This page lists influential figures in urban design, planning and sustainability - including some of the world’s leading experts on climate change. All were involved in the CABE-led Hothouse event in October 2007 - but you can use this page as an information resource.

Experts A-Z

• Richard Alderton

  

  Richard Alderton heads the planning and development unit at Ashford Borough Council. He started his career at the Greater London Council, and worked at two London boroughs (Camden and Haringey) before joining Ashford Borough Council as local plans team leader. Since joining Ashford changes have come thick and fast, including an international railway station, the choice of route for the Channel Tunnel rail link, and rapidly increasing levels of housing growth.

  More recently, with the identification of the town as a government growth area, Richard has been closely involved in work to identify suitable levels of growth, co-ordinating the masterplanning process and now in major project delivery. Richard is a regular speaker at events and is an IDeA peer reviewer.

• Alan Barber

  

  Dr Alan Barber is a consultant specialising in strategic approaches to the planning and management of urban parks and green spaces. Alan has worked with many city authorities including Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Melbourne and Hannover.

  His book, Green Future, is the product of his appointment as Simon Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Alan is a member of the editorial boards for Managing Leisure, an international journal, and for Green Places, now the established journal for parks and public space planners and managers. He is also a member of GreenSpace North West steering committee, the Green Flag Awards advisory board, and is the independent assessor for London’s Royal Parks.

  Alan is a CABE commissioner. He is a member of the CABE Space advisory committee, the regional committee, acting as champion for the North West region, and is closely involved in CABE initiatives on the adaptation of urban environments to climate change.

• Nick Barley

  

  Nick Barley is director of The Lighthouse.

  Nick became director of the Lighthouse at the beginning of 2008, having completed a three-year stint as editor of Scottish cultural magazine, The List. Alongside that he ran a publishing and graphic design company, August Projects, which has published around 50 books on architecture, urbanism and design including Breathing Cities: the architecture of movement (edited by Nick). As part of his work with August, Nick contributed to editorial redesigns of magazines including New Scientist and Music Week, as well as curating several major touring exhibitions for the British Council, including Hometime, an exhibition of British design that toured China. Prior to this, Nick was publisher of Blueprint, Eye and Tate.

  During his first year at The Lighthouse, Nick has overseen the inaugural Six Cities Design Festival, a £3 million Scotland-wide celebration of design consisting of exhibitions, seminars, lectures and a conference, attended by more than 300,000 visitors.

• Irena Bauman

  

  Irena Bauman is a co-founder of Bauman Lyons Architects Ltd. Bauman Lyons is committed to experimenting with new design processes.

  Irena has extensive experience leading complex projects and large regeneration teams. Her practice leads on low-carbon design with schemes such as Tower Works in Leeds. She is the author of a book to be published in Spring 2008 entitled How to be a Happy Architect.

  Irena sits on the Leeds architecture and design initiative, and acts as an external examiner for Sheffield and Newcastle Schools of Architecture. She is an advocate to Yorkshire Forward and design review panel member for Sheffield and Hull. Her work has been widely published and received architectural awards. She has led several collaborative projects with artists, writers, photographers and sound artists.

  Irena is a CABE commissioner. She is chair of CABE’s regional committee, a member of its operations committee, enabling commissioner and champion for Yorkshire & Humber.

• Alex Bax

  Alex Bax is senior policy advisor to the Mayor of London.

  Alex’s role includes leading on the planning policy aspects of climate change and delivery of strategic development projects in London. He chairs the Mayor’s new zero carbon housing group and the east London green grid board. He leads for the Mayor on European regional development funds. In 2005, Alex initiated the climate change-led further alterations to the London Plan.

  Alex is also the Mayor’s health policy advisor. He recently became a board member of the NHS London Provider Agency. For five years up to 2005 Alex was a senior policy officer at the Greater London Authority, working across planning policy, new technology, social exclusion, the environment, alcohol and drugs, and the night-time economy.

  From 1993 to 2000 he was assistant to the chief executive of the London Research Centre, working across economic, social and environmental policy issues facing London.

• Joyce Bridges

  

  Joyce Bridges CBE has wide experience in central government in urban policy, regeneration and planning. She held director-level posts in the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Government Office for London.

  Since leaving the civil service in 2002 she has provided advice to Yorkshire Forward, the Heritage Lottery Fund and various government departments. She is an English Heritage commissioner and chairs its London advisory committee.

  Joyce is a CABE commissioner. She is chair of CABE’s research reference group, chair of its planning forum, an enabling commissioner and champion for the West Midlands and on government policy and advice.

• Kelvin Campbell

  

  Kelvin Campbell is a director and founding partner of Urban Initiatives.

