Rebecca Taylor

Managing Director of BTR
Long Harbour

Rebecca joined Long Harbour in 2015 and has deployed over £450m for the Multifamily programme in this period. Having raised a further £500mn of equity in 2019, Rebecca is responsible for the entire delivery cycle from strategy and deal origination through to structuring, delivery and asset management phase.

Prior to joining Long Harbour, Rebecca spent 8 years at Laing O’Rourke working in their property and PFI investment team. Here she worked on their offsite delivery solution, securing the planning and delivery of 1.3mn sqft of mixed-use space and over 4,000 residential units in Ireland, UAE and UK.

Simon Scott

Lead Director - Living Capital Markets
JLL

Simon has over 20 years’ experience in the field of residential investment and development, and was actively involved in the development of the student investment market in an advisory capacity, and led in a number of innovative funding structures working with both Housing Associations and Universities in making institutionally acceptable investment assets in the residential sector. Simon is now overseeing the residential investment team and will be focused on matching investor appetite for residential investment, whether off plan bespoke developments or existing portfolios of income producing or reversionary assets.

Erin Clarke

Relationship Director, Structured Property Finance
Investec

Erin joined Investec Structured Property Finance Private Bank in 2012 as Legal Counsel, where she supported the team until 2016. Erin then moved to her current role, in which she is responsible for managing a large portfolio of clients, who largely focus on development and value-add activities. Her own focus is on actively working with clients, and sourcing lending opportunities largely for development in residential properties for sale and rent, purpose-built student accommodation and the industrial and logistics property sectors.

Erin qualified as a solicitor in 2007 while working at Dentons in Sydney, Australia. In 2010, having acted on a wide range of real estate and corporate finance transactions for banks, corporate and private clients, she moved to London and took up an Associate role with Charles Russell Speechlys.

Guy Hurwood

Investment Director
Moda Living

Guy Hurwood is Investment Director for Moda Living, the UK’s largest family-owned build-to-rent developer and operator. Guy leads investor relations and is responsible for maintaining relationships with the business’s existing investor pool as well as sourcing and securing new funding and investment opportunities.

Guy is a chartered surveyor with a background in corporate finance. Before joining Moda earlier this year Guy was a Senior Director at CBRE where he led the capital markets and development teams in Yorkshire and the North East. Prior to joining CBRE in 2019, Guy spent six years at PwC’s Corporate Finance team in London and previously worked for JLL’s pan-European corporate finance and debt advisory business. Over his career he has advised on global transactions with a value in excess of £8bn across a range of sectors and capital structures.

Alice Smith-Hilliard

Associate Living Capital Markets Residential
JLL

Alice Smith-Hilliard is an Associate Director in the Living Capital Markets Team at JLL, specialising in the Build to Rent market and works closely with colleagues across the Living spectrum, in Student Accommodation, Coliving and Retirement sectors. Alice has over 6 years’ experience in the industry and has an in-depth knowledge of the BTR market including investor demand and appetite, as well as the lettings and operational market across the UK. As a team, Alice and her colleagues completed on c.£1.1bn of BTR transactions in 2020.

Samuel Winnard

Director - Residential Agency
JLL

Sam has over fourteen years experience in the Residential property industry specialising in letting, property management and Build to Rent.

As a National Director for JLL Sam has ultimate responsibility for the Build to Rent management team which manages over £800m of assets for institutional investors. Sam is the key residential contact for institution clients such as Abrdn, Lloyds Banking Group and Peabody and is responsible for having mobilised circa 2,000 BTR units.

Matthew Green

Head of Residential Development Valuation
JLL

Matthew leads the Residential Development and Investment team within the Living Advisory business at JLL, and is the key contact for a variety of clients which include banks, developers, housebuilders and investors. Matthew has over 19 years’ experience in the industry and is at the forefront of JLL’s Build to Rent/UK multifamily valuation business. During 2017-2018 he co-authored “Valuing residential property purpose built for renting” (1st edition) which was published by the RICS. His team value assets with a completed value of in excess of £17bn per annum for a variety of purposes including loan security, acquisition/disposal, financial reporting, and business related mergers or transactions.

Matthew’s key areas of expertise include residential development for both private sale and delivery to the UK Multifamily/BTR sector, suburban/single family BTR, residential led mixed-use development and existing residential/BTR investments. He is regularly involved with projects at all stages in the planning and construction process and has extensive experience in leading the valuation of national portfolios, and in working alongside house builders in support of debt/equity raising exercises.

