Ferruccio Barazzutti is an Italian-born, Brussels-based policy and humanitarian professional whose career spans EU institutions, international organisations, and civil society. He has worked with the European Commission’s DG INTPA and the ICRC in Geneva, developing expertise in programme management, monitoring and evaluation, and digital policy. His work spans conflict-affected contexts, EU external action, and the governance of emerging technologies. He now serves as Board Secretary of Disarming Design, drawn to its commitment to design as a vehicle for cultural dignity, memory, and resistance.

Hughes Becquart is a Belgian-born European civil servant specialising in culture and cinema. He holds degrees in translation, film, and European studies and has spent most of his professional career at the European Commission, working primarily on support for European cinema, international cultural relations, and quality architecture. He now works on the New European Bauhaus initiative, which aims to make Europe’s neighbourhoods more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful. A culture buff and long-time advocate for human, social, and cultural rights, Hughes has been involved with organisations such as Amnesty International and Globe Aroma, and now with Disarming Design. Drawing on his experience and networks in Brussels and the European cultural sector, he helps raise awareness of Disarming Design among cultural stakeholders and colleagues.

Annelys Devet is a Belgium-based designer, researcher and educator, and co-founder of Disarming Design from Palestine. Her work centres on long-term, participatory design practices that engage with social and political realities, with a focus on how design can support pluralism, critical reflection and collective agency. De Vet created the Subjective Atlas of Palestine (2007), which laid important conceptual foundations for Disarming Design. She has played a key role in shaping its vision, methodologies and international collaborations, positioning design as a tool for storytelling, resistance and exchange. De Vet holds a PhD in Artistic Research and teaches at Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp.

Yazan Iwidat is a Belgian-Palestinian executive and performing artist based in Brussels. He serves as Global Omnichannel Experience Lead at MSD (Merck), specialising in digital engagement and customer experience strategy across global healthcare markets. Educated at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management and Birzeit University, he is a recognised thought leader and international conference speaker in pharmaceutical digital innovation. Alongside his corporate career, Yazan teaches marketing at ARBA-ESA (Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts – École Supérieure des Arts) and is an accomplished contemporary dancer and choreographer who has performed and presented his work at festivals across Europe and the Arab world. He brings to Disarming Design a rare ability to bridge business and marketing, culture, and the arts.

Herwig Onghena graduated with a degree in history from Ghent University in 1991. He subsequently undertook postgraduate studies at the Centre for the Study of the Third World (now Conflict and Development Studies) and remained at the Centre as a research fellow until 1993. In 1994, he began working as production manager at Les Ballets C de la B in Ghent. From 1996, he served as business director, supporting artists such as Alain Platel, Koen Augustijnen, Larbi Cherkaoui, Hans Van den Broeck, Christine De Smedt, Rosalba Torres, Lisi Estaras and many others. Following Alain Platel’s retirement, Les Ballets C de la B evolved into laGeste in 2023, a dance production house providing a home for artists including Lisaboa Huybrechts, Andrew Graham, Amir Sabra, Atta Khatab, Zoë Demoustier and Ehsan Hemat. Drawing on his longstanding expertise in production management, Herwig serves as Treasurer of Disarming Design.

Amsterdam-based art historian and cultural entrepreneur Brigitte van der Sande began researching the representation of the everyday realities of war in art in the early 1990s. This work led to exhibitions, lectures, workshops and essays, and eventually to the founding of Other Futures, a speculative fiction platform in Amsterdam, which held two editions in 2018 and 2021. She now divides her time between finding a home for Culture House (formerly the Cannibals), supporting makers who fall between the cracks because they lack a degree or an established CV, and exploring different perspectives on consciousness in human and more-than-human species. She supports Disarming Design as a space for knowledge production and a way of resisting the sense of despair she feels in relation to the current reality in Palestine.