People

	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 Laing, Director, 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, Managing Director, Europe - 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, North America - Bernice Boucher is a Director in New York where she leads the financial sector practice in North America and around the globe. Her experience working with Fortune 100 businesses and corporate real estate groups adds an additional level of expertise to DEGW's practice. Bernice has recently worked with Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Royal Bank of Scotland. Prior to DEGW, she served as a workplace strategist for Deutsche Bank in the Americas. As part of a global team Bernice was embedded in Corporate Real Estate & Services and engaged in developing dynamic work environments and alternative workplace strategies in support of the bank’s strategic goals.
	Claudia Hamm, Managing Director, Europe - 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.
	Elvira Munoz, Director, 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.
	Francesca Jack, Director, UK - 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, Managing Director, North America - Georgia is the Managing Director responsible for the North American Business, with offices in New York, San Francisco and Washington D.C. 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.
	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.
	Michael Chappell, Director, North America - Michael leads the DEGW New York office. He is responsible for the Pharma sector in North America and several global client account relationships. He has worked on both global strategies and local solutions. His experience is facilitating stakeholder buy-in and helping organisations conceive environments that are an active asset aligned to business objectives. 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, 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.
	Peter Andrew, Director, UK - 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.
	Shirley Dugdale, Director, 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.
	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.
	Terry Gunnery, Director, 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.
	Wendy Geitz, Head of Australia and New Zealand - Wendy joined DEGW in March 2010 after 20 years experience in organisations such as Lend Lease, NAB, and the Centre for Workplace Culture Change. Wendy has qualifications spanning economics, actuarial studies and business management, and is currently undertaking a post graduate in workplace planning and design. Her focus is on building capacity and capability within organisations, through the alignment of the built space to the business strategy and the aspired culture and performance. Wendy has worked across workplace strategy and urban revitalisation projects, and has extensive experience in strategic consulting, project and change management, and organisational and people development.