
Signadot
Anirudh co-founded Signadot, a Kubernetes native platform, which was backed by the/ venture capital firm Redpoint and Y Combinator, raising $5M+. Before this, he led engineering and product at Rockset (acq. by OpenAI) and was a core Kubernetes maintainer at Google. With a passion for scaling early-stage startups and developer-focused GTM, he helps founders formulate and bring their vision to life.
Leslie Witt
8am
Leslie Witt
8am
Leslie has a deep wealth of experience in customer-driven innovation and an unwavering commitment to improving people's lives. Before joining 8am, she was
at Headspace focusing on mental health. Prior to that, Leslie focused on improving financial outcomes as Head of Design at financial software company Intuit. She was also the Head of Financial Service Innovation at IDEO, where she worked with a wide array of partners, including financial institutions, fintech giants, payment providers, retailers, non-profits, foundations and the public sector, counting Visa, Wells Fargo, MetLife, the Gates Foundation, the CFPB and the World Bank among her clients.
Nicole Quinn
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Nicole Quinn
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Nicole spent the last 10 years at Lightspeed Venture Partners, scaling the firm from $2bn to $30bn+ AUM. She co-ran the Consumer Team and worked with beehiiv, Calm, Cameo, Character AI, Daily Harvest, Daybreak, Girlboss, Goop, Hungryroot, Lightyear, Multiverse, Rothy’s, Zola and, perhaps most importantly, Haus Labs as that was where she originally met Mike Blank and CAA in 2017 when incubating
the beauty brand with Lady Gaga. Before Lightspeed Venture Partners, Nicole spent a decade at Morgan Stanley covering retail and online. She did the IPOs for Facebook, Groupon, Prada and Pandora.
Shawn Flynn
Silicon Valley Highpoint Capital
Shawn Flynn
Silicon Valley Highpoint Capital
Shawn began his career in Beijing, China, where he founded, scaled, and successfully exited a company before returning to the U.S. to work with fast‑growing Silicon Valley startups to establish overseas public companies. Now at SVH Capital, Shawn and his team use AI and tech to augment the steps of the transaction process. He specialises in mergers & acquisitions, raising growth capital, and secondaries. He is also the host of the award‑winning “The Silicon Valley Podcast”, where he shares weekly insights from Silicon Valley thought leaders.
Janaki Kumar
PMorgan Chase & Co.
Janaki Kumar
PMorgan Chase & Co.
Janaki has spent over 30 years delivering impactful products in Fintech and beyond. Before JPMorganChase, Janaki was the head of the Design and Co-Innovation Centre at SAP Labs, Palo Alto, where she created exceptionally award-winning products and services. Janaki co-authored the book Gamification at Work: Designing Engaging Business Software. She was also a speaker at a TEDx conference, an inventor on over 20 patents and was named a Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2016.
Michelle Lee
IDEO Play Lab
Michelle Lee
IDEO Play Lab
Michelle leads an integrated research, design, and development team bringing engaging, interactive and playful experiences to market. Her team builds upon 30+ years in toy invention, leveraging the principles of play to connect with people at a deeper emotional level that captivates, delights and empowers. Immersed in a globally recognised human-centred design firm, Michelle's IDEO tenure includes research and product design roles.
Charles Migos
Intangible.ai
Charles Migos
Intangible.ai
Charles has more than 20 years
of experience in product design and design leadership, leading teams to conceptualise, design and develop product experiences for a number of innovative and award-winning products. Prior to founding Intangible.ai, he was the VP of Product Design at Unity and held design management positions at Microsoft, Apple and Pinnacle Systems. Charles focuses on fostering product experiences that are purposeful, efficient, elegant and delightful and seeks collaborative environments where design
is not the end result, but a methodology
and practice that produces great products.
Marc Escobosa
Salesforce Futures
Marc Escobosa
Salesforce Futures
Marc helps enterprises navigate emerging technologies like powerful AI and robotics by keeping human and societal needs at the centre of value creation. From architecting one of the first enterprise SaaS interfaces
to leading Salesforce's customer-facing innovation practice, he's spent 25+ years tapping into otherwise overlooked user needs, team dynamics, and unexplored market signals. He has had a direct hand
in work with Apple, the International Committee of the Red Cross, 21st Century Fox, T-Mobile, and Caesars, among many others.
