Little room for former Cabe commissioners as merged body announces board

The Design Council has named former Cabe chairman Paul Finch the deputy chair of the organisation following April’s merger of the two bodies.

He will also retain his role as chair of subsidiary Design Council Cabe, the organisation confirmed as it announced its board of trustees today, with Martin Temple, chairman of the Engineering Employers Federation appointed overall chair.

However, the vast majority of former Cabe commissioners will have no involvement in the running of the body.

Long time Cabe commissioners including Ken Shuttleworth, founder of Make, Piers Gough, principal at CZWG, and the deputy chief executive of developer Urban Splash, Nick Johnson, have not been appointed to the board of the Design Council.

Of former Cabe commissioners just Finch and Rab Bennetts, founder of Bennetts Associates, will be retained on the new board. It is thought the merged body was obliged to lose most of its commissioners or face having to retain Cabe’s classification as an executive non-departmental public body, a classification it was keen to lose.

Others to miss out include Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, Hanif Kara, partner at engineer AKT II, and Jason Prior, chief executive of Aecom Planning Design and Development. However, a number of these former commissioners are being involved in the review of Cabe’s design services currently being undertaken by former Design for London director Peter Bishop.

Others to join the Design Council board include architect Jim Eyre, director at Stirling Prize-winning practice Wilkinson Eyre, designer and housing campaigner Wayne Hemingway, and the former chief executive of the South-east of England Regional Development Agency, Pam Alexander.

Businesswoman Deborah Meaden, a panellist on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, has also been appointed to the board.

The full list of board members is:

  • Pam Alexander, chief executive of SEEDA and ex-chair of the Peabody Trust
  • Rab Bennetts OBE, architect, board member of the UK Green Building Council
  • Sandeep Dwesar, COO and CFO of the Barbican Centre, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and the London Symphony Orchestra
  • Jim Eyre, architect and former President of the Architecture Association
  • Wayne Hemingway MBE, designer, commentator and broadcaster
  • Sir Mark Jones, outgoing director of the V&A and master of St Cross College Oxford.
  • Deborah Meaden, businesswoman, and panel member of ’Dragons’ Den’
  • Marek Reichman, design director of Aston Martin
  • Simon Waterfall, award-winning and globally recognised digital designer
  • Peter Williams, businessman and ex-CEO of Selfridges

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