Archives: Speakers

Alex Christou is the Founder of Eight Lands, an award-winning, organic spirits brand distilled and bottled at the family-owned Glenrinnes Distillery in Speyside. Inspired by the local distilling heritage and the fresh water springs situated on the family’s estate, the distillery has began operating in 2019 with Eight Lands launching in June of that year. The organic vodka and gin has won a number of prestigious awards since launch, including most recently Gold medals for both products in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Prior to founding Eight Lands, Alex worked in corporate communications, including senior roles in listed and private equity-owned companies.

Samantha Louis is Chief Executive Officer of Praxity Global Alliance, joining in June 2021 from the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants where she was Vice President in charge of International Advocacy. She’s an experienced leader and prior to her moving to London she was Regional Vice President for Africa at the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) where she directed the growth of the member and student population in Africa from 2,000 to over 25,000 and led the expansion of CIMA into Southern and Western Africa.

Samantha has served  on various local and international boards and senior leadership groups, including the Professional Accountancy Organisation Development Committee of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and has extensive experience in several non-executive directorships.  She currently serves on the Council and Finance Committee of Roedean School, UK.

Samantha is a Fellow of CIMA and a Chartered Global Management Accountant.  She holds a Batchelors degree from the University of the Witwatersrand and holds post-graduate courses in public relations and management, as well as a Master’s degree in business administration, with distinction, from the Gordon Institute of Business Science at the University of Pretoria.

Francine Houben (the Netherlands, 1955) is Founding Partner and Creative Director of Mecanoo architecten. Her work ranges from theatres, museums and libraries to neighbourhoods, housing and parks. Each design is founded on observation of people, location, culture and climate. This analysis amounts to designs that respond to current needs, yet are also prepared for (un)predictable change.

With her practice, she has gained international acclaim. She holds Honorary Fellowships of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) was granted lifelong membership to the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. In 2015, Queen Máxima of the Netherlands presented her the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Prize for her entire oeuvre.

Francine Houben was professor of mobility aesthetics at Delft University of Technology and also taught at the universities of Harvard and Yale. As curator of the First International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam, she brought the theme of the aesthetics of mobility to the forefront of international design consciousness. She holds Honorary Doctorates from Utrecht University and Université de Mons.

Selected works include Delft University of Technology Library, Delft (1997), La Llotja Theatre and Congress Centre, Lleida, Spain (2008), Library of Birmingham, United Kingdom (2013), Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building, Boston, United States (2015) and National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, Taiwan (opened in 2018). Currently, she is finalizing the renovation of the New York Public Library and the central library of Washington, DC – designed by Mies van der Rohe which both re-opened in 2020.