People

	Despina Katsikakis, DEGW Chairman - An architect by profession, Despina's primary specialty lies in working with occupiers and developers to deliver innovative real estate solutions that enhance business performance. Since joining DEGW in 1985, she has been instrumental in establishing DEGW offices in North America and Asia Pacific. She has also developed relationships with key global clients including Accenture, BBC, Deutsche Bank, Lend Lease, Nokia, and GlaxoSmithKline. Despina is chairman for the global DEGW group, providing strategic direction for its ongoing development. She lectures regularly across Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific.
	Gerard Corcoran, DEGW Chief Executive Officer - Gerard joined DEGW in June 2008 as Chief Executive Officer, the first person to hold that position within the company. As part of his 20 years of international work experience in a number of significant corporate roles including CEO, he has been responsible for corporate strategy, corporate transactions including mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, strategic marketing, and business development. Gerard also has a strong consultancy background, having built and successfully sold two consultancy practices. He has advised a wide range of blue-chip corporate clients on strategy, business performance, and marketing matters. Prior to his business career, Mr. Corcoran was a Research Fellow in Psychology and holds a Ph.D. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management, the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and the Institute of Directors.
	Aldo Zoli, Director of Strategy, Italy & France - Based between Paris, Milan, and Madrid, Aldo is one of DEGW's European business development leaders. Fluent in Italian, English, French, and Spanish, Aldo works with international and local organisations throughout Europe. Recent clients include IBM, Ford Motor Company, Citibank, Société Générale, OECD, The European Community, HP, Disney, and Universal Vivendi. Aldo has particular experience with the financial services industry and leads DEGW's services in this sector. He speaks regularly at conferences across Europe and is a visiting Professor at Montreal University.
	Alessandro Adamo, Director, Italy - Alessandro joined DEGW in 1989 and in 1999 became responsible of the "Consultancy Area" in Italy, specialised in analysing companies, organisation, functions and processes of departments and redesigning spaces. In January 2009 became Director of DEGW Italia. Prior to his current role, Alessandro spent more than 10 years driving the change of several companies across Italy, managing key client relationships and coordinating design team. Main Projects he worked for are Telecom Italia, Deutsche Bank, Barilla S.p.A., San Paolo IMI, ABB, Nokia, GSK, Pfizer, BNL, Il Sole 24 Ore, Deloitte, IBM, Sanofi Aventis, Credit Suisse, Vodafone, Oracle. From 2006 to 2008 he worked in AEDES, real estate Company, originally as a Technical Asset Manager in order to analyze new asset investments and than as Project Manager coordinating various building refurbishments.
	Andrew Harrison, Director of Learning and Research, UK - Andrew joined DEGW in 1985 and is leader of the global Learning and Research teams. Andrew has led a number of major international research projects including the European Commission supported research project Sustainable Accommodation for the New Economy. The findings from the DEGW part of this project were published in 2003 as 'The Distributed Workplace'. Andrew has directed a wide range of higher and secondary education projects including masterplanning, building briefing and research projects. He is currently Project Director for the £3.8 million research project exploring the impact of Personalised Learning on school design. He is also Chair of the Centre for the Creative Industries in the Shetland Islands and is a Trustee of the UK Crafts Council.
	Andrew Laing, Managing Director, DEGW North America - With nineteen years of experience with DEGW in London and New York, Andrew combines an interest in research into the design and use of the workplace with active involvement in leading client services. Since establishing the North American business in 1998, Andrew has worked with many significant clients including Accenture, Fidelity Investments, Google, JWT, Microsoft, GSK, Nike, and the United Nations. Andrew is the co-author of New Environments for Working and The Responsible Workplace. He has published many articles and speaks regularly at conferences. He is a visiting lecturer in the School of Architecture at Princeton University and received his PhD from MIT.
	Axel Praus, Geschäftsführer, Germany - Axel Praus leads regional teams in Europe. With his background in business engineering and project management, Axel’s focus lies in structuring and leading complex projects to deliver customised workplace solutions. Since joining DEGW, Axel established our office in Germany, as well as successfully coordinating and managing a pan-European DEGW team of different staff from our Munich, Milan, and London offices. These teams have delivered multiple projects for international clients across Western Europe including Swisscom, ResMed, Roche, Merck, and Philips.
