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.

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.

Sarah Windrum

CEO
The Emerald Group

Sarah is the Co-Founder of the Emerald Group, an IT consultancy in Warwickshire supporting businesses and organisations to harness technology for innovation and productivity. She is a Board Director for the Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) leading on the development of local creative clusters with national and regional stakeholders and she chairs CWLEP’s industry body for the digital creative sector. She is a member of the West Midlands Combined Authority Innovation and Strategic Economic Development Boards supporting digital transformation and securing investment in connectivity including fibre and 5G.

Passionate about future digital talent, Sarah is on the Industry Advisory Board at Warwickshire College and works with Ukie, the national trade body for interactive entertainment, on their Digital Schoolhouse Primary School programme. She is also an Enterprise Advisor at Campion School.

In 2018, Sarah became an industry partner with the Institute of Coding at Coventry University supporting the creation of new professional development for the creative sector. She is also working with Warwickshire County Council on future digital skills needs for the transport & logistics sector.

Neil Edginton

Managing Director
EDG Property

Managing director Neil Edginton has been instrumental in changing the landscape of Birmingham having been involved in major regeneration projects such as The Cube, The Mailbox and Fort Dunlop.

Neil spearheads the EDG Group of Companies with an impressive portfolio of development projects while providing development, construction and asset management services to leading banks and some of the UK’s largest funds.

Richard Mees

Managing Director
Rainier Developments Ltd

Richard is Managing Director of Rainier Developments Limited.

Richard has a wealth of experience from small brownfield development sites to large sustainable urban extensions specialising residential property.

His experience and skills are across the life-cycle of the development process from land acquisition and planning through to construction and disposal.

A member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Monica Fogarty

Chief Executive
Warwickshire County Council

Monica Fogarty is Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Council. With over twenty five years’ experience in local government, Monica has held a number of senior roles. Until 2016 she was Strategic Director for Communities leading the ‘place’ agenda for Warwickshire and prior to that she was Assistant Chief Executive for Warwickshire. Monica has also held a range of Head of Service posts including Policy; Performance and Change Management, having also worked for Coventry City Council. Particular areas of expertise are Economics, Strategic Infrastructure; Partnerships and Organisational Change. She has experience of managing most forms of council front line services.

With London-Irish roots, Monica and her family live in Kenilworth, Warwickshire.

Carl Potter

Principal & Managing Director, Birmingham
Avison Young

Managing Director of the Birmingham Office; providing Commercial Property advice to public and private sector clients. Managing transactions and advising on new development.

Max Farrell

Founder & CEO
The London Collective

Max is Founder & CEO of the London Collective, a network of built environment experts and creatives fighting to improve people’s lives and the planet’s prospects. Their members are experts in social impact, zero carbon and modern methods of construction (MMC) as well as architecture, engineering, graphic design and film-making. They are a radical and agile ‘one stop shop’ for projects anywhere in the world.

Max’s expertise lies in placemaking and communications. He was a Partner at Farrells for 10 years, the internationally renowned architects with offices in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, before leaving to set up the London Collective in 2019. He is currently leading on the vision and masterplan for a new town in Oxfordshire with 6,500 homes and a national centre of excellence for MMC. He is developing feasibility studies for globally significant wellbeing resorts in urban centres and leading on #ParkPower: A collaborative Vision for the Future of London’s Green Spaces.

Max was Project Leader and Author of the Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment, commissioned by the UK Government, which made 60 recommendations spanning education, outreach & skills; design quality; cultural heritage; economic benefits & architecture policy, many of which have now been implemented. In 2020 he co-authored Collectively Speaking: The Future of Town Centres Post-Coronavirus published by the Developer Magazine. In January 2021, Max was appointed Chair of the Cultural Co-Location Advisory Group for Creative Estuary. He is an adviser to London National Park City, Urban Design London, the Place Alliance, the Urban Room Network and the National Arts and Place Consortium.

Ray Mia

Non Executive Board Member & Music Producer
Thames Estuary Growth Board

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Lisa Dee

Head of Film
London Borough of Barking & Dagenham

Lisa Dee has worked for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham for nine years. Lisa established and now manages the council’s Film Office (Film LBBD). The borough has since attracted major film productions from across the UK, Europe and the USA, such as Dr Strange, Avengers Assemble, Black Mirror, Humans and BBC’s Luther. Filming days have grown exponentially since 2012, now making Barking and Dagenham one of the preferred filming boroughs in London. Lisa grew up in Hackney and a now long-time resident of Barking and Dagenham. Lisa truly believes that the borough is on the cusp of accelerating the creative industry in London – her vision being “the shift is east”. Lisa played a pivotal role in the inception and development of London’s newest bespoke built studios for 25 years, bringing creative jobs and investment to Dagenham and East London. She is committed to supporting young people and local creatives get their break into the industry and believes this growth will create an ecosystem of benefits to the local economy, businesses and the wider community to aspire to brighter futures for years to come.

