Roland Harwood

What I am working on at the moment?

I currently primarily divide my time between two main things. Firstly I'm the European Managing Director at IOVIA, a very interesting software and services company, based in Canada that works with the likes of LEGO, IKEA and Unilever to build people-powered brand communities. In addition I am founder of a collective intelligence community called Liminal which works with the likes of the UN, Nesta, Wellcome, Innovate UK and Global City Futures to tackle complex and collaborative challenges. Lastly I am also a visiting lecturer at 3 universities and a proud trustee of the Participatory Cities Foundation and the Holis Interdisciplinary Summer School.

Why I wanted to join the Participatory City Foundation Board?

I wanted to join the Participatory City Foundation Board because I’m very inspired by the momentum and energy of the work that has already been done in Barking and Dagenham and I’m convinced that this type of approach is very valuable in many other places as well. In recent years a lot of my work has been around innovating in an around cities, from helping to design and launch the City of Tomorrow programme with Ford in 5 cities to date, to working with the UK government on their Future Cities Missions to China, Australia, India and Singapore. Cities are where creativity and innovation happens at both a local and global level. What is particularly powerful about the Participatory Cities approach is the combination of top down leadership with grass roots action, rooted in very strong set of principles and a commitment to sharing learning along the way. For all of these reasons I think I can learn a great deal through my role as Trustee, and hopefully can apply my own experience and networks to support and scale the work of Foundation in and around the UK and beyond.

A little bit about my background

Roland Harwood is a compulsive connector of people and ideas. He leads IOVIA’s European operations, to help build people-powered sustainable brands with the likes of LEGO, IKEA and Unilever. Roland is also the founder of Liminal, a new network for people, organisations and communities on the edge of many potential futures. Prior to that he was Co-Founder and Managing Director at 100%Open, the multi award-winning open innovation agency that worked in 25+ countries around the world to co-innovate with their partners. Graduating with a PhD in Physics, he has held senior innovation roles in the public and private sector and in addition has worked with hundreds of start-ups to raise investment and commercialise technology. He is chair and trustee for several not-for-profit organisations, a regular visiting lecturer at Universities around the world, and a mentor as part of many start-up accelerator programmes including TechStars. He is also host of the On The Edge podcast, as well as a failed astronaut, a composer of TV and film music for Sony, and a proud and exhausted dad of three children.