	Bernice Boucher, Director of Business Development, DEGW NA - Bernice Boucher most recently served as workplace strategist for Deutsche Bank in the Americas. As part of a global team engaged in developing dynamic work environments and alternative workplace strategies in support of the bank’s strategic goals, Boucher was charged with challenging conventional thinking about workplace and creating efficient, effective, and inspiring ways to work. Her efforts helped transition Deutsche Bank’s workforce from traditional work environments to more progressive, alternative workplace programs. Prior to that, Boucher was Workplace Consultant and Global Account Manager for Steelcase, Inc. from 1995 through 2004, working to meet the strategic business goals of clients including AIG, Deloitte & Touche, and Maersk. While at Steelcase, Boucher was the recipient of the prestigious Stewardship Award, presented to the executive who best exemplifies leadership, passion for people, commitment to customers, contributions to process improvement, and a strong work ethic.
	Bryant Rice, Director, North America - Bryant is a Director in San Francisco where he leads DEGW North America’s Government sector. With over 25 years experience in business management, architecture, planning and interior design, Bryant provides his clients service in strategic planning, workplace assessment, programming, design and project management. Bryant leads projects for clients such as the United States General Services Administration, Denver International Airport, BD Biosciences, Salesforce.com, Google and Autodesk. He served on the Board of Directors as well as Vice President and President for the San Francisco AIA. In addition to positions in CoreNet at both the National and Regional level, he is LEED accredited, a licensed architect in California and NCARB certified.
	Claudia Hamm, Geschäftsführer, Germany - Claudia joined DEGW Germany in 2007 as Head of Marketing and Communications and was promoted to joint managing director in 2009. With a degree in Business Administration & Economics Claudia has a strong analytical and commercial background. She has previously held senior positions within several international companies, helping them to establish a European presence and expand into new European markets. Claudia has particular experience and expertise in the creation and delivery of new marketing and media strategies, strategic business development in new markets and sectors and financial controlling. Fluent in both German and English, her business career has always had a strong international focus and as such has taken Claudia all over the world. She has previously lived and worked in the UK and the USA and moved with her family to Germany in 2006.
	David Craig, Director, North America - David is a Director in New York, where he contributes to global workplace strategy projects and oversees the development and application of DEGW’s methods and tools in North America. David has focused on developing innovative approaches for measuring the impact of the workplace on businesses, including most recently impacts on employee productivity and workplace culture. He has also pioneered methods for developing distributed workplace practices for organisations seeking to enhance and capitalize on increasing employee mobility. Recently he led a global company-wide effort on tools and methods. David’s recent clients include Capital One, Fidelity Investments, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Microsoft, and Pfizer. He speaks regularly at industry conferences and has taught at Harvard’s Executive Education program and at Georgia Tech.
	Ekrem Parmaksiz, Managing Director and Interior Architect - Ekrem has thirteen years of extensive experience in DEGW’s areas of expertise, in particular interior architecture. He worked for almost ten years in Spain and Italy, participating in many international projects. Ekrem is fluent in English, Italian and Spanish and joined DEGW in 2006 as an interior architect working in the Madrid office together with Juan Carredano and Elvira Muñoz. He has established DEGW Turkey as Managing Director.
	Elliot Felix, Director, North America - Elliot is a Director in DEGW’s New York office who specialises in design strategy for information, products, services, and spaces. His work at DEGW has explored the intersection of work and learning, and he co-leads DEGW North America’s Learning Environments sector, leading projects for clients such as Google, Microsoft, University of Virginia, NC State University, the University at Buffalo, and several business schools. To each project, he brings expertise in how to focus planning and design on user needs and business objectives in order to create value. Elliot frequently writes and speaks about design strategy and also teaches in the Design and Management program at Parsons The New School for Design.
	Elvira Munoz, Director of Strategy and Design, Spain - Elvira joined DEGW in 1999 and since then has been involved in the majority of consultancy and design projects carried out by DEGW in the Iberian Peninsula. Two of her most recent clients are Telefonica and Garrigues. For Telefonica, she was responsible for the consolidation of five business units involving the move of more than 12,000 employees to the new 150.000 m2 campus. For Garrigues, the largest law office in Europe with more than 1,000 lawyers, she managed consultancy and interior design services for the new headquarters. She is currently leading projects for Cisco Systems in Madrid, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Google. Elvira is very committed to sustainability and energy-saving procedures that benefit people in offices. She has also been collaborating on building environment research studies sponsored by the European Community such as the SANE project.