James Kingdom

Associate Director - Living Capital Markets
JLL

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Euan Norris

Head of Smart Cities
Scottish Power Smart Solutions

Euan Norris is ScottishPower Smart Solution’s Head of Smart Cities, who has a clear objective and passion to implement the energy services and solutions that enables Cities, Local Government and Communities, across the UK, deliver ‘Net Zero’ and a better future, quicker. An experienced energy professional, Euan Joined ScottishPower in 1997 and has since held several positions across the Energy Retail and Network’s businesses covering Energy Strategy & Planning, Regulatory and Commercial policy development, Innovation and deployment of Real-Time Systems that support the accelerated uptake in renewable generation technologies. In 2015 successfully led the team that delivered the award winning Accelerating Renewable Connections (ARC) NIC project, implementing innovative technical and commercial solutions that facilitated circa. £300m of capital investment to connect renewable generation to the grid achieving connection an average of 3-years ahead of traditional connection timescales.

Away from work, Euan coaches the next generation of football referees across Scotland following a successful career as a Category 1 match referee, officiating in the Scottish Premier League regularly as well as representing his country undertaking appointments at International level, culminating in his appointment as a match official at the 2012 European Championship held in Poland and Ukraine.

Joanne Wheeler

Sustainability Advisor
UKGBC

TBA

Mark Atherton

Director of Environment
Greater Manchester Combined Authority

​TBA

Charlie Foster

Managing Director of Real Estate Finance, Large Corporate
NWG

Charlie heads up the Large Corporate Commercial Real Estate team at Natwest, a team of relationship bankers that serves the largest operators in the Real Estate sector in the UK with all of their banking needs from borrowing to clearing services, as well as supporting access to debt capital markets. The customer base spans the listed REITs, large private Estates and private equity sponsors.

Charlie also has responsibility for leading the bank’s Sustainability agenda for the Real Estate sector, with the primary goal of supporting customers on the journey to net zero carbon emissions.

Prior to joining Natwest in 2017, Charlie held roles with Santander, Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS, starting in a general corporate relationship team in 2001. In 2006, Charlie moved to a dedicated real estate team and has specialised in this sector since that time.

Relationship banking perfectly complements her degree course, having graduated from Reading University with a BSc in Mathematics and Psychology in 2001.

Charlie is a Trustee of a small start-up charity, The Kids Network, that provides mentoring services to primary school children across London, a role which she has held for three years and very much enjoys. Charlie is also a keen runner and cyclist, with the Berlin marathon under her belt and three bicycles in her collection to date.

Rishi Madlani

Head of Sustainable Finance
NatWest Group

Rishi Madlani has worked for NatWest Group for over 15 years across the London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt offices. Rishi is Head of Sustainable Finance and Just Transition for the Group which encompasses the bank’s activities supporting the transition to a lower carbon economy and increasing funding to areas with a wider social purpose. Over the last 2 years the bank provided 9.9bn of funding to support activity in the climate sector and the bank has now set a £20bn funding and financing target to support climate and sustainable finance.

Rishi also serves on the boards of the UK Sustainable Investment & Finance Association and RenewableUK.

Jamie Hall

UK Director of Energy & Sustainability
ISS Sustainability

​TBA

Neil Rami

Chief Executive
West Midlands Growth Company

Neil oversees the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC), formerly Marketing Birmingham, which was established in April 2017 to create new jobs, expand existing businesses and attract new investment and visitors to the region, aligned to the ambitions set out in the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Strategic Economic Plan.

Under Neil’s leadership of Marketing Birmingham, the city secured the highest number of foreign direct investment projects on record, attracting significant new investments from companies such as HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Jaguar Land Rover and ASOS. The city’s visitor economy has also grown significantly in recent years, with Birmingham enjoying the largest growth in international visitors of any UK city outside London and the tourism sector now contributing £6.5 billion to the local economy, a 22% increase (£1.16bn) since 2013.

