Design Commission: Members

 

Lord Michael Bichard, House of Lords
Lord Bichard is the former Design Council chairman and has 20 years’ experience in local government and nearly 10 in central government.  He was CEO of two local authorities – Brent and Gloucestershire – and in 1990 became CEO of the Benefits Agency.
In 2001 Michael left the civil service, becoming rector of the London Institute three years before it became University of the Arts London. In January 2004 he was appointed by the Home Office to chair an independent inquiry following the Soham murders and from 2005 to 2008 he was chair of the Legal Services Commission. He is a senior fellow (and former Director) of the Institute for Government.



Alice Black, Design Museum
Alice is responsible for the day to day running of the museum and strategic development. Leading, with the director, the project to relocate the Design Museum to Kensington High Street. The Design Museum currently delivers educational programmes to 22,000 learners annually in formal education (schools, colleges and universities) and informally (general public adults, families, designer professionals) across a variety of activities and programmes.  Learners range in age from 5 to seniors.



Sir George Cox, Institution of Engineering Designers
George is President of the IED and the author of the government-commissioned Cox Review of Creativity in UK Business.
He is Pro-Chancellor of Warwick University and is Chair of the University Council, positions he has held since 2010 and 2011 respectively. He is a Board Member of NYSE-Euronext, the global exchange group and an independent director of Shorts, the aerospace company. He is a past Director General of the Institute of Directors and the past Chair of the Design Council. He started his professional life as an aeronautical engineer.



Jeremy Davenport, University of the Arts London
The KTN’s role is to accelerate innovation in the creative sector; part of the Technology Strategy Board's family of KTNs; work is firmly linked to the priorities identified in the TSB's Creative Industries Strategy report. Jeremy began his career as an international economist with business development experience gained in both the private and public sectors. More recently he has worked to design and deliver programmes and projects across a range of sectors supporting the enlargement of the EU in Central Europe. Since 2004 he has worked as Business Development Manager at the University of the Arts London, focusing on developing and delivering Knowledge Transfer services and creating synergies between design and technology.



Julian Grice, Institute of Internal Communication
Julian has 20 years experience in applying design disciplines to public services from policy innovation, professional development to motivating behaviour change. He has worked on public service transformations from business (Solutions for Business), skills (Sector Skills Councils), health innovation (NHS choices) and local authorities. Julian is a board level creative and innovation advisor working with business and creative industries to create better service experiences. He is the former CEO of The Team, ranked no1 for design effectiveness, chairman of the Institute of Internal Communication; a CCS/Design Skills Panel board member leading design strategy; Deputy Chair of the UK Design Alliance; mentor on the 20/20 DBA mentoring programme; member of Design Council's NextNet Mentoring pilot; Board Director of Design Business Association (DBA) 1998 - 2004; DBA special advisor and member of better public sector procurement group. He established DBA's Design Does It development programme for public sector marketing professional in 2003; part of the DBA George Cox Treasury working party; member Parliamentary Design Forum 2004 - 2007; London Design Festival partner 2005.



Laura Haynes, Appetite and Design Business Association
Laura is the Chair and one of the founding partners of Appetite. Appetite is a leading brand and communications agency with offices in London, UK and Calgary, Canada. Laura has a long and successful history working with UKTI having directed and managed the corporate branding identity project.
The Design Business Association is the trade association for the UK design industry and helps design consultancies become more professional and profitable by offering a range of industry specific membership services, training courses and events.



Wayne Hemingway, Hemingway Design
Wayne founded Hemingway Design in 1999 and specializes in affordable and social design.
Wayne is the Chairman of Building for Life, a CABE  funded organization that promotes the quality of design of new housing. He is a Professor in the Built Environment department of Northumbria University, a Doctor of Design at Wolverhampton, a writer for architectural and housing publications. He also is a judge of international design competitions including the regeneration of Byker in Newcastle Upon Tyne and Salford in Greater Manchester and the Stirling Prize, European and a TV design commentator and Chairman of the South Coast Design Forum.



Graham Hitchen, Directional Thinking
Graham runs 'Directional Thinking', a strategic management consultancy focused on business transformation. Graham was the founding Director of Creative London, and was a design and innovation project director for the London Development Agency. He was also Policy Director at Arts Council England from 1996 to 2000.



Emma Hunt, Council for Higher Education in Art and Design;
University of Huddersfield
Emma chairs CHEAD, the association of 70 educational institutions with degree or postgraduate provision in art and design, represented by their most senior academic concerned with art and design. Emma also sits on the board of the Higher Education Academy – Art, Design and Media subject centre (HEA - ADM); on the steering board for the National Arts Education Archive at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, is a director of Barnsley Civic Enterprises and a Governor of Calderdale College, as well as holding External Examining positions at various institutions.



David Kester, Design Council
David Kester leads the Design Council’s national programmes and policies for industry, education and the public sector that drive innovation and strengthen competitiveness in the UK.

David’s current focus is on designing out of the downturn and includes mentoring high-tech ventures on using design to accelerate new innovations, such as green technologies and sustainable services, to global markets. Across Whitehall and at a local level, David is promoting new design-led approaches that turn social challenges into economic opportunity.   For instance, the recent Design Bugs Out programme with frontline NHS staff, has matched the challenges of MRSA and c.Difficile to new consortia of manufacturers and designers, resulting in innovative healthcare products and improved approaches to government procurement.  Current project themes include sustainable water consumption, crime prevention, community cohesion, and preventative healthcare.

