Caroline Cole (MA Cantab, FRSA, Hon FRIBA) read architecture at the University of Cambridge and during her professional life has worked both as a design consultant and as a client commissioning design professionals for the built environment.

She is Founder and Director of Colander Associates Ltd, a business that helps many of the UK’s most acclaimed architectural practices with the development of their businesses, and works with building owners, developers and government agencies, helping to formulate their approach to architecture.

Caroline also has a proud track record of helping civic and private clients identify the most appropriate design teams for their projects. She worked with HS2 to develop the design challenge to identify architect-led teams for the Phase 1 stations and she helped the University of Cambridge find architects for a new district and extension to the City of Cambridge. She also helped find both acousticians and architects for a new world-class concert venue in the centre of Edinburgh’s World Heritage site; more recently, she worked with the Wellcome Trust to identify master planners for its world renown Genome Research Campus.

Caroline has published numerous articles and papers about the business of design and has spoken at many conferences and seminars to promote good design to clients, and good business to the professions.  She has been a judge for a number of design and architectural awards, including the Design Week Awards, the RIBA Regional Awards, the Manser Medal, the AJ Top 100 Awards and the Inspire Awards that recognise women in the built environment. Building on her commitment to both integrated design and gender diversity, Caroline established the Equilibrium Network in 2014: a group of senior and influential inter-disciplinary individuals who are working to redress the gender balance at senior level across the built environment.

She is Chair of the Industry Advisory Panel to the IDBE Masters Course at the University of Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation; a Trustee of the Horniman Museum; Chair of the Trustees of SPACE Studios and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.  She is on the Design Review Panel for the UK’s most ambitious rail project, HS2 and, as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, has received the Freedom of the City of London.

In her spare time, she is a ceramicist.

Philip is an audit partner at Moore Stephens LPP where he heads up their Culture, Entertainment & Media sector. He is also an audit partner for over 50 charities and has good knowledge of financial reporting under the Charity SORP/FRS102.

Philip is currently a treasurer with the International Performers Aid Trust (the charity supported by the late Alan Rickman). He has also worked with artist including Bridget Riley and Grayson Perry and has worked professionally with institutions such as Photographers Gallery, High House Production Park and has contacts with various museums and institutions.

Philip believes in good governance in charities, accountabilities and charities working together to achieve the goals that they set out.

Chris Currell was the founder and Chairman of Currell, a chain of Estate Agents and Chartered Surveyors located in London. The company was acquired by Savills in December 2018.

His passion for contemporary culture has resulted in Chris becoming a collector of contemporary and 20th Century Art, as well as a keen promoter and supporter of local artistic talent in the communities within which he lives and works.

The “Currell Collection” now comprises around 150 works of art including paintings, sculpture, tapestry and photographs from emerging artists from the UK, Europe and Latin America.

Dr Omar Kholeif, CF FRSA, writer, curator, and cultural historian, is Director of Collections and Senior Curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, Government of Sharjah, UAE. Trained as a political scientist, Kholeif’s career began as a journalist and documentary filmmaker before entering into the realm of the visual arts as a curator. They have served in the public sector for over fifteen years, organising over 100 exhibitions on six continents, and have lead institutional development and capital projects across the UK, USA and the Middle East. Concerned with the intersections of queer, post-colonial, and critical race theory, Kholeif’s research has explored histories of performance art; the experience of mental illness; the interstices of social justice, as well as the aesthetics of the digital. Recent publications include, Goodbye, World! Looking at Art in the Digital Age (2018) and Art in the Age of Anxiety (2021). They are currently at work on a number of publications including a monograph, Internet Art: The First Thirty Years (Phaidon, 2022) and an essay anthology, Code-Switchers: The Art of Being Invisible (2023). At SPACE, Kholeif is Chair of the Trustee subgroup for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion.

David is a Director of Lazari Investments Limited (“Lazari”). Lazari owns a 3.145m sq ft commercial real estate portfolio in Central London. Prior to joining Lazari, David spent the previous 20 years at Derwent London PLC, 14 of those as a Main Board Director where he had a broad range of responsibilities, specifically leading on acquisitions including many of their landmark buildings. David was a former Chair of Westminster Property Association and sat on the Board of New West End Company. He is currently Chairman of Chickenshed Property Company and sits on the Real Estate Advisory Board of Firefly Capital.

Miranda Siow is an Australian-born writer, who has lived in London since 2004.

Her expertise extends across a number of areas, from accounting, finance, risk, consulting, regulation, publishing, law and education, to volunteering in the charity sector. Miranda has been a member of numerous committees in financial institutions. She has also qualified as a lawyer.

Other achievements include successful referral to government to change its approach on a tax law in Australia. Her first published interview was with American lawyer and academic, Ed Kleinbard, on becoming the chief of staff of the US Joint
Committee on Taxation. Miranda also organised and attended tri-party meetings with Japanese regulators in Tokyo with the UK Financial Services Authority Managing Director.

While completing her MA in English literature, she was the Arts & Humanities Postgraduate Taught Student Representative at King’s College, where she advocated for students’ interests and supported their needs in various committees. She initiated, led and produced a publication for students to showcase their creative talent. Art From The Heart also offered insight into postgraduate life and was distributed to two consecutive years of new MA students into the university.

Driven by her passion for writing, learning, creativity and making a difference, in recent years, Miranda has participated in local community development projects, interviewed and worked with specialists, edited and produced documents, grown her
knowledge in marketing, self-published, written for a magazine and expanded into entrepreneurship.