Prof Shaun Borstrock PhD FRSA
Conference Curator · Founder, IPOL

Shaun Borstrock spends his career asking an uncomfortable question, do luxury brands actually deliver what they promise? Are they luxury?, or do they just ‘perform’ well? As Professor of Luxury and Consumer Culture and Head of Knowledge Exchange and Research at Ravensbourne University London and founder of In Pursuit of Luxury, he draws a hard line between luxury brands as fashion and luxury as an idea rooted in sustainability, craftsmanship and lasting value. His framework, LuxWashing, interrogates the gap between brand claims and material reality, tracing supply chains back to their true environmental and human cost rather than their story. He pushes brands past decorative sustainability claims toward genuinely regenerative practice. He advises luxury brands directly, co developed the world’s first fully customisable 3D printed textile, and has spent over twenty years moving between academia, consultancy and industry without losing his edge in any of them. 

Dr Dusica Lehmann
Day 1 — The Transparency Paradox

Dr Dusica Lehmann is a Swiss-based luxury strategist and researcher whose work explores one of the most compelling questions facing luxury today: how can brands preserve desirability and exclusivity while embracing a future built on transparency and verifiable accountability?
Originally trained as an economist, she brings more than two decades of professional experience spanning consulting, international development, and economic projects. She entered the luxury sector through the luxury watch segment. What began with the Swiss watch industry became a broader exploration of how value is created, protected, and
communicated throughout the luxury value chain.
Today, she speaks and moderates internationally, bringing together executives, entrepreneurs, researchers, and creatives to explore the ideas shaping the future of luxury through informed dialogue and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Julian Vogel
Day 1 — Time to Change panel discussion · CEO, ModusBPCM

Julian Vogel is a communications strategist and brand storyteller with over four decades at the forefront of the luxury industry. As CEO of ModusBPCM, a global creative brand communications agency with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles, he has helped shape how some of the world’s most influential brands engage with culture across fashion, beauty, wellness, design, architecture, arts, hotels, wines and spirits. A trustee of the Design Museum and advisory board member of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Julian sits at the unique intersection of commerce and culture, with an instinctive understanding of how great stories get told — and who needs to hear them. For Julian, public relations has always been about two things: storytelling in all its forms, and the building of communities. Whether that’s buyers, collaborators, press or end consumers, he believes that the bridge between a brand and its audience is built on clarity of purpose, a strong point of view, and the courage to stay true to it. 

Dr Fabio Duma
Day 2 — Resonance and the Future of the Human in Luxury

Dr. Fabio Duma holds a doctorate from the University of St. Gallen and has spent over two decades at the intersection of luxury, leadership, and human development. Through his firm Bello & Benfatto KlG consults for luxury and lifestyle brands, serves as Visiting Professor at EHL Lausanne and other renowned academic institutions, and is a sought-after keynote speaker on the future of luxury, resonance, and conscious leadership. His academic work on personal interaction in the luxury context – and his ongoing research into what discerning individuals truly seek beyond the material – forms the foundation of a practice that is as much philosophical as it is strategic. Through his coaching practice at fabioduma.ch, he works as a reflection partner to executives, entrepreneurs, and high-achieving individuals who want to lead and live with greater depth, clarity, and presence.

Dr Kelly Meng — Conference Curator, Editor Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal

Dr Kelly Meng is a Associate Professor in Luxury and Cultural Studies and Head of Subject for Business Management and Marketing at Goldsmiths, University of London. She has led the MA Luxury Brand Management programme since 2017. Her research spans luxury brand management, international business, and cultural industries, focusing on the future of luxury through craft, heritage, sustainability, and human-centred innovation. She also investigates luxury across the Global South, seeking to bring greater visibility to overlooked markets, cultural traditions, and knowledge systems, and to develop more culturally nuanced perspectives on the global luxury landscape. Her current research examines how traditional craftsmanship can be sustained and repositioned within contemporary luxury markets. Before joining academia, Kelly held senior managerial positions within the international luxury and retail sectors. She serves on the Community Advisory Group of the Goldsmiths’ Centre, supporting initiatives that promote craft skills, education, inclusion, and emerging entrepreneurs.