David became Design Council Chief Executive in 2003. His background in design, industry and the environment includes nine years as Chief Executive of D&AD.  He is a member of the Home Office Design & Technology Alliance Against Crime, and a trustee of the Rose Theatre Kingston. 



Catherine Large, Creative and Cultural Skills
Catherine is joint CEO at CCSkills, the Sector Skills Council for craft, cultural heritage, design, music, performing arts, visual arts and literature. Catherine was previously Head of Development at Booktrust, a national charity whose work spanned education, publishing and the arts, and – before that – Development Manager at Battersea Arts Centre, a theatre in South London.



Jeremy Myerson, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, The Royal College of Art
Jeremy has been an academic, author and activist in design for the past 30 years. He began his working life as a journalist and was founder-editor of DesignWeek in 1986. He co-founded the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art in 1999 and is today a member of the College's Senior Management Team. Closely identified with a humanist approach to design, Jeremy is the author of many books on design, art and architecture, an active researcher and a frequent speaker and chair at international conferences. He is an external examiner for the Open University and sits on the advisory boards of design schools in Hong Kong and Korea.



Dick Powell, D&AD and Seymourpowell
Dick is one of Europe’s best-known designers. After time spent at Manchester Polytechnic and then the Royal College of Art, he went on to form Seymourpowell with his business partner Richard Seymour in 1984. With Richard, Dick has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes, raising the importance of design to industry and to the ordinary person in the street. A series of six programmes called ‘Better By Design’ for Channel 4, increased the profile of design in the media and has helped inspire young people to take up design careers.



Vicky Pryce, FTI Consulting
Vicky Pryce is a Senior Managing Director in the Economic Consulting practice of FTI Consulting Inc, based in the London office.  She joined FTI in September 2010.  Prior to this, she was Director General, Economics & Chief Economic Adviser at the, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), 2002-2010 and Joint Head, UK Government Economic Service, 2007-2010. She remains a member of the Secretary of State for Business Panel on monitoring the economy. Before joining the civil service Vicky was Partner at London Economics, Partner and Chief Economist at KPMG, Corporate Economist at ESSO Europe and Chief economist at Williams & Glyn’s Bank (later RBS).      

Vicky is a visiting Professor at the CASS Business School, a fellow of the Society of Business Economists, Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School and a visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford.  She is on the Council at the University of Kent and on the Advisory Board for the Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM) at the Judge Institute at Cambridge University. She has been recently elected on the executive committee and council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and has been appointed Visiting Professor in the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary, University of London and has been made an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Governor at the Court of the London School of Economics.



Barry Sheerman MP, House of Commons
Barry has been the Labour MP for Huddersfield since 1979. He was formerly Chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 and the Education and Skills Committee from 2001-2007. He currently Chairs The Skills Commission, has extensive experience in educational issues and played a key role in education policy and debates. His interests also include economic affairs, environmental sustainability and transport safety. He is an energetic social and political entrepreneur having initiated over 30 different social enterprises over the past 20 years. He is Chairman of Policy Connect (which runs a number of policy forums and parliamentary groups), the Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety, Urban Mines (an environmental charity), The John Clare Trust and The Dominic Rogers Trust, all of which he helped establish. Barry is also a visiting professor of Social Enterprise at the University of Huddersfield.



Andrew Summers, Companies House
Andrew works as chairman, board member and advisor to companies and governments worldwide with an emphasis on strategy and innovation. He is also the Director of engineering consultancy Ramboll Whitbybird Ltd and Chairman of Design Partners UK, the industry/government body which supports design companies internationally.



John Thackara, Doors of Perception
John founded Doors of Perception as a conference in Amsterdam in 1993, it now organises festivals and projects around the world in which grassroots innovators work with designers to imagine sustainable futures - and take practical steps to realize them.
John was the first Director (1993-1999) of the Netherlands Design Institute. He was programme director in 2007 of Designs of the Time (Dott 07) a new biennial in North East England. In 2008 he was commissioner of City Eco Lab at Cite du Design in St Etienne, the most important French design biennial. John is a an Associate of The Young Foundation, UK; senior advisor on sustainability to the UK Design Council; and an advisor on sustainability indicators to Agence France Presse.



Baroness Janet Whitaker, House of Lords
Baroness Whitaker is a Labour Peer. She was an International Development Liaison Peer 1999-2007; and Chair of the Design in Public Procurement Inquiry 2009 and Co-chair of the Design Education Inquiry 2011.
She has political interests in architecture and design, international development, race relations.



Gavin Williamson MP, House of Commons
Gavin has been the Conservative MP for South Staffordshire since 2010. Since entering Parliament, Gavin has become a member of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committe, and he is Chairman of the All Party Group on Motor Neurone Disease.  He was elected to the Executive of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and he is co-chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Design because of his interest in manufacturing and design. In October 2011 Gavin became Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Hugo Swire MP, Minister of State for Northern Ireland.



David Worthington, Holmes & Marchant Group, MSQ Partners
David is chairman of design companies Holmes & Marchant and Lloyd Northover at MSQ Partners, prior to which he was managing director of the Conran Design Group. He is an independent design consultant to Sainsbury’s, the SS Robin Trust and others.
 
He is a trustee of the London Transport Museum and chairman of Designersblock, London Transport Museum Trading, the UK Design Alliance and the CCSkills Patrons Group. David is also past chairman of CCSkills and a past director of the Design Business Association.
 
David is a member of D&AD, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and the RSA and an Honorary Fellow of Cardiff Metropolitan University.