Announcements From The AGM 2025

The British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) is delighted to welcome the new BIID President for the 2025-2026 term, Liz Bell, who officially took over the role at the BIID Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 18th September, held at The national Liberal Club, London. The BIID also presented its two prestigious Institute awards, the CPD Award and the Merit Award, to recognise the achievements of individual BIID Members who have made a valuable contribution to the institute.

The BIID AGM provides members with the chance to learn about the Institute’s progress over the past twelve months and vote in new directors.

New BIID President

The AGM marked the official hand-over to new BIID President Liz Bell, who takes over from Angela Bardino.

Liz came to the construction industry from a degree in Architecture. After graduating during a recession, she decided to take a year out to travel, which turned into 3 years, 4 continents and lots of odd jobs along the way… but she always wanted to come back to design in some form. Once back in the UK, she applied for a wide variety of design / construction based jobs, landing an assistant role at Absolute Project Management in 2014. They work on residential renovations, guiding clients through the whole process from start to finish, including (but not necessarily limited to) interior design, helping them to engage the necessary specialists / get any necessary permissions and project managing the works on site.  After returning from maternity leave, she bought the business from Founder, Cat Hoad, and took over as Director in summer 2024. She now works with a team of 5 Interior Designers and Project Managers

CPD Award

Commitment to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) helps to ensure that BIID members are keeping up to date with the latest developments in a rapidly changing industry. All BIID Members are required to undertake an annual CPD requirement of 20 hours.

The CPD Award was created to recognise the member who has achieved the most CPD hours in that year. This year the award for the most CPD hours gained between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025 goes to Nicola Burt who accrued an extremely impressive 400 hours of Structured CPD – a hugely impressive feat.

Nicola Burt is founder of Nicola Burt interior design as well as tutor at KLC.

Merit Award

The Merit Award honours a BIID member who has particularly excelled in three key criteria: excellence in interior design practice; a contribution to the development of the Institute and a commitment to the wider field of design education. Chosen by the awards committee, the 2025 award was presented to BIID Registered Interior Designer Chloe Bullock.

Chloe founded her Brighton-based studio, Materialise Interiors, in 2005 and has since been a trailblazer in human-centred, sustainable, and cruelty-free interior design.

She was the very first UK interior designer to be Vegan Design Certified, was a founding member of Interior Design Declares and in recognition of her pioneering work, PETA named her ‘Compassionate Designer’ in its 2023 Vegan Homeware Awards. In 2024 Chloe published her book ‘Sustainable Interior Design’ with RIBA Publishing. A huge achievement it features 40 international case studies to show how sustainable design contributes to health and wellbeing, promotes ecology and embraces the circular economy.

Chloe joined the BIID in 2013 and since then has volunteered in several capacities – she has spoken on panel discussions for us, was a member of the Sustainability Committee for many years and co-authored the BIID Sustainable Specifying Guide.

Council Election Updates

 We are delighted to welcome back the following members who were re-elected to the BIID Council.

Anna Burles is elected for a second term

Debra Kacher is elected for a second term.

We are also delighted to welcome the following who join the BIID council for their first term:

Chloe Bullock joins the BIID Council for a first term.

The AGM was preceded by the Inside Knowledge Peer-To-Peer Learning Conference.