Our People
We are Participle...
Partners
Charles Leadbeater
Charles Leadbeater is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation and creativity in organisations. He has advised companies, cities and government around the world on innovation strategy. His latest book, We think – The Power of Mass Creativity, charts the rise of mass, participative approaches to innovation from science and open source software, to computer games and political campaigning. In 2005 Charles was ranked by Accenture, the management consultancy, as one of the top management thinkers in the world. Charles has worked extensively as a senior adviser to the governments over the past decade, advising the 10 Downing St Policy Unit, as well as many other government departments.
Hilary Cottam
Hilary is a social entrepreneur, a DAVOS Young Global Leader and Designer of the Year in 2005. Hilary was this year named as one of the World’s Most Influential Designer’s by Business Week. Prior to Participle, Hilary was a director of the Design Council where she started the Design Council’s public service work and led the RED team, developing ground breaking projects in health, education, transport and citizenship. Before joining the Design Council Hilary founded and directed School Works Ltd, a secondary school design initiative set up to look at the connections between learning and the built environment. Before this Hilary spent 8 years working internationally, as an urban poverty specialist at the World Bank, based in Washington D.C.
Hugo Manassei
Hugo is an acclaimed entrepreneur. Before setting up Participle with the other partners, Hugo was a director at NESTA (The National Endowment for Science Technology at the Arts) where he founded the Creative Pioneer Programme, a national seed fund for new business models in the Creative Industries. Before this Hugo co-founded Oyster Partners (now LBi), the UK’s largest digital communications consultancy, and grew the company from 3 to 350 people. In the early 1990’s he co-founded Method Five, a pioneering web-based design agency in New York. While Hugo co-founded these two companies, they received over £18m of investment, and were sold separately for a combined value of over £56m.
Sir Michael Lyons
Sir Michael Lyons is Participle’s Chair of the Board. An economist by training, his career in the shaping of public policy and delivery of public services included stewardship of three major local authorities, including Birmingham City Council (1994-2001). He was Acting Chairman of the Audit Commission, Professor of Public Policy at Birmingham University and Chairman of the BBC Trust and the English Cities Fund. His review of the role and funding of Local Government (Lyons Inquiry 2004/7) explicitly addressed the need for the radical re-appraisal of public services and greater empowerment of local communities, families and individuals.
Core Team
Be Laursen
Be is our Studio Manager. She studied Fine Art and Art History, and following graduation spent 5 years as an artist in Cambridge selling her work through galleries and commissions. She took a Post Graduate course in delivering workshops and classes based around her work. Since her move to London 12 years ago she has worked in the graphics and fashion industries providing support and running departments.
Ceri Willmott
Ceri is Managing Partner of Life HQ and has been leading Participle’s work with families for the last 18 months. She has worked for over 15 years in the UK and abroad in the areas of social development and cultural change, including several years specifically dedicated to transformation in public services. Having originally trained as a social anthropologist (at Cambridge and LSE), she worked in Latin America and Africa with grassroots organizations focused on empowerment and health. In the UK she lead cultural change programmes with clients such as ICI plc, Luton Airport and Nottingham City Council, before joining the Design Council where as National Programme Director she led ground-breaking projects in health and education, as well as a national programme to support design and innovation in business. After a stint as MD of a leading Fairtrade business she joined Participle where she managed a new social venture that addresses social isolation and loneliness in elderly people, before taking on the role of leading Participle’s work with families.
Daniel Dickens
Daniel is a Project Entrepreneur currently building upon Participle´s project work on ageing to launch a social enterprise in Southwark that serves older people and their families. His career as a social entrepreneur began in Buenos Aires, Argentina as one of the founding directors of HelpArgentina, a pioneering online giving marketplace that connects donors and volunteers all over the world with innovative, high-impact social organizations in Argentina. His work there was recognized by Ashoka, Open Society Institute and the Ford Foundation. He has also worked with Zopa (UK), where he designed community-building initiatives for their social lending marketplace. He graduated with a BA in English from Williams College (US) and has worked in education and journalism. Prior to Participle, Daniel received an MBA from Oxford University´s Said Business School, where he concentrated on social enterprise design.
Emma Southgate
Emma is a Participle Designer. She studied product and furniture design at Kingston University during which she won the RSA Design Directions award for her project designed for bereaved people under the brief titled ‘Design for Debate’. Emma previously worked in the Design & Architecture department in the British Councils’ Arts team.
Jennie Winhall
Jennie is our Senior Strategist and a founding member of Participle. She combines design methods and thinking with policy and enterprise to develop Participle’s innovative solutions. Previously Jennie was Senior Design Strategist for RED at the UK Design Council. As part of an interdisciplinary team of designers, social scientists and economists she developed a methodology for designing with end users and front-line workers to create new public services and delivery models. Prior to Participle she was project lead for Service Design agency live|work, who create user-centred, sustainable services for clients such as Experian, Norwich Union and the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Jennie worked with live|work to develop their core innovation methodology for Primary Care Trusts. Jennie’s background is in product design and psychology and her work has won awards from the D&AD, the RSA, Germany’s Red Dot and the Australian Design Association. Jennie has worked for design groups in the UK, India, Australia and France.
Associates
Gerlinde Gniewosz
Gerlinde works with Participle to formulate sustainable business models for the various projects. She has had a breadth of experience stretching from structured & project financing (BNP Paribas, CBA) to strategic consulting (McKinsey) to strategic project implementation (Orange, Yahoo!). Currently, she is also working on a start-up business, Zuztertu, that delivers education via mobile platforms. Gerlinde has a MBA from Harvard Business School and a B. Com (Hons) plus University Medal from the University of New South Wales.