  He has overall responsibility for urban design and development planning matters within the practice. He has over 25 years’ experience in major urban development and regeneration projects in the UK and abroad. This includes masterplanning of residential, commercial and mixed use development; socio-economic and major transportation programmes; city centre revitalisation; arts, media and cultural strategies; waterfront, public realm, area identity and branding; and conservation projects.

  Within the practice, he takes a lead role in strategic planning and design direction, briefing, project coordination, impact assessment and communication.

• Anthea Case

  

  Anthea Case CBE was chief executive of the National Heritage Memorial Fund/Heritage Lottery Fund for nine years until 2002. She is a member of the regional cultural consortium for the East of England (Living East), as well as a member of the National Trust’s East of England regional advisory committee, a trustee of Norwich Heritage and Economic Regeneration Trust and of the Lakeland Arts Trust. She is also the director of the Arcadia Trust.

  Anthea was awarded a CBE for services to heritage in 2003.

  Anthea is a CABE commissioner. She is chair of CABE’s audit committee, a member of the remuneration and operations committees and a member of the CABE Space advisory committee. She is heritage champion and a champion for the East of England region.

• Lynne Ceeney

  Lynne Ceeney is associate director and head of the sustainable communities team at BRE. She has worked in neighbourhood regeneration, local and regional government, and managed a national project delivering advice to small businesses.

  With over 15 years’ experience in the sustainability field, Lynne has worked for public and private sector clients. She is responsible for the creation of regional sustainability checklists for development, and advises clients on the sustainability of plans and proposals. She helps public sector clients to produce appropriate sustainable development policy for planning, procurement and practice.

  Prior to joining BRE, Lynne was responsible for a regeneration project in a neighbourhood of inner-city Bradford, managed a borough-wide environmental access project for disabled people and had a policy role at York Council.

  In regional government, Lynne had responsibility for environmental and sustainable development policy, including a strategic regional sustainable development framework. She also managed and supported the regional sustainability commission, a public-private-voluntary sector group.

• Richenda Connell

  

  Dr Richenda Connell is chief technical officer and co-founder of Acclimatise, a specialist risk management company that assists businesses in adapting to the threats, costs and opportunities of climate change.

  Richenda advises large businesses on how to ‘climate-proof’ their activities and assets, bringing cutting-edge adaptation practice into the boardroom and project level decision-making. She also works with pension funds, banks, insurers and law firms on managing climate risks across their portfolios.

  Richenda sits on the steering committee of the urban climate change research network, an international grouping bringing cutting-edge research on climate risks for cities into urban-scale decision-making.

  Richenda was senior scientist then technical director at the world-leading UK climate impacts programme, leading its work on adaptation in English regions. She managed a major research programme addressing climate change risks to the built environment. She has worked extensively with the UK government on adaptation, including helping to develop the adaptation policy framework and the adaptation components of the framework for sustainable development on the government estate.

• Wulf Daseking

  

  Wulf Daseking has been the director of the city planning office in Freiburg, Germany, since 1984.

  For six years before that, he held a similar role at Müllheim/Ruhr. At Freiburg, Wulf is responsible for urban development, land development, landscape planning, masterplan development and individual projects. He is a member of the Architects CouncilBaden/Württemberg, an associate member of the German Federation of Architects, a member of the German Academy of Urban and Rural Development/Berlin and a member of the expert committee city planning of the German Congress of Cities. Wulf is also a lecturer in city planning at Freiburg University and at Darmstadt/University of Architecture.

• Garrett Emmerson

  

  Garrett Emmerson is director of Steer Davies Gleave and a commissioner at the Commission for Integrated Transport.

• Andy Ford

  

  Professor Andy Ford is a partner with Fulcrum Consulting.

  Andy was a founding partner of the award-winning practice in 1984 and has worked on a number of ground-breaking UK buildings, including Brighton Library, the Prime Minister’s Better Building Award winner in 2005.

  Andy’s speciality lies within sustainable low-energy design solutions for the built environment and his work has taken a more specific focus in responding to the challenge of climate change.

  Andy is a research manager for the UK government in over 30 projects. He has worked with the Department for Education and Skills, delivering two exemplar school designs. He is a member of The Edge, a group dedicated to addressing important political, social and professional issues that affect the built environment and breaking down the barriers between professions. As a CABE enabler, Andy speaks on low energy and sustainable building design to industry bodies.

• Bill Gething

  

  Bill Gething is a partner with Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects.

  Bill has been the RIBA president’s sustainability advisor since 2003 and chairs the RIBA sustainable futures committee. He is also chair of the BRE sustainability board and sits on the Architects Council of Europe taskforce on the environment and sustainable architecture.

  He has been involved with many of the projects that have contributed to Feilden Clegg Bradley’s reputation for sustainable design, including the Oxstalls Campus at the University of Gloucestershire, the headquarters of Rare Ltd and the New Environmental Office, BRE. He has responsibility for the practice's research work in Bath and has done specific work on the use of photovoltaics.

