Louise Bennetts, Fashion Designer, Lecturer MA Fashion, Royal College of Art, London

Louise Bennetts completed her MA Fashion at the Royal College of Art in London in 2014. She then worked as a designer for Roksanda and Faye and Erica Toogood, for whom she still freelances. She also designed dance costumes for Hofesh Shechter and Scarabeus. She participated in materials research and development for artist Do Ho Suh and is currently collaborating with Tate Modern.
Since 2021, Louise Bennetts has also led the research and development department of ReWeave, a textile design consultancy that works with brands to create new fabrics from their own production waste. She lectures for the RCA MA Fashion platform Future Fashion Systems and conducts research at the Material Science Research Centre.

Frederike Kintscher, Industrial Designer, Association of German Industrial Designers

Frederike Kintscher studied Industrial Design at the Bergische Universität in Wuppertal and completed her Master of Science in Product Design at the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, USA. She is involved in the Association of German Industrial Designers – VDID e.V. and represents it since 2018 in the German Design Day e.V., as vice speaker in the Kulturrat e.V. and in the BEDA Bureau of European Design Associations, in the leadership of the Council for Europe/International Affairs of the German Design Day. She is an active campaigner for the topics of values, sustainability and future orientation through design. She runs her own studio in Berlin.

Karen Pontoppidan, jewelry artist, President of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich

Karen Pontoppidan, born in Denmark in 1968, is one of the most renowned jewelry artists of her generation. In addition to numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide, Karen Pontoppidan is also a curator and author. She trained as a maker of jewelry and utensils, Schwäbisch Gmünd 1991, and graduated in 1998 in the class of Prof. Otto Künzli at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich. From 2006 to 2015 she was professor of jewelry and device at Ädellab, Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm. In 2015, Karen Pontoppidan was appointed Professor of Goldsmithing at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich and elected its President in 2022. Karen Pontoppidan lives and works in Munich.