Previously, Neil held similar roles in Liverpool and Newcastle upon Tyne. He is a member of the British Tourism Industry Group; Chair of the Midlands Trade and Investment Group and is a former Governor and Board Member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Neil is also a Board member of Creative England

Erica Love

Director
Culture Central

Erica, Director of Culture Central has worked in the cultural sector for over 15 years, becoming Director of Culture Central in November 2019. Since Covid, Erica has been leading on the West Midlands Culture Response Unit. This has been a programme of work that has focussed on the Visibility, Viability and Recovery of the Culture Sector. This is a cross partnership initiative, including regional and local government, the sector, funders and other strategic partners. She is a passionate advocate for the impact and value of arts and culture on the people and places of the West Midlands and the valuable role it plays in economic growth, regeneration and placemaking.

Culture Central: A collective voice for arts and cultural in the West Midlands.

Cllr Ian Brookfield

Leader
City of Wolverhampton Council

Ian is the Leader of the City of Wolverhampton Council and the Wolverhampton Labour Group.

As Leader Ian is also the Chair of the Cabinet, the decision-making body at the council. His priorities focus on attracting businesses to the city which will provide good, well paid jobs and investing in support for children and young people, so they get the best possible start in life.

Before becoming Leader in May 2019, Ian served as Mayor, Chair of the West Midlands Pension Fund and Chair of the City Council finance committee.

He sits on the Board of the West Midlands Combined Authority where he is the portfolio holder for economy and innovation. As part of this regional role he is also the lead for the emerging Screen Industry Body which aims to transform the current screen industry, helping to drive investment, growth and create thousands of new jobs.

Before becoming a full-time politician, Ian worked as a qualified nurse in the North West and the West Midlands and more recently worked at the Royal Mail in Wolverhampton.

Colin Chapple

Chief Operating Officer
AEG Presents

Colin is a qualified accountant and has had a varied career within the entertainment sector. Starting out with CBS Records / Sony Music providing business analysis to the front line record labels, holding the role of Finance Director at what was then the largest UK distributor of physical entertainment product in the UK before transitioning to the Live music industry in 2005. Colin is the COO of AEG Presents in Europe, the second largest global promoter which owns and manages venues across the globe, festivals such as Coachella and British Summertime in Hyde Park and promotes tours from developing acts through the superstars such as the Rolling Stones and Justin Bieber. The last 15 years in the UK has seen the AEG start up establish a major UK promoting business, 2 London metropolitan festivals attracting >500k customers, expanding offices into Europe markets and the acquisition and refurbishment of Hammersmith Apollo, and multiple partnership arrangement, and within the next 12 months will happily add opened up the Wolves Civic to that list!

Vicky Price

Associate Director
Grand Theatre Wolverhampton

Vicky has worked in the Arts and Culture sector for over 15 years. Since 2016 she has held the position of Associate Director of Development and Communications at Wolverhampton Grand Theatre, leading on Marketing, Sales, Corporate Sponsorship, Events, Fundraising, Access, and Creative Learning.

The theatre attracts over 300,000 visitors into Wolverhampton every year as a number one touring venue and producing house. Vicky along with a dedicated team are committed
to the delivering the theatre’s Audience Development Strategy. Over the last three years there has been a twenty percent increase in South Asian Audiences; collaboration with every secondary school in Wolverhampton and an award-winning Dementia Programme has been launched and continues to grow.

Rob Perrins

Chief Executive
The Berkeley Group

Rob joined Berkeley in 1994 and has been Chief Executive since 2009. Under his management the company has increased its focus on transforming challenging brownfield sites into welcoming places which support a great quality of life.

Rob oversees an industry leading sustainability strategy, including innovative climate action, nature recovery and social value programmes. He has prioritised investment in digital skills and technologies and modern methods of construction; including the development of Berkeley Modular’s precision manufactured housing system.

Rob has been Chari of Trustees of the Berkeley Foundation since its launch in 2011. This independent charity works in partnership with the Berkeley Group to maximise its positive social impacts and help disadvantaged young people achieve their potential.

Rob contributes to the Bank of England’s Real Estate Forum, is a Trustee of national homelessness charity Crisis and is a member of the governing bodies of Aston University and Marlborough College.

Jules Pipe CBE

Deputy Mayor for Planning, Regeneration and Skills
Greater London Authority

Jules Pipe is working on key priorities for the Mayor, including: implementation of the London Plan, major and community-led regeneration projects across the capital, building a skills system that properly addresses the needs of Londoners and the economy, and ensuring London’s infrastructure supports good growth, meets the needs of London’s communities and makes London a cleaner, greener and smarter City. Jules has unrivalled knowledge of London government, becoming the first directly elected mayor of Hackney in 2002 and serving as Chair of London Councils from 2010 until he joined the Mayor’s team in 2016.

