Marco Piva

Graduated at the Polytechnic of Milan, in 1977 he founded Studiodada Associates, one of the best known design studios of the Radical period. Since the beginning Marco Piva has been working in Italy as well as abroad on architecture, interior and industrial design projects, earning commendations and awards in Italy and abroad.

From 1987 to 1990 he was member of the Presidential Board of Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI), the Industrial Design Association in Italy. In 1987, Marco Piva also founded IDA, International Design Agency that was an Italian interface for a World Design Network system.

In 1990, he also founded his own brand, Studio Marco Piva. From 1988 to 1991 he held the position of Italian Commissioner for the European Community Spring project for innovation and technology transfer. Along with a variety of designers, sociologists and marketing experts from Germany, France and England, he created the EDEA (European Design Expert Association), a strategic design consulting company. From 1997 to 2002 Marco Piva coordinated Hot Group (Hotel Technologies Group), the first interdisciplinary group of companies specialising in technologies for hotel and hospitality clients.

In 2001, a variety of experiences in strategic consulting in the field of design and hotel contract work culminated in consulting work with the hospitality division of Federlegno Arredo. Since 1999, this remarkable activity has been combined with teaching positions at universities and design institutes both in Italy and abroad, and the organisation of the post-graduate Master’s degree program at the Politecnico di Milano, the Scuola Politecnica di Design (Polytechnic School of Design) and the Istituto Europeo di Design (European Institute of Design) in Milan. In 2002 Marco Piva established “Atelier Design”, a design cell inside the structure of his own practice, where research and development are the fundamental keys of design.

From 2007 to 2009 he was scientific curator of Italian Contract Design, a project of Federlegno Arredo.

Ramak Radmard

Ramak Radmard is an award winning, creative and resourceful product development professional with a solid background in design, development, manufacturing, branding, product introductions, system thinking and business design. Ramak Radmard studied Industrial Design and Architecture at Carleton University. He worked as a Development Engineer for Rolls Royce before establishing Lucidream in 1999.

His work is a marriage of art and technology, the eloquent balance between form and function. His experience extends from aerospace, engineering, industrial design and architecture to business development and management of all aspects of design and distribution. He believes innovation should not come at the cost of functionality, honesty and purity of design. The distinguishing factor in any product lies in the value it adds to the user, in terms of functionality, aesthetics, price and the environmental impacts.

Patrick le Quément

Patrick le Quément is a retired French designer who graduated in Product Design at the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design in Great Britain where he holds a Doctor of the University status. His career was spent entirely in the automobile industry, first in Ford where he reached the position of Director of Design in Germany, and later in the Volkswagen-Audi Group where he held the position of Director of Advanced Design.

He joined Renault as a Vice President of Design in 1987 and was named in 1995 Senior Vice President of both Design and Group Quality, reporting directly to the President Louis Schweitzer. Patrick le Quément has received numerous prizes; he was elected 6 times European Designer of the Year in several countries, as well as European Designer of the Year by his peers in 2002.

That same year he received the coveted Lucky Strike Award from the Raymond Loewy Foundation in recognition to his contribution to design. Since early 2010, whilst remaining a design auditor for both Renault and Nissan, he has persued a new career as a naval designer. His first 2 boats, the Outremer 5X catamaran and the Garcia GT54 trawler have both been named European Boats of the Year 2013. In early 2013, he has co-founded together with Maurille Larivière, a designer and a well known figure in the field of design education, being a former co-founder of Strate College, as well as Marc Van Petegem, the world famous naval architect, a new design school based in Nice on the French Riviera. Known as «The Sustainable Design School» which defends the power of innovation for human solutions.

During his career he worked for: Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen-Audi, Renault.