Dr Debbie Coney
Winchester School of Art, Southampton
The Optimised Body: Embodied Luxury and the Pursuit of Peak Performance

Dr Debbie Coney is an award-winning academic, researcher and internationally recognised luxury brand strategist whose work is helping to redefine how luxury is understood in the twenty-first century. As Director for the MA Luxury Brand Management at the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art, she leads one of the UK’s established postgraduate luxury programmes and has developed an internationally recognised research portfolio spanning luxury branding, consumer behaviour, embodied experience and the future of luxury. Debbie has spent more than 25 years in senior international leadership roles and consulting with luxury brands including Aston Martin, Bacardi, Bentley, De Beers, Jo Malone London, and L’Oréal, bringing a distinctive scholar-practitioner perspective to her research. She is the author of a forthcoming Routledge monograph, a contributor to The Oxford Handbook of Luxury, founder of Coney Luxury, and host of The Thing About Luxury podcast.

Dr Oonagh O’Hagan
Central Saint Martins / UAL
Incentive Aesthetics and Fashion Methadone: Luxury Without the Toxicity

Oonagh O’Hagan is a designer, researcher, Knowledge Exchange Leader and Senior Lecturer. Her recently completed PhD introduced Incentive Aesthetics, a framework exploring how the mechanisms traditionally used to create luxury and desire can be redirected towards more sustainable and socially beneficial forms of behaviour. Following an MA in Fashion Textiles at Central Saint Martins, she worked with Chanel, Burberry and Louis Vuitton. Her wider practice spans writing, broadcasting, photography and art direction; she is the author of two books, has appeared on national television and radio, and her work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. At University of the Arts London, she leads knowledge exchange projects linking universities, industry and communities. She also founded Y Plan, a men’s supplement company that applies theories of aspiration, identitн and behavioural design to positive health behaviours.

Mamta Reid
Glion Institute of Higher Education
The Limits of Prestige: Symbolic Capital, Belonging, and Bicultural Generation Z Workers in Tokyo’s Luxury Restaurants

Mamta Reid is the Founder of Tudore Tranquility, an award-winning plant-based fine dining restaurant in Japan. She graduated with distinction from the Executive Master of Luxury Management and Guest Experience at Glion Institute of Higher Education, where her research with Dr Estelle Dinh examined how symbolic capital and prestige shape employee wellbeing and retention among bicultural Generation Z workers in Tokyo’s luxury restaurant sector. She is currently developing a doctoral research proposal for a five-country comparative study to identify the conditions required for psychologically sustainable work in luxury hospitality.

Dr Estelle Dinh
Glion Institute of Higher Education
The Limits of Prestige: Symbolic Capital, Belonging, and Bicultural Generation Z Workers in Tokyo’s Luxury Restaurants

Dr. Estelle Dinh is an Adjunct Professor and Faculty Member of Luxury Management at Glion Institute of Higher Education and the International University of Monaco. Her expertise includes perceived luxuriousness, luxury management, guest experience, Gen Z, brand strategy, service excellence and sustainable tourism. She also advises governments on luxury strategy, gues experience, and destination branding.

Dr Charles A. Lawry
Emlyon business school
Luxury and Art Publics: Artification or Hype?

Dr. Charles A. Lawry is a marketing professor at Emlyon Business School, where he teaches in the MSc program in Luxury Marketing. He holds a Ph.D. in Consumer Science (University of Arizona) and an M.A. in Ethnomusicology (Columbia University). Before entering academia, he worked as a digital strategist in New York City, helping heritage fashion brands adapt to the digital age. His combination of diverse academic and industry experiences informs his interdisciplinary approach to the study of luxury.

Dr. Lawry’s research explores the challenges of social and digital transformation within the global luxury market, with particular interests in emerging technologies, artification, and sustainability. He examines how these trends influence ideas of craftsmanship, pleasure, and the good life in the twenty-first century. His research has been published in the International Journal of Advertising, Psychology & Marketing, Dress: Journal of the Costume Society of America, and the Journal of Fashion Marketing & Management.