The Steering Committee
AACDD is extremely fortunate to be able to draw upon the vast experience and managerial expertise of senior professionals in the field of art and design, education and community development. Their generosity in sharing their own contacts for the benefit of this initiative has been instrumental in achieving the present programme of exhibitions and events.
Karin-Beate Phillips
Founder/Director, British European Design Group
A linguist, economist and publicist by profession German born Karin-Beate Phillips acquired her extensive professional expertise through holding senior positions in a wide and diverse range of Industrial and creative sectors as well as through her free-lance work running her own management and marketing consultancy.
After moving from Germany to London with her family in 1982, she continued to work as a consultant, journalist and writer specialising in Anglo-European relations.
In 1991 she founded the British European Design Group (BEDG) to help promote and commercialise the then largely untapped economic potential of Britain’s multinational and multicultural creative talent in key global export markets. Since then she has assisted thousands of professionals and SMEs In the creative Industries using her product development and marketing know how and herworldwide contacts to manufacturers, trade fair organisers, governments, national Institutions and buying audiences.
Her new foundation, SOS-SaveOurSkills, set up In Burkina Faso, West Africa In 2007, aims to safeguard, rehabilitate and qualify Indigenous traditional craft skills and to upgrade and commercialise the products through the added value of cultural Identity and creativity as vitally Important cottage Industries In developing countries and consequently to restore the professional and cultural self-value of the master craftsmen and -women practicing these skills.
David Blagbrough
Director, Inspire! The Education Business Partnership for Hackney
David Blagbrough is the Director of the charity Inspire! - the education business partnership for Hackney, which works with local and Citybased employers and employee volunteers to motivate and raise aspirations, attainment and levels of achievement of young people in the borough. It does so through the delivery of a range of work-related learning and enterprise programmes that aim to develop their employability skills and provide an understanding of the world of work.
David Blagbrough began his working life as a teacher in Nigeria and the UK, before joining the British Council where for the next 30 years he was engaged in education and cultural relations in a range of overseas and UK postings. Prior to his retirement, David was Director of the British Council in Washington, USA.
Clemens Hackl
Managing Director, Ludic Online
After having worked for a number of advertising agencies such as BBDO and Ogilvy&Mather for six years in Germany, Clemens moved to London where he set up his own media design firm in 2002. He has worked for a variety of clients from all sectors around the world, from the US to Thailand. Recent projects include work for the University of the Arts London and adidas as well as installations and exhibitions for the London Design Festival.
Since the beginning of 2012 Clemens heads the online division of the Ludic Group, London, providing knowledge sharing and collaboration solutions for organisations worldwide.
William Knight
Show Director, 100% Design
William Knight is the Show Director for 100% Design - the UK's largest contemporary design trade event. William has worked as design promoter and organiser for over 12 years having previously worked at the Design Council as public affairs and international campaign manager. He played a key role in establishing and developing the London Design Festival over eight years, managing key relationships, business and content development. William heads up 100% Design for the first time in 2012, as it becomes re-established as one of the most important design events in Europe.
Laurelle Hughes
Director, Affinity Admin
Laurelle Hughes Is Business Manager of Affinity Admin, which provides business support services. She has twenty years’ experience as a PA/ Office Manager in various business disciplines and senior employment situations, from the public sector to corporate multinationals including board level administration. It Is a happy coincidence that her key expertise - strong organisational and Interpersonal communication skills - also corresponds to her own professional vocation.
Tim Stephens
Programme Director for Interactive Media, International Development Co-Ordinator LCC, London College of Communication, a constituent college of the University of the Arts, London
In the 1990’s Tim Stepehns was Course Director for the Master of Arts Interactive Media Programme, which was the outcome of EU research undertaken across Europe by universities together with media and IT companies.
He directed the programme from the Royal College of Art in London together with Universities in France, Netherlands, Ireland, Spain and Germany. In parallel he worked with the British Government, promoting creative industries and their associated technologies, concentrating on the USA (New York, Silicon Valley etc.)
More recently Tim Stephens has represented the University of the Arts London in terms of creative Industries’ enterprise in the Far East, Europe and America. As Media Director of the British European Design Group, he has co-organised international exhibitions, events, conferences and seminars also in association with the University of the Arts and UK Trade & Investment.
As an independent professional photographer, illustrator, interactive media producer and consultant Tim Stephens works closely with conservation bodies in the heritage sector, blending new media technologies and image systems with traditional conservation processes.
Katherine Ladd
Katherine Ladd works as a product designer, whose portfolio of work includes lighting and interior textiles. She started her career as a graphic designer, producing media advertising and point-ofsale graphics for large retailers.
She founded her first company, Gecko, with her design engineer husband Geoff Ladd in 1997 and quickly established herself on the British design scene with a collection of unique, spun glass fibre lamps that sold all over the world.
Working for architects such as Wilkinson Eyre to design one-off installations, Gecko became known for their provision of contract lighting to clients such as Prêt à Manger, Sheraton and Diageo, and the Vanity Fair Oscars party in Los Angeles.
Denzil Phillips
Founder/Director, Denzil Phillips International
Lawrance Denzil Phillips has over thirty-five years of experience of working in the field of international trade and business development either from within or as an advisor to many of the world’s leading international development organisations, banks and corporations. He has designed and helped to design and supervise many multi-million dollar donor funded programmes in the field of horticulture, agro-business and natural resource management.
The client base of Denzil Phillips International includes key global pharmaceutical and agro-business corporations and agencies, such as GSK-GlaxoSmithKline, Schwabe, Frutarom, BAT, British Sugar plc, the European Commission, the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat.
During his career in botanicals Denzil Phillips has worked in more than fifty countries in North and South America, Asia, the Pacific, Southern and Eastern Europe and the Balkans including 15 African and 11 Caribbean nations.
