Biography

Tom Dixon

Founder and eponymous Creative Director Tom Dixon is a restless innovator who rose to prominence in the mid-1980s as a maverick, untrained designer with a line in welded salvage furniture. While working with the Italian giant Cappellini he designed the widely acclaimed ‘S’ Chair.

In the late 90s, Tom became Creative Director at Habitat and rejuvenated the brand while maintaining Terence Conran’s vision of enriching everyday life through simple, modern design. In 2001, Tom was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen of England for his services to British design. In 2014, he was awarded “Designer of The Year” at Maison & Objet in Paris. In 2019, he received a silver medal for Best Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and in the same year, was awarded the prestigious London Design Medal at the British Land Celebration of Design Awards.

Tom is one of the industry’s most feted British designers and is internationally heralded as a significantly original talent.

Emma Holten

Emma Holten is a feminist activist and gender policy consultant. In 2014, she created the project CONSENT about her own experience with digital sexual violence. Since then, she has worked on an array of subjects. Among them power in the workplace and feminism in art and literature. Since 2019, her primary focus has been feminist economics.

She sits on Danish trade union Djøf’s Gender Equality Committee, is a founding board member at Digitalt Ansvar, and a board member at the Georg Brandes Society and ExitCirklen. She is on the European Institute of Gender Equality Experts Forum as an expert in feminist economics.

In 2011, she received her Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature, and in 2017 her Master’s in Modern Culture, both from The University of Copenhagen, with exchanges at Columbia and Uppsala Universities. She lives in Copenhagen.

Anna Rørbæk

Anna Rørbæk has had her own consulting firm, Rørbæk Kommunikation, since 2018.

She worked at the Danish parliament between 2002–2004 and 2006–2011, first with Venstre – the Liberal Party of Denmark and then in the Danish Social Liberal Party’s press services, both as public relations officer and campaign manager.

Anna then advised commercial clientèle at the communications agency Geelmuyden Kiese, served as communications manager and was on the board of Denmark’s second largest upper secondary school, and between 2015–2018 she acted as Head of Communications and Public Affairs at BØRNEfonden. For a number of years, Anna also served as press spokesperson on behalf of Denmark’s 12 largest humanitarian organizations in connection with the annual fundraiser Danmarks Indsamling on Danish public service channel DR1.

Anna has an M.A. in Media Studies and Rhetoric from the University of Copenhagen. She has management training in coaching and conflict resolution as well as governance training, she has taught at several Danish universities and sat the Danish Union of Journalists’ expert committee on the future of the communication and journalism professions. Anna is also a professional member of several boards of directors.

Nanna Vestgård

Nanna Vestgård is one of the only people in Denmark to have researched conditions for women at the podium and is the creator of the lecture and series of courses Kvinde Kend Din Talegave.

As senior speechwriter for the Ministry of Higher Education and Science and for the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Nanna has written hundreds of speeches for Danish ministers Jakob Ellemann-Jensen (V), Ulla Tørnæs (V), Esben Lunde Larsen (V), Mogens Jensen (S) and Lea Wermelin (S) and is accustomed to providing speechwriting and communications training at the top levels of politics and organizations.

As a rhetorical advisor, Nanna is a lecturer in communication for the Danish bar exam under the auspices of the Danish Law and Bar Society, and she has trained management and staff from a host of Denmark’s largest private companies and organizations, including Vestas, Nordea Asset Management, HK, FOA, McDonald’s Danmark, the Danish Chamber of Commerce and Novo Nordisk.

Nanna is a former external lecturer and now external examiner at the Universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus and has 14 years’ experience as a rhetorical advisor, management consultant and trainer.

Svend Brinkmann

Svend Brinkmann is one of the strongest voices in the debate in Denmark on modern trends and how we can both embrace them and fight them. Like his opinions, Svend Brinkmann’s books are popular and constantly on the list of bestsellers for professional literature. Experience Svend Brinkmann in a thought-provoking and highly topical and entertaining lecture on missing out and standing our ground in our boundless development culture.

Svend Brinkmann is a professor of psychology at Aalborg University. His research lies where psychology, philosophy and cultural analysis meet, and he is the author of a long list of books and articles on these areas. A lecture by Svend Brinkmann is guaranteed to be a successful event. He has received multiple awards for his research and communication, including the DR Rosenkjær Prize and the Søren Gyldendal Prize.

Alexander Holm

Alexander Holm is a biologist specializing in environmental protection and communication. He is a lecturer, external lecturer, debater and cabinetmaker.

Alexander is also the man behind the environmental platform “Den Dyriske Time” (The Animal Hour), on which he has a podcast with news from the animal kingdom. In it, he takes the pulse of nature and reports on the week’s most pressing issues from nature’s front line. How is it going with the rain forest? Is the Java rhinoceros close to extinction? What does the latest research tell us about the experimental sex life of squid? What is the latest on the climate crisis? Experts also visit the studio from time to time to share their insights on the infinite funny facets of biodiversity.

Jens-Peter Brask

Jens-Peter Brask began his career as an entrepreneur and restaurant manager, but is especially known and recognized as an art collector, publisher and curator. Brask has collected art for nearly 30 years and today owns one of Denmark’s largest private art collections – the Brask Collection – consisting of works by national and international contemporary artists.

In 2018, he founded the company Curated by Jens-Peter Brask, which curates art, murals and books in collaboration with artists, collectors and art and cultural institutions around the world. His vision in curating contemporary art and murals – as well as publishing art books through Brask Publications – is to support and move the contemporary art scene in a direction where it remains open and accessible. This work especially aims to support young artists entering the art industry and creating opportunities for wonder, new conversations and potential for innovation in a creative framework.

Simon Sebastian

Simon Sebastian has a BFA from the Art Academy – Department of Contemporary Art at the University of Bergen and the National School of Art Paris-Cergy. His artistic practice is centered around expressive collages and large-scale sculptures.

Simon Sebastian is interested in leading people toward new experiences, creating social encounters and challenging traditional ways of experiencing art. He takes a site-specific, sustainable approach, reusing both his own processes, existing works and discovered materials and objects in the creation of new artistic compositions using materials such as silk paper, paint, plaster, polystyrene, textile and marine varnish.