John is a Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Art in London, a visiting professor at SVA in New York, and an advisor on social-ecological innovation to cities, civil society organisations and companies. He travels the world in search of practical projects that restore the planet.

Richard van der Laken studied graphic design at the School of Art Utrecht and did a post graduate  at the Amsterdam Sandberg Institute. Since 1995, he runs a design company with creative partner Pepijn Zurburg, called De Designpolitie. De Designpolitie Richard and Pepijn won numerous Design Awards.

Zachary graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Design from Curtin University of Technology, Australia. He is passionate and committed to the transformation of the design industry to impact Malaysia’s GDP. In 2015, he was voted as the first Malaysian President of the International Council of Design.

Sevra is Director of Design and Challenges at the RSA and also heads up the globally renowned RSA Student Design Awards programme. A dedicated champion of design for social good, she spent 10 years working in industry as an architect and urban designer before joining the RSA in 2010.

Writer, design theoretician, business consultant, curator and project initiator/manager; former CEO of the German Design Council; member of the documenta 8 advisory board; founding dean of Köln International School of Design/KISD and professor em. of design theory and history at KISD.

Christine is the founding director of Ashkal Alwan, the Lebanese Association for Plastic Arts, a nonprofit organisation established in 1993, that supports contemporary artistic practice. She is the recipient of the Prince Claus Award and CCS Bard Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence.

In the wake of the merchants of old, Arthur traveled the Silk Road. He became inspired to focus his entrepreneurial energy on the Middle East. He lived and worked in Iran, Syria and Egypt. He is the co-founder and chairman of NewSilkRoads, and managing founder of the Hivos Mideast Creatives. 

Hani Asfour is an MIT and Harvard-trained architect who applies design thinking methods as a creative strategic thought leader with over twenty years of experience. He combines a mix of design expertise with entrepreneurship skills, academic depth and hands-on experience. 

Gordon has headed up the Product Design department at GSA since 2007 and helped steer the emergence of Design Innovation as a subject of academic study at Masters level incorporating Service Design, Citizenship, Environmental Design and, with the University of Glasgow, International Management. 

Nathalie Fallaha is the founder and catalyst behind vit-e design studio and alephya. She is a member of the advisory board of the Khatt Foundation, and the Icograda Education Network, as well as the Lebanese League for Women In Business. She is a founding board member of Beirut Creative Cluster.