Mr Paul Finch is Director of the World Architecture Festival (which he co-founded in 2008), Editorial Director of the Architectural Review/Architects’ Journal, and Deputy Chair of the UK Design Council, where he also chairs the architectural organization Design Council, CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment).

Born in London in 1949, Mr Finch studied history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, before going into publishing. After seven years in real estate journalism, he became Editor of Building Design, the architectural weekly, in 1983. In 1994 he joined Architects’ Journal where he was Editor for five years. After a period as Publisher and Editorial director, he edited Architectural Review from 2005 to 2009.

In 1999 he became a commissioner at the newly formed government Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), became Deputy Chairman, and chaired its design review panel for five years, followed by a further five as chair of its Olympic design review panel. He became Chair of the organization in 2010, and helped oversee its move to the Design Council in 2011.

Mr Finch was made an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 2002 for services to architecture. He is an honorary fellow of the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) and of University College London, and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Westminster. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, and an honorary member of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales. He is a former council member of the Architectural Association. He has co-edited Planning in London since 1992.