GQC

Menu

Committees & Jury

The people
behind the rubric.

GQC is governed by two councils. The academic council, chaired in each region by a host-university faculty member, sets the brief and the rubric. The industry council, drawn from venture, civic and senior practice, funds the prizes and supplies most of the jury pool. Membership is published in full.

Academic council

Faculty chairs.

Chair · Council
Prof. Mei-Lin Chau
Vice-Dean, HKUST Business School

Chairs the academic council and the Asia regional jury. Co-founded GQC in 2019.

Asia chapter
Dr Sophia Lam
HKUST Centre for Entrepreneurship

Programme leader, Hong Kong edition. Designs the methods clinic curriculum.

Europe chapter
Dr Aaron Walsh
Imperial College Enterprise Lab

Programme leader, London edition. Engineering lead for Digital & AI.

Americas chapter
Prof. Camille Okafor
NYU Stern Berkley Center

Faculty director, New York edition. Chairs the Global Final senior jury.

Ethics & review
Prof. Idris Khalili
Oxford Internet Institute

Reviews entries touching health, fairness and safety-critical systems.

Research methods
Dr Yuna Ito
Tokyo University · visiting at NYU

Designs the qualitative-methods workshops shared across all three editions.

Industry council

Practitioners on the jury.

Co-chair · Venture
Hana Pirtle
Founding partner, Outpost Capital

Convenes the Invitational Track. Funds the Founder’s Prize.

Co-chair · Civic
Priya Sundaresan
Director of partnerships, British Council

Chairs the Impact Prize jury. Convenes cross-edition bursaries.

Brand & Comms lead
Ben Adeyemi
ECD, Studio Northbank

Leads the Brand & Communication track jury.

Brand & Comms · NY
Carla Vélez
Former planner, Wieden+Kennedy NY

Co-leads the Brand & Communication track in the Americas.

Digital & AI · UK
Lucas Bremmer
CTO-in-residence, Imperial Enterprise Lab

Reads engineering write-ups for the London track.

Digital & AI · US
Asha Subramanian
Director of engineering, Newlab

Convenes the New York Digital & AI jury and prototype reviews.

Public-interest tech
James Okoro
CEO, Civic Signals

Reviews entries focused on public-sector services and civic infrastructure.

Research Prize jury
Dr Tom Veere
Atlas Bench Foundation

Chairs the Research Prize jury. Underwrites the prize on behalf of Atlas Bench.

Permanent team

The people who run it day to day.

Executive Director
Daniel Yip
GQC Foundation · Hong Kong

Leads the foundation. Reports to the academic council.

Director of Programme
Eleanor Marsh
GQC Foundation · London

Designs and runs the eleven-week Learning Experience.

Head of Editions
Marcus Reyes
GQC Foundation · New York

Runs the three regional showcases and the Global Final.

Head of Partnerships
Mira Holmberg
GQC Foundation · London

First point of contact for sponsorship and partner enquiries.

Head of Alumni
Naomi Brand-Cohen
GQC Foundation · New York

Runs the alumni council and the post-programme mentorship year.

Operations
Ricky Wong
GQC Foundation · Hong Kong

Manages applications, travel bursaries and the Sign-In platform.

“A jury that doesn’t write down why it picked the winner is just a vote.From the GQC Jury Handbook

Competition Notes

A short monthly briefing on open calls, dates, prize winners and ideas from the GQC alumni archive.

Global Quest Competition

Awards 2026

#GQC2026

© Global Quest Competition. All rights reserved.

Hong Kong · London · New York

inquiry@gqc.org

Privacy Policy