  He is a visiting professor of sustainability at the University of Bath, a member of the Carbon Trust accreditation board and a member of the steering panel for the joint EPSRC and Carbon Trust carbon vision research programme.

• Benjamin Gill

  

  Ben Gill is director of Bioregional Consulting Ltd. He has worked on a range of consultancy projects, developing sustainability action plans for clients, including DEFRA; looking at both community developments and management of businesses; assessing the biomass supply chain for London and the sustainability proposals of developers for local authorities.

  Ben has worked in the construction sector, designing energy-efficient school buildings and working on urban renewable energy. He also worked at Waste Watch; on awareness raising in schools and local authorities about waste reduction.

  Ben has worked in an off-grid environmental research and education centre in Spain, running the appropriate technology department; researching low-impact technologies and maintaining the on site ram pump, solar water heaters and wind turbine. His experience is complemented by running a 15-acre smallholding where he planted and manages woodland, and an MSc in environmental technology, with a thesis on the social and environmental impacts of renewable energy technologies.

• Piers Gough

  

  Piers Gough CBE is principal of CZWG Architects LLP, which has a track record of designing schemes in urban locations, many featuring residential accommodation. The practice was founded in 1975.

  Principal buildings include China Wharf, Cascades, and many subsequent buildings in London’s Docklands; Clerkenwell, Soho and Bankside Lofts; Mile End Park Green Bridge, Camden Wharf and The Glass Building; and Westbourne Grove public toilets and flower kiosk. The masterplan for the Gorbals in Glasgow has won universal acclaim as an exemplar of inner-city regeneration.

  Piers is a former English Heritage commissioner and sat on its Stonehenge committee, having previously been a member of its London advisory committee and the urban panel run jointly with CABE. He sat on the urban design group set up by the London Docklands Development Corporation.

  Piers has lectured extensively in Europe, America and China, and contributed regularly to the architectural press, radio and magazines. He is the design champion for Kent County Council.

  Piers is a CABE commissioner. He is co-chair of CABE’s design review panel and its joint housing champion.

• Diane Haigh

  

  Diane Haigh has been director of architecture and design review at CABE since September 2007.

  She joined CABE from Allies and Morrison, where she worked for 11 years, becoming a director in 2006. She played a key role in the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall and in the design of the newly opened Astronomy Centre at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. She was also involved in conservation projects, such as the reopening of Blackwell in Cumbria and sensitive insertions at the Queen’s House, Greenwich, new buildings such as the English Faculty at Cambridge University, and major urban design schemes.

  Earlier in her career she was partner in a small Cambridge-based practice, William Fawcett and Diane Haigh Architects, and before that worked for Freeland Rees Roberts Architects, Cambridge Design and Foster Associates. She has held research and teaching posts at Cambridge and Hong Kong Universities and maintains her involvement in teaching as director of studies for architecture at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Her postgraduate research focussed on environmental issues in which she has a long-term interest. She is also known for her book on the Arts and Crafts architects, M.H. Baillie Scott.

• Cindy Harris

  Cindy Harris works for the Design Commission for Wales (DCFW) and is an honorary member of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales. She has worked at the Centre for Alternative Technology for many years as construction project manager and environmental consultant, and is an expert on the environmental impacts of building materials. She has a degree in sociology and a City & Guilds in carpentry and joinery.

  Cindy has lectured on sustainable design and construction, from the general public to post-graduate level, and has helped develop course material in the UK ands in Australia. Cindy has co-written two books published by CAT Publications:

  Out of the Woods: Ecological Design for Timber Frame Self Build, and

  The Whole House Book. She has been head of design review at DCFW, and a full member of the design review panel specialising in sustainability issues since 2004.

• Chris Hewitt

  Chris Hewitt is head of climate change at the Environment Agency

  Chris leads for the Environment Agency on climate change issues. The role is to help the organisation integrate climate change into its own policy and operations, as well as advise government on the impact of climate change. Previously a senior research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research leading the sustainability programme.

• Nick Johnson

  

  Nick Johnson is deputy chief executive of Manchester-based urban regeneration company Urban Splash. Over the last 10 years he has been responsible for Britannia Basin in Castlefield, Manchester, and he leads the project team for New Islington, Manchester’s Millennium Community, and Park Hill, Sheffield, Europe’s largest listed building.

  Prior to joining Urban Splash, Nick founded Johnson Urban Development Consultants, where he advised private and public sector clients on a variety of regeneration projects. He assisted Urban Splash on the grant funding of Concert Square, Liverpool, and became a director in 1994.

  Nick is a distinguished Visiting Fellow of Architecture at Yale University and chair of Marketing Manchester.

