Better by Design

Ayub Khan is Head of Universal Services for Warwickshire County Council where he leads several public-facing departments, including Libraries and Communities, Heritage and Culture, and Archives. He spent his early career in education and children's & young people's services, and was later Principal Project Officer for the new Library of Birmingham, involved in the early concept, visioning, design and business planning.

Ayub has undertaken a number of library new-build and refurbishment projects and is currently working on a project to build a new library and cultural centre in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He is President of Libraries Connected, a Fellow and past President of CILIP - The Library and Information Association. He is on the governing board of IFLA, and a member of its Library Buildings Committee.

In 2013, Ayub was awarded an MBE for his services to libraries and communities.

Stella Thebridge retired from Warwickshire County Council at the end of December 2020, where she was a Principal Librarian in Warwickshire Libraries responsible for reader development services to all age-groups as well as Manager of the traded Schools Library Service. She worked in a previous role as a researcher in a university department and has numerous publications to her name in the sphere of librarianship from 1998 to date, most recently chapters on library services to children and young people in the five-yearly volumes of British Librarianship and Information Work.

Stella was a member of the Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians in the UK (ASCEL) for many years and Chair from 2018 to 2020. In this capacity she gained a number of useful insights into national and international perspectives on libraries as well as overseeing policy developments specifically relating to services to children and young people in the UK. She became a LGA peer reviewer for Early Years provision in 2019.

She was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours of 2021 for her work in libraries in Warwickshire and nationally, particularly during the emergence of the COVID pandemic.