Michela Hancock

Managing Director Europe
Greystar

Michela Hancock is a Managing Director of Development for Greystar in the UK, where she is responsible for driving the company’s fully integrated development process. Michela oversees all project financing, amenity and unit planning, design, entitlements, construction, and lease-up efforts on high-density multifamily developments. She is also targeting a pipeline of Greystar projects for London and helping educate the market and local government about the benefits of multifamily housing.

Prior to joining Greystar in 2015, she served as Development Director for Grainger PLC in the UK and Development Manager for Bozzuto Development Company in the US. She is currently Vice Chairman of the Urban Land Institute’s UK Residential Council, an active member of the British Property Federation Build to Rent Committee, and a board member of the United Kingdom Apartment Association.

David Heaford

Managing Director, Development
Landsec

David leads Landsec’s Development, Leasing and Marketing functions having originally joined Landsec in 2016 as Finance Director for the London Portfolio.

David started his career at KPMG in London, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 2006, working across audit, advisory and corporate finance. Prior to Landsec, the majority of David’s career was spent in the Technology sector, working in strategy or finance roles at Hewlett Packard and Cisco Systems. He brings cross sector knowledge, together with financial and strategic execution experience.

Abigail Dean

Global Head of Strategic Insights
Nuveen Real Estate

Abigail is the Global Head of Strategic Insights for Nuveen Real Estate. She is responsible for the organisation’s global research, sustainability and proptech and innovation functions. She oversees Nuveen Real Estate’s Tomorrow’s World Strategy which future proofs the investment strategy in light of global megatrends and integrates ESG across fund and asset management. Working alongside our Product Development team, Abigail is also responsible for ensuring that new product and the growth of the business are under pinned by solid research and sustainability considerations overseeing the global research team.

Since joining the firm in 2016, Abigail has overseen the organization setting a target to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2040. Abigail is a member of Nuveen Real Estate’s Investment Committee and has spearheaded the integration of sustainability considerations into the acquisition process. She is also leading the organisation to develop investment guidelines related to physical and transition climate change risk. She previously worked at JLL, where she led on sustainability for the Property and Asset Management’s U.K. team.

Abigail is passionate about driving sustainable change in the property sector and sits on several industry committees including the GRESB Benchmarking Committee and the INREV ESG committee.

David Lunts

Chief Executive Officer
Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation

David Lunts was appointed as the permanent Chief Executive Officer of Old Oak and Park Royal Development in January 2021.

He had previously been the interim Chief Executive Officer for OPDC since February 2019, and combined his work on London’s largest Opportunity Area with his duties as Executive Director of Housing and Land for the Greater London Authority.

Between 2009-2012 David led as the Executive Director for London at the Homes and Communities Agency. His earlier career included three years at the GLA as Executive Director of Policy and Partnerships under Ken Livingstone, a leading role in housing and regeneration with Manchester City Council during the 1980s and early 90s and a three-year spell as director of Urban Policy for John Prescott at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Caroline Simpson

Deputy Chief Executive
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council

Caroline Simpson has worked in regeneration and place-making for over twenty years developing strong partnerships across the public and private sector.

As the Deputy Chief Executive at Stockport MBC she is currently responsible for the growth and place agenda, and in particular leading a major £1bn transformation programme to redevelop the town centre. Recently her focus has been to establish the first Mayoral Development Corporation (MDC) in Greater Manchester to deliver Greater Manchester’s Newest, Greenest and Coolest Neighbourhood. The MDC is promoting the development of Town Centre Living as the next phase of renaissance for Stockport Town Centre alongside driving investment in major new infrastructure.

As well as leadership of development, regeneration, planning and transport she is also leading the delivery and reform of frontline place management services. She has responsibility for corporate estate transformation and promoting active communities across the Borough.

Previous roles include:

Corporate Director, Place, Stockport MBC

Executive Director of Economic Growth and Prosperity for Cheshire East Council with responsibility for an ambitious economic growth agenda, leading place–based services and corporate property & development functions.