  Nick is a CABE commissioner. He is CABE’s joint housing champion and sits on its audit committee.

• Hanif Kara

  

  Hanif Kara is a structural engineer and co-founder and director of Adams Kara Taylor Ltd, the design-led structural and civil engineering consultancy. As design director, he has worked on award-winning projects throughout Europe. His projects have included Peckham Library and the National Trust headquarters in Swindon, which won 17 design awards, and the Phaeno Science Centre in Germany.

  Hanif is a long-standing visiting lecturer at the Architectural Association, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cornell University and has recently been appointed as Professor of Architectural Technology at Kungliga Tekniska Hogskölan (KTH), Stockholm.

  Hanif is a CABE commissioner. He is co-chair of CABE’s design review panel and sits on its education and skills sub-committee. He is also a member of CABE’s London 2012 design review panel.

• Andy Karski

  

  Andy Karski is principal with Tibbalds.

  Andy is a highly experienced town planner and urban designer who specialises in planning policy, appeals and strategic masterplanning. He has worked on projects at every stage of the planning and urban design process and provides advice to a wide range of commercial and public sector clients.

• Paul King

  

  Paul King became the first chief executive of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) in May 2007. The UKGBC seeks to improve the sustainability of the built environment. Paul worked for environmental NGO WWF-UK for over 12 years, where he headed the corporate sponsorship team, led the business and consumption policy team on issues including climate change, toxic chemicals, timber trade, tourism, and socially responsible investment.

  Paul was a member of the Egan review of skills for sustainable communities taskforce and the sustainable buildings task group. He was actively involved in the code for sustainable homes steering group. He became director of campaigns for WWF-UK in 2006.

  He is a member of the zero carbon homes 2016 task force and the sustainability of new non-domestic buildings steering group convened by Communities and Local Government in 2007.

  Paul was a co-founder of One Planet Living, a joint WWF/BioRegional initiative, and co-authored a book with the same title.

• Gary Lawrence

  

  Gary Lawrence is principal and global leader for urban strategy at Arup, the global consulting and engineering firm, in the United States.

  As urban strategies leader for Arup, Gary provides thought leadership for strategic urban development throughout the firm's 87 global offices. Gary's roots are firmly planted in the Pacific Northwest. As Redmond City Manager, Gary turned the first shovel of dirt on the development of Microsoft's campus. Then, as planning director for the City of Seattle, he led development of Toward a Sustainable Seattle, the first sustainability-focused municipal comprehensive plan in the world. National and international recognition of his work followed and Gary has subsequently served as advisor to the Clinton administration's Council on Sustainable Development, the UN's Habitat II, the US Agency for International Development, the Brazilian President's Office, the British Prime Minister's office, the European Academy for the Urban Environment in Berlin, and the Organisation for Economic and Community Development (Paris) on sustainable development and environmental policy.

  Gary's speeches and publications have formed the basis for the development of much of the current thinking on sustainable development and he is acknowledged by Wally N'Dow, the then UN Secretary General of Habitat, as having authored 'the single most important contribution to the entire habitat process.'

  Despite his international recognition, no-one has ever been able to lure Gary away from the Pacific Northwest. Leading Arup's urban strategies consulting practice out of the Seattle office, he drives Arup's vision to create communities that address human need and environmental limitations. Gary is actively involved in the local and national chapters of the Urban Land Institute, the American Planning Association, and the US Smart Growth Leadership Council. In Bellingham, Gary serves as adjunct professor at Huxley College of Environmental Studies at Western Washington University.

  With its origins as consulting engineers, Arup is a global leader delivering innovative, practical design solutions to challenges in the built environment. Founded in 1946, Arup today is at work in its 87 offices and 38 countries around the world. Its 9,500 engineers, designers, planners, and scientists are committed to their founder's vision of shaping a better world for the citizens of today and tomorrow.

• Bob Ledsome

  Bob Ledsome is deputy director and head of the climate change and sustainable development team at Communities and Local Government. The team is leading on the zero carbon homes policy, set out in the Building a Greener Future statement published in July 2007.

  During his career in Communities and Local Government and its predecessor departments, Bob has worked on planning legislation and European programmes. Before then he worked in the Health and Safety Executive. He started his civil service career in the Department for Employment.

• MJ Long

  

  MJ Long is an architect and a senior partner of Long & Kentish, whose recent projects include the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, and Pallant House Gallery in Chichester. Projects also include the British Library Centre for Conservation, and a number of schemes in the west country.

  She has taught for many years at Yale University School of Architecture, and has acted as external examiner at a number of British schools of architecture.

  MJ is a CABE commissioner. She is chair of CABE’s design review programme, and a member of its operations committee and education and skills advisory group. She is a champion for the South West region.

• Ellen MacArthur

  

  Ellen MacArthur is a solo long-distance yachtswoman who, in 2005, broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe.

