Session 7. Creative Leadership: Expressing unheard voices

Caroline Casey

Caroline Casey is the businesswoman and activist behind The Valuable 500, the world’s largest CEO collective and business move for disability inclusion.

Casey launched the movement at the World Economic Forum’s Davos Summit in 2019 and since then has signed up 500 multinational organisations with a combined revenue of over $8 trillion, employing 20 million people worldwide to radically transform the business system. The membership includes 36 of the FTSE 100 companies, 46 of the Fortune 500 and 28 of the Nikkei.

Recently appointed President of the IAPB, Caroline also sits on several diversity and inclusion boards to include L’Oréal, Sanofi and Sky and is a much sought-after speaker.

Caroline has received an honorary doctorate as well as multiple awards and accolades for her work as a disability activist.

Johan Brand

Johan Brand is a creative technology entrepreneur & investor based in Oslo, Norway. He co-founded Kahoot!, one of the world’s dominating learning brands, used by millions each day globally. He was CEO & Board Director of Kahoot!, where he after leading the Series B from Microsoft (M12) and Disney, left day to day operations and became strategic advisor. Under his leadership Kahoot! grew from a research project to company that capture half of US classrooms each month and millions of business users.

As a Founding Partner at We Are Human he creates purpose driven organisations striving for sustainable social and commercial impact. The company partner with startups & big corp and invested in its own IP, including what later became Kahoot! and now the spectacular development of Fornebu Brygge Fjordarium. Johan is a Board Director at Sjø AS the development company of Fornebu Brygge.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, been awarded Founder of the Year at the Norwegian Nordic Startup Awards, Digital Leader of the Year by Financial News E24.no and awarded as on of the 100 most influential leaders in EdTech globally.

Rama Gheerawo

Rama Gheerawo, Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, is an international and inspirational figure within design. He is a serial innovator in the fields of Inclusive Design, Design Thinking and Creative Leadership having personally led over 100 projects working internationally with governments, business, academia and the third sector. He won a ‘Hall of Fame’ award for his work at the Design Week Awards in 2019 and was named a 2018 Creative Leaders by Creative Review alongside Paul Smith and Björk.

Rama sits on a number of advisory boards and committees for awards, universities and organisations such as the UK Design Council, The International Association for Universal Design, UX India, the Design Management Institute and the Design Intelligence Awards. He has worked as a Visiting Professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and the Katowice Academy of Fine Art.

Amy Hopper

Biography coming soon

Aparna Piramal

Aparna Piramal Raje is a writer, columnist, public speaker and educator and the author of the recently released, Chemical Khichdi: How I Hacked My Mental Health, a book on her experiences of living with a serious mental health condition for the last two decades.

Her column, Head Office, in the Mint newspaper, looks at leadership through the lens of workspaces and workstyles. Over 100 CEOs have been featured in Head Office. The column led to her first book, Working Out of the Box: 40 stories of leading CEOs.

A visiting faculty member at the Anant National University in Ahmedabad, Aparna studied at Oxford University and Harvard Business School.

Judah Armani

Judah Armani is a design writer, practitioner and tutor.

He is a partner at The Royal College of Art where he heads up the Social Impact Studio within the Service Design Masters programme. He is an associate lecturer at London College of Communication, a senior researcher at Central St Martin’s Design Against Crime Team, and a visiting fellow at the Rhode Island School of Design’s strategic Center for Complexity.

In 2017 Judah launched ‘InHouse Records’ a multi award winning, rehabilitative, service, operating in multiple UK & USA prisons and on the outside of prison too. Increasing positive behaviour in prison by 428% and significantly reducing recidivism with a re-offending rate of less than 1%.

Judah is a London Design Gold Winner 2018, D&AD Social Impact Shortlist Winner 2017, Design Spotlight Winner 2021 and iF World Design Social Impact winner twice, 2018 & 2021. Recognised by The Big Issue and The British Entrepreneur of the Year as being in the top 20 Social Entrepreneurs for 2019 & 2020 and winner of The Nat West Social Enterprise of the Year Award 2019. Judah’s work has been published in national journals and his designs have been celebrated in both national and international press. His design practice has been B Corp certified for over a decade and has been awarded the B Corp Certification of Top 5% in the world for social impact in 2020 & 2022. He is committed to social innovation by improving lives together through creativity.

Julius Mbaru

Julius is a Lawyer and an advocate for Disability rights. He serves as the Advocacy Officer and Head of programming at inABLE. He is also a mentor, motivational speaker, spoken word artist and a car enthusiast who reviews cars by touch and feel on his YouTube Channel Julio Supercharge, which has approximately 4,500 subscribers.

Julius is a VIP (Visually Impaired Person), and lack of sight does not limit his aspirations and drive to push boundaries that haven’t been pushed. He strives to live a heart centered life by being a pathfinder to younger VIPs,showing them that it is possible and that they have so much potential in life.

Julius envisions an impactful career that ultimately closes the gaps that exclude PWDS or limit their advancement, due to the wide disparity between theoretical legal framework on human rights and what the reality is in Kenya and Africa region today.

Julius holds a Bachelor of Law (LLB) Degree from the University of Nairobi (2018). He went to Thika Primary School for the Blind and Thika High School for the Blind. His mission in life is to promote full and effective participation of PWDs in the society on an equal basis with others.

George Lee

George Lee, Community Lead for the RCA Design Institute, is a highly respected disrupter and innovator in the age space, leading the way in showing how cross generational innovation leads to social and economic impact.

Ivelina Gadzheva

Ivelina Gadzheva has a Master’s degree in Inclusive Design from Mid Sweden University and an extended hands-on experience in delivering training for professionals, business and non-government organisations on how to use design for social innovation and business transformation. 

Ivelina consults public and private sectors on how to expand their innovation capacity and add value by developing a deep understanding of people-centered design approaches and qualitative research. She is the founder of Design for All Bulgaria Foundation, which is a member organisation of Design for All Europe, and the co-founder of Service Design Network chapter Bulgaria, member of the Global Service Design Network. Ivelina educates and inspires individuals and groups how to use human diversity to create social inclusion and develop sustainable solutions. 

Melanie Flory

Dr. Melanie Flory, HHCD Associate Director of Research, is a psychologist and neuroscientist. Her research intersects design, systems thinking & cognitive neuroscience. She is the neuroscience lead on the Centre’s creative leadership project and has a strong focus on fostering and incorporating the Centre’s inclusive design methods in cross-disciplinary research, innovation and knowledge exchange programmes and projects, with the RCA’s four Schools and other Research Centres.

Ninela Ivanova

Dr Ninela Ivanova is an interdisciplinary designer and researcher, who specialises in working with new and emerging technologies to develop practical applications for design, enterprise, innovation and education. Ninela heads the Inclusive Design for Business Impact area at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, looking at how the methods, tools and processes of Inclusive Design, Design Thinking and Creative Leadership can directly impact and transform business and industry.