Born in Arona (Novara) in 1946, Alberto Alessi is president of Alessi Spa as well as head of marketing strategy, communication and design management.

Mark Shuttleworth is the founder of the Ubuntu Project, a popular Linux-based operating system that is freely available worldwide with desktop and server editions. Ubuntu aims to be beautiful, easy to use and precision engineered for consumers and large-scale enterprise deployments alike.

Graphic designer, type designer, design educator, a pioneer in the field of 3D Hebrew lettering and a typographic experimentalist who invented the term Biotypography… Oded Ezer’s projects, posters and graphic works are showcased and published worldwide, and are part of permanent collections of eminent museums such as the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoM

Dutch designer Maarten Baas was born in Arnsberg, Germany, in 1978 but moved to The Netherlands in 1979, where he grew up. Upon graduating from high school in 1995 he began his studies at the prestigious Design Academy Eindhoven. Baas designed the candleholder Knuckle, which was taken into production by Pols’ Potten, while he was still studying.

Jens Martin Skibsted, founding partner of Skibsted Ideation, KiBiSi and Biomega, is one of most inspiring and creative Danish designers and design thinkers, whose work has been accredited worldwide. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and Global Agenda Council on Design member. And awarded the 40 Under 40 Design Award 2010.

Creative director of Google Creative Labs, Robert Wong was born Chinese, grew up Dutch, was Canadian, and is now American. While practicing accounting in Toronto, he woke up one day, flew to New York, and became a graphic designer instead.

Since 2002, Dror Benshetrit has developed an interdisciplinary practice specialising in innovative design projects. His approach to design has shown breadth and depth through the completion of projects varying in scale and nature. His portfolio encompasses product design, architecture projects, interior design, graphic design and art direction.

Karin Fong directs and designs for film, television, and environments. She is a founding member of production and design company Imaginary Forces.

Diébédo Francis Kéré is an architect from Burkina Faso. He studied at the Technische Universität Berlin. His focus is on education as the developing concept for his country, in which he has already built an essential infrastructure.

Kiran Bir Sethi is a designer who became a teacher, a principal who grew into an education reformer and subsequently morphed into a social entrepreneur. A trained graphic designer, she comfortably uses the language of design – iteration, prototype, design specs – to develop not only curriculum innovation, but also community-based social programmes.

The marketing visionaries behind Daddy’s World, Jody Aufrichtig and Nick Ferguson, work on bringing their wildest imaginings to life. They can claim, among other disciplines, to be hoteliers, property group partners, private equity company shareholders and, surprisingly, they both actually trained as accountants.

Concept developers and brand custodians, Brad Armitage and Rui Esteves have been crafting retail experiences together for over 11 years.

David Kester is the chief executive of the Design Council based in the United Kingdom.  As chief executive he leads national programmes and policies for industry, education and the public sector, which drive innovation and strengthen competitiveness in the UK and Europe.

David Butler is responsible for leading the global design vision and strategy for the Coca-Cola Company. Since 2004, he has led the design thinking for some of the world’s most loved and valuable products.

Michael Wolff is a co-founder of one of the world’s most iconic design companies – Wolff Olins – and is recognised today as a leader in thinking on brands.

Dana Arnett is a founding principal and CEO of the internationally recognised firm of VSA Partners, headquartered in Chicago, with offices in Minneapolis and New York City.

hat-trick was ranked number one in the 2010 Design Week Creative Survey for its prolific output on behalf of clients including Land Securities, Natural History Museum, Royal Mail, Salvation Army, Scottish Opera and Twickenham Stadium.

Bibliothèque is a London based design consultancy that produces captivating design solutions, underpinned by conceptual thinking, meticulous attention to detail and innovative production.

Richard Hart is a designer, illustrator, type nut and – most recently – a weekend artist. He is happiest when he’s making. His output includes posters, publications, flyers, packaging, furniture, interiors, exhibition design, painting, sculpture and a few objects that are less easily described.

Charlie Todd is the founder of Improv Everywhere. He has produced, directed, performed and documented the group's work for over nine years.

Partner at PearsonLloyd, Luke Pearson trained in industrial design at the Central St Martins School of Art in London before completing a Masters in furniture design at the Royal College of Art in 1993. 

Lowery Stokes Sims is a curator at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Deborah Szebeko is the founder of thinkpublic. Over the past seven years she has combined design and social entrepreneurship to inspire and engage citizens and frontline staff to take an active role in designing solutions to many social challenges.

Carla Fernandez is the founder of Taller Flora, a fashion label and mobile design laboratory that travels throughout Mexico visiting indigenous communities, including those that specialise in handmade textiles.

Pedro Reyes is a Mexican artist who crosses the boundaries of the worlds of design, film, architecture and pedagogy. His expanded notion of sculpture aims to create solutions to social problems by increasing an individual and collective degree of agency.

Fibra is a sustainable design studio comprising four university peers: Bernardo Ferracioli, Pedro Themoteo, Bruno Temer and Thiago Maia. Together they started out in 2005 at the Business Incubation Unit of the Rio de Janeiro State University Superior School of Industrial Design.

Co-founder and director of Droog, Renny Ramakers curates design exhibitions, is a judging panelist on various design boards, and leads lectures and workshops worldwide. She has advised on governmental advisory boards, among others as a member of the Dutch Council of Culture (1995-2001).

Ben Fry is principal of Fathom, a design and software consultancy located in Boston. He received his doctoral degree from the Aesthetics + Computation Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, where his research focused on combining fields such as computer science, statistics, graphic design and data visualization as a means for understanding information.

In 2009 Camille Blin graduated from the ECAL/University of Art and Design, Lausanne. During his studies he was awarded an internship at Boym Design Studio in New York City. Currently a teacher's assistant at ECAL, Blin has participated in a number of international exhibitions.

Lindsay Kinkade is a teacher, community-based designer, public artist and documentary journalist. She is the co-founder of Little Giant, a design firm in Providence, Rhode Island. Kinkade's primary research interests are public engagement, public policy design collaboration, participatory design and data visualisation.

From Carleton University in Canada, Christine Goudie believes in designing for the bigger picture. With a focus on wheelchair seating and cushion design, this graphic designer turned industrial designer collaborates with stakeholders around the world.

Born in Port Elizabeth in 1986, Laduma Ngxokolo had his first hands-on experience of textile designing in 2003 when he studied at Lawson Brown High School.

In 2010 Joseph Saavedra completed his MFA in Design and Technology at Parsons the New School for Design. “Citizen Sensor” was his thesis project, and was recently awarded first place in the Köln International Design Preis.

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate, Dirk van der Kooij makes chairs using the recycled plastic of old refrigerators. He’s renowned for his range of plastic chairs called “Endless”. Available in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours, they look as though they were created from an endless string of plastic.

Nelly Ben Hayoun completed her masters in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art. From a textile design and fine art background, she has worked and done performances in Paris, Tokyo, Dublin and London. Ben Hayoun is interested in how we can use design to make our everyday lives more thrilling, creative and passionate.