The Jury

Rise Vestergaard is a Danish design leader and strategist, and her voice is recognized in conversations around the transformative power of digital design, product-led growth, and the role of design in digital businesses. With a background as a partner in a tech startup, digital product designer, and strategic advisor, she bridges design operations and business strategy to create an impact that focuses on how digital design can drive sustainable growth, experiences, and efficiencies. Rise is known for championing user-centric, human-first design approaches and has led digital organizations in the transformation to rethink their customer experience, digital products, and services through design thinking. Rise, therefore, also holds design leadership roles when and where integrating a multidisciplinary, responsible, and innovative work culture is key to driving meaningful and future-ready digital design outcomes.

Silas Oda Adler is a Copenhagen-based creative director and strategist working across fashion, design, and lifestyle. He is the founder and former creative director of the acclaimed menswear label Soulland (2002–2023), where he spent over two decades shaping a distinct Scandinavian design voice with global reach. Today, Silas is the co-founder and creative director of Other Circle and co-founder and board member of the cult fragrance brand 19-69. Alongside his entrepreneurial ventures, he advises international brands on creative direction and strategy — always with a sharp eye for storytelling, cultural relevance, and long-term identity building. His work bridges creative disciplines and moves fluidly between concept and execution, from product to platform.

Jenny Grettve is Head of Transformation at the European Institute of Innovation & Technology – Culture & Creativity. She is a dynamic global systems thinker and strategist whose work bridges disciplines to address the most pressing challenges of our time. With a deep understanding of architecture, design, and social systems, Jenny approaches problems through an integrated, holistic lens, seeking solutions that transcend traditional boundaries. Her work is fueled by the conviction that the world’s most intractable issues – from climate change to economic inequality – require bold, interconnected approaches that challenge existing structures. She believes that sustainable, transformative change must come from embracing experimentation and even failure, recognizing that disruption and risk are essential parts of innovation. With a Master in Architecture from Lund Technological University, Sweden, and Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, Jenny also holds degrees in design theory and human development. She co-founded the publishing house Plastic Letters Press and runs the zine Horizon Manifestos – a publication that collects brief thoughts on economic futures from around the world. Aside from her strategic work she’s an active lecturer and author.

Paula Gerbase is Creative Director at Georg Jensen. Born in Brazil and raised in Switzerland, Gerbase studied fashion at Central Saint Martins in London. Following training in tailoring on Savile Row, she launched her own label, 1205, which focused on unisex tailoring and earned her a British Fashion Award nomination. Gerbase spent over a decade between London and Paris consulting for a handful of luxury brands, including six years as the artistic director at John Lobb, the Hermès-owned British bootmaker. She led the brand’s creative and visual direction before departing to focus on her personal project, Gerbase. With 15 years of experience at global luxury brands, Gerbase brings a keen eye for design and a deep respect for craftsmanship. In her role at Danish luxury house Georg Jensen, Gerbase is responsible for articulating the brand’s creative vision and setting the creative direction for a consistent brand expression across all consumer-facing touchpoints. She takes the lead in shaping its visual identity, overseeing design across all product categories, relevant collaborations, and both digital and physical experiences.

Jacob Wildschiødtz co-founded the Creative Studio NR2154 in Copenhagen, opened the New York studio in 2008, and expanded to Paris in 2020. He has a passion for visual storytelling and extensive international experience in branding, editorial, and creative direction. He leads and inspires multidisciplinary teams to create beautiful, impactful brands connecting with culture. Jacob is driven by a global and hyper-connected way of working and is dedicated to building a new model of studio and network of collaborators, while pushing creative boundaries with clients and creative partners.

Stine Gam is a Danish architect with a master’s in furniture design. Enrico Fratesi is an Italian architect who graduated with a master’s in industrial design. Gam and Fratesi gained experience as architects in architecture studios in Japan and Scandinavia before establishing their own design studio, which is based in Copenhagen. GamFratesi’s design takes its creative drive from a fusion of tradition and renewal and an experimental approach to its chosen materials and techniques. With their dual traditional background, Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi draw on the classic Danish furniture and craft tradition and the classic Italian intellectual and conceptual approach. Understanding a tradition and addressing it actively in the workshop makes it possible to expand on it. From this cross-cultural substrate, they create furniture that respectfully reflects tradition while also featuring unique embedded stories, symbols, and associations, often expressed in a minimalist idiom. GamFratesi collaborates with numerous international companies, including Bang & Olufsen, Acqua di Parma, Cappellini, Dedon, De Padova, Gubi, Fritz Hansen, Hermès, Hay, Minotti, Molteni, Louis Poulsen, Lyfa, Porro, Poltrona Frau, Gebruder Thonet Vienna, Kvadrat, etc.

Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.

Educated architect growing up in the design industry, Mari Randsborg has led creative companies with bold new thinking at the core. Mari has been partner in Brand & Design Agency e-Types – a pioneering design company in the cross roads of strategy, communication and visuals. Mari todays heads Cobe Architects – a Copenhagen based bureau known for transforming cities through combining urbanism, landscape and architecture.

Linda Nhu Laursen is Head of Research and Associate Professor at Aalborg University’s Design Lab, Denmark. Additionally, she is author on several books, director of the Danish Center for Design Research, chairing the Product Lifetime and the Environment Conference 2025, and the 2024 winner of the Kamma Prize a female leadership award.  Her past includes experiences as both an entrepreneur and in a multinational corporation. As research leader at the AAU Design Lab, she has created a particular emphasis on design at every step in the value chain, enabling circular design and consumption, the design of long-lasting products, and the reuse, repurpose, repair, and reduction of waste materials. Her aim is to contribute to how Danish design may again lead and take a societal and planetary responsibility.  Linda is an active public voice pushing to renew the design industry, both through talks and press, but indeed through research experiments with companies. She is the principal investigator of several research projects that drive design experiments in industry and society. Research projects focused on responsible design, repair, and zero waste, supported by DFF, IF, and SN foundations.

Kaave Pour is the founder of 21st Europe, a think tank working with Europe’s brightest minds to design blueprints that spark conversations and inspire optimism for the continent’s next chapter.Kaave was formerly the co-founder, CEO, and Creative Director of SPACE10, the acclaimed R&D lab that gained global recognition across four continents under his decade-long leadership.Also behind Sun—Sun, a new design and technology venture focused on healthy and sustainable living, Kaave’s expertise spans design, culture, and technology, with collaborations that include IKEA, Apple, MIT, and UN Habitat. He openly shares insights that encourage a playful yet thoughtful approach to progress and creativity among emerging designers, brands, and institutions.