Ben Terrett RDI

Ben Terrett is the CEO of Public Digital a global digital consultancy with offices in London, Abuja and Toronto.

He holds several non-executive roles, including Non-Executive Director at Lexington Communications and member of the HS2 Design Panel. Previously, he served as Deputy Chair of University of the Arts London and Deputy President of D&AD.

Most well known for the design of GOV.UK he was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 2018, the first elected for Service Design. His industry accolades include an Honorary Doctorate in design from Central Saint Martins, being inducted into the Design Week Hall of Fame, winning the Design Museum's Design of the Year and a D&AD Black Pencil.

Photograph: Paul Clarke

Ben co-founded Newspaper Club, a VC-backed business that he exited following a 2015 sale. An angel investor in multiple start-ups, he has also held senior executive roles including Group Design Director at the Co-op, where he led the rebrand and digital design teams, and Director of Design at the Government Digital Service, where he led the team behind the design of GOV.UK. Before that, he was Design Director at Wieden + Kennedy.

Public Digital, which Ben co-founded, is a member of the Kyu Collective. In 2025 the company was awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade.

Ben was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2024. Photograph: In-Press Photography Ltd

He has lectured at Imperial College Business School, Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL, Royal College of Art, Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and UAL.

Ben's blog Noisy Decent Graphics, photos on Flickr, Linkedin, and the GDS Design Principles.

Edited highlights of Ben's keynote at the RSA 'From Persuasion to Usability - Design Meets the Internet' are below. The full version with a transcript is here.

© Ben Terrett 2025