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Chair - Dorothy Mackenzie
Dorothy’s expertise is in consumer brand strategy, innovation and the incorporation of sustainability issues into marketing. She is Chairman of Dragon Brand Consulting. Dragon is an international, independent brand agency with offices in Paris, London, New York, Hamburg and Warsaw. She works with many of the world’s leading food and drink companies on the incorporation of health and food integrity agendas, and how information about food should be communicated to consumers. Dragon also conducts independent consumer research – recent subjects have included fairtrade, organic, free from, omega oils, and fibre.
Will Bentall
Will cut his teeth designing domestic appliances for Thorn, developed expertise in moulding techniques and creativity within formidable safety standards while designing infant toys for Kiddicraft, then learnt about brand development while part of Philips UK design team. His user-focused quest for functional excellence is ideal for the marine & medical environments. Will is also responsible for many industry awards won. His speaking subjects include Inclusive Design and Intuitive Perception. He is inspired by marine invertebrates, mountains and great communicators.
Matthias Georgi
Matthias Georgi is Vice President PacXperience, Worldwide Packaging Future Group, GlaxoSmithKline - Consumer Healthcare, based in the UK. He trained as a mechanical engineer at Battenfeld-Fischer Blow Moulding Technique GmbH, going on to study production technology at Rheinischen College, followed by military service in the Air Force. After working as a Technical Manager at Dolorgiet in Sankt Augustin, he was appointed Technical Head at Fuchs in Bensheim. He joined GlaxoSmithKline - Consumer Healthcare in Bühl, Germany in 1996 as Senior Packaging Development Manager, working on packaging development for toothpaste and mouthwash. As Category Packaging Manager, he then lead the Development Department in Germany, before becoming Category Head - Oral Healthcare, Worldwide Packaging, during which time he established a global team to support development in the area of Oral Healthcare. In 2005 Matthias moved to GlaxoSmithKline - Consumer Healthcare in London as Packaging Development Director – Worldwide Packaging, where he was responsible for all the packaging development activities within Consumer Healthcare, with five locations worldwide. This included responsibility for all products, e.g. OTC (over-the-counter medicine), Oral Healthcare (including Toothbrush R&D) and Nutritional drinks. He was appointed to his current role in 2006, taking up additional responsibility for structural and graphical packaging design. He has placed industrial designers within each global brand, and integrated a packaging team in New Delhi into the PacXperience network. He also leads GlaxoSmithKline’s ‘Centre of Excellence’, reporting directly to the President, Global Brands.
Ross Kinneir
Having failed the 11+, Ross Kinneir went on to get a Masters Degree in Industrial Design (Engineering) at the Royal College of Art in 1970. He worked at Total Design in Amsterdam, Entwicklungsgruppe Lindinger in Ulm, then British Aircraft Corporation before setting up Kinneir Dufort. They work with small scale through to large scale client companies making their reputation by focusing on the high tech and medical arenas. By the time of the MBO in 2002 the team was over 40 strong and working internationally.
Jo Roper
Jo Roper graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA Hons in Furniture and Product Design and has now been working for Priestman Goode for 5 years. She has a wide range of experience in terms of both the scale of projects and all aspects of the design process. Most recently, Jo has headed up a trend and consumer research programme for Proctor and Gamble, and has been heavily involved in designing aircraft interiors; this includes ongoing cabin and seat design for Lufthansa’s new A380 and she was also part of the team who delivered the new A350 concept mock-up for Airbus. She has also carried out design and implementation of Café interiors for Marks & Spencer. Her skills include brand development, designing to improve consumer experiences, selecting innovative and appropriate materials and finishes, and using appropriate computer programmes to communicate ideas.
Simon Ritchie
Simon Ritchie is Packaging Design & Ideation Manager for the Aquafresh Futures Group, Consumer Healthcare at GlaxoSmithKline. Trained in Industrial Design, he graduated from Teesside University in 2001 with a first class honours degree. During his final year he received two RSA awards for his ‘Medication on the move’ submission. One of these awards included a placement at GSK were he has spent four and a half of the last six years working in the Device Technology Group supporting a number of pharmaceutical projects before focusing on packaging and device concepts for the Consumer side of the business. Simon has also spent one and a half years developing his skills in a product design consultancy environment at London Associates working on a variety of challenging projects.
Patrick Sparkes
Patrick Sparkes is the former Vice President of European Operations and Special Projects for the Integra Corporation, manufacturers of specialist medical devices - primarily monitoring products, implants and instruments. After completing a chartered professional development engineering degree, Patrick joined British Oxygen, where he was responsible for developing OR medical gas analysers to market. In 1989 he moved to a specialist medical company designing and manufacturing Immunodiagnostic equipment for the major pharmaceutical companies.