Women to Watch

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 | By Anna Richardson

Congratulations to Sophie Thomas, co-founder of sustainable design consultancy Thomas Matthews, and Siobhán Bales, managing director of Bgroup. They are both ‘Women to Watch’, as chosen by the Cultural Leadership Programme for the first time this year and announced last night. The list features 50 female leaders from across the UK and encompasses the fields of design, music, dance, digital media, theatre, literature, museums and heritage.

Also on the list are Ruth Gill, head of interpretation at the Historic Royal Palaces and Jane Finnis, director of Culture24, the non-profit cultural online publisher.

Thomas Matthews has long been recognized for blazing a trail for sustainability (woman at the helm was by-the-by), but as Thomas says, ‘Like many female-headed practices we are powered by passion and drive to build up benefit for all. It’s therefore great to be recognised for this and I am enormously proud of all our achievements.’

Which women in design would you nominate ‘to watch’ - there must be 50 in design alone?