Meet the 36 Superyacht Design Symposium 2017 speakers

Vripack is a third generation studio founded in 1961 and is lead by designer and naval architect Bart M. Bouwhuis and Marnix J. Hoekstra. The Dutch naval architecture, design and engineering studio has created over 7000 designs and is renowned for its high quality no-nonsense-go-anywhere ships that roam the Seven Seas.

“To seamlessly blend the sailing wishes of our clients into a design that first throws them off their feet and later on is embraced as if they thought of every inch themselves gives our team and thus me a great pleasure”, says Marnix J. Hoekstra.

"At Vripack we believe that a good design should not meet all requirements. It should surpass them, creating a boat that is able to go beyond dream. Vripacks holistic design approach is crucial with regard to working on the cutting edge of design and technology. At Vripack we don’t just design yachts, we Engineer Fantasies."

Richard Woolley is the studio director for Special Vehicle Operations, working under the direction of Gerry McGovern, Jaguar Land Rover board member and Land Rover’s chief creative officer.

Richard leads a team of creative designers looking at new product opportunities. This includes design responsibility for the Special Vehicle Operations business within Land Rover, which develops high-end luxury bespoke and extreme performance vehicles, including the range Rover SVAutobiography and the Range Rover Sport SVR. His significant design achievements include the 2003 Range Stormer Concept, 2004 Range Rover Sport, 2007 Freelander and 2009 Range Rover. He also led the design team working on the all-new 2012 Range Rover.

Before Land Rover, Richard spent time working in Detroit for Ford Design North America as well as the Rover Group on numerous passenger vehicle programmes including Rover, MG, MINI and Land Rover Vehicles. During this period he also worked in Tokyo, Japan and Munich, Germany.

Richard started his career in the UK, completing studies at Swansea University College of Art and Design before taking on his first design role at Airbus Industry in Hamburg, Germany.

Celia Sawyer is a renowned interior designer with clients across the globe. With an uninhibited sense of style, merging classical with contemporary, she is deeply inspired by architecture and experimental design. Being extremely hands-on in her Mayfair design studio, Celia has worked with an impressive roster of people, from film stars, musicians, leading business icons, not to mention names worthy of the Forbes rich list.

As an interior designer, Celia holds an impressive command over furniture design. Working from sketches of her own vision, Celia will create bespoke and beautiful pieces for clients. Her signature look encapsulates use of textures, colour and creativity, amounting to a design style that exudes opulence and sophisticated glamour.

Celia’s design intuition and personal connection to each project echoes throughout homes, aviation and marine across the globe. It is her attention to detail, unflinching dedication and dignified charisma that have contributed to the notable success Celia has achieved, both in and out of the public eye.

Celia is frequently in mainstream press and national television, alongside being an official columnist for the MailOnline, Hello! and the Huffington Post. She recently joined the Board of Advisors for Football for Peace. This is a global organisation that has had HRH Prince William and the Prince of Monaco, as well as various sporting legends, support the cause already.

Passion and precision embody Celia’s work life; many designers say there are not enough hours in the day, for Celia she always finds them. She intends to leave a legacy trailing behind her in gold and will continue to create bespoke, glamorous interiors for very special clients.

Mike Fisher is the creative director and founder of Studio Indigo – an architecture and interior design studio specialising in high end residential work in the UK and around the world.

Studio Indigo’s expertise lies in its ability to grasp how their clients live, what their needs and desires are and to create imaginative and inspiring spaces which reflect that. Surprise and delight is the studio’s motto, taking the client on a journey that is creative and enjoyable.

This skill is now being transferred into the yachting world with Studio Indigo having recently completed the interior of 70 metre Feadship Joy. Their largest yacht to date, Joy is an example of Studio Indigo’s fresh perspective, collaborative approach and meticulous attention to detail.

Teamwork has been a hallmark of Mike’s studio since its inception in 2005. He has built up a multicultural and multilingual group of 50 specialist designers based in a converted warehouse overlooking the Thames in Chelsea, London.

Mike is a keen yachtsman himself and understands the necessary balance between luxury, comfort and functionality. He is able to combine his team’s various fields of expertise and his 25 years’ experience in residential design to deliver yachts that have their own unique and distinctive character.

A leading “disruptor” in UK media for more than two decades, Adam Leigh joined communications consultancy W in 2011. As Strategy Director at W – which has offices in London, Amsterdam and Singapore – he has developed brand and campaign strategies for clients including Y.CO, Princess Yachts, L’Oréal, W Hotels, Alphabet, Facebook, Hearst Magazines, and Unilever. Based at the company’s London HQ, his role encompasses C-suite counsel, media planning, content development, and crisis management.

Prior to W Adam worked at The Independent, where he was Deputy Editor and directed the paper’s award-winning coverage of 9/11, the Iraq war and the Asian tsunami. In 2010 Adam was central to the launch of i - the UK’s first new national newspaper in 25 years, which remains the market’s only growing title and in 2003 he led the Independent’s reinvention as Britain’s first “quality tabloid” (a move followed by dozens of papers around the word).

