Lady Carol Aldridge was born and raised in Liverpool. Her working career has mainly been in the public sector having worked for Liverpool City Council for over 21 years. Her role ultimately focused on improving and modernising operations for front-line services to the public. This led to her playing a major role with “Liverpool Direct” a ground breaking and award winning joint venture between the Council and BT. This partnership which was the forerunner implemented by many other local authorities focused on establishing a contact centre which integrated the majority of the Council’s back office services to become a front of office services offering 24/7 services to the public.

In 2003, as a result of this role, with “Liverpool Direct”, Carol was recruited by the Capita Group, the market leading outsourcing FTSE 100 company to become a part of its business development team bidding for multi million contracts across the public sector.

In 2006, she decided to follow her passion to work in the world of interior design and successfully graduated from the KLC School of Design in Chelsea for interior design in 2011 She has subsequently worked on a number of projects involving large scale property development and refurbishment.

Lady Carol supports Sir Rod with the Foundation that the family has established involving sponsorship of 12 academies it has established designed to improve the education and life chances of young people working in challenging communities in the NW, SE and London. She became a Trustee of the Foundation in February 2014, taking a particular interest in the entrepreneurial and enterprising focus of the work of the Foundation and representing the family.

Lady Carol was a judge for the Junior Signature prize in 2019 which were submissions from the Aldridge Academy students.

Steve Cooke grew up in an artist studio in Suffolk during the 50s and 60s that was frequented by multidisciplinary talents from Howard Hodgkin to Liz Fritsch. He began his career as a writer but after 25 years founded the provenance company Tagsmart with frame maker Mark Darbyshire to preserve the stories behind contemporary art. Over the past ten years, he's had the enormous pleasure of seeing tens of thousands of works emerge from the studios of established and emerging artists and is now looking forward to retirement and spending more time on his own work.

Helen lectures in Critical and Contextual Studies for contemporary art practice at DJCAD and leads the MFA artistic research and writing module. She is currently in a three-book deal with Bloomsbury Academic Press (London & New York): firstly, Women Can’t Paint: Gender, the Glass Ceiling and Values in Contemporary Art (2020); secondly, her new upcoming monograph for Bloomsbury, War Paint: Gender Inequality in the Virtual Artworld; and thirdly, the upcoming Wife, Witch, Whore: Essential Conversations about Gender, Art and Culture. Helen is also one of the invited contributors to Phaidon’s upcoming blockbuster art compendium Great Women Painters (New York), and Routledge’s new International Handbook of Heritage and Gender. She is also project-leading a new book on Margaret Harrison and the British feminist art movement for presentation at the Tate, ADN Barcelona and Istanbul Biennale in 2023. Her first monograph Women Can’t Paint has been acquired for translation rights with HayalPerest Turkey, and is now available as Kadindan Ressam Olmaz (2022).

Helen is the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion lead for DJCAD; and Chair of In-Gear, a new initiative and forum for intersectional gender equality in the arts research, which was selected by the University of Dundee for its prestigious Honorary Graduate's Award for Inclusive Practice 2021, and she has received a Highly Commended for the award in 2022. Helen is the Athena Swan lead for the school, and the SAT Data Lead for the University's 2021 Race Charter application. She is the CEO of InGEAR Publishing, DJCAD’s in-house more-than-profit press, winning an award at the University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship 2022 challenge, and shortlisted for the national Converge Challenge. Based at DJCAD, InGear Publishing has identified significant gaps in the book market, including our dissertation-to-book imprint. Helen’s company donates the majority of their profits to scholarships/career opportunities for underprivileged University of Dundee students - and by commissioning InGEAR’s books, you contribute towards creating a fairer world, which is life-changing for the company’s beneficiaries.

Catriona is an artist and therapist with a deep interest in exploring spirituality and creative processes from multifaith and cross-cultural perspectives, building on her experiences of living in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Artistically, Catriona works across all media and much of her art responds to her therapy work. She has exhibited in Singapore, France, UK and Morocco, and her work is mostly held in private collections.

Her therapy work supports StreetTalk, a London-based charity supporting some of the Capital’s most vulnerable women. Her private therapy practice weaves art therapy, counselling and complementary health techniques together with artistic creation, to promote permanent, positive change in her clients’ lives. In 2020, during Covid Lockdown, Catriona co-founded Art Journeys, to bring people together in creative wellbeing sessions focused particularly on frontline workers.

Catriona is Chair of Trustees at the Tobias School of Art and Therapy, and continues to support art therapy students with their clinical placements, as well as teaching art in group sessions and one-to-one, for personal growth or portfolio building.

She holds qualifications in Art Therapy, The Havening Techniques and the Emmett Technique.

London-based photorealist artist Habib Hajallie is known for his fiercely detailed portrait drawings that aim to lift up those historically undermined by mainstream media. Habib's style of portraiture is directly inspired by his family in Sierra Leone.

Habib has exhibited extensively in the UK and across the Atlantic in the US and was our winner of the Drawing and Printmaking Category in 2019.

Emma Quinn has emerged as a leading light in the world of interior design in recent years. Her instinctive eye for detail has seen her migrate from residential projects to commercial design effortlessly; translating her visual language into new shapes and forms across Europe. Her distinctive aesthetic has been recognised with numerous awards from RIBA , WhatHouse and the Evening Standard New Home Awards. She has recently completed work on The Lamp Room Restaurant and Bar and a series of luxury show homes in Kent both of which have been received to rave reviews.

Trained at the British Academy of Interiors Design in 2016 balancing functionality with the aesthetic

is informed by Emma’s background in contemporary dance and fashion. Her highly successful career which spanned more than two decades saw Emma travelling the world working with esteemed choreographers and creative directors. This gave her a unique insight into the creative world experiencing many different cultures, environments and locations which influence her work now. Movement and the flow of design inspires her daily, along with her two children James and William.

A philanthropist at heart, Emma in conjunction with Quinn Estates has supported the British Ski team. She also provides mentorship and advice to women looking to move into interior design and has recently supported a quarter finalist on the BBC’s hit television series Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr.

Dedicated to her family, particularly her eldest son who is on the autistic spectrum, Emma leads with an eye of visual integrity as well as an understanding of what works for the space, the home, the individual, the family.

An award winning creative director, Peter has over 18 years experience building brands and working in the design industry.

Peter started his career as a creative working in some of the UK’s top Design & Advertising agencies before moving into web in 2005. Here he found a passion for all things digital, creating websites and campaigns for people like Seddon Homes, Humax, Little Chef and leisure and lifestyle brands before setting up his own digital agency. In 2015 Peter joined the fast-moving world of technology as Callsign's Head of Brand & Creative. He’s now the guardian, ambassador and creative director for the Callsign brand, and has built the brand from the ground up, aiming to position Callsign as a distinct competitor in the cybersecurity space.