Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes

About Stephanie Akkaoui Hughes

Born and raised in the Middle East, Stephanie is a relatively young, non-European female professional who has given speeches at numerous corporate companies, international conferences, governmental  institutions and educational institutions worldwide. In her speeches, Stephanie is asked to share her vision of Architecting Interaction and the custom process designed for it. Architecting Interaction investigates how we can create contexts that foster human interaction – in its different forms namely: innovation, collaboration, learning and creativity. The principles and process of Architecting Interaction have been proven relevant to all audiences and across all fields, beyond architecture.

Stephanie’s speaking clients include the world-renowned Triodos Bank, the International Interaction Design Association (IxDA), The Qatar Foundation, Breevast the international real estate company, Hivos the Dutch organization for development, IBWC the International Business Conference, the European Platform for Mobility Management, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and environment, the Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs, the Dutch Ministry of Interior Affairs & Royal Relations, The Centre of Excellence in Universal Design and a number of other corporate, governmental and educational institutions.

Awards, Accolades, Achievements, Honours

• Founder and lead Architect of AKKA Architects
• Founder of the global movement of Action Labs, a worldwide initiative aiming at building and sustaining local communities of entrepreneurs.
• Youngest executive board member of the Ebbf, International Business Forum.
• Youngest advisory board member of the Creative Industries Fund Netherlands.

Background

Born and raised in the tumultuous city of Beirut (Lebanon), Stephanie quickly learned to navigate amidst an incredibly diverse, unpredictable, complex, and extremely lively environment. She has converted her experience of adapting to highly transformative surroundings into actionable tools that encourage interaction and innovation. She shares these tools with businesses to help them navigate during any company transformation or company culture change. Using her vision of Architecting Interaction as a starting point, Stephanie helps every organization translate the principles to their specific situation and extract actionable steps to go through the transformation.

Current/Past Roles and Positions

After obtaining her high honours architectural degree at the American University of Beirut, Stephanie joins the world-renowned architectural company OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) where she works closely with founder Rem Koolhaas. During her time there, she leads multi-billion dollars projects for the Qatar Foundation and gains a deepened knowledge of high-end architectural and urban projects. Today, Stephanie is the founder and lead architect of AKKA Architects, an architectural studio specialized in creating spaces that foster human interactions. AKKA is driven by Stephanie’s vision “Architecting Interaction”, because – she believes – interactions are the seeds of innovation.

Speaking Style

Stephanie is a distinctive and compelling voice who involves her audience in her highly acclaimed speeches that are at once visionary, thought-provoking, interactive, and hands-on. Using timeless stories, current world events, interactive techniques and memorable case studies, Stephanie delivers informative, inspiring and unforgettable speeches.