Meet our inspiring Keynote thinkers

Mary Ann Lazarus
Senior Vice President and Firmwide Director of Sustainable Design, HOK

Mary Ann has been practicing and promoting "sustainable design" long before it formed part of our lexicon. With over 30 years of architectural experience at HOK, Mary Ann promotes the implementation of sustainable strategies in all of HOK's work. She identifies the greatest opportunities within existing buildings and communities and was integral in forging a partnership with the Biomimicry Guild.

The Biomimicry Guild takes inspiration from nature for the design and construction of buildings and communities to produce a more harmonious result with less environmental impact. One of the Guild's most notable projects includes the planning of a city in India which takes its cues from the plants and organisms that flourish in the local regions.

www.hok.com/sustainable

Rachel Botsman
Founder, Collaborative Consumption and author

Rachel Botsman is a social innovator who writes, consults and speaks on the power of collaboration and sharing through current and emerging network technologies; including how it will transform the way we live, work and play. She is the author of the influential book 'What's Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption'. Rachel was named by Monocle as one of the top 20 speakers in the world to have at your conference. She has given speeches to a wide range of audiences across the private and public sector including Microsoft, Google, No. 10 Downing Street, TED, Harvard University and Clinton Global Initiative.

www.rachelbotsman.com

Nils Kok
Visiting Scholar Haas School of Business, US Berkeley; Assistant Professor at Maastricht University, the Netherlands

Nils Kok has received numerous awards from organisations such as the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, Investment & Pensions Europe, the European Social Investment Forum, and the Aareal Bank/European Business School for his research. Besides being active as an executive teacher at the Luxembourg School of Finance, the Amsterdam Institute of Finance, and the Amsterdam School of Real Estate, Nils Kok is founder of the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) Foundation; an investor-led initiative to assess the environmental performance of the global real estate investment industry. 'Doing Well by Doing Good? Green Office buildings' provides credible market evidence on the increased economic value of certified green buildings from rental rates to selling prices.

www.nilskok.com

Franklin Becker
Professor, Dept. Design & Environmental Analysis; Co-Founder, Cornell Facility Planning & Management Program; Founder and Director, Cornell International Workplace Studies Program;
College of Human Ecology, Cornell University

Franklin Becker, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis in the College of Human Ecology, Cornell University. He co-founded Cornell's Facility Planning and Management Program in 1980, the first university program of its kind in the world; and he founded and is Director of the Cornell International Workplace Studies Program (IWSP). The IWSP, launched in 1989, is internationally recognized for its pioneering research on innovative workplace strategies. Current research focuses on the ways in which different forms of evidence-based design can contribute to improved healthcare quality and patient and staff experience.

Professor Becker has conducted research, lectured, and consulted in England, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and China, as well as the United States. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and has served as the Academic Affairs member of the Board of Directors of The International Facility Management Association, from which he has received the Outstanding Educator Award and the Distinguished Author Award. Professor Becker is the author of seven books, including The Total Workplace: Facilities Management and the Elastic Organization, Workplace By Design: Mapping the High Performance Workscape, and Offices at Work: Uncommon Workspace Strategies that Add Value and Improve Performance. He is a co-author, most recently, of The Practitioner's Guide to Evidence-Based Design. He is currently working on a new book Space Attack! Using Science and Imagination to Transform Hospital Planning and Design.

iwsp.human.cornell.edu