  Since completing her round-the-world trip, she has set up a charity, the Ellen MacArthur Trust. The trust takes young people aged between eight-18, sailing to help them regain their confidence, on their way to recovery from cancer, leukaemia and other serious illness.

  Dame Ellen has committed to campaign for more sustainable living. She says: “The big challenge… is how to continue to develop, evolve and do exciting and rewarding projects in a way which is sustainable.”

• Helen Marriage

  

  Helen Marriage is director of Artichoke.

  Helen Marriage, with co-director Nicky Webb, founded Artichoke in 2002. Producers of spectacular live events, Artichoke stunned London with the visit of Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant in May 2006. Other joint projects include the invention of the first arts and events programme at Canary Wharf and the transformation of the Salisbury Festival from a local event into what the Times called ‘a miracle of modern British culture’. Helen’s working life started as a producer at Artsadmin, working with artists as diverse as Mike Figgis and the Bow Gamelan Ensemble. She also worked as an associate producer at the London International Festival of Theatre.

• Lori McElroy

  Lori McElroy has worked in practice and research field for 20 years to improve the energy and environmental performance of the built environment through support and advice to the construction industry and its clients. She is director of the Sust. project on sustainability at the Lighthouse, Glasgow.

  She has advised nationally and internationally on energy, environmental and sustainability and worked for a range of agencies, including the Scottish Executive. At Strathclyde University over 17 years, Lori acted as principal investigator on numerous European research projects. She has brought her expertise to most major architectural design projects seen in Scotland over the last 15 years.

  Lori is immediate Scottish past chair and a national council member of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). She is a board member of Architecture and Design Scotland, an assessor on the RIAS sustainable architecture accreditation scheme and a member of the Scottish sustainable development forum.

• Paul Morrell

  

  Paul Morrell is the deputy chair of CABE.

  Paul is a chartered quantity surveyor, and an Honorary Fellow of the RIBA, and was formerly senior partner of Davis Langdon LLP. He retired from the partnership in 2007, and now practices as an independent consultant on construction economics and procurement. He is a regular conference speaker and columnist on the same subjects.

  He has extensive experience of major construction projects in both the public and private sectors, with a particular emphasis on arts projects and commercial development, and has a special interest in the value that can be created or preserved through good design.

  He was awarded a lifetime achievement award for his outstanding contribution to the construction industry in the 2007 Building Awards, and received the President’s Award from the British Council for Offices in the same year.

  Paul is chair of CABE’s operations committee. He is also a member of its audit committee and champion for the private sector and for London.

• Robin Nicholson

  

  Robin Nicholson CBE is a senior director of Edward Cullinan Architects. He has worked on a range of health, education and regeneration projects in the UK and abroad since joining the practice in 1979. Previously he taught at the Bartlett and PNL and worked for James Stirling in London and Cristian Boza in Chile.

  He was a vice-president of the RIBA (1992-1994), chair of the Construction Industry Council (1998-2000), the M4i (Movement for Innovation) board (1998-2002) and the Egan skills task force. He is a founder member of The Edge and the design quality indicator development group. He sits on the NHBC board.

  Robin is a CABE commissioner. He chairs CABE’s enabling panel. He is also a member of its operations committee and champion for the climate change group and East of England region.

• Ben Page

  

  Ben Page is managing director of the Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute and the Reputation Centre. He joined MORI in 1987 after graduating from Oxford University in 1986, where he studied modern history, including architectural history.

  Ben is a frequent writer and speaker on research and performance management in the public sector. He has directed dozens of surveys for public services. Since 1992 he has worked closely with ministers and senior policymakers across government, leading on work for Downing Street, as well as a wide range of local authorities and NHS Trusts.

  Ben was named one of the ‘100 most influential people in the public sector’ by the Guardian newspaper. He regularly appears on TV and radio as a commentator on public opinion.

  Ben is a CABE commissioner. He chairs the CABE Space advisory committee and serves on CABE’s audit and operations committees. He is a member of its research reference group and champion for public demand and culture change.

• Jonathon Porritt

  

  Jonathon Porritt is the programme director of Forum for the Future and the chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.

  He is an eminent writer, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development. Established in 1996, Forum for the Future is now the UK's leading sustainable development charity, with 70 staff and over 100 partner organisations, including some of the world's leading companies.

  Jonathon was appointed by the Prime Minister as chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission in July 2000. This is the government's principal source of independent advice across the whole sustainable development agenda. In addition, he has been a member of the board of the South West Regional Development Agency since December 1999 and is co-director of the Prince of Wales's business and environment programme, which runs senior executives' seminars in Cambridge, Salzburg, South Africa and the USA. In 2005 he became a non-executive director of Wessex Water, and a trustee of the Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy. He is also vice-president of the Socialist Environment Resources Association (SERA).