	Eric Vaiedelich , Director of Interior Design, France - Eric Vaiedelich joined DEGW in 1991 where he became director of DEGW Espace Architecture Brittany until 2002. In 2003, he took the responsibility of DEGW France’s space planning and interior design department. He is currently the privileged interlocutor of both private key client accounts including: Rothschild, Philips, the law firm Salans, and institutional and public clients as Ville de Paris and ACOSS. Eric is formally trained in architecture, with particular interest in the architecture of the work environment. Among many prestigious awards, he was co-laureate of the ANACT competition. He is also mentioned for the « 1st Œuvre » prize in 1986 and laureate of the prize list for the Finistère architecture in 1989. Eric holds a degree from Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture.
	Francesca Jack, Director of Strategy - Francesca joined the Strategy Team at DEGW in 2005. Her specific area of focus include Key Client Account Management working with global clients such as Philips, Nokia, RBS, Accenture and Deutsche Bank. Previously, Francesca has worked with a variety of international organisations, developing their global workplace programmes including rationalising their property portfolios and developing their long and short term accommodation or real estate strategies. Typically this has included feasibility studies, high level strategy and consultation to assess scales of cultural and business change, building appraisals, supply and demand analysis, end user consultation through to test planning and scenario modelling of use over time.
	Francis Duffy, Founder - Frank's career has been focused on helping businesses use space more effectively over time. In 1973, Frank co-founded DEGW in London. From that time onwards, Frank has continued to develop DEGW's methodologies to enable clients to make more efficient, more effective, and more expressive use of workspace. Frank believes in research in the context of practice. He is a prolific writer and has taken a leading role in the debate about the future of the architectural profession. He has worked in both the London and New York offices, and was a Visiting Professor at MIT in the early 2000s. His latest book, Work and The City, was published in June 2008.
	Franco Guidi, Managing Director, Italy - Franco joined DEGW in March 2008 and was appointed as Managing Director of DEGW Italia at the beginning of 2009. This is the result of the alliance between DEGW and LOMBARDINI22, a growing Italian consulting & design firm, where Franco is one of the founding partners and CEO.Franco brings to DEGW Italia the experience of 20 years of working with large multinational firms in many different roles, from Controller to CEO of Ciba Vision Italy, together with 10 years of work in the architectural and design business. As an experienced manager Franco is able to balance good strategies and a pragmatic approach –something which has been much appreciated by both clients and colleagues. Franco graduated in Economics at the Bocconi University in Milan and has been President of Assottica and Euromcontact, as well as Advisor at Bocconi.
	Georgia Collins, Director, North America - Georgia is a Director in San Francisco, where she opened DEGW’s office in 2006. Her most recent work has focused on helping DEGW’s technology clients develop workplace solutions that better reflect the change in work practices brought on by the products they create and/or services they offer. With a background in urban planning, Georgia is particularly interested in helping DEGW’s clients reduce their need for additional real estate and their environmental footprint by using space more intensively. Georgia earned her Masters in Urban Planning from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and her BA from the University of Pennsylvania.
	Gillian Burgis, Director of Strategy and Design - Gillian joined DEGW UK leadership team in 2010. She is an architect by profession with a broad base of experience ranging over 20 years, including extensive experience in corporate architecture and interior design. Gillian is passionate about the business benefits that inspirational and effective design can facilitate, helping to synchronise people, place and performance at all scales – from personal ergonomic work setting to support individual work activities, to a global workplace and design strategy for the entire organisation. Gillian has worked and lived across the United Kingdom, Europe and North America. She is responsible for providing business development, integrated strategic design direction and service delivery, with a focus across the corporate sector.
	John Holm, Director, Australia and New Zealand - John joined DEGW UK in 2004 and was recently appointed Director, DEGW Australia and New Zealand. John is a sociologist by training and has extensive experience in research and briefing, especially in relation to how space is used to leverage value in knowledge-based organisations such as pharmaceutical and R&D environments. His recent work includes strategic briefing and development of design strategies for GlaxoSmithKline, The British Museum and Roche Pharmaceuticals. John recently submitted a Doctoral Thesis titled “work/space”, which examined how organisations use space to manage complex and contradictory work processes.
	John Worthington, Founder - Since co-founding DEGW in 1973, John has pioneered methods of adapting urban and space planning techniques to meet the needs of the emerging knowledge economy. Recent assignments include high building strategies for the cities of Rotterdam and Dublin, where he continues to advise both cities on managing the process of innovation and change. John has held a number of academic posts and is currently a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. He is Chairman of CABE's Building Futures, Deputy Chairman for Regeneration through Heritage and Trustee of the Urban Design Group. He lectures widely, and has co-authored a number of books.
