Meet the SBID Awards Interior Design Judges for 2022

Alicja started her career in the built environment back in 2003 working for construction companies in Europe, USA and Caribbean assisting on delivery of commercial and residential build projects. In 2010 graduated with honours from the University of Greenwich in London with a degree in Estate Management and since then, worked as a commercial property surveyor in private and public sector, covering professional work, land acquisitions and disposals, compulsory purchase, Landlord & Tenant, asset management and strategy. Joined the DfE’s Property Services team in 2015 to manage property aspects of the Free Schools delivery, mainly land acquisition and asset management to support this fast-paced programme. Departments’ Free Schools Programme delivered over 800 new schools across the country to date, providing diversity and improved quality of education for primary and secondary aged children.

Andrew is a partner at Prospect Hotel Advisors LLC, which is a hospitality asset management firm. Prospect Advisors is responsible for The Blackstone Groups hotel portfolio globally and oversee the exclusive consultant partners that support the portfolios as well as providing third party asset management services for other Real Estate firms. As part of this role, Andrew oversees, Axios Hospitality Real Estate. Axios is the London based provider of Asset Management Services to The Blackstone Group in Europe and the UK, where they own 60 hotels. Prior to this position Andrew was Senior Vice President of Asset Management for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Prior to that Andrew has a long career in hospitality in operations having started his career at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City and as the General Manager at various renowned locations.

As Executive Editorial Director of WGSN Bethan oversees the content produced by WGSN. Collaborating with a global team of senior strategists, analysts, and consultants, Bethan is the lynchpin working across content, marketing and product, ensuring that WGSN continues to lead the way as a world-class trend forecasting service. Bethan has over 20 years’ experience as a design, luxury and lifestyle journalist, contributing to numerous publications include Architonic, Hole & Corner and The Observer Design magazine and holding senior positions at Telegraph Luxury, Wallpaper* and ELLE Decoration. She has provided copywriting services for globally renowned brands including Absolut, The Rug Company, David Collins Studio and Exit Here and moderated talks for events including 100% Design, London Design Festival, Clerkenwell Design Week, Hotel Olympia and Milan Design Week. A design-lover, Bethan has written several books on hospitality interiors and sporadically hosts a podcast interviewing female architects and designers.

Carlo Castelli is an architect and masterplanner. He holds a Master Degree in Architecture with distinction in 1999. In 2011 he completed a Master in ‘City Design and Social Science’ at the London School of Economics and Social Science. His experience as an architect spans across sectors and includes important contributions to the design process of internationally renowned buildings such as the Tennis Centre and International Broadcasting Centre for Rio Olympics 2016 and the 437m-high West Tower in Guangzhou, China. His focus in recent years has been on urban and regional projects. As Head of Cities Solutions at Jacobs Built Environment, Carlo leads multi-disciplinary teams and stakeholder engagement processes. Carlo is currently involved in the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation Plan, a mixed use, residential development in Dublin and a new city in Morocco.

Carol is a senior interior designer, who has been involved in the design of healthcare environments for nearly 40 years when healthcare facilities were bland, uninspiring places to receive treatment, not places of wellness and engagement as they have become today. Project experience includes hospitals in small communities and large metropolitan areas, outpatient offices for single providers as well as multi-discipline ambulatory care centres with places for engagement and education as well as long term care communities where our seniors live in a variety of settings. The challenge of creating safe, healthy places for people to receive the care they need, for staff to feel supported in the often-stressful work that they do and that are also beautiful “distractors” is what healthcare design is all about. Carol is accredited by exam and experience as a certified healthcare interior designer.

After graduating in Product Design and Visual Communications, Cassiano founded, run and sold a successful digital agency in the early 2000s. Since then he acted as graphic designer, art director and creative lead for more than 22 years, working in São Paulo, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Miami for major advertising agencies like Ogilvy, Publicis, DDB and RG/A. He’s done award-winning work for brands such as Nike, Google, Dove, Netflix, Schweppes, MasterCard, Adidas, IBM, Levis, Motorola, AIG, PepsiCo, LG, and Intel. In 2015 he joined Apple as a Creative Lead for Latin America and Caribbean. In a parallel life he tempers with natural materials, technology and product design.