Other roles include the Development Director for a Housing Association; Head of Regeneration and Partnerships for Northwest Development Agency and regeneration based roles at Advantage West Midlands. Her career started in Liverpool delivering community-based regeneration projects with a particular focus on work and skills.

Eamonn Boylan

Chief Executive
Greater Manchester Combined Authority

Eamonn Boylan was appointed Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in January 2017. He played a key role in the development of the Housing Market Renewal Programme, the Northern Way Growth Strategy and, through his work with the Core Cities Group and the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, in the emerging policy framework for city regions. Eamonn takes the lead role on Investment and on Planning and Housing for the AGMA Wider Leadership Team.

David Reid

Managing Director, Suburban Build to Rent
Legal & General Capital

Gavin Taylor

Regional General Manager
Far East Consortium International Limited

Gavin Taylor is a Mancunian with over 15 years’ experience in development, construction and portfolio management.

He joined the Far East Consortium International Limited as Regional General Manager in 2016. Gavin’s role sees him overseeing the expansion of the organisation in the north of the UK. He is also responsible for the Angel Meadow and Northern Gateway projects which will bring over 15,000 homes to Manchester.

Previously, as Operations Director for Beijing Construction, Gavin was instrumental in the introduction and establishment of the international conglomerate in the UK. He was also the first non-Chinese citizen to become a director of a Chinese State-Owned Entity.

Colette McCormack

Partner
Winckworth Sherwood

Colette has 20 years experience of large scale regeneration projects acting for public sector, land owners and private sector developers. She has been involved in securing planning and land assembly on complex multi ownership sites including estate regeneration projects and understands the public private sector interplay.

Colette is currently advising on some of the largest and complex planning projects in the country and is one of the leading experts in CIL . She is ranked as a leading individual in legal directories and is currently lead planning adviser on Peel’s Liverpool Water - regeneration of 60 ha docklands; Barking Riverside – 10,800 homes, 65,000 sqm of commercial and leisure plus infrastructure ; Wandsworth VNEB Opportunity Area – 20,00 new homes infrastructure including the northern line extension and incudes Battersea Power Station .; multi billon bound estate regeneration of Winstanley estate -2225 homes ( including affordable housing) flexible commercial space measure space and public realm.

Martin Reeves

Chief Executive
Coventry City Council

Martin has been Chief Executive of Coventry City Council since April 2009. He was the Chief Executive and the Head of Paid Service of the West Midlands Combined Authority from March 2016 to September 2017. He had previously been with Bedfordshire County Council for three and a half years as Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive. Martin was previously Head of Performance Improvement at Westminster City Council in the heart of London. He was also Programme Director for WorkSmart the City Council’s flagship transformation programme.

Martin spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher, and has a PhD in applied economics.He is a Governor on the Board at Coventry University; is the first Honorary President of LARIA (Local Authorities Research and Intelligence Association) and on the board of the Centre for Cities. He was the President of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) in 2013. He is the Local Government Association (LGA) National Procurement Champion. In 2015, Martin was invited onto the independent taskforce, which produced the new 5 year national cancer strategy. He chairs the national cross system board for sustainable health & social care. He is also a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advisory Board. In 2018 Martin was once again included in the top 50 of the Local Government Chronicle’s list of most influential people in local government.

Deborah Cadman OBE

Interim Chief Executive
Birmingham City Council

Deborah became Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority in September 2017, following a long and distinguished career in public service.

After gaining a degree in politics, she began her career in 1984 with the London Borough of Newham, before moving to Birmingham City Council where she worked on major regeneration projects and gained a master’s degree in economics. Moving to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in 1996 as Head of Policy, Deborah gained a second master’s in management, before taking up a two-year secondment with the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions as Local Government Advisor to the Ministerial Team. In 2003, after being appointed the Audit Commission’s Best Value Service Lead Inspector for the London region, she became Chief Executive at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, before becoming Chief Executive of the East of England Development Agency. Deborah was Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council from 2011 to 2017 and has also been interim Chief Executive of Waveney District Council, Babergh District Council and Mid-Suffolk District Council.

She is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Trust and Joseph Rowntree Housing Foundation and as a dedicated and passionate female advocate at the forefront of the public sector, Deborah recently won the First Women Award for Public Service. Deborah is listed in Local Government Chronicle’s ‘100 Most Influential in the Sector’. Deborah was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to local government.