  He was formerly director of Friends of the Earth (1984-90); co-chair of the Green Party (1980-83) of which he is still a member; chairman of UNED-UK (1993-96); chair of Sustainability South West, the South West Round Table for Sustainable Development (1999-2001); and a trustee of WWF UK (1991-2005).

• Jason Prior

  

  Jason Prior is an urban designer, landscape architect and environmental planner. He is president of EDAW and has been a principal and director of EDAW for 12 years, specialising in urban regeneration and the design of public open space. Recent projects include the design of the London 2012 Olympic masterplan and Olympic Park.

  Jason is a CABE commissioner. He is chair of CABE’s inclusive environments group, a member of the CABE Space advisory committee, an enabling commissioner and champion for the South East region.

• Jill Rutter

  Jill Rutter joined the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in February 2004 to head a new directorate with responsibility for departmental strategy and sustainable development. Her team produced the UK sustainable development strategy, Securing the Future, published in March 2005, and undertook DEFRA’s strategy refresh for David Miliband in 2006. She spent the previous six years working at BP in a variety of posts including helping to design BP’s internal pilot emissions trading scheme. Before joining BP, the bulk of her career was in HM Treasury, with posts including tax policy and international debt and local government finance, as well as running the chief secretary’s private office and being the chancellor’s press secretary. She also spent a two-year spell in the prime minister’s policy unit, where her responsibilities included environment and health policy.

• Yvonne Rydin

  

  Professor Yvonne Rydin is professor of planning, environment and public policy at University College London’s Bartlett School of Planning. She chairs the lead expert group for the DBERR Foresight project on sustainable energy management and the built environment.

  She has extensive knowledge of environmental policy, governance and sustainability issues at the urban level. Her recent research projects include a project for HEFCE’s higher education innovation fund on sustainable construction and planning in London as well as EU FRP projects on: the economic and cultural conditions of decision-making for the sustainable city; and the implementation of local sustainability indicators.

  Other work within London has involved study of institutional change and interest representation concerning planning for sustainability in the early days of the Greater London Authority. Her interests extend to community engagement on sustainable development, ranging from understanding the collective action problem in theoretical terms to developing practical solutions.

• Michael Schwarze-Rodrian

  

  Michael Schwarze-Rodrian was the director of the masterplan for Emscher Landschaftspark 2010, in Essen, Germany.

  Michael is project manager at Wirtschaftsförderung metropoleruhr and GmbH. He is a German landscape planner with international expertise and knowledge of sustainable urban development, brownfield redevelopment, industrial landscapes, industrial heritage and regional parks.

  He studied and worked as a scientific assistant at the Institute of Landscape-Economy at the Technical University of Berlin. Since the 1980s he has lived and worked in the Ruhr Region and has been involved in planning and moderating the Emscher Landschaftspark regional park system. From 1987 to 2001 he worked at the Kommunalverband Ruhrgebiet (KVR), the assembly of the local authorities in the Ruhr Region. In the 1990s he was the coordinator between the KVR the International Building Exhibition Emscher Park and the director of the KVR planning department.

  From 2001 to 2006 he was the director of the 2010 Emscher Landschaftspark masterplan at the state agency Projekt Ruhr GmbH in Essen. This masterplan has coordinated and moderated 20 cities and several regional organisations to create an attractive and sustainable urban landscape as a unique potential and result of the economic change of the region. The masterplan, published in January 2006, is now the platform for the second and third decade of the regional park development.

  Since January 2007 Michael has been project manager at the newly founded Regional Business Development Agency metropoleruhr GmbH.

• Fiona Seymour

  Fiona Seymour is head of publicity at the Department for Transport.

  Fiona Seymour has worked in advertising and marketing for 25 years, mainly in the private sector in advertising agencies including Saatchi and Saatchi. For the last five years she has worked in social marketing as a civil servant, initially as a strategic consultant for COI, the government's communications agency, then the Department for Education and Skills. In the last 18 months she has worked for the Department of Transport, leading the THINK! road safety campaign and launching a new campaign designed to change the way people use cars in response to the climate change challenge. This work has been in partnership with other government departments who can influence climate change-related behaviours, particularly Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

• Ken Shuttleworth

  

  Ken Shuttleworth is the founder of Make Architects and a former partner at Foster and Partners. In the course of his career, he has worked on some of the most iconic and groundbreaking buildings in the world, including the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank, Chek Lap Kok Airport and the 30 St Mary Axe tower in London.

  Set up in 2004, Make is a creative and imaginative architectural studio dedicated to designing buildings, spaces and places which are as striking and innovative as they are socially, economically and environmentally responsible.

  Ken is a CABE commissioner. He is chair of CABE’s schools design panel and schools champion. He is also champion for the East Midlands region.

