Cat Drew

Cat Drew is the Chief Design Officer at the Design Council where she champions Design for Planet, bringing together practitioners from across the design economy to develop new regenerative practice and create the conditions for designers to do their best work.

Cat has pioneered approaches to design in policymaking, having combined 10 years of experience of Government with an MA in graphic design to co-found the UK Government’s Policy Lab. She has also held leadership positions in Uscreates and FutureGov, where she led programmes to make public services more user-centred and systemic in how they address local challenges around homelessness. Cat is credited with introducing speculative design to the UK for the first time (on projects on ageing and rail) and leading a large-scale public participation programme to create the world’s first Government Data Ethics Framework. 

Cat is an expert in Systemic Design, and has been awarded The Design Week Hall of Fame Award for her work to develop this practice, with publications such as the Systemic Design Framework and System-Shifting Design. She speaks widely about the value of design and co-presented BBC Radio 4 The Fix. Cat is member of the RSA’s Decolonising Design Commission, on the faculty of States of Change, and advisory boards for the Institute of Coding, the Well Lab at Work and the Design Age Institute. She is a member of The Point People and a co-founder of the Local Government Innovation Network.  

Cat is a complete map and data viz geek, and makes and sells screenprinted maps of Berlin and London.