Tim Johnson

Chief Executive
City of Wolverhampton Council

Tim is Chief Executive of the City of Wolverhampton Council having been appointed to the role in July 2018.

Prior to this, he was the council’s Deputy Managing Director and Strategic Director of Place where his portfolio of responsibilities included city development, city housing, city transport, city environment, corporate property and commercialism.

Tim is an experienced strategic local government director, specialising in place shaping, organisational change management and community regeneration. He has a proven track record of developing and delivering complex, innovative projects and programmes and has overseen a regeneration programme which has £3.7 billion of public and private investment either on site or planned in the city.

In the five years he has worked at the City of Wolverhampton Council, Tim has played a major part in the transformation of the city and the council. This was nationally recognised in June 2017 when the City of Wolverhampton Council won a record four awards at the prestigious MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2017 including Local Authority of the Year, Most Improved Council and Senior Leadership Team of the Year.

Tim has over 20 years’ experience in local government working for Liverpool City Council, London Borough of Hillingdon, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council before joining the City of Wolverhampton Council in May 2013.

He represents City of Wolverhampton Council on a number of external forums across the region and city including the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), Association of Black Country Authorities and Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and as Chair of the Board of Governors at the City of Wolverhampton College.

Helen Gordon

Chief Executive
Grainger plc

Helen Gordon is Chief Executive of Grainger plc the UK’s largest listed residential landlord.

Helen was appointed Chief Executive of Grainger in January 2016 from RBS where she had been Global Head of Real Estate Asset Management since October 2011. Prior to that Helen was Director of Legal and General Property, responsible for the Main Life Fund and c.8 smaller Funds, and Group Property Director of Railtrack and Managing Director of John Laing Developments.

Helen sits on the Board of Derwent London as a non-executive Director and is currently a Board Director of the European Public Real Estate Association and Vice President of the British Property Federation. Helen has held a number of non-exec positions and Government appointments including the Board of Covent Garden Market Authority, Board of British Waterways, TfL Property Board and was a Trustee for The College of Estate Management for nine years.

Pete Gladwell

Group Social Impact & Investment Director
Legal & General

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Simon Marks

City Executive, Birmingham
Arcadis

Simon is Arcadis City Executive for Birmingham and the Midlands, with over 400 staff in the Birmingham office. With 30 years property and asset experience he helps clients make the best of their built and natural assets in relation to achieving their vision, strategy and key priorities. He has led and delivered a range of projects across the public, private and infrastructure sectors and has a deep understanding of the housing and regeneration arena. Simon is a member of the GBSLEP Board.

Arcadis is the leading global Design & Consultancy firm for natural and built assets. Applying our deep market sector insights and collective design, consultancy, engineering, project and management services we work in partnership with our clients to deliver exceptional and sustainable outcomes throughout the lifecycle of their natural and built assets. We have knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life in rapidly growing cities around the world.

Arcadis is delivering some of the most exciting projects in the city. Working with the city council on the Commonwealth Games Athletes Village and Alexander Stadium Redevelopment and with BMHT on their housing programme. Other projects / clients include Birmingham Children’s Hospital, University of Birmingham, West Midlands Combined Authority, Jaguar Land Rover and a portfolio of residential projects including the city’s tallest tower.

David Reid

Managing Director, Suburban Build to Rent
Legal & General Capital

Rebecca Taylor

Managing Director of BTR
Long Harbour

Rebecca joined Long Harbour in 2015 and has deployed over £450m for the Multifamily programme in this period. Having raised a further £500mn of equity in 2019, Rebecca is responsible for the entire delivery cycle from strategy and deal origination through to structuring, delivery and asset management phase.

Prior to joining Long Harbour, Rebecca spent 8 years at Laing O’Rourke working in their property and PFI investment team. Here she worked on their offsite delivery solution, securing the planning and delivery of 1.3mn sqft of mixed-use space and over 4,000 residential units in Ireland, UAE and UK.

Alex Hearn

Associate Director (Placemaking & Growth)
North Somerset Council

Alex Hearn is the Assistant Director of Placemaking and Growth at North Somerset Council responsible for planning, economic development, regeneration, property, the mixed use development programme and capital programme. HE moved from London in 2018 where he spent 15 years working in regeneration, planning, development and affordable housing programmes.