Sarah Dance

Chair / Deputy Chair / Co-chair
Creative Estuary / SELEP / SECEN & TEPC

Sarah Dance is a strategic consultant for the culture and creative industries, with over 25 years’ experience in the creative sector. She has led a wide range of cultural organisations and set up her own consultancy in 2002. Her work covers business and capital development, creative production, organisational change development, and leadership mentoring.

In addition to her consultancy work and her Deputy Chairship of South East Local Enterprise Partnership, she is Co-Chair of the South East Creative Economy Network and Chair of Creative Estuary and has led the visioning of Thames Estuary Production Corridor. She is on the Civic University Network Advisory Group and UAL Advisory Group for their UKRI funded Modelling and supporting recovery of the UK’s experience economy. She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Laura Bailey

Cultural Development Manager
Ebbsfleet Garden City

Laura has worked across the culture sector for 20 years, from photography and music to heritage and arts, within the corporate, public and charity sectors, across strategic, policy-based roles, and direct delivery at the heart of communities. She is a creative thinker who thrives on collaboration. Her primary interests are around the transformative power of creativity on personal and collective wellbeing, and inclusive growth. Over 5 years she led a number of innovative arts, health and wellbeing programmes and contributed to the work of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Arts, Health and Wellbeing. More recently Laura’s focus has been on whole place approaches, developing a cultural placemaking approach for Ebbsfleet Garden City. She is a Fellow of the RSA.

Ken Dytor

Non-Executive Board Member / Board Lead on Inward Investment
Thames Estuary Growth Board / Purfleet Centre Regeneration

Ken Dytor’s career started in the UK Crown Estates Commissioner well over 30 years ago, and worked as development director at British Land before forming Urban Catalyst. He was board member of London South Bank University. He has also been Chair of the student charity International Students House.

Ken has a long history of combining the creative industries in his core regeneration projects. He is Founder and Executive Chairman of Urban Catalyst: a mixed-use real estate developer with a strong record of delivering public-private projects focusing on sustainability in the UK. It is now development manager for Purfleet Centre Regeneration Ltd (of which Ken is a major shareholder) in partnership with Thurrock Borough Council, for the redevelopment of the 140 acre + riverside development of circa 2,850 homes, a new town centre around the railway station and as well as extensive health and education infrastructure.

Ken is Executive Chair of Purfleet Studios, a new film, TV and media studio complex designed by AHMM the award winning architects. In developIng the studios at Purfleet the intention is to assist in making the Thames Estuary the heart of the UK’s digital and creative industry.

Waheed Nazir

Chairman
Arden Cross

Waheed has over 20 years of experience in planning, development and regeneration. He has held senior positions at Birmingham City Council, and more recently was appointed as the Non-Executive Chairman of Arden Cross Limited. He also advises public and private sector clients on regeneration and development projects across the UK.

He is a visiting Professor at Birmingham City University and in 2017 was awarded an honorary Doctorate by Aston University. In October 2020, Waheed was awarded a Fellowship from the Academy of Social Sciences and in November 2020 was announced as the Property Personality of the Year for the Midlands.

In 2019, he wrote and edited a book titled Regenerating Cities, which explores how leadership, vision and partnership working has shaped the development of UK cities over the last 30 years. Through this book he brought together some of the UK’s leading figures in the development sector, each providing their own unique and personal insight into their journeys and roles in leading some of the country’s biggest projects, including London 2012, the development of King’s Cross, estate renewal in London, and the rise of Manchester and Birmingham.

He is passionate about helping young people grow and develop to unlock their potential. This has included establishing a number of programmes to provide mentoring, bursary initiatives, internships and graduate programmes in the built environment profession.

Fiona Fletcher-Smith

Group Chief Executive
L&Q

Prior to joining L&Q, Fiona was the Executive Director for Development, Enterprise and Environment at the Greater London Authority (GLA).

As part of the senior management team for the GLA, she was responsible for overseeing the delivery and implementation of key strategies such as the London Plan, the Economic Development Strategy, transport, environment and climate change and in overseeing the operation of the Mayor’s powers in relation to significant planning applications in the capital.