Charlie Hagan is Co-Managing Partner and Head of Training and Nutrition for luxury personal training and nutrition firm Hagan & Pappin.

Charlie spent several years in the health & wellbeing industry advising individuals, families and corporates on fitness & nutrition optimisation before setting up Hagan & Pappin in 2014. He has worked with leading international exercise labs and for private clients across the Middle East, the US and Europe.

Hagan & Pappin manages and optimises the health, nutrition and physical activity of individuals and families across the globe. The firm’s team works with designers to custom build bespoke fitness areas into clients’ Superyachts and private homes specially tailored to their needs and physiology. They also deliver nutrition training to on-board chefs and supply on-board trainers and physical therapists.

Charlie has an early background in the industry. His father is an Offshore Powerboat Racing World Champion and Superyacht designer. Charlie is a competitive offshore yacht racer with an RYA Yachtmaster.

He has a BSc, Chemistry from the University of Bristol. He qualified as a Personal Trainer in 2002 and holds successive advanced qualifications in fitness, nutrition and physiology. He was a corporate M&A lawyer in London before moving into health.

As head of AMELS’ in-house design and naval architecture department, Hans is intimately involved in the construction of luxury motor yachts of the absolute highest quality, working closely with the most renowned pedigree yacht designers and suppliers. As well as the AMELS Limited Editions range, Hans and his team of talented naval architects and experts in large yacht construction handle AMELS Full Custom design and proposal bids. Among the almost 60 AMELS yachts delivered, Hans has worked on milestone projects such as the first MCA-compliant TIGRE D’OR, the avant-garde EVENT and the recently delivered 74-metre PLVS VLTRA and 83-metre HERE COMES THE SUN. In his role, Hans applies his extensive production experience at AMELS as well as from his previous role in shipbuilding at a Fincantieri yard in Italy.

Before entering the superyacht world, Hans began his career as a Navigation Officer for Holland American Line (an affiliate of the Carnival Cruise Line Company). He is a graduate in both Marine Engineering and as a Naval Officer at the HZ University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen, the Netherlands.

Thomas Haffa has been passionate about boating from an early age, inspired by a little folding boat with sails that his uncle gave him. Thomas’ enthusiasm for boats has remained constant and his passion has grown with his age and wealth in size and scope. So far, Thomas Haffa owned 33 boats –including the famous Wally Tiketitoo. While racing this boat for several years, he invented, together with Massimo Perotti, his Sanlorenzo Alloy No. 1 4H. – winner of the 18th Showboats Award 2008 in Monaco. Recently, he developed the Cantieri di Pisa 22 together with Luca Dini and currently he is discussing an explorer project with Sanlorenzo.

Thomas Haffa is a German entrepreneur, well-known as founder of EM.TV AG, a German Media Company. Thomas Haffa was the

company’s CEO and major shareholder until July 2001, when he sold his shares. Today, Thomas Haffa operates Air Independence GmbH, an exclusive air charter company based in Germany and Austria, amongst other entrepreneurial activities. His latest venture is dotbooks GmbH – an electronic book company.

Thomas Haffa is founding member of the International SeaKeepers Society (www.seakeepers.org). For charity commitment, Thomas Haffa runs the Thomas Haffa Foundation (Thomas Haffa Stiftung).

Paola Trifiró is the owner of S/Y Ribelle, a 107ft carbon yacht in build at Vitters with Malcom McKeown and Remi Tessier interiors which will be delivered in Holland between the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017. As a passionate Regatta participant, with Paola’s husband Salvatore, this new boat focuses on lightness and speed for racing, without sacrificing the space and transparency for cruising pleasure and sea life.

Paola has been involved with many sailing yacht building projects, from just 7-meters as a young student, to the impressive S/Y Zefira, a 50-meter Dubois design, receiving critical acclaim for lightness, elegance, speed and modernity. As a lover of design and art, Paola has always been a sailor at heart. In particular, she is fond of adventurous sailing to far distant seas and has cruised the oceans from the South Pacific – Fiji and Samoa, to Norway and Alaska, and not to mention Panama and California.

As a passionate bibliophile, she has an impressive personal library of more than 14,000 books containing a special collection (recently catalogued and available online) entirely dedicated to history of food, gastronomic culture and science, international cooking - including many incunabula and rare editions.

Paola is a professional lawyer, specialising in Family and Inheritance law, graduating at Università degli Studi of Milano magna cum laude with a degree thesis on ancient Roman Law and has been Research Fellow in Civil Law for some years.

Bill Duker is the founder of Amici LLC, acquired by Xerox in 2006 for $174 million. Founded in 2002, Amici is a leading provider of electronic-discovery (e-discovery) services, primarily supporting litigation and regulatory compliance. E-discovery is the identification, filtering, production and storage of relevant data from paper or electronic documents, like e-mail, text files, memos, databases, presentations and spreadsheets.