Design Ventura Judging Panel 2022-23

This year’s Pitching Event is going to take place at Winchester House on Tuesday 22 March 2023. The top shortlisted schools will each submit a 3-minute pitch film, which will be reviewed by our panel of industry experts. The shortlisted state schools will also have a live 10-minute Q&A session where the judges can ask them questions about their product ideas. Here are this year’s panel:

Christoph Woermann
Christoph Woermann is CMO for Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank division. The Corporate Bank comprises commercial client banking business with transaction banking products and services for both, corporates and financial institutions, including domestic and cross-border payments, risk mitigation and financing international trade and the provision of trust, agency, depositary, custody and related services.

Preena Patel
Preena Patel is the Buying and Merchandising Manager at the Design Museum with over a decade of experience in retail positioning, licensing, brand buying and product development and is accountable for delivery of commercially successful ranges instore and online.

Preena is also Retail strategist for multi-disciplinary artist Yinka Ilori. Preena has a creative and commercial approach to retail aided by her training in fashion design, has obsessive passion for product, and takes great satisfaction from watching customer reactions in store!

Sebastian Conran
Sebastian wanted to be an inventor whilst at school and got A levels in Maths Physics and Chemistry; then he studied Industrial Design Engineering at Central St. Martins, where he gave the Sex Pistols their first booking and designed record sleeves and posters for The Clash. After this he worked at corporate identity consultancy Wolff Olins followed by leading hard-goods development at Mothercare, after which he founded Sebastian Conran Associates design studio in 1986 and taught furniture design at the Royal College of Art. Sebastian is now a trustee of the Design Museum, Chair of the Conran Foundation and Conran + Partners, Visiting Professor of Design & Innovation at Bristol Robotics Lab, Designer in Residence at University of Sheffield engineering faculty; he also writes & lectures on innovation.

Selasi Setufe MBE
The Design Ventura 2022-23 brief setter, Selasi Setufe  is an architect with an interest in exploring socially responsive approaches to design, architecture and placemaking. She is co- director of Black Females in Architecture, an organisation which advocates for diversity, race and gender equity in Architecture, Design & Construction industries.

Sujata Burman

Sujata is a writer and editor, specialising in design and culture. She was Design Editor at Wallpaper* Magazine before moving to her current role of Editor at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale. In 2019, she co-authored ‘An Opinionated Guide to London Architecture’, driven by her aim to make the fields of design and architecture accessible to wider audiences.