Sir Howard Bernstein

Former Chief Executive
Manchester City Council

Sir Howard Bernstein is the former Chief Executive of Manchester City Council (1998-2017) and former Head of Paid Service for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (2011-2017). A strong believer in the transformative power of cities and one of the chief architects of Manchester’s well-documented urban, social and economic resurgence over the last four decades, Sir Howard now serves as a strategic advisor to several public, private and academic institutions in the UK and internationally.

Over a distinguished career in public service, Sir Howard was instrumental in a range of projects and initiatives benefitting Manchester, Greater Manchester and the United Kingdom. This has included significant improvements in transport and other infrastructure across Greater Manchester, the long-term regeneration of disadvantaged parts of Manchester in partnership with government, the private sector and local communities, and cementing Manchester’s status as a thriving hub for sports, culture, media and creativity and an active player in promising fields such as advanced materials, life sciences, informatics and translational medicine.

Sir Howard is widely recognised for his pioneering use of innovative financial instruments, planning mechanisms, governance arrangements and public-private partnerships to attract investment, accelerate development and deliver marked improvements in social and economic outcomes for people and businesses in Greater Manchester. This assertive approach has also been evident in the devolution of significant responsibilities for transport, planning, housing, skills, health and social care services from the UK Government to local authorities in Greater Manchester in recent years, including the piloting of ground-breaking new models for the delivery of health, social care and early intervention services at the neighbourhood level.

Following his retirement from the Council in 2017, Sir Howard was appointed as an Honorary Professor of Politics and a strategic advisor to the University of Manchester. He is also a strategic advisor to Deloitte, an Honorary President of Manchester City FC and President of Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Sir Howard was knighted for his services to Manchester in 2003.

Richard Upton

Chief Executive
U+I

Richard is a creative entrepreneur and patron of the arts, who is passionate about quality of place, architecture, heritage and provenance. Over the course of his career, he has established, built and sold four property investment and professional companies and developed more than six million square feet of mixed-use real estate.

Pioneering Mount Anvil in 1991, Richard delivered 5,000 student bedrooms and regenerated several award-wining social housing projects. In 1998 he co-founded Cathedral Healthcare and Cathedral Group PLC, nurturing the latter to become a market-leader in public-private partnership developments and building a pipeline of over £2bn.

In 2014, Cathedral merged with Development Securities, which ultimately became U+I in 2015. U+I is a listed public company with a development pipeline of >£11.5bn. Together with U+I’s Chief Executive Matthew Weiner, Richard is a driving force behind the strategic direction of the company, whose vision is to create long-lasting social and economic change for communities and sustainable value for shareholders.

Faraz Baber

Director
Terence O'Rourke

Faraz is currently a Director at the interdisciplinary planning and design consultancy Terence O’Rourke which has offices in London, Birmingham and Bournemouth. He leads on planning policy, stakeholder engagement and business development for the company.

Prior to joining Terence O’Rourke, Faraz served as Executive Director for Policy at London First. His previous experience also includes senior management policy and public affairs roles at Surrey County Council, British Property Federation (BPF) and the Royal Institution of Chartered surveyors (RICS).

A highly experienced and multi-skilled professional with extensive knowledge within the property sector, Faraz has successfully delivered on a number of high-profile policy led campaigns. He is a dual qualified chartered surveyor (FRICS) and chartered town planner (MRTPI). He was a member of the Department of Communities and Local Government Planning Sounding Board which provided industry advice to Government. Faraz is a Board member of the RICS P&D Professional Group and also serves as Chairman on the RICS Planning Policy Panel.

Professor Tony Travers

Director of LSE London
Visiting Professor in the Department of Government

Professor Tony Travers is Director of LSE London, a research centre at The London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also a Visiting Professor in LSE’s Department of Government. His key research interests include local and regional government and public service reform.

Professor Travers is currently an advisor to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Select Committee and the Communities and Local Government Select Committee.

He has published a number of books on cities and government, including Failure in British Government: The Politics of the Poll Tax (with David Butler and Andrew Adonis), Paying for Health, Education and Housing: How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) and The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City.

Tom Bloxham MBE

Group Chairman
Urban Splash

The company is responsible for development projects across the country, including Manchester, Liverpool, Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford Sheffield, Bristol, Plymouth, North Shields and Morecambe. In 1999 Tom was awarded an MBE for Services to Architecture and Urban Regeneration.

Tom also upholds a number of other positions including;Chairman of Manchester International Festival, and trustee of Tate, the Manchester United Foundation and The Bloxham Charitable Trust.

