Minnie Moll appointed as Design Council’s new Chief Executive

Design Council Trustees are delighted to announce the appointment of Minnie Moll as the organisation’s new Chief Executive. She will formally take up the position on 1 March 2021.

Minnie is a highly experienced Chief Executive with a strong creative design and commercial background. She will lead Design Council at an exciting time in its history, championing the role of design especially within Government, and working closely with the senior leadership team across key commercial and public sectors.

Having graduated with a creative arts degree, Minnie spent the first chapter of her career working in advertising, design, innovation and strategic consultancy. She was Managing Partner of HHCL, who were named ‘advertising agency of the decade’, before working as Global Marketing Director of ?What If!, a leading innovation company that won the Sunday Times/Great Place to Work Institute ‘Best Place to Work in the UK’ for two years running.

The second chapter of Minnie’s career has largely involved her leading and driving change in retail businesses including Notcutts, the third largest garden centre group in the UK, and the East of England Co-op. As Joint Chief Executive of the Co-op, Minnie led on community engagement and social impact activity, taking forward the organisation’s mission to become the leading dementia friendly retailer, and resulting in Alzheimer’s Society awarding them ‘Large Business of the Year’ 2016.

Most recently Minnie was Chief Executive of Jarrold Retail in Norwich, an outstanding experiential retailer with an award-winning department store. She was voted Vistage Business Leader of the Year in 2020 and was listed as one of the 100 Most Inspirational Women in Suffolk and Norfolk in 2018. 

Minnie is a passionate believer that businesses should do well and do good. Notably, she was appointed by HRH Prince Charles in 2016 as his Ambassador for Responsible Business in the East of England as part of Business in the Community. In addition, she has sat on the boards of two Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), as well as a Town Deals Board, developing a strong sense of placemaking.

Terry Tyrell, Chair of Design Council’s Board of Trustees, said: “We are extremely pleased to welcome Minnie to the Design Council team. She brings with her a wealth of experience, and an excellent track record of purpose driven leadership and building strong organisational cultures.

“Minnie’s extensive commercial and social insights will be invaluable to Design Council as we seek to build on our successes and continue to deliver our strategic aims of improving health and wellbeing, enabling sustainable living and increasing design skills across the UK.

This is a really exciting time for Design Council, and we very much look forward to Minnie joining us in March this year.

Speaking of her new appointment, Minnie said: “I’m so delighted to be joining Design Council. ‘Making life better by design’ is such an inspiring purpose and it couldn’t be more relevant than now, as we rebuild from the impact of coronavirus. 

"Many people are talking about ‘building back better’ but we will only do that if we put great design thinking at the heart of what we do. Facing the pandemic has been challenging but also a time of incredible entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration and agility. If we can harness that positive energy it will multiply what we can achieve. 

"Joining Design Council feels like coming full circle to where my career and passion started in creative problem solving. But now I also bring a breadth of business and leadership experience: hopefully a good combination to help drive Design Council forward. 

"I’m really looking forward to working with, and learning from, such a diverse and dynamic team and our many partners and stakeholders. I will be asking a lot of questions and doing a lot of listening to make sure I can be the best possible champion for the value that great design adds to the UK economy and all our lives, in so many ways.”

Minnie is succeeding Sarah Weir OBE, who stepped down as Design Council’s CEO in October 2020 due to ill health.

Category: Business and Economy