• Canda Smith

  Canda Smith is deputy director - regeneration, land and property at Communities and Local Government.

• John Sorrell

  

  John Sorrell CBE is the chair of CABE.

  John Sorrell was appointed chair of CABE in December 2004. John chaired Newell and Sorrell, one of Europe’s biggest and most successful design companies, between 1976 and 2000. He chaired the Design Council from 1994 to 2000 and is the chair of the London Design Festival, which he originated to celebrate and promote London and the UK’s creativity. He is also co-chair of the Sorrell Foundation, which aims to inspire creativity in young people and improve quality of life through good design.

  John was appointed a CBE in 1996 and was awarded the Royal Society of Arts Bicentenary Medal in 1998. He holds four Honorary Design Doctorates, an Honorary Design Fellowship and is an Honorary Doctor of Philosophy. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2002.

  As well as being chair of the commission, John is chair of CABE’s remuneration committee, a member of the education and skills advisory group, a member of the operations committee and champion for communications and London 2012.

• Deyan Sudjic

  

  Deyan Sudjic is a leading academic, journalist and commentator on architecture and design. He is director of the Design Museum.

  Deyan was formerly dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at the University of Kingston, visiting professor at the Royal College of Art and the Observer newspaper’s design and architecture writer. He was also the director of Glasgow 1999 UK City of Architecture and Design (1996-2000) and directed the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2002. He has curated exhibitions at the British Museum, the Royal Academy and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

  From 2000 to 2004 he was editor of Domus, the international magazine of art, architecture and design, and was founding editor of Blueprint magazine from 1983 to 1996. He has written and edited many books on design and architecture.

  In 2004 Deyan was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was made an OBE in 2000.

  Deyan is a CABE commissioner. He is co-chair of CABE’s design review panel.

• Lynne Sullivan

  Lynne Sullivan is a practising Architect and currently leads large mixed use projects in the Thames Gateway and low-energy workplace and residential projects elsewhere in the UK. She is director of sustainability at Broadway Malyan. Lynne has a track record as project architect of successfully completed award-winning projects including a new community in Dartford, a finalist in the 2007 Housing Design Awards, and the low-energy International Building, Royal Holloway College, winner of an RIBA Regional Design Award in 1999. She was co-author and winner of the RIBA/DETR 1999 Zero CO2 Housing Competition whilst at ECD Architects, and has authored and delivered many papers on the subject of sustainable design. She contributes numerous technical and design review articles to the architectural press and co-wrote a paper on design and renewable energy delivered at the 2006 PLEA Conference at the University of Geneva.

  Lynne is the only practising architect on the government's Building Regulations Advisory Committee, and was the only architect on the government's 2004-5 Sustainable Buildings Taskgroup. She currently chairs the BRAC Working Party on Sustainability, and is a member of BRE Certifications Sustainability Board. She currently chairs the expert panel advising the Scottish government on a low carbon building standards strategy in Scotland, and is a member of the RIBA's climate change programme board, developing a toolkit for Architects to respond to the climate change and sustainability agendas. She is an external examiner at University of Plymouth, Liverpool John Moores University and the Welsh School of Architecture, is an architectural adviser to the RIBA competitions office.

• John Thorp

  

  John Thorp is the civic architect for Leeds City Council.

  John has been in the role since 1996. His work includes the creation and delivery of an urban renaissance for the city and the enabling of high-quality design.

  John has worked for the city in several architectural roles for 37 years.

  He is a member of the CABE’s London 2012 design review panel and was a member of the CABE design review panel for five years. He is also a CABE ‘inspirer’ for schools.

  John is a member of the Leeds Architecture and Design Initiative and ‘Concourse’ (Architecture Centres Network) - bodies which champion and promote inter-sector and inter-disciplinary working in art, architecture, landscape and public space.

• Sir Crispin Tickell

  

  Crispin Tickell GCMG KCVO has been the director of the policy foresight programme in the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at Oxford University since 2006.

  He has been chair of the trustees of the St Andrew's Prize for the environment since 1998 and advisor at large to the President of Arizona State University since 2004.

  Sir Crispin has had over 50 years’ diplomatic experience, including periods as British ambassador to Mexico (1981-83), and as permanent representative to the United Nations and its Security Council (1987-90).

  He is a former president of the Royal Geographical Society, the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection, and the Marine Biological Association. He has been president of the South East England climate change partnership since 2005, was chair of the board of the Climate Institute of Washington DC has been chair emeritus since 2002. He was convenor of the government panel on sustainable development from 1994-2000, chair of the Gaia Society from 1998-2001, chair of the International Institute for Environment and Development from 1990-94, chair of Earthwatch Europe from 1991-97, chair of the advisory committee on the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species from 1992-99, chair of the advisory committee on the environment of the International Council for Science from 1999-2004, and senior inaugural visiting fellow at Harvard University Center for the Environment from 2002-2003.