Damien is currently the Director of Major Programme at the British Council. Amongst other projects Damien has just delivered the relocation of the British Council’s HQ to the Olympic Park in Stratford. He is currently in the process of delivering the relocation of the British Council Art Collection to the former IKEA building in the centre of Coventry. Prior to this, Damien worked at Tameside Council from 2012 – 2017 and in that time delivered a number of key schemes in Tameside (Tameside One, Ashton Old Baths, Godley Hill Road and others). Prior to this he was Chief Executive of Blackpool Fylde and Wyre Economic Development Company. During his career, Damien has also undertaken roles with the Northwest Regional Development Agency and with the Cabinet Office where he worked in the PM’s Strategy Unit as well as the Home Office for Jim Reid and Charles Clarke. Damien has considerable expertise in economic growth and development, strategic policy and planning and in local and national government.

Daniel has spent his entire working life in the furniture and interiors industry, initially combining his study of International Economics at London’s Middlesex University with the manufacture of hotel and commercial furniture. His family operated a manufacturing business that supplied hotels across the UK and Daniel expanded this business with a truly international outlook; by the time the business was sold in 2001, more than two hundred staff were employed making upholstery and casegoods within their Derbyshire factory. Daniel has worked on hotel projects in more than 40 countries around the world, regularly speaks on panels at investor and design conferences and is a member of the International Society of Hotel Consultants.

David Kaufman is Architectural Digest’s Global Digital Director. Prior to AD, Kaufman was most recently the founding editor-in-chief of Knewz.com, the search and discovery platform from News Corp, is a former New York Times Editor, the former Global Lifestyle Editor at Quartz and spent nearly five years at the New York Post where he was Travel, Home + Design Editor as well as Editor-in-Chief of Alexa, the Post’s lifestyle publication. Kaufman was responsible for growing both Alexa’s edit and advertising presence and developed new issues focused on topics ranging from Art Basel Miami Beach and the Frieze Art Fair to Design, the Hamptons and LGBT Pride. Kaufman has contributed culture, lifestyle and political pieces to publications ranging from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and AirMail to Monocle, Wallpaper, Esquire and The Hollywood Reporter.

Debansu has nearly two decades of experience in the UK housing sector. He passionately advocates sustainability & modern methods of construction. He has rich experience in UK offsite sector and is actively involved with several modular homes development projects. He has worked with numerous offsite contractors – from SMEs to established ones. On client-side, he works closely with senior housing professionals and key stakeholders to overcome barriers in embracing offsite, achieve sustainability goals and deliver “inclusive” design for new homes. He is also the Chairman of “Housing Diversity Network”, a leading social enterprise, for last 5 years and an active member of Housing Panel of Construction Industry Council. He champions “equality and diversity” in both construction and housing sectors. In the past, he was a Product Manager with blue chip companies like Philips and received numerous awards including “Marketer of the Year” & “European Marketing Excellence Award 2012”.

Dr. Shamir Ghumra leads the global BREEAM portfolio of sustainability standards which has been driving global improvements in buildings and infrastructure for over three decades. Shamir is an experienced ESG and sustainability leader with a strong belief in empowering others for commercial success. In his current role leading the Building Performance Services Division at BRE, Shamir supports the BRE mission “to be the world-leading innovation, science and data hub for the built environment.” Shamir is a Fellow of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, a Chartered Environmentalist and a Visiting Professor at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering at Loughborough University in the UK. Shamir is also a member of the Institute of Directors and the vice -chair of the Leicestershire and South Midlands Branch. Shamir also takes an active interest in Green Finance; Global Infrastructure programmes and sits on the advisory panel of numerous projects.

