Francesca Bertolotti-Bailey is a cultural leader and facilitator with a background in economics, management and cultural policy. In 20 years of international experience, she has held leadership positions in a wide-range of arts institutions, including residencies, private foundations, biennials, publishing platforms, galleries, and fairs. Her work is enquiry-led, spanning across the arts, humanities, science and civic responsibility, to interrogate some of the most intractable issues of our times. Until 2022 she was the CEO of Cove Park, an artists' residency in rural Scotland. Previously, she worked at Kettle’s Yard, the modern and contemporary art gallery of the University of Cambridge; Liverpool Biennial, where she co-curated the 2016 and 2018 editions; Artissima, the contemporary art fair in Turin; and Fondazione Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan. Between 2016–18 she was Associate at Large of Council, a Paris-based organisation focused on the integration of artistic, scientific and civic ways of knowing. Since 2016 she has been Co-Director of publishing, archiving and learning platform The Serving Library.
Dr. Ash Ranpura is a neurologist and cognitive neuroscientist who has been active in brain research for over 25 years. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, completed an M.D. at the Medical College of Ohio and carried out his Ph.D. research at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Queen Square, London. He completed an internship in internal medicine and a residency in adult general neurology at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, where he spearheaded new initiatives for improving patient transport and reducing the use of sedation for MRI. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Ranpura has made significant contributions in science communication, having been a co-founder of Café Scientifique at the Photographers’ Gallery in London, a founding editor at BrainConnection magazine in San Francisco and a host of radio programmes for BBC Radio 4, National Public Radio, and Audible.com. He is co-author, together with presenter Ruby Wax and Buddhist monk Gelong Thubten of How to be Human: The Manual, a practical guidebook exploring the effects of meditation on the brain.
Ab Rogers is the creative director of Ab Rogers Design, a design and architecture studio that he established in London in 2004 and now runs with architect Ernesto Bartolini. The studio works internationally across health, culture, hospitality and residential sectors, designing active and supportive environments that inject narrative and purpose by engaging all human senses. A former cabinetmaker and sailor, Rogers earned his MA in Design from the Royal College of Art in London in 1997. The same year he co-founded Kitchen Rogers Design with Shona Kitchen, which authored signature projects such as the Comme des Garçons store in Paris and the Al-Ostoura luxury department store in Kuwait City until 2004. He has lectured nationally and internationally for over twenty years and between 2012–15 was Head of Programme of the MA Interior Design at the Royal College of Art. Over the last two decades Rogers has led projects for clients such as Maggie’s, Imperial College Healthcare Trust, St Thomas’ Hospital, 180 The Strand, Wes Anderson, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Australian Centre for Moving Image in Sydney as well as for commercial clients such as The Connaught Hotel, Selfridges, Wonderfruit and The Fat Duck, amongst others. In 2021, Ab Rogers Design won the Wolfson Economics Prize with their proposal for the hospital of the future.