Action for age
designing a better future
Panel
Chair: Lord Best
Lord Best is currently President of the Local Government Association, Chair of the Hanover Housing Group and of the House of Lords Audit Committee. He Chairs the Giving Forum and the Private Rented Sector Policy Forum. He is a Trustee of the RSA and The Tree Council and the Phoenix Fund for Zimbabwe. He is Vice Chairman of the APP Group on Urban Development and Treasurer of the APP Group on Housing Needs and Homelessness. He serves on the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.
He is Deputy Chair of Westminster City Council’s Standard Committee and he is a Vice President of the TCPA and Patron on the Housing Associations Charitable Trust. He is also a member of the Audit Commission’s Housing and Regeneration Advisory Board. Richard Best is a member of the Council of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents and Chairs the OPM Public Interest General Council. He is a Hon Fellow RIBA, Hon Life Member Chartered Institute of Housing, Hon Doctor of Letters, Sheffield University.
In the past Richard Best has been Director of both the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust, and the Chief Executive of the National Federation of Housing Associations (now NHF). He was a member of Ministerial Sounding Boards from 1999 – 2005 and Chairman of the Westminster Commission (2005/6). He was created a Life Peer in 2001
Gregor Anderson
Greg Anderson is Design Manager for the Device Technology Group (DTG), International Inhaled Product Development at GlaxoSmithKline. Trained in design, Polymer Science & Engineering and marketing, he joined Glaxo in 1989 as senior designer. Greg worked on the design and development of various device projects including Diskus, BabyHaler Spacer, Imigran Subcutaneous Injector and Child Resistant packs and holds over 40 device and packaging patents. More recently, he has led ‘Blue Sky’ respiratory device development focusing on the importance of patient driven Future Inhaler attributes. He has also been involved with Consumer Healthcare packaging and device concept design.
Andrew Barnett
Andrew Barnett has been Director of the UK Branch of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since September 2007. He is also a board member of Yorkshire Metropolitan Housing and a Trustee of Addaction, the UK’s largest drug and alcohol misuse charity.
Andrew joined the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation where he held the post of Director of Policy Development and Communications. Prior to this, he was Director of Communications at the UK Sports Council and Head of Public Affairs at the National Consumer Council. He previously held posts at HSBC Holdings, the Arts Council of England, and the Foyer Federation for Youth, as well as working for the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Homelessness and Housing Need. He has served, in a voluntary capacity, as Chair of the Trustees of SPACE Studios, a London-based arts property charity, and as a Director and Trustee of St Christopher's Fellowship, a housing association providing care and support to disadvantaged young people.
Pamela Holmes
Pamela Holmes heads up the Healthy Ageing Programme at Help the Aged. Following a nursing degree at London University, she worked as a health journalist for ten years in print, radio and TV. She developed an interest in issues facing older people while working on national health promotion programmes for the Health Education Authority. Her work at the Charity aims to challenge the assumption that older age is inevitably linked with decline and incapacity as well as the discrimination faced by older people in health services. She believes design is integral to ensuring older people remain part of society.
Professor Alastair Macdonald
Professor Alastair Macdonald is Senior Researcher in the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art. He is a product design graduate, and has been involved in teaching design and design research for over twenty years. He was until recently Programme Leader of Product Design Engineering at Glasgow School of Art. His specialist area of research is in Inclusive Design, and he collaborates with research centres both in the UK, and internationally, particularly Japan.
Deborah Szebeko
Deborah is the founder and director of thinkpublic, the public service and communications design agency. She has worked in the NHS across primary, secondary and national sectors throughout the UK and has been instrumental in implementing a wide range of design-led research projects within the community and voluntary sectors. Deborah is an expert in engaging with staff, patients, and service providers to co-design solutions, and advocates deep user involvement in the design process. Deborah is currently undertaking a doctorate, exploring how design plays a role in facilitating users to innovate and improve public participation.
Paivi Tahkokahllio
An art and design historian by training, Paivi’s professional life has focused strongly on the future. After working as a design critic for a number of years, in the early 1990s Päivi helped to establish design research at the University of Art and Design (UIAH) in Helsinki. Analysis of future challenges highlighted major trends, including population ageing and social challenges related to globalisation, forming her introduction to Design for All as a strategy. This was the major theme informing her work at STAKES (National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health) in Finland. Päivi has managed the Finnish Design for All network and she was President of the European Design for Disability Network (EIDD) between 2001-2002. Paivi has recently set up her own Design for All Consultancy.