In 2016, Tom and Urban Splash co-founder Jonathan launched House by Urban Splash – their modular housing concept which is being rolled out across the country. House is created using modern methods of construction allowing for customer specification. The first homes are completed, fully sold and occupied at sites in Manchester, Salford and North Shields, with other modular homes on sale in Manchester, Birmingham and soon to launch in Cambridge, Walsall, the Wirral and Milton Keynes.

Deborah Vogwell

Head of Development Transformation
Homes England

Deborah is an Architect and Project Manager who has worked on a wide range of public and private sector projects. In recent years she has been responsible for the commercial solutions utilized by Homes England and around 150 other public sector bodies to accelerate development of homes. She is passionate about developing processes that enable the public and private sector to work together effectively..

She has also worked in value and risk management consultancy and has developed approaches for stakeholder management in construction projects, all of which have provided her with a broad view of the sheer complexity and number of people involved in any built environment project and of what does and does not work.

She is currently busy finalising Homes England’s new Delivery Partner Dynamic Purchasing system, a flexible and long term procurement solution valued at £20bn, which will open for applications at the end of the month.

Jamie Parr

Director & Founder
BD Solutions

Jamie founded BD Solutions in 2017 after spotting a gap in the market for impartial, honest and agnostic advice on Offsite & Modern Methods of Construction. With the drive to do things ‘better’, he draws on his experience and lateral thinking skills to unlock complex issues and simplify them for his clients. With over 14 years of construction sector experience in a technical & commercial capacity for built environment focused organizations, including an Offsite manufacturer and Architectural Practice.

Jamie also operates in an interim capacity as Project and Research Lead for Buildoffsite, the leading membership association for the Offsite sector with over 150 member organizations from across the construction sector, including major players, client and government bodies.

He is regularly invited to speak at industry events & webinars as a leading commentator on the sector and is involved in several MMC working groups. He was a credited contributor to the Housing Forum, MMC Affordable Housing report and is the founder of ‘The Offsite Collective’ an innovative multi-disciplinary hub set up to share knowledge, resources and develop new working practices.

Tara Gbolade

Co-Founder
Gbolade Design Studio

Tara Gbolade is co-director of award-winning Gbolade Design Studio which specialises in residential and mixed-use developments for public and private sector clients through insight-led place-making. She sits on a few Design Review Panels including RBKC, Merton, and Lambeth where she advises the council on major planning applications.

With her expertise in sustainability, Tara works with Local Authorities including the Harlow & Gilston Garden Town where she leads the development of their Sustainability Guidance; setting the ambition and standards for Environmental & Socio-Economic sustainability; ensuring that high quality sustainable design is embedded within new developments, and, in the regeneration of existing communities.

Matt Warren

Head of Digital Engineering, Integrated Solutions, Europe
Lendlease

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Edward Jezeph

Senior Investments Manager
Homes England

Edward is a Chartered Surveyor and finance professional with a background in real estate equity investment, agency and finance. Edward is passionate about the digital transformation of housing and construction; he is currently supporting Homes England’s productivity strategy and the industry’s adoption of MMC. Recently at Homes England, Edward has structured and deployed £150m of housing infrastructure loans, development finance, equity investments and lending alliances, leveraging a further £600m of private capital into housing.

Mark Robinson

Chair
High Street Task Force

Mark is an award-winning entrepreneur and investor in town centres, having co-founded the developer Ellandi in 2008. At Ellandi, Mark has helped lead its mission to create the UK’s most inclusive and sustainable communities, raising over £1.5bn pounds to invest in more than 30 communities across the UK and Northern Ireland, from Enniskillen to Folkestone.

In a career over 25 years Mark has worked for both owners and occupiers of town centre properties and in 2019 was President of Revo; a leading membership body that represents the interests of owners, occupiers and local authorities in promoting thriving retail places. During this time, he successfully led an initiative to broaden the membership base to embrace the public sector and the launch of the Diploma in Retail and Leisure Place Management in partnership with Solent University.
Ellandi has sponsored the Great British High Street and Mark was a judge in 2019; over the years a number of Ellandi projects have enthusiastically entered and were proud to be shortlisted. Ellandi projects have also been recognised with numerous awards for diversity, design, customer service, marketing, community impact and sustainability on a national and international basis.

Mark is a regular commentator on town centre issues in both industry and national media, including The Times, FT and the BBC. He is an in demand public speaker often covering topics such as The Need/Opportunity for Change in Town Centres and Public/Private Partnerships.

