People
Fossbox CIC is a non-profit social enterprise made up of creatives, technologists, and academics. Our income is from grant funding as well as consultancy services. Profit is re-invested in community projects to which we also donate time. Fossbox’ overall agenda is set by our Steering Group taken from Fossbox’ network of collaborators which is also responsible for oversight of reserved funds.
Paula Gazzard has worked in academia, media and digital industries before founding Fossbox in 2005 to translate collaborative research into real-world impacts with universities, civil society, and creative industries. She is an experienced strategist, researcher and policy analyst with a particular interest in creative industries and wider impact of digital technologies. Paula has a PhD in Culture & Communication from the University of Sussex and has been a partner/co-investigator in numerous research collaborations funded by Research Councils UK/EU. She was Creative Entrepreneur in Residence at QMUL, and Hon Fellow in Diversity & Creative Industries at the University of Westminster. Paula was also Director of Policy & External Relations at the Council for Higher Education in Art & Design, a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Design and Innovation Group, and Director of the Contemporary Visual Arts Network. A keen advocate for diversity in creative and digital industries, and a member of the Creative Industries Federation working group on creative skills and education. Paula also chaired the World Design Council before retiring in 2023.
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Charles Céleste Hutchins was born in San Jose, California in 1976. Growing up in Silicon Valley, he started programming at a young age and has continued to do so, even after leaving dot coms to pursue music composition – obtaining an MA from Wesleyan University in 2005 and a PhD from the University of Birmingham in 2012. His recent work has focused on gendered labour and AI.
Lisa Haskel is a developer, researcher and teacher interested in collaborative practice, open source software and empowerment around technological tools. She holds a PhD in Engineering from Bournemouth University and began her collaboration with Fossbox as part of her PhD research working collaboratively with a consortium of nine East London advice agencies to use participatory design methods to develop an open-source, shared case management database which would ensure the privacy of each agency’s clients and generate anonymised reporting statistics. Lisa currently lectures in computer science at Roehampton University.
Executive Chair: Charles Céleste Hutchins
Steering Group: Maf’j Alvarez, Lisa Haskell, Gemma North, David Richardson, Stephen Maddison
Company Directors: Paula Gazzard