Elise joined MAF-Majid Al Futtaim Group in 2020 in the role of Interior Design Director, handling the Owner’s private projects worldwide. Previously, Elise headed the Design Studio at the “Engineering Office”, a multi-disciplinary company handling the various projects for the Dubai Royal Family. Born in Beirut-Lebanon, Elise has an immense familiarity of the region’s culture. She led a team of international Designers, building a coherent and skilled Design Studio powerhouse, delivering top notch, high profile Residential, Key commercial and Hospitality projects; entrusted by some of the leading hotel operators to design and execute large-scale projects. Elise is driven by her passion for Design with a sharp eye for details and proportions and an innate sensibility to colours and textures. She seeks her inspiration and creativity from all what she encounters throughout the day, anchored with her in-depth knowledge and understanding of every facet of the Design industry. Elise believes in the power of the human connection first, mediating balance between people and spaces, poetry, and logic; the recipe for a well-concocted collaboration and great achievements.

Francesca Berriman has been Chief Executive at CIAT since 1995 and has worked within the Architectural Technology and built environment sector for over 30 years. Amongst her many achievements, Francesca led the Institute in gaining its Royal Charter in 2005; and also its recognition as a Competent Authority within the European Union. In 2008 she undertook the first built environment UK Institute AGM in Hong Kong. In addition to this Francesca is: a Trustee of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and current Chair of its Programmes Committee; a Council member of (and former Vice Chair of both) the Society for the Environment (SocEnv), the Construction Industry Council (CIC); and is a member of Edge, a think tank for the built environment. Francesca has been a judge for a variety for awards such as the Women in Construction and Engineering Awards, and the Landscape Institute. She also sits on Panels and speaks at events and seminars internationally, most recently related to the Grenfell Tower fire and COVID-19. Francesca was made an MBE in Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II’s 2012 Birthday Honours for services to the Architectural Technology profession; in 2014 she received an Honorary Doctorate of Technology from Southampton Solent University; and was the keynote speaker at the 2016 National Building Design International Conference in Australia.

Helen Brocklebank is CEO of Walpole, the trade body for the British luxury industry. Helen is a specialist in luxury media brands, building her career at Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. During her ten year tenure, Helen founded the highly successful, multi-platform brand extension ‘Bazaar At Work’ for Omega and created enduring content partnerships with iconic brands including Bentley’s sponsorship of Bazaar Art and Esquire’s Man at the Top Awards for Glenmorangie. Most recently Helen established a content consultancy for luxury brands working predominantly with retail and media clients, including Liberty and Boat International. She brings to Walpole a deep understanding of, and passion for, the business of luxury, an unerring ability to conceive creative and impactful initiatives and an entrepreneurial spirit that drives their successful delivery.

Ingrid Abramovitch is a New York City-based design journalist and the executive editor at ELLE DECOR. A former staff writer and editor at House Beautiful, Veranda, and House & Garden, she has written widely on design, architecture, and lifestyle for a wide range of publications. She is also the author and writer of several books including her townhouse renovation guide Restoring a House in the City.

Justin is the Head of Property and Office Services for the House of Lords, responsible for property and facilities management services to Members and the administration. He also acts as chair and senior responsible owner on large projects across the Parliamentary Estate, either bicameral or specifically House of Lords projects. These have included building refurbishments and the conservation of the historic Westminster Hall, internal hammerbeam roof and two of the internal courtyards within the Palace of Westminster. He also attends bicameral boards for a number of Parliamentary projects including Elizabeth Tower. His previous experience within, projects, property and facilities management has been working for a London Borough and a large County Council.

On becoming CEO in 2016, Linda embarked on a programme to develop the Institute into a modern professional body and re-position workplace and facilities management as a value-creating profession. Today, IWFM provides value to a membership community of around twelve thousand and to the sector more widely. Its vision is to be the trusted voice of a distinct profession recognised, beyond the built environment, for its ability to enable people to transform organisations and their performance. Linda joined the predecessor British Institute of Facilities Management in 2007 where her education strategy enabled the Institute to become a regulated Awarding Organisation. She subsequently led the Institute’s work to develop professional vocational qualifications in facilities management which are now accredited and delivered internationally. She spearheaded the development of Professional Standards for facilities management which are now embedded by employers in the recruitment, development and management of professionals in the UK and beyond.