  He has written numerous publications on climate change, including Climatic Change and World Affairs, Harvard University (1977; Pergamon Press 1978). He has contributed to many books and papers, including Sustaining Earth: Response to the Environmental Threats (1990), Greenhouse Glasnost (1990); Sustainable Development and the Energy Industries (1994); Managing the Earth (2002); Scientists Debate Gaia (2004).

  Sir Crispin has wide experience of radio and television, including Desert Island Discs (1990), The Doomsday Letters, Breakfast with Frost, ITN and ITV news, BBC and BBC World Service interviews.

  He has numerous non-executive company directorships and agency trusteeships. He was a member of the Environmental Advisory Council of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1991-94 and again from 1999-2005. He was a member of the government task force on urban regeneration (1998-99), a member of the government task force on potentially hazardous near earth objects (2000) – for which he was honoured with the re-naming of a minor planet as "5971 Tickell" - a member of the government round table on sustainable development (1994-2000) and advisor to British Antarctic Survey since 1998. He has been a trustee of the Reuters Foundation since 2000 and a trustee of TERI Europe since 2003.

  Sir Crispin holds several honorary doctorates, fellowships and lectureships at universities in the UK and abroad. He was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 2000. He was a member of the Global 500: roll of honour for environmental achievement of the United Nations Environment Programme in 1991; received a global environmental leadership award at the Climate Institute of Washington DC in 1996. He has been awarded for his work on the environment and development in China.

• Chris Twinn

  

  Chris Twinn is a director of Ove Arup & Partners and co-leader of the Arup’s sustainability group in building engineering, London.

  He has spent some 25 years in the industry concentrating on the design and delivery of environmentally aware and sustainability related projects. With a background in architectural engineering, his professional qualifications were in building services, before moving into multi-discipline design, building physics and sustainability. He has a special interest in the planning system and its relationship to sustainability.

  Chris is a member of CABE’s design review panel, the RIBA sustainable futures committee, and numerous other professional committees. His project involvement include Kingspan Lighthouse zero carbon house, Dongtan EcoCity, Thames Gateway zero carbon feasibility, Gallions Park, Ashford ZED, King’s Cross Central, Stratford City, Portcullis House, Westminster and the BedZED project.

• Lorna Walker

  

  Lorna Walker is managing director of Lorna Walker Consulting Ltd, which concentrates on strategic and practical design consultations in sustainable development and urban regeneration. A director at Ove Arup and Partners from 1989 to 2004, she is a recognised authority in the fields of sustainable development, urban regeneration, water quality and waste treatment.

  Lorna was a member of Lord Rogers’ urban task force, a member of the sustainable development committee of the International Federation of Consulting Engineers, FIDIC, and a lead expert on the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills Foresight programme on sustainable energy management in the built environment.

  She is also a Royal Academy of Engineering visiting professor in engineering design for sustainable development at the University of Sheffield, and was recently recognised for her contribution to engineering and sustainable development with an honorary Doctorate of Engineering degree.

  Lorna is a CABE commissioner. She is chair of CABE’s education and skills group, a member of its operations committee and champion for health.

• Steve Waller

  Steve Waller is sustainability advisor for IDeA, the Improvement and Development Agency.

• Mark Watts

  

  Mark Watts is the Mayor's of London’s chief advisor on climate change. His brief also covers transport, air quality and some aspects of social policy.

  Mark led the development of the Mayor’s recently published London climate change action plan, which sets out how the city will achieve a 60 per cut in carbon emissions by 2025. This includes improving the energy efficiency of homes and offices; moving London’s energy supply from the national grid to a more efficient decentralised system based on combined heat and power; and continuing successful public transport policies, including a new £25 a day emissions charge for the most carbon polluting cars entering central London.

  Mark also leads on the development of a climate change adaptation plan for London, which will consider how London adapts to climate change. He is the lead officer in the Mayor’s office for all matters relating to the C40 climate change leadership group and its partnership with the Clinton climate initiative.

• Megan Wheatley

  

  Megan Wheatley is head of policy at the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy. The council brings together the chief executives of the major energy companies in the UK to progress the sustainable energy agenda and accelerate the move towards a competitive, low-carbon economy.

  Megan leads the development and communicates to government the position of the major energy companies in the UK on a range of key policy areas.

  Prior to coming to the UK, Megan worked in Australia, where she led the development and implementation of a range of projects to drive the uptake of energy efficiency, and renewable and distributed energy across the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. Highlights include engagement with local authorities and planner on wind energy issues and managing a domestic behaviour change campaign on energy use

  Megan lives in Sheffield, and is pleased to reside in a city with the largest district heating network in the UK.