Esther Croft

Development Director
Reef Group

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Dr Patricia Greer

Chief Executive
West of England Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership

Dr Patricia Greer is the Chief Executive of the West of England Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership. She led the region’s devolution programme from March 2015 through to the establishment of the Combined Authority in 2017. Previously she held a range of senior private, central and local public sector positions including as a Director at the Cabinet Office with five years in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and as a Strategic Director in Local Government. Patricia’s early career included nearly 10 years with leading management consultancies. She studied at the University of Bath and completed a PhD which was published as a book, ‘Transforming Central Government’, 1994.

Nikki Davies

Managing Director
MPC

Nikki is MPC’s Managing Director, in overall charge of the business and ensuring its smooth running. She has extensive experience in running tailored programmes of community consultation and has overseen a diverse range of projects in the residential, commercial, energy and affordable housing sectors. Nikki is currently leading MPC’s work on the Temple Island scheme in Bristol for L&G, and pioneering MPC’s new products and services in the social value field.

Tim Johnson

Chief Executive
City of Wolverhampton Council

Tim is Chief Executive of the City of Wolverhampton Council having been appointed to the role in July 2018.

Prior to this, he was the council’s Deputy Managing Director and Strategic Director of Place where his portfolio of responsibilities included city development, city housing, city transport, city environment, corporate property and commercialism.

Tim is an experienced strategic local government director, specialising in place shaping, organisational change management and community regeneration. He has a proven track record of developing and delivering complex, innovative projects and programmes and has overseen a regeneration programme which has £3.7 billion of public and private investment either on site or planned in the city.

In the five years he has worked at the City of Wolverhampton Council, Tim has played a major part in the transformation of the city and the council. This was nationally recognised in June 2017 when the City of Wolverhampton Council won a record four awards at the prestigious MJ Local Government Achievement Awards 2017 including Local Authority of the Year, Most Improved Council and Senior Leadership Team of the Year.

Tim has over 20 years’ experience in local government working for Liverpool City Council, London Borough of Hillingdon, Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council and Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council before joining the City of Wolverhampton Council in May 2013.

He represents City of Wolverhampton Council on a number of external forums across the region and city including the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), Association of Black Country Authorities and Black Country Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and as Chair of the Board of Governors at the City of Wolverhampton College.

Sarah Middleton

Chief Executive
Black Country Consortium Ltd

Sarah is the Chief Executive of Black Country Consortium Limited (BCC) and has been since its incorporation in 2006. Sarah joined the Consortium Partnership in October 1999 and has been central in developing the Black Country Sub-Regional partnership, its 30 year vision, Economic Strategy and Spatial Strategy, including joint approaches on Planning, Investment, Economic Intelligence and the Black Country Education and Skills Strategy. Sarah qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG and previous roles include Deputy Chief Executive for East Mercia Chamber of Commerce (including responsibilities as General Manager for Business Link Walsall) and Chief Executive of Walsall City Challenge.

Chris Keogh

Director of Development & Operations
Court Collaboration

Chris graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Business Management in 2008 before taking on roles in recruitment and events management. Chris returned to his studies in 2012 to undertake a Masters Degree in Real Estate at the University of Reading. Chris joined Court Collaboration in the summer of 2013 after graduating from Reading with a distinction.

In his role as Director of Development & Operations is responsible for the effective management of the organisation and development process to ensure that both the business’ and investor’s goals are achieved. Chris identifies new development opportunities and works closely with investors to assess viability ahead of purchase. Chris’ role includes site identification, financial and development appraisal, acquisition, planning and identifying and securing exits.

Lucy Blasdale

Development Director
Homes England

Lucy Blasdale is Homes England Development Director for the Central and West Area. She currently manages a team of c70 staff and is responsible for the delivery of all the Homes England land holdings across a geography which stretches Lincolnshire Wash across to the Welsh Border as well as stretching down to Devon and Cornwall.

Lucy holds membership of both the RTPI and RICS membership and has led Home England activity across a number of high profile projects.

Lucy is recognised within the industry for her straight talking can do approach. She has also acted as a career mentor to a number of people both within and outside the organisation and regularly speaks at events to encourage more young people to consider careers in the construction industry. Previous winner of the Homes England National Award for Inspirational Leadership

Cllr Ian Ward

Leader
Birmingham City Council

Ashley Kensington

Managing Director
St Joseph, Berkeley Group Plc

Ashley has 20 years’ experience within in the development sector specialising in property investment, acquisition and obtaining planning consents. For the last 15 years she has worked at the Berkeley Group with posts held in St James, Berkeley Commercial and more recently in St William where she assisted in setting up the joint venture with National Grid.