Rebeca Guzman Vidal

Group Head of Retail Strategy
Chelsfield Group

James Cons

Managing Director
Leslie Jones Architecture

James Cons is an architect, he holds a Diploma in Project Management from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Master of Business Administration in Construction and Real Estate and is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

As Managing Director of Leslie Jones, James provides leadership and project direction for both clients and colleagues alike. James is passionate about our town and city centres and the challenges that are being faced through the decline of retail in particular. He is heavily involved in the current debate on our urban futures, commenting: “Such speedy change is challenging the ability of our infrastructure, built environment, policies and occupational models to keep up. Town centres and their stakeholders must find ways to react to this change in the short and medium term such that their long-term strategies might be informed and able to accommodate the way in which we will be living, working and playing in the future.”

James is a keen exponent of collaboration, leading the Urbankind initiative which seeks to bring together appropriate skills focused on improving the futures of our urban centres. James comments further; “Those that succeed in rapidly re-defining their relevance to the changing world and the nature of the communities they serve will thrive.”

James joined Leslie Jones in 1993, having previously worked for the global retail design consultancy, Fitch. He became an Associate Partner of the practice in 2000, a Director in 2005 following incorporation of the practice and then Managing Director in 2013. With a heritage in retail design James has been an active member of this community having chaired the Revo Gold Awards in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Shamik Narotam

Managing Director
Morgan Stanley Real Assets

Shamik Narotam is an Executive Director in Morgan Stanley’s real estate private equity division (MSREI) having worked there for the last 12 years. Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI) is the global private real estate investment management arm of Morgan Stanley. As at the end of 2018 MSREI had $33bln under management and is one of the worlds largest investors in Real Estate. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Shamik was a structural engineer AKT and graduated from Imperial College. He holds an MBA from London Business School.

Bruce Findlay

Managing Director - Retail, Shopping Centres & Retail Parks Portfolio Management
Landsec

Bruce joined Landsec in December 2020 as Managing Director for Retail. Bruce has over 25 years of consumer brand experience where he’s developed his operational leadership and strategic management skills.

He brings a global perspective from his most recent roles; Chief Commercial Officer of Furla and prior to that as the VP Global Retail for Diesel, where he led the brand’s Direct to Consumer business through its transformation from a traditional wholesale manufacturer to a modern Omni-channel retailer.

Lord Bob Kerslake

Chair
The UK2070 Commission

Lord Kerslake is Chair of Peabody, Chair of Be First (Barking and Dagenham Council’s regeneration company), Chair of Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation, Chair of the London Collective Investment Vehicle (London CIV), Chair of Sheffield Theatres, Chair of Sheffield Hallam University, Chair of the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS), Chair of the New Economics Foundation and President of the Local Government Association (LGA).

In addition to this, he chairs the UK2070 Commission, an independent inquiry into city and regional inequalities in the UK.

Prior to these roles, Lord Kerslake was Head of the Civil Service, Permanent Secretary of DCLG and served as Chief Executive for Sheffield City Council and the London Borough of Hounslow.

Nicola Free

Managing Director - Head of Real Estate Finance, EMEA (London)
HSBC Bank plc

Nicola is Head of Real Estate Finance for EMEA with responsibility for driving the real estate lending strategy with teams in London, Paris, Dusseldorf and Dubai.

Nicola joined HSBC in 2018 and has over 20 years’ experience in the industry gained in major UK, Global and US institutions covering their real estate lending activities across Europe.

Nicola has diverse experience having worked on origination, structuring, credit analysis, execution, syndication, CMBS distribution and loan and bond re-structurings. She is also a qualified lawyer.

Ben Page

Chief Executive
Ipsos MORI

Ben Page is Chief Executive of Ipsos MORI. He joined MORI in 1987 after graduating from Oxford University in 1986, and was one of the leaders of its first management buyout in 2000. A frequent writer and speaker on trends, leadership and performance management, he has directed thousands of surveys examining consumer trends and citizen behaviour.

From 1987-1992 Ben worked in our private sector business on corporate reputation and consumer research, working for companies like Shell, BAE Systems, Sky TV and IBM. Since 1992 he has worked closely with both Conservative and Labour ministers and senior policy makers across government, leading on work for Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health, as well as a wide range of local authorities and NHS Trusts.

He became Chief Executive of Ipsos in the UK and Ireland in 2009.

Ben is a Visiting Professor at Kings College London, and a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. He sits on the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) at UKRI. He serves on advisory groups at the Kings Fund, and the Social Market Foundation (SMF), and is a Trustee at the Centre for London and at the Centre for Ageing Better, as well as a patron of Create Streets. He recently served as a commissioner on the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission. He is a Council member of the CBI for London. Ben was named one of GQ’s 100 Most Connected Men of 2015.

He regularly appears on national TV and radio programmes.