Paul Priestman is a Designer and Co-Founding Director of leading multidisciplinary design consultancy Priestmangoode.

Priestman studied Industrial Design at Central Saint Martins and at the Royal College of Art. He was a member of the UK Design Council and Chair of the Design Sector Skills Panel from 2004 to 2006. He was also President of the Design Business Association from 2001 to 2003, and a member of the D&AD Executive from 2005 to 2007. He is currently a member of the Royal College of Art Council. In 2010, Priestman was selected to represent the UK’s creative industries on the Prime Minister’s Trade Delegation to China, flying the flag for British design around the world.

He is a leading voice in the industry and an experienced speaker on the subject of design and innovation. Last year, the Evening Standard–London’s leading newspaper–voted Priestman one of London’s 1000 most influential people of 2012.

Priestmangoode

Mat Hunter is Chief Design Officer at the Design Council, an enterprising charity that pioneers the use of design and architecture for the public good. Mat heads up the organization’s Design Challenges program that demonstrates how design can create new solutions for the big issues of our time. Whether stopping the spread of superbugs, reducing crime or promoting health and wellness for our aging population, the program shows how design can create practical solutions to complex problems and stimulate opportunities for enterprise.

Before joining the Design Council Mat was a partner at IDEO, an internationally renowned design and innovation consultancy, where he focused mostly on creating new digital products and services, but occasionally food and footwear too. His current academic roles include Adjunct Professor at Imperial College Business School and external examiner for Product Design at Glasgow School of Art.

Professor Dale Harrow is dean of the School of Design and head of its Vehicle Design programme, a global center of excellence in automotive design education. With a near 100 per cent record in student transition to professional practice, Vehicle Design was shortlisted for the Queen’s Award for Excellence in Education. Harrow is an international opinion former, commentator and media persona on design and the automotive car industry. He is an award-winning designer, academic leader and researcher. Always keen to raise the intellectual debate about vehicle design, Harrow has lectured internationally on the subject.

Sophie Thomas is the founding director of thomas.matthews, the award winning UK pioneers in sustainable communication design established in 1998. She has been working in the fields of communication, sustainable design and material process for over 15 years working with global businesses and UK government organizations to define the role of designers within the discussion around waste streams, resource efficiency and circular economies.

She co-founded a number of enterprises including greengaged, an organization that aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond to environmental challenges through knowledge sharing. In addition to the RSA post she has recently become Director of Design for the Useful Simple Trust where her focus will be to work with designers and engineers to create trailblazing work.

She plays a vocal part in promoting sustainable thinking in design through education, working with organizations like Cape Farewell and speaking internationally and throughout the UK. She writes regularly for the design press, is an associated member of the CIWM, included in Who’s Who and sits on a number of advisory panels for sustainable design. She is a past trustee for the Design Council until 2011 and is a trustee of the Useful Simple Trust.