As Director of Operations for Environments, Mari oversees the team that designs Airbnb’s offices worldwide, and collaborates with real estate developers to create new models of housing that support Airbnb’s goal to make it possible for guests to experience the world in a more authentic, connected way. Before assuming her role at Airbnb Mari held numerous positions within the hospitality design industry. Most recently she was Vice President of Design Services for Hyatt Hotels in Chicago, where she oversaw design for Hyatt’s portfolio of full-service hotel brands throughout the Americas region. Prior to Hyatt Mari was the Group Director, Architecture at Value Retail based in London and Senior Vice President of Design for Morgans Hotel Group in New York. Mari’s first in-house role was as Global Director of Design for St. Regis Hotels. Before transitioning to in-house design roles, Mari got her start as Studio Director for Aero Studios Limited in New York City where she oversaw new construction and renovation projects, both residential and commercial, including the hotel 60 Thompson and Giorgio Armani’s private residence in Manhattan.

Trained as Architect, having to work in both Architecture and Interior Design for over than 20 years, Moel is a Hong Kong based Interior Design who currently holds the position as Interior Design Principal in Walt Disney Imagineering Asia, Ltd. Moel hold BS in Architecture degree from Tarumanagara University, Jakarta – Indonesia. Before joining Disney was working with notable Architecture and Interior Design Firms in Jakarta, China & Hong Kong, mostly working with high luxury residential, Hospitality and Entertainment like Five Stars Hotel and Casinos in Macau. Moel join Walt Disney Imagineering in 2015, from that moment his main specialty is working with amazing talented people from Disney to build thematic and storytelling base interior space, his previous projects included Disney’s Explorer Lodge Hotel, Ironman Experience, Antman and the Wasp “Nano Battle”, and recently open Castle of Magical Dreams all located in Hong Kong Disneyland. Moel has a passion in specialty design, like art glass, themed lighting, and thematic FF&E items. His recent accomplishment is designing Hong Kong Disneyland New Castle of Magical Dream Art Glass, collaborating with Indonesian Art Glass studio.

Nuno lives and breathes design for the past 25 years working in the design and architecture industries in 5 continents in very diverse capacities and in pretty much every sector such as corporate, healthcare, retail, government or education. In his role as Design Director EMEA for the D&B company Tétris his aim was to unify and bring together over 200 architects and designers in almost 20 countries harmonizing relationships of different cultures, languages and processes and pushing the envelope of design excellence no matter the client or location. Over the course of his career he has been a creative designer, a strategist, a project director and a mentor with several articles in the media and a keynote speakers in diverse events. He is a firm believer in the universal power of design to move people into a better life.

Paola Tassara Oromí, AIA, is an architect and designer based in London. Paola started her career working for numerous architecture practices in France and the Netherlands prior to moving to Los Angeles. There, she worked for Frank Gehry, collaborating on the design of several museums and cultural institutions worldwide. Having established a solid foundation in architecture, Paola then began to focus on interior design. With NYC-based ICRAVE Design and later, her own firm, Tassara A+D, her work expanded to restaurant, nightclub, boutique hotel and retail design. Since 2016, Paola has been a Design Director for Starbucks Coffee Company, currently leading the design for the brand’s stores in EMEA.

Peter Exley, FAIA, has established an internationally recognized practice of architecture for children, families, and communities, elevating the standards of design for learning and play environments. He is the co-founder of Architecture Is Fun, a Chicago-based, woman-owned architecture, design, and consulting firm. Dedicated to helping the next generation of architects, Peter has also been an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for more than 25 years. He led the American Institute of Architects as its 97th President in 2021. The eponymous book, Architecture Is Fun, co-authored with Sharon Exley, was published in 2021.

Peter Exley, FAIA, has established an internationally recognized practice of architecture for children, families, and communities, elevating the standards of design for learning and play environments. He is the co-founder of Architecture Is Fun, a Chicago-based, woman-owned architecture, design, and consulting firm. Dedicated to helping the next generation of architects, Peter has also been an adjunct professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) for more than 25 years. He led the American Institute of Architects as its 97th President in 2021. The eponymous book, Architecture Is Fun, co-authored with Sharon Exley, was published in 2021.