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.

Terence Disdale Designs is one of the world’s leading companies specialising in yacht design. The company employs a team of 15 and was formed in 1973.

Prior to this Terence worked as one of Jon Bannenberg’s two design assistants for a few years. His other experiences were in the hotel design industry and with shop fitting and joinery specialists.

In his forty years of experience Terence has participated in the design and construction of more than a hundred yachts including fifty of these above the category of 45 meters. Eighteen of his projects have been completed above the category of 60 meters & he is the holder of thirty international design awards for his projects, including their latest creation the 81 metre Kibo which won the 2015 Showboats Holistic Design Award.

In 2015 the 163 metre Motor Yacht Eclipse was recognised by Boat International with the status of ‘Motor Yacht of the Decade’ which incorporates Terence Disdale’s exterior styling, general arrangement and complete interior design.

His forte is in creating the total design concept of the yacht from the water line upward. The design team develops the complete deck by deck planning, the superstructure lines, design and detail as well as the complete and totally bespoke interior.

Occasionally they have been invited to work on the interior of private aircraft and the houses of various clients where they have carried out extensive architectural work, landscape design and interior design.

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.

Rob Armstrong has always had a huge interest in all aspects of design, completing an extensive range of projects and commissions for clients internationally, ranging from marine to residential and commercial design.

After seven years working for one of the top superyacht designers, Ken Freivokh, Rob established the ThirtyC design studio and consultancy alongside fellow designer Alastair Fletcher. Multi-discipline design is Rob’s strength, from exterior styling through to interior design, evolving with each-and-every client.

ThirtyC are continually looking at pushing the boundaries of creativity, drawing upon their own influences and experiences. The studio’s decision to work closely with other design firms has allowed them to work with some of the most well know names in the superyacht industry and be involved in several unique and award winning designs both afloat and in build.

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.

Peder Eidsgaard founded Eidsgaard Design in 2005 to create exterior and interior designs for superyachts. The company is headed with partners Ben Harrison and Ewa Eidsgaard.

The company’s team of eight is based in London, from where they have delivered designs for yachts including Tango, Saudade, Angel’s Share, Halo and Vanish.

“- We enjoy creating yachts that each have a unique character to reflect the owners personality. Only the engine room location is conventional in our layouts, which are fully created from scratch around the lifestyle of the owner.”

Eidsgaard’s exteriors aim to each have a certain dynamic elegance, but every profile is made to be individual and recognizable.

Peder decided on his chosen career after reading about London’s superyacht designers in a magazine when he was 12 years old.

He was born in Great Britain but grew up in Oslo, Norway, and gained a Bachelor of Science degree in design in Switzerland, before he spent nine years working for Andrew Winch Designs in London.

Since 2005 Peder Eidsgaard has also delivered 23 V-VIP private jets under his separate company Pegasus Design: “- Superyachts and private jets are vastly different in that one is a holiday home and the other a business tool, but both disciplines share the same design process and the same design-conscious clientele.”

For several of Peder’s clients the team has designed both the jet and yacht.

Peder’s spare time is spent with family and friends on the ski slopes in the Winter and on his small boat in Norway during the Summer.