	Juan Carredano, Managing Director, DEGW Spain - As the Managing Director of DEGW's business in Spain, Juan has wide experience in large-scale architectural and interior design projects. During his career at DEGW, he has worked with clients in Spain, Portugal, and Mexico including Philips, Compaq, Disney, Microsoft and BP. In 2007, Juan added to his responsibility and took on the role of coordinating the efforts of DEGW’s European offices as Managing Director, Europe.
	Karsten Schmitt, Director, Germany - Karsten recently joined the management team in the German office. In his role as a company director, he is responsible for HR and IT-related strategies ensuring the successful implementation and support of the rapid growth within the Munich office. Additionally Karsten has a special background in the healthcare sector and has led a number of unique projects in this area, contributing to the development of new tools and methods within this niche market for the entire DEGW group. His client experience includes Google, BMW, Swisscom, and NSN, as well as the University Hospital of Saarland and other county hospitals in the healthcare sector.
	Lê Van Loi, Director, France - Lê Van Loi is an architect and urban planner specialising in business and industrial parks. Since co-founding Espace Architecture and DEGW France, Lê Van Loi has overseen many architectural projects at DEGW, including those with Young & Rubicam Digital, Pfizer, Ferrero, 9 Telecom, and the OECD. As Managing Director of Espace Architecture, his current responsibilities include the research and development of business parks. Lê Van Loi brings to his work an understanding of the disjunction between time and architecture, creating designs that provide flexibility for users and their context.
	Martin Bruebach, Director, Germany - Martin recently joined the management team in the German office. His main area of responsibility is the growth of markets and expansion of services, with a special focus on the development of the public sector. With his architectural and economics background, he also initiated and leads the current German-wide research project "Recruiting the Next Generation – Aspirations of Future Business Leaders." Previous to joining DEGW he had gained a wealth of experience with a number of well-known architectural firms. He has a strong project management background and his client experience includes Roche, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Bank, and Nielsen.
	Michael Chappell, Director, North America - Michael leads the DEGW New York office. He has worked on both global strategies and local solutions and is responsible for several account relationships for key global clients. Michael's experience is in facilitating buy-in with a variety of stakeholders and creating environments that are an active asset for the business aligned to their organisational objectives. He has concentrated on the corporate sector, particularly Financial Services and Pharmaceuticals, helping organisations identify the opportunity for alternative workplace strategies (such as mobile or distributed working) and implementing these solutions. Michael's recent clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, and BBC Worldwide. Michael started with DEGW in New York in 2002 and spent 2 years working in our London office. Concentrating in Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University, Michael has a background in both research methods and design.
	Nicola Gillen, Director of Strategy, UK - Nicola is an architect with a business degree who started working for DEGW in workplace and city strategy in 1998. This gives her a unique perspective on the built environment as she is able to understand the complex and often contradictory interests of occupiers, owners, designers, and managers of buildings. The majority of her work focuses on capturing client or organisational demands and translating that information into appropriate spatial solutions. The spatial solutions are often multi-scale, looking at buildings, campuses, or cities. Nicola has worked in North America, Singapore, and the UK with a international client base. She regularly publishes and speaks at conferences. She leads the UK Strategy Group providing services that include strategic briefing, workplace strategy, research, and change management.
	Nigel Oseland, Director of Strategy, UK - Nigel Oseland joined DEGW as Director of Strategy in February 2010. He specialises in strategic briefing and flexible working, helping occupiers redefine their workstyle and create space- efficient workplaces that enhance business performance. Nigel's focus at DEGW will be the Public Sector, where he will use his experience to help clients meet the challenges facing central and regional government. In particular, this would include improving efficiency and productivity, responding to new organisational models, increasing flexibility, and delivering value. Nigel began his career at BRE researching the impact of the built environment on staff satisfaction and performance; his work informed European and International standards. Nigel then moved into workplace consultancy working within the FM and architectural industries as well as specialists in workplace strategy.
	Paul Wheeler, Director of Strategy - Paul Wheeler joined DEGW in 2010 as the Director of Strategy, as well as the Public Sector team leader. Paul has worked with Public Sector clients on projects and programmes ranging from strategic estates rationalisation and workplace change at the organisational level through to establishing comprehensive user-briefs for individual teams. Although Paul's current focus is the Public Sector, he also has experience of large scale projects within the corporate and education sectors. His business background includes Management Consultancy, Project Management, Programme Management and Design Management.
