Spencer de Grey

Spencer de Grey, CBE studied architecture at Cambridge University under Sir Leslie Martin. On leaving Cambridge in 1969, he worked for the London Borough of Merton on one of the first middle schools in the United Kingdom.

He joined Foster Associates in 1973, continuing his work in education on the Palmerston Special School in Liverpool. He then worked on the Hammersmith Centre before, in 1979, setting up Foster Associates' office in Hong Kong to build the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank. In 1981 he returned to London to become the director in charge of Stansted Airport, which he saw through to completion in 1991. During this period, he also worked on the BBC Radio Centre and was responsible for the Sackler Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

He was made a partner in 1991 and since then he has overseen a wide range of projects, including Cambridge Law Faculty, the Commerzbank Headquarters in Frankfurt, the Great Court at the British Museum, the Great Glasshouse at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, the World Squares for All Masterplan together with the implementation of its first phase at Trafalgar Square, the redevelopment of Dresden Station, The Sage Gateshead (Music Centre), HM Treasury in Whitehall and seven new City Academy schools in the UK.

He is responsible for a number of projects in the USA including the masterplan and first phase of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, Avery Fisher Hall at New York's Lincoln Center and the competition winning scheme for the National Portrait Gallery courtyard at the Smithsonian, Washington DC.

He lectures widely, is an architectural advisor for the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, a governor of the Building Centre Trust and teaches at the Royal College of Art. He was made a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1997.

He was made deputy chairman in 2004.