Nick Leon appointed Director of Design London

Nick Leon joined Design London as Director on 1 October 2007, bringing with him a wealth of experience in design, engineering and business - the three elements that will be combined in this joint venture between the RCA and Imperial College London.

Nick Leon has an engineering degree from Imperial College and a Masters in Industrial Design from the Royal College of Art.

He began his career as an industrial designer at IBM, moving from designing products then services, through to developing entire new businesses in his role as Business Development Director for IBM's Global Services division in Europe.

More recently he joined Imperial College Business School at Imperial College where his research addresses the impact of information and communication technologies on the social and economic vitality of cities.

His recent projects include advising the Barcelona City Government on creating an international district for innovation; advising CLM, the London 2012 delivery partner; as well as projects for the Shoreditch Trust, Laing O'Rourke, and research for the Cloud Networks who built and operate the WiFi networks for Canary Wharf and the City of London.

Design London has been established with £5.8 million of backing from HEFCE, NESTA and the two main institutional partners. It is the first realisation of recommendations made in the Cox Report on Creativity in Business, calling for greater integration between the disciplines to improve innovation performance.

Royal College of Art Rector Professor Sir Christopher Frayling says: "With Nick Leon, we have put an important piece of the jigsaw in place to achieve Design London's objectives. Nick's background, experience and record of achievement in all three domains - design, engineering and technology, and business - make him an ideal leader for a venture uniting the three."

Nick Leon explains: "Successful innovation demands a systemic not a component approach to designing new products and services. Edison didn't just patent a light bulb - he delivered an entire new system that changed our world. He was an engineer, a master systems thinker, conceptualiser and entrepreneur.

"Design London may not find the next Edison, but we can stir together those same domains of expertise in multidisciplinary teams. Our aim is disseminate new practice in innovation by creating new teaching programmes, conducting top-level research, incubating new business ideas and pioneering the next generation of innovation technology."

Design London has also appointed Professor Bruce Tether as Director of Research. Bruce Tether joins from Manchester Business School where he was Professor of Innovation Management and Strategy.

Imperial College Rector Sir Richard Sykes says: "Bruce is an expert in systems of innovation and his expertise will enable Design London to research the new business models that are needed. Together, these two important appointments - Nick Leon and Bruce Tether - demonstrate our commitment to making Design London an international centre of excellence."