Libby Sander undertook her candidature milestone confirmation on Monday 22 April. A Higher Degree Research (HDR) student affiliated with the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing, Libby is also the founder of the Future of Work, a project seeking to draw the art, science, commerce and culture of business together. Libby presented in this capacity at the 2013 Intelligent Cities Summit on the Gold Coast recently (6–7 May), discussing how emerging workplaces and creative community building is making our cities more interesting, innovative and diverse.
Libby and the Centre are additionally excited by her securing of $105 000 AUD in funding over three years from the Bene Group to expand the scope of her HDR research, which looks at the role of place in increasing creative self-efficacy and performance at work. Bene are a European office furniture manufacturer, founded in Austria in 1796, and whom began their Asia-Pacific operations in Sydney in 2011. Libby’s research seeks to globally advance Bene’s Smart Working Spaces agenda (furniture that promotes open structures and spatial flexibility), and support some of Bene’s long term clients including Apple, Google, BMW, the BBC, Coca-Cola, Sony, Shell, Microsoft, General Electric and Boeing, who are particularly interested in how one’s physical workspace can foster collaboration and again, creativity.
Libby’s supervisors are WOW members, Professor Marie Wilson and Dr Sally Russell.