Darren is an Architect and the Chief Executive of the international architectural practice Scott Brownrigg. He was the youngest person to be elected to the Board in the practice’s 110-year history and has Strategic Board responsibility for the quality of design across the practice and has been at the forefront of many of the practice’s high-profile major projects within the UK and internationally.
Darren completed his architectural studies at The Bartlett, University College London and since joining Scott Brownrigg has always sought to explore the implementation of innovative ideas for the built environment.
Sustainability at all levels is a key focus for Darren. Chairing the unit on sustainability at the British Council for Offices conference in Paris in 2005 when sustainability was not ingrained on the world agenda, Darren has gone on to lead many of the practice's high profile sustainable and award-winning schemes. These have included Red Kite House (the Environment Agency HQ) which is now being re-evaluated by Scott Brownrigg to determine how it can be adapted to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. Darren has also judged the Sustainability Achievement category at the Property Week Awards for the past six years.
Darren is currently responsible for instigating the Practice’s response to Covid-19 and has recently contributed to a number of publications on the subject, including The Guardian Newspaper along with interviews for Sky News, ITV and the BBC.

Olivier Sellès is Head of Innovation of BNP Paribas Real Estate, managing the development of new services in buildings through the opportunities provided by new technologies, for the different business lines of the company. Innovation being a team play, his projects rely on a strong collaboration with an ecosystem of partners, from large corporations to start-ups. Before his current position, he worked with several companies including Bouygues Immobilier where he delivered IssyGrid, France’s first smart grid, as well as the Boston Consulting Group and Saint-Gobain. Olivier is a graduate from Ecole polytechnique and holds a PhD from Université Paris VI.

Alessandro is Global Head of Workplace Consultancy at Foster + Partners. With more than 27 years’ experience in real estate consulting, workplace strategy and design, he has worked closely with leadership teams of some of the top Fortune 500 companies to help them create a vision, build ownership of changes to the workplace and behaviours to improve colleague experience, engagement and business performance. He has a special interest in engaging with cultural diversity in the workplace through design, emphasising the importance of creating experiential spaces. As well as undertaking public speaking engagements, Alessandro has taught workplace strategy at IED and at Polytechnic University of Milan.

Ron Bakker has contributed award-winning buildings and urban design projects to major world cities and his work is widely recognized for its civic and environmental responsiveness. Ron is excited about the contribution that architecture can make to the quality of urban life and the role of new technologies in the built environment.
He designed The Edge in Amsterdam and is currently working on a super high rise in Kunming, China; a Crossrail development in Mayfair, London; Tree House, a tall mixed-use project in Rotterdam; an extension to the WTC in Amsterdam; and a large urban project in Kuwait City.
Ron is frequently invited to address academic and professional symposia and he is involved in various research projects with PLP Labs. His book on architecture and technology, “Smart Buildings”, was published last year.

Eva Hinkers is the Chair of Arup’s Europe Region and a member of the firm’s Management Board. Prior to her current appointment Eva led Arup’s operation in Germany.
Eva is professionally qualified as a structural/civil engineer and been responsible for planning, design and implementation of a wide range of buildings and regeneration projects globally.
Eva is an experienced project director for projects of high complexity, leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams of international projects often in multi-national teams. She is strongly committed to the idea of total design resulting in better buildings that use less resources.
Eva has led the Europe Sustainable Development Team and is the partnership Director for Arup’s ongoing relationship with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF), leading our work to create catalysts for change in the application of Circular Economy principles in the built environment.

Richard heads CBRE Occupier Research across the EMEA region. His role is to provide market analyses to clients; initiate and carry out thought leadership projects to support and inform clients’ strategic decision-making; and to develop and refine CBRE’s research agenda in the occupier research field. He produces CBRE’s flagship EMEA Occupier Survey.
Richard has extensive experience in the economic and investment analysis of commercial property markets, and of conducting client consultancy projects. Recent examples include a global analysis of the factors supporting successful Placemaking schemes; assessment of landlord ESG interventions with corporate occupiers; and strategic advice to support a client’s European office investment strategy.
Richard is a regular speaker at CBRE client events and industry conferences such as CoreNet, ULI and Insead.
Prior to joining CBRE, Richard has held posts in the Economics department at the Royal Bank of Scotland, advising on property lending and business development activity and with Prudential Portfolio Managers focussing on the development of property fund investment strategies.

Stephen Coulston, Principal with Perkins&Will in Austin, Texas, is an architect and urban designer. With a passion for working within the innovation economy, Coulston has spent his 27-year career working at the intersection of the higher education, research, healthcare, government, and the private sectors with a focus on strategizing, planning and designing the built form. His current work ranges from Orlando, Florida to Austin, Texas to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he has gained unique insights into the impacts of the pandemic and is helping these communities prepare for a more resilient future. Coulston holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Texas Tech University. He has written and contributed to numerous articles and publications and has been a guest speaker and panelist at conferences and symposia throughout the country.

