Norman Robert Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank is an English architect. Closely associated with the development of high-tech architecture, Lord Foster is recognised as a key figure in British modernist architecture. His firm Foster + Partners, first founded in 1967 as Foster Associates is the largest in the United Kingdom, and operates internationally. He also serves as president of the Norman Foster Foundation, established to 'promote interdisciplinary thinking and research to help new generations of architects, designers and urbanists to anticipate the future'. The foundation, which opened in June 2017, is based in Madrid and operates globally. Foster received the Pritzker Prize in 1999.