From designers to engineers, events organisers and strategists.  We’re building a global team

Founders and Directors

Director of Design and Innovation

Sarah is a Google Fellow and the co-founder of award winning design agency Snook in Glasgow.  Sarah has led over 100 projects in the design and innovation field. Her skills and expertise cover product design, service design and business model innovation.

Director of communications

Johanna has spent the past 10 years working on development projects in Scotland, America, Jamaica, Mexico, and the country Georgia leading in various capacities from project design and fundraising to volunteer management and communications. 

Director of Global and Networks

Matt is a user-centred designer with a passion for using design as a tool for social change.  His skills and expertise lie in the areas of product and service design. He is interested in how design thinking can be used to give form to the experiences, interactions and systems around us, making them more accessible, intuitive and meaningful. 

Her skills and expertise cover product design, service design and business model innovation. Sarah has a particular interest in how the start up model of lean thinking can be applied to the development of an organisation’s capacity to innovate in-house and loves getting ideas out into the real world as urban prototypes.  Sarah has experience of working on new services and digital agendas for Smart Cities and is looking forward to the future of how open data will change our experience in cities. Her clients over the past 5 years have included: Edinburgh, Stirling and Glasgow Council, Scottish Government, Edinburgh University, Nominet Trust, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Design Council, Young Scot, STV.

She has pioneered a number of new initiatives such as the first Race for the Cure in Tbilisi, TEDx University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh University’s Gather Festival, the award-winning international education project EUSA Global, and Trade School Edinburgh. She values opportunities to bring different individuals and communities around a table in meaningful ways. She is passionate about the bike as a tool for empowerment, especially for women, and started Bikeable Jo to capture the stories of cyclists in Scotland and beyond.
He has worked as a designer on various projects and with a range of multi-disciplinary teams in as far away places as Beirut, where he took part in the first ever Beirut Design Week. As a user-centred designer he is experienced in conducting in-depth user research and engaging with people to gain insight into project areas. Prototyping and testing plays a big part in his design process and he is excited to see the ways in which digital fabrication is empowering citizens to make their mark in the world that surrounds them.

CYCLEHACK ASSOCIATES

We work with a wider network of CycleHack associates and teams around the globe.

 

CycleHack Associates are a global network of individuals with keys skills and expertise relevant to our overall aims. Recruited through CycleHack Events, they offer support and can be contracted to contribute to innovation projects, provide local knowledge & feedback and support the implementation of new ideas with their local networks.
Richard Clifford

Maklab is a design and prototyping studio in Glasgow that gives public access to the latest digital prototyping tools, along with expertise and training.  Run by Richard Clifford, Studio Director of MAKLab, he is growing a network of locations throughout Scotland and the UK, and is working internationally on socially driven projects taking technology into the hands of a wide demographic. MAKLab gives people access to a vibrant network of professionals and opens the door to technology, design, engineering, coding and other making skills. Maklab’s network spreads globally through the FabLab network and is a core partner of CycleHack.

ALEC FARMER

Alec Farmer is a designer, maker and entrepreneur. Based in Glasgow, he is the founder of Trakke, a luxury outdoor lifestyle brand. Trakke has grown organically from a basic concept, with bags made in the living room of a student flat, from freely available recycled materials, into a premium outdoor lifestyle brand. In 2013, he was awarded a Smarta 100 award for British made goods. In addition, he has a background in graphic design, public speaking, micro-architecture, sustainability and is skilled at taking products from concept to market.

RORY GIANNI

After graduating from University of Strathclyde’s MSc. in Environmental Entrepreneurship, Rory became a self-employed software developer.

He often works with start-up companies helping them take concept to market.

In early 2013, Rory founded ‘Cleanweb Scotland’, one of a growing number of global communities interested in applying internet technologies to sustainability problems. Cleanweb communities regularly meets for talk nights and networking events.

ELLEN MCDERMOTT

Ellen has 4 years solid CAD experience using Solidworks which she uses to model mechanical shapes, 2D layouts and detailing on products. Usability is an important part of any project for Ellen and she places a particular emphasis on co-designing with stakeholders throughout her design process. Ellen takes a key role in supporting the understanding of user needs by running surveys, questionnaires and ethnographic methods to profile end users.

Ellen is a serious road cyclist, (Lycra clad and proud), competing in road races around Scotland.

James vale

When James was three he had a Raleigh Husky with stabilisers, from which he progressed through BMX, racer, various mountain bikes, a fixed gear city bike, and a cyclo-cross commuter. There was a 10-year cycling hiatus when he became an Edinburgh-base skateboarder, studying computing and electronics, followed by 5 years working as a software engineer in the electronic payment industry. Gaining a degree in Product Design Engineering from the Glasgow School of Art, James has gone on to work in a Scottish tech consultancy designing a range of consumer, medical and imaging products from concept to manufacture.