Yolanda Martin Olivas
Jigsaw
Yolanda Martin Olivas
Jigsaw
Yolanda is an international design leader and platform strategist, with over 20 years of experience across fintech, energy,
e-commerce, and media, where she has led global teams through large-scale transformation. Most recently, as Fractional Chief Product Officer at Jigsaw Create, she restructured product and design functions, embedded platform thinking, and scaled AI-first tools for professional services. She is also a founder of Batyb, a consultancy that helps organisations architect digital ecosystems and coaches elite design teams, amplified by Generative AI. Previously, Yolanda served as Global VP of Design at ClearScore, where she introduced scalable design systems and led a major brand and product redesign.
Bidisha Sinha
Zaha Hadid Architects
Bidisha Sinha
Zaha Hadid Architects
Bidisha joined Zaha Hadid Architects in 2005 and has decades of experience delivering international architectural projects across all stages — from design concept through to completion. As Project Architect for the 2011 RIBA Stirling Prize winner Evelyn Grace Academy, she worked through all stages of design and delivery. Bidisha was also the Project Senior Associate on Mathematics: The Winton Gallery at the Science Museum in London, completed in 2016, which received the RIBA award. Her current ongoing projects include a large-scale student university residence, super-luxury retail mall interiors, a collection of single-family residences and two museums.
Patrizia Bertini
Euler
Patrizia Bertini
Euler
Patrizia is a Design Operations Strategist, currently leading EU regulations for innovation at Euler. Before this, she was running Design Operations at 8x8, a global communication company. She has developed her approach to Design Ops through 20+ years of international experience in usability, accessibility, web design, design management and user research and has set up and grown Design Ops practices at companies like Intuit, Tide and Babylon Health.
Dan Makoski
Wellcome Leap
Dan Makoski
Wellcome Leap
Dan is an Executive Vice President and Chief Design Officer who has led user experience and design at many of the world’s largest companies, including Google, Walmart, Microsoft, Capital One, Motorola and UnitedHealth Group. Dan combines the ambition of Silicon Valley with the empathy of human-centred design to innovate by design. Dan started Google’s modular phone project, designed Hotmail and the original Surface at Microsoft, created “Hey Moto” while leading design research globally at Motorola (which was quickly adopted by Google), and doubled conversion with a redesign of Walmart.com.
John Anderson
John Anderson
John was the Performance Director and Team Leader of the Olympic and Paralympic Canoeing Teams from 1997 to 2017. He has a strong track record of success in strategic leadership, directing performance, high performance and executive business coaching. In his role as an executive performance coach, John provides support to public and private sector board-level business leaders to gain a greater understanding and application of the leadership and winning behaviours that improve performance. He is passionate about helping people to improve, accelerate their performance and achieve successful outcomes in extremely challenging sporting or business environments.
Angus Dick
Arrival
Angus Dick
Arrival
With 25 years of global experience in Europe, the US, and Asia, Angus has shaped design strategies and product visions at companies like LG Design Europe, Native Design, Philips Design, and IDEO. Angus has a proven track record of building and leading multidisciplinary teams to drive business success across various industries, including electric automobiles, consumer technology, and more. Most recently, he served as a VP of Industrial Design at Arrival – a groundbreaking electric vehicle manufacturer – where he led future-focused projects guided by strong design principles.
Jim Prior
Partners
Jim Prior
Partners
Jim has worked with many of the world’s greatest brands, both as a senior leader inside organisations and as a trusted external advisor and global agency CEO. Starting in the casualwear industry, he moved to the creative agency world in 2001, joining The Partners, a globally renowned brand consultancy, a part of WPP, becoming the CEO in 2004. He led Superunion until its merger with Design Bridge in 2023, where he took the role of Chair, before retiring from WPP later that year.
Martina Presnajderova
Deel
Martina Presnajderova
Deel
Martina is deeply passionate about pricing. She formerly held the role of Head of Pricing at Wise, where she built and guided teams towards achieving global pricing optimisation, considering both product value and financial implications. Prior to her venture into the pricing sphere, she led machine learning initiatives within the startup sector. Since 2018, her professional journey has been dedicated towards disruptive, rapidly expanding, early-stage enterprises. Recently, she embarked on a new endeavour, working on pricing at Deel - a SaaS startup witnessing exponential growth.
