Caroline Cole

Caroline is Founder and Director of Colander Associates Ltd. A business that helps architects, designers and engineers develop and run effective creative businesses, while also advising developers, building owners and the public sector on finding and then working with design consultants.

Through Colander, she pioneered the concept of benchmarking for the architectural profession and, building on her commitment to integrated design, has set up Equilibrium Network a group of senior and influential inter-disciplinary women working across the built environment.

Before setting up Colander, Caroline was Head of the Clients’ Advisory Service and Competitions Office at the Royal Institute of British Architects, where she established Client Forums across a number of different sectors, to create a unique opportunity for clients to explore and develop an understanding of the real value of great architecture.

Caroline has published numerous articles and papers about the business of design and has spoken at many conferences and seminars to promote good design to clients, and good business to the professions.  She has been a judge of the Design Week Awards, the RIBA Regional Awards, the Manser Medal, the AJ Top 100 Awards and the Inspire Awards that recognise women in the built environment.

She is Chair of the Industry Advisory Panel to the IDBE (Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment) Masters Course at the University of Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; a Trustee of the Ove Arup Foundation; a Trustee of the Horniman Museum; an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA; and Chair of the Steering Group for Building Futures.  She is on the Design Review Panel for HS2, and, as a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects, has recently received the Freedom of the City of London.

In her spare time, she is a ceramicist.