In August 2018, Ashley moved to St Joseph to assist the Berkeley Group’s expansion into the West Midlands with responsibility for land, planning and asset management.

James Craig

Co-Founder
Oval Real Estate

James has spent more than 20 years working in commercial real estate. Following time with Weatherall Green and Smith (now BNP Paribas), Bellhammer, Anglesea Capital and Kenmore, James set up Oval with Nick in 2013 and oversees deal origination and asset management.

Rebecca Taylor

Managing Director of BTR
Long Harbour

Rebecca joined Long Harbour in 2015 and has deployed over £450m for the Multifamily programme in this period. Having raised a further £500mn of equity in 2019, Rebecca is responsible for the entire delivery cycle from strategy and deal origination through to structuring, delivery and asset management phase.

Prior to joining Long Harbour, Rebecca spent 8 years at Laing O’Rourke working in their property and PFI investment team. Here she worked on their offsite delivery solution, securing the planning and delivery of 1.3mn sqft of mixed-use space and over 4,000 residential units in Ireland, UAE and UK.

Dame Alison Nimmo DBE

Non-Executive-Director, MHCLG,
St Modwen Property, Berkeley Group & Imperial College London’s Property Committee

I’ve been delivering regeneration for 35 years across the UK in various executive roles, the most notable being Manchester City Centre (after the 96 bomb), Sheffield City Centre and London 2012 Olympics. In all 3 examples I helped establish and lead dedicated delivery vehicles and delivered in partnership - public/private.

I was CEO of TCE for 8 years with a very extensive UK wide portfolio, including the seabed where we helped support & grow the UK’s world leading offshore wind programme.

I’m currently a NED of: MHCLG, St Modwen Property, Berkeley Group & Imperial College London’s Property Committee. I’m also a commissioner of the 1851 Committee and we’ve given support to Dave Rudlin from URBED to research 100 of the UK’s high streets - which will be a fascinating insight into how they’ve weathered the pandemic (or not).

I’m passionate about sustainability and am a built environment ambassador for UKGBC for COP26.

Earlier this year I was part of a small steering group helping Peter Freemen with his review of Homes England, as the new chair; and I was a member of the government’s Urban Recovery Task Force.

Matt Crompton

Managing Director
Muse Developments

Matt is the Managing Director of Muse Developments – one of the UK’s best in mixed-use development and urban regeneration, with a forward development pipeline of £2.5bn. A true national developer, Muse delivers innovative places and spaces through collaboration, bringing together the best of the public and private sector to drive transformational change and maximise community benefit.

Matt has considerable experience of commercial, residential and mixed-use development and through a highly focused and driven team.

Matt is also on the board of The English Cities Fund, a £200 million mixed-use regeneration vehicle owned by Muse, Legal & General and Homes England. Muse also acts as the development manager for the fund.

Matt joined Muse in 1990 as Development Surveyor, was promoted to Development Director in 1995 and joined the Board in 2001. He was appointed Managing Director in 2018.

Tom Walker

Director of the Levelling Up Unit
Cabinet Office

Tom is the Director of the Levelling Up Unit in the Cabinet Office. Tom has been a civil servant for over 20 years working on economic growth, regeneration, housing, planning and environment policy. He was previously Director of Environment Strategy at Defra, Deputy Chief Executive at Homes England and Director of the Cities and Local Growth Unit in BEIS and MHCLG.

Caroline Baker

Head of Manchester Office
Cushman & Wakefield

Caroline Baker is Managing Partner of the Manchester Office of Cushman & Wakefield – a global real estate advisor. Caroline is a regeneration specialist who has worked for the company for over 20 years advising local authorities on strategy and delivery. She led the multi-disciplinary team who prepared the Strategic Regeneration Framework for Stockport Town Centre West which supported its designation as an MDC. Transformation of town centres is a passion and she has prepared regeneration strategies for Altrincham, Crewe, Macclesfield and Barrow town centres to name a few. She has been kept busy recently supporting local authorities to prepare their Future High Street, Town Deal and Levelling up bids.