Sara is head of the Danish Design Centre’s business and focus area and the team Future Welfare. The team explores how design can radically improve public services and solutions across the public and private sector and, while elevating advanced technology, is fully centered around the citizen experience. The goal is to facilitate the creation of ground-breaking new services and products as well as public-private innovation frameworks by tackling challenges through experimentation and harnessing the benefits of the developments in technology and access to new data.

Sara is an experienced keynoter and leads the collaboration with Oxford Saïd Business School and teaches at the executive master programme Consulting and Coaching for Change.

Sara has been working within the field of design, innovation and public sector for more than 12 years, developing products and services for the healthcare sector and public sector, advising policy level, and developing and implementing innovation policies and strategies.

She is a M.Sc Engineering (Design Engineer) from the Technical University of Denmark.

Monica is Head of Cities and responsible for the strategic business area Design Cities at the Danish Design Centre. Monica is dedicated to developing and leading new projects and transformation programmes exploring how design can contribute to a better city for a more sustainable world. This includes topics such as smart cities, urban technologies and innovation, circular cities and communities and sustainable business models, with design methods and mindset as the key asset.

Monica works in the intersection of design, urban innovation and sustainable business development. She drives design and development processes across public and private sector to facilitate co-creation and cross-sectoral partnerships.

Monica has been responsible for a number of transformation programmes, among others the 16-month-long Innovation Challenge Programme, the Circular Construction Challenge – Rethink Waste, initiated by the philanthropic association Realdania to help turn waste into new circular solutions for the built environment. Currently, Monica is leading Danish Design Centre’s contribution to the ambitious 3-year Urbantech accelerator programme, where Danish and global startups develop sustainable urban solutions for liveable cities.

For more than 9 years, Monica has worked in the field of cities and urban development, and she has extensive knowledge in urban design, architecture, and urban research. As a design anthropologist and having worked in the urban research field, Monica is interested in gathering, translating, and embedding knowledge about how design contributes to urban innovation and change processes in companies and public institutions based on qualitative methods and design tools.

Monica is an experienced speaker and panelist and has presented at the Harvard Circular Economy Symposium, Social Innovation Design Forum by the City of Seoul, and Urban Innovation Conference at the Bilbao City Government. She also teaches design methods and thinking for young entrepreneurs in the municipalities of Rudersdal and Egedal.