Tomi has more than 20 years of experience in elevator industry and is responsible for people flow solutions and technologies for KONE Major Projects within High-Rise buildings or major Infrastructure developments. Fluent flow of people in future sustainable and smart cities is my mission.

Ronnie has delivered several outstanding projects in the office, residential, education and leisure sectors. His team pride themselves on leading several high-profile redevelopment sites, namely the former Tetley Brewery site in Leeds with Vastint and Northshore in Stockton on Tees. Projects include Tombola House, Thirteen Group Headquarters, Home Group Headquarters and Equinor’s new land base for what will become the world’s biggest offshore windfarm at Dogger Bank. Ronnie is focused on engagement with the British Council for Offices, delivering net zero carbon projects and collecting building performance data to inform evidenced based design.

With more than 35 years of planning and architecture experience, Jeremy Heyes’ expansive background in highly creative design expertise has defined his career and reputation in the hospitality and entertainment sectors. Since joining WATG in 1992, Jeremy has designed and directed an extensive portfolio of projects, incorporating integrated WATG and Wimberly Interiors design teams. Most recently, these projects include luxury hotels and residences including the recently opened St. Regis Astana (which upon its opening, was voted ‘Asia’s best new hotel 2018’) and Regent Pool Residences at Porto Montenegro (voted ‘best new resort pool in Europe’ 2018), as well as the Waldorf Astoria in Lusail and the new Ritz-Carlton in Amman which are both on-site and scheduled to open in 2022. Throughout his career and design experience across the globe, Jeremy has worked on a wide portfolio of luxury hospitality and high-end residential projects. During the design process, he explores the local heritage and culture of the city, incorporating traditional construction styles and local materials to add a ‘sense of place’ and emulate the rich architectural tapestry of the location. In particular, Jeremy has been the design director on a number of palacial-style projects throughout the Middle East that showcase the detailed Islamic architecture of the region.
In 2000, Jeremy was WATG’s design director for the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. This prestigious project is vast in scope with a beachside elevation of over two kilometres and more than 270,000 sqm in built area. It has become a major civic landmark for the Middle East region, incorporating the intrinsic traditional Islamic design elements and processes. This has led to many commissions for civic projects including private palaces, mosques and public realm projects across the Middle East and beyond. Jeremy was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2009 and was elected to WATG’s Board of Directors for two full terms from 2008-2014.

As founder of Blendingbricks, Ruth van Dijken has one calling: create a new future of living. Mapping the value and power of nature, interconnectedness, happiness & well-being in the build environment is what she sees as the future of property.
As a true entrepreneur she is always on the move, sees opportunities everywhere & loves being a pioneer. Very energetic & with a positive mindset she is a true nature lover & change-maker. She dares to stand out and lead the way to integral sustainability.
Blendingbricks is her second business in property. With her previous business she re-developed apartments to reveal the the hidden beauty and function within. After an international career in Barcelona, she returned back to her home base in the city of Amsterdam.
She decided to dedicate her work to truly making a change within property & create a positive impact. She merged her own way of life with the passion for real estate in her company Blendingbricks : connecting people & planet through property.
With the focus on well-being, health & happiness, through Blendingbricks she works as a concept developer, consultant & strategist. As a born motivator she inspires people & companies by taking them on a journey and showing real estate, social & ecological impact go hand in hand. Her projects serve all stakeholders, so the whole flourishes.
Her current activities include transforming a public space into a sustainable & green hub, creating a concept & vision for a transformation of a harbor and concept development of a multi-use apartment complex.

Highly experienced in the construction domain, both UK and internationally, Elvin is specifically adroit in the fields of innovation and technology, with leading edge involvement since the late 1980’s.
Chair of London Constructing Excellence since 2018, he is an integral member of the BSi committee; that in the wake of the UK government’s Grenfell Tower Inquiry, has been tasked to radically improve the application of the ISO 9001 quality management system (QMS) in construction.
Elvin is also heavily involved with a key step in the digital transformation of the infrastructure and construction sectors; the National Digital Twin programme (NDTp), integral to the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), set up in 2018 by the UK government and University of Cambridge.
Since 2003, a Tutor of some repute on the OUBS MBA programme , across the UK and Northern Europe. Subsequently, Elvin is a highly acclaimed and extremely well-connected international speaker, facilitator, and writer, renowned for simplifying the complexity of creativity, innovation and change to enable its implementation across construction, and more recently aerospace.
This has led to him to undertake notable assignments that he was personally requested to undertake, with the likes of the MoD, High Speed 2, The International Criminal Court in the Hague, and Oxford University Innovation Ltd.

Simon is a qualified architect with over 15 years of professional experience covering a diverse range of sectors in the UK and abroad. He is meticulous in his approach to deliver quality in the built environment, and passionate about the way we shape the buildings and cities around us. He has expertise in reducing whole life carbon, the application of the Circular Economy and low energy design. Before joining Sellar, he spent over a decade at Arup and delivered the much publicised 1 Triton Square. Simon is the Development Director and Sustainability Lead at Sellar, a London focussed property developer, working across their project portfolio leading on initiatives that explore, tackle, and mitigate some key issues facing the real estate industry.