	Peter Andrew, Director - Peter joined DEGW Asia Pacific in 2000 with extensive experience in the commercial architecture and interior design industry. Peter has a broad range of architectural and consulting skills, in particular strategic briefing and building appraisal. His postgraduate qualifications include degrees in corporate real estate (MCRh) and facilities planning and management (MPD Facilities). Peter's commitment to the industry extends beyond DEGW and includes significant involvement in CoreNet Global and teaching at the University of Melbourne. In January 2008, Peter opened DEGW’s newest office in Singapore, the base for DEGW Asia.
	Philip Tidd, Managing Director, DEGW UK - Philip is the Managing Director responsible for the UK business, with offices in London, Bristol, and Glasgow. With an architectural and design background, he regularly works with both international corporate and local public sector organisations, advising them on all aspects of how improved working environments can lead to enhanced business performance. Prior to his current role, Philip spent 10 years driving the growth of DEGW’s business across Europe, establishing new offices in the Netherlands and Germany in particular, whilst servicing a number of DEGW’s pan-European key client relationships. Philip regularly undertakes public speaking engagements in the UK and Europe on a wide range of workplace and city issues, and is an active member of both the Urban Land Institute and CoreNet Global.
	Philippe Meurice, Managing Director, DEGW France - An architect by profession, Philippe Meurice has twenty years experience working with occupiers and developers delivering innovative solutions to optimise the workplace. Philippe co-founded Espace Architecture in 1981 and DEGW France in 1985. Through managing the construction and refurbishment projects for organisations including NCR, Merloni, Renault, Unibail, and ABN AMRO, Philippe developed an interest in the integration of briefing, architecture, and space planning. Philippe regularly authors and edits publications, and lectures frequently on topics related to the workplace.
	Shirley Dugdale, Director of Learning Environments, North America - Shirley leads DEGW’s learning environments work in North America. An architect with 20 years experience, she specialises in strategies to support new ways of learning and organizational transformation, and is an expert in briefing for libraries and learning centers. Recent clients include Johns Hopkins University, University of Virginia, University at Buffalo, Stanford, MIT, and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Her current research focus is on the development of DEGW’s Learning LandscapeSM approach to planning and hubs for knowledge sharing in research environments.
	Steve Coster, Managing Director, DEGW Australia and New Zealand - Steve holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Melbourne and worked in architecture firms in London and Melbourne before joining DEGW in 2003. He was appointed Managing Director of DEGW Australia and New Zealand in 2008. Steve has extensive experience in strategic briefing and design strategy for complex projects including leading commercial buildings and fitouts, as well as strategic frameworks for university campuses and city centres. In particular, he is interested in the use of design and design processes to achieve business objectives and organisational change. Steve's work as a client-side advisor during briefing and design has also included selection and engagement with development and design teams on behalf of clients.
	Sue Wittenoom, Director, Australia and New Zealand - Sue joined DEGW in April 2008 after fourteen years in project management roles with the Lend Lease Group in Sydney, most recently as Senior Consultant and Research Manager for Lend Lease’s corporate real estate advisory division, Lend Lease Corporate Solutions. A chartered architect with an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management, Sue’s workplace advisory experience focuses on strategic briefing and facilitating end user involvement in the design process.
	Susan Lim, Managing Director, DEGW Asia - Susan joined DEGW Asia - Pacific in mid 2007 and located to Singapore in 2008. Originally trained as a designer with, she has over 17 years experience in workplace briefing, strategy, space planning, design and change management, working with a diverse range of corporate, government, healthcare and learning environment clients throughout Australia & Asia. Susan’s key interest lies in how the behaviour of people is connected with their environment and their experience of place over time and through change.
	Terry Gunnery, Director of Design, UK - As creative leader at DEGW, Terry is responsible for our interior design projects, encompassing briefing, conceptual, and detailed design. He translates DEGW's leading-edge consultancy into memorable interiors that express organisational values, are sustainable and adaptable, and support dynamic business operations. Terry is responsible for the development of DEGW's media projects and particularly the work with the BBC. Terry's recent work has also included projects with BP, Google, Shell, DTLR, HM Treasury, J Walter Thompson, and the Victoria & Albert Museum. He also worked extensively outside the UK in The Netherlands, Australia, and Spain.