Fascinated with ocean liners since the age of five, thirty-three years later Stephen Payne was entrusted with a one-billion-dollar project: to design and build the latest Cunard transatlantic liner, Queen Mary 2. Stephen is a Royal Designer for Industry, a past President and Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, and a Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers. A recipient of the UK Merchant Navy Medal and a finalist in the 2006 Prince Philip Designers Prize, he has been honoured by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth with appointment as Officer to the Order of the British Empire for Services to Shipping.