Meet the 36 Superyacht Design Symposium 2017 speakers

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.

Martin Francis of Francis Design are currently working on a variety of different projects, including architectural work on the New headquarters for Vitsoe in Leamington Spa and a project for flood resistant housing in the UK. Their yachting work includes the 124-meter M/Y Golden Odyssey recently delivered by Luerssen plus other new large yacht projects. Francis Design are also completing the technical development of a 14 meter Mercedes-Benz Styled luxury yacht for Silver Arrows Marine and a consultancy project with Swarovski for the development of new surface products for interiors.

For the last 20 years, Martin has been working collaboratively with the American Artist Frank Stella on large sculptures and computer assisted art projects. In 2005 he was engaged by RCCL Celebrity Cruises to design the exterior of the Solstice class a series of five 120,000 GRT Cruise Ships. In 1982 Martin joined Peter Rice in the creation of RFR, a Paris based engineering company, established to design the glass facades of the Museum of Science and Technology in Paris. He was also responsible for assisting IM Pei in the design of the cable structure of the Louvre Pyramid using yacht rigging technology.

Working in France since 1976, Martin's first motor yacht was the iconic ECO followed by a number of innovative vessels like M/Y Senses, M/Y Golden Shadow, M/Y Sultan and more recently the 118-meter M/Y ‘A’ for which he was the Technical and Naval designer, a joint project with Phillip Starck.

Martin trained at the Central School of Art and Design and worked as a cabinet maker before in 1967 starting working with Architect Norman Foster on a wide range of projects including the glass wall of the Willis Faber and Dumas building in Ipswich.

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).

Burns Fallow is Head Sail Designer and Director for North Sails as well as Global Superyacht Manager for North Sails, a job combining design and management skills. Prior to this Burns was Managing Director of North Sails New Zealand from 2008 until 2014.

From 1993 until 2013, Burns was a member of Team New Zealand (now Emirates Team New Zealand) through five America’s Cup campaigns, being part of the winning team twice.  He was head of the Sail program, and in the 2013 campaign he also headed the Wing Aero development team for the AC72 foiling catamarans.

Burns designed his first Superyacht sails in 1991 and he has been involved with over 50 Superyacht projects since that time.

He joined North Sails in 1988 straight from the University of Auckland where he was the first person to graduate from the Yacht Research Unit. For the next few years he learned sail design, interacting with many of the top trimmers from his homeland during that time.  His sail designs have appeared on many top level racing programs.

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.

Gregory C. Marshall Naval Architects is a Victoria B.C. based design firm owned by Principals Greg Marshall and Gordon Galbraith. The firm has been operating from Victoria for 22 years, and has created more than 400 designs from which more than 1000 vessels have been built.

Gregory C. Marshall NA (GCMNA) designs a wide range of vessels from small aluminum runabouts to a current project under construction that is over 270 feet. The firm is involved in the Design, Naval Architecture, Structural and Mechanical Engineering as well as interior design. Their projects are building on all continents except Antarctica. The firm is in the regular business of designing in Steel, Aluminum, FRP as well as wood.

GCMNA has won numerous Awards worldwide including “Best Naval Architecture” (2 times) , “Best Yacht Under 500 GRT” (3 times) , “Most Innovative Yacht” (3 times) “Best Styling” (3 Times) “Best Interior” (3 times) and “Best Refit”.

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.

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.

Sara Gioanola joined Heesen in 2009 as the role of PR and Press Officer. She shares her enthusiasm for the Heesen brand via the media, with extensive content in print publications, digital platforms, videography, events and trade shows. She has helped raise Heesen’s profile considerably thanks to her skills in communication coupled with a thorough understanding of luxury brands and marketing, all around the world.

Prior to Heesen Yachts, Sara worked with Baglietto as a fast motoryacht specialist and Perini Navi, the major superyacht builder specialising in large sailing yachts, from 2005 – 2008.

Sara graduated in 2001 with a Master’s degree in Philosophy. She has always been a passionate sailor and is fluent in three languages.