John Wells-Thorpe
 John Wells-Thorpe has designed over £65 million worth of building projects worldwide, including award-winning commissions.
He was Honorary Librarian and Vice President of the Royal Institute of British Architects before becoming President of the Commonwealth Association of Architects, and was in private practice as an architect before becoming the first chairman of South Downs Health NHS Trust.
He is a member of the NHS Design Review Panel, advises the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment, and has led numerous technology transfer initiatives in Third World countries.
Among his non-architectural areas of involvement, he has chaired government independent inquiries into ophthalmic surgery and into adolescent homicide, was a magistrate, and a member of the BBC Advisory Council. He was appointed OBE for services to architecture in 1995.
Published in late 2009, Behind the Façade is John's architectural autobiography, but it is less about buildings and more about how they are 'peopled'. The life of a building and what goes on in it carries as much weight as its appearance.
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