Ben Terrett

Ben Terrett CBE RDI is the CEO of Public Digital a global consultancy with offices in London, Abuja and Toronto. He works with governments, UN agencies, global development funders and FTSE 100 companies to design and deliver digital transformation.

He received a CBE for services to design in the 2025 King's Birthday Honours List.

He holds several non-executive roles including Lexington Communications and as a 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 (RDI) 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 by Paul Clarke.

In 2020 Public Digital, which he co-founded, became a member of the Kyu Collective. In 2025 the firm was awarded a King's Award for Enterprise for International Trade.

An angel investor in multiple start-ups, he co-founded Newspaper Club, a VC-backed business that he exited following a 2015 sale. 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.

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

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, his Linkedin profile, his photos on Flickr, and the GDS Design Principles which he co-wrote.

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