Melissa Sterry is a globally recognised scientist, designer, strategist, and futurist specialising in sustainable innovation, biodesign, and resilience. Founder of several internationally acclaimed first-to-market start-ups and other seminal initiatives, she pioneers unprecedented nature-inspired design solutions to highly complex environmental challenges. With 25+ years board-level experience and qualifications including a PhD in designing ecomimetic architectural, urban, and peri-urban resilience to major wildfires, and a postgraduate in innovation and enterprise, she advises market-leading companies and agencies on cutting-edge sustainability, innovation, and development strategies. Chartered with the Science Council, a member of the Design Council’s expert network, and fellow of the Design Research Society and the Institute of Science and Technology, her expertise in design science, complexity, biotechnology, biomimetics, and ecological systems thinking positions her as an international thought leader in natural hazard resilience, climate adaptation, and ecological design.

Seasoned in several inter-related fields and sectors, with copious creative and technical credentials to her name, including more than a dozen national and international creativity, innovation, and enterprise awards, publication in over 60 international consumer, trade, and academic titles, coverage in a further 450+ more including several national television, radio, and press networks, and over 100 invited keynotes across 40 cities and four continents, Melissa works with a network comprised some of the foremost influential innovators shaping science, technology, and design today. A measure of her impact, she was voted one of the Top 20 speakers influencing the future of sustainabiltiy at executive board-level globally in a poll of 750 companies in both 2024 and 2025.

A folio professional, her current interests span the frontiers of research, education, publishing, and media, including launching the world’s first design school dedicated to building resilience to wildfires, and expanding upon her already extensive research in the field. She is also showrunner of an exciting new multimedia series launching in 2026, and founding director of the world’s first boutique biofutures consultancy. Known for pushing boundaries not paper, walking her often candid talk, and anticipating several of the foremost significant market risks and opportunities this century, Melissa provides bespoke advisory services to select clients globally inc. strategic briefings, convening roundtables, authoring whitepapers, program design, concept ideation, masterclasses, and startup mentoring, delivered online, in-person, and in hybrids of both. Her career at the coalface of innovation, enterprise, and communications across both b2b and b2c markets gives Melissa a unique 360° perspective on projects and their potential in the near and far future.