Tom Elvidge
Olix
Tom Elvidge
Olix
Tom is a hands-on operations leader who has held exec-level roles at hyper-growth technology startups both in the UK and the US. Passionate about operating at the intersection of technology and operations in tech-enabled organisations, Tom thrives in mission-driven businesses that are rapidly scaling. Tom’s experience in the last ten years has been in senior exec roles at Uber, WeWork and London-based electric vehicle startup Arrival. Through these experiences, Tom has seen first-hand how to operate and lead in fast-growing technology companies at the intersection of operations, tech, product and policy.
Paul Wright
Uber Advertising
Paul Wright
Uber Advertising
Throughout his career, Paul has been an entrepreneur, corporate leader and board advisor. He has been responsible for business development and sales strategy at the world's biggest companies including Farfetch, Apple and Amazon. He has run multiple teams from editorial, sales, marketing, agency, and engineering and sold 2 companies (one being his own, another in digital video). He is also dyslexic and wants to help companies do better with neurodiverse team members.
Mike Branson
Pearlfisher
Mike Branson
Pearlfisher
Mike Branson is a Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pearlfisher, the definitive creative partnership with studios in New York and London. Through Futures, Strategy and Design, Pearlfisher strives to make a lasting impact on challenger and iconic brands. Since 1992, Pearlfisher has created effective and groundbreaking work for brands around the world such as Target, McDonald’s, Patron, Starbucks, Green & Black’s, and Cadbury Dairy Milk.
David Pratt
Checkout.com
David Pratt
Checkout.com
David is an accomplished global finance executive with an unusually rich experience covering many fields of finance across multinational groups and operating company functions. He has extensive international experience in finance leadership roles in companies that include Vodafone, Verizon, Mars, Wise and now at Checkout.com. During 30 years of his career, has managed large finance operations and commercial teams through transformation, created target finance operating models including post-merger and achieved $2bn of synergies ahead of schedule and within cost budgets.
James Sullivan
Bitstamp
James Sullivan
Bitstamp
James is an accomplished executive with extensive experience as a COO, General Counsel, Chief Risk Officer and more. James has worked across multiple sectors, investment management, crowdfunding, and technology in legal, risk, compliance, internal audit and operational roles. He has been working in disruptive, fast-growth, early-stage companies since 2018, helping establish effective and efficient processes and systems that underpin
a solid foundation to enable these businesses to scale. Having an operations mindset gained from being a COO, he finds and implements continuous improvement by finding opportunities for standardisation, simplification and elimination.
Kate Williams
Bateman Communication
Kate Williams
Bateman Communication
Kate is informed and inspired by 20 years working with a huge range of organisations, from BCG to Save the Children, Unilever to LEGO, British Airways to Yorkshire Building Society. Kate's clients range from startups to FTSE30 companies, with many shapes and sizes in between. She loves the variety this brings and never stops being amazed at how similar many of the challenges are, that leaders face. She is
a qualified executive coach with expertise in coaching capability, leadership team facilitation, purpose-driven strategy and culture change.
Natalie Anson-Wright
Simon Gough
Ajit
Singh
Joy Nazzari
Margaret Ochieng
Don
Norman
Alan Cooney
Manmit Shrimali
Rachel Varrilly-Gierula
Tony Browne
Matt Fenby-Taylor
Karen Sargent
Emily Saltmer
Chloe
Scott
Abi Wright
Vincenzo Migliore
Harry Pearce
Emma Wee
Andy Cottrill
Jeremy Lindley
Steve "Buzz" Pearce
Monika
Linton
John "Sinx" Sinclair
Paul
Albert
Ratnesh
Bagdai
Tim Greenhalgh
Paul West
Adrian Talbot
David Sheldon-Hicks
Ciaran McClellan
Marian Holties
Robert Stevenson
Lottie Whyte
Lusine Tarkhanyan
J. Paul Neeley
Katey Harvey
Dan
Witchell
Philip Eaves
Christoph Rauscher
Dem Gerolemou
Julia Whitney
Dick Powell
Paolo
Privitera
Ivy
Ross
Eric
Norman
Anirudh Ramanathan
Leslie Witt
Nicole
Quinn
Shawn
Flynn
Janaki
Kumar
Michelle
Lee
Charles
Migos
Marc
Escobosa
Yolanda Martin Olivas
Bidisha
Sinha
Patrizia Bertini
Dan Makoski
John Anderson
Angus Dick
Jim Prior
Martina
Presnajderova
Tom Elvidge
Paul Wright
Mike Branson
David Pratt
James Sullivan
Kate Williams
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