DANNA WALKER

Danna Walker is the founder and director of Built By Us - a social enterprise and an elected board member of the Architects Registration Board. Her career spans over 25 years in the construction and built environment sector and has encompassed a variety of roles from an electrician to Architect and strategic projects lead at the Construction Industry Council. She is a diversity and mentoring champion who chaired the RIBA’s Architects for Change Advisory Group for 6 years and founded the innovative FLUID Diversity Mentoring Programme, designed to provide support for practitioners seeking career progression. A finalist in the Precious Awards 2015, which celebrates the achievements of women of colour, Danna champions a more inclusive built environment and construction industry.

Director

JULES PIPE

As Deputy Mayor of London for Planning, Regeneration & Skills Jules is working on key priorities for the city, including: revision of the London Plan, major regeneration projects across the capital, ensuring London’s infrastructure needs are delivered to benefit all Londoners, and building a skills system that properly addresses the needs of young people and the economy. Jules has an 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.

Chair

LUCY MUSGRAVE

Lucy Musgrave is the founding director of Publica, a London-based practice that specialises in strategies and design for public space, urban design and masterplanning. Over a 25-year career, Lucy has played a key advisory role in policy recommendations, strategic planning and the advocacy of design quality. She is currently a Mayor’s Design Advocate and sits on the Mayor’s Night Time Commission and the Sounding Board for the Mayor’s Public London Charter. Lucy is a member of the Barbican Centre 
Board and the National Infrastructure Commission's Shadow Design Group and Expert Advisory Group. Lucy is regularly invited to sit on the jury for International Design Competitions, including for the new Centre for Music, the Museum of London West Smithfield and the Illuminated River. Lucy is a co-author Design and Landscape for People: New Approaches to Renewal. She was previously Director of the Architecture Foundation.

Director

MEETA KAUR

Meeta Kaur is a chartered town planner and a UK qualified planning solicitor. She is a founding partner of Town Legal LLP, a specialist planning law firm. Before joining Town, Meeta was a planning solicitor at city law firm King and Wood Mallesons (formerly SJ Berwin) and prior to that a planning officer at Westminster Council. She has many years’ experience in advising on a wide range of development schemes of all types and scale, including urban extensions. However, her specialism is large scale mixed-use redevelopment and regeneration schemes, both in London and across the country. Meeta has been involved with the Royal Town Planning Institute at both a regional and national level for over 20 years and is currently on the board of trustees of the RTPI and chair of the Membership and Ethics Committee.

Director

POOJA AGRAWAL

Pooja Agrawal is an architect working in the GLA Regeneration Team and managing the Mayor’s Good Growth by Design Programme. Prior to joining the GLA, Pooja has worked for architecture practices Publica and We Made That. She is a trustee of the Museum of Architecture, member of a DSE Review Panel, a mentor at FLUID, a fellow at the Institute of Innovation & Public Purpose at UCL, and a visiting lecturer at Central Saint Martins. Pooja was co-director of RIBA Guerrilla Tactics 2018 and nominated for the Planner’s Woman of Influence in 2019.

Observer

SARAH CARY

Sarah Cary is the Executive Director for Regeneration and Environment at Enfield Council. Sarah leads services that are central to Enfield residents’ quality of life, such as waste collection, recycling, street cleaning, building control and planning. She is also responsible for Enfield’s longer-term development plans, including ambitious plans for Meridian Water, which aims to bring 10,000 new homes and thousands of jobs to the borough. Sarah has a PhD in town planning and was previously at British Land, where she worked in the development team on major projects such as Regents Place, The Leadenhall Building and Canada Water before becoming Head of Sustainable Places with responsibility for environmental and social matters across the company.

Director

VINCENT LACOVARA

Vincent Lacovara is an architect, urban designer and planner. He joined Enfield Council as Head of Planning in 2018 where he is responsible for planning policy, urban design and heritage, CIL and S106, development management, planning enforcement and building control. Prior to Enfield Council, Vincent worked in the planning department at Croydon Council for 15 years and as Placemaking Team Leader led on masterplans, public realm projects, the design and heritage aspects of planning and Croydon Place Review Panel. Vincent co-founded AOC architects where he was a director from 2003 until 2014. He is one of the Mayor of London’s Design Advocates and member of several design review panels. He has taught widely and was Louis I. Khan Visiting Professor at Yale School of Architecture. He was a winner of the 2017 Alan Cherry Award for Placemaking.

Director

BEN HOCKMAN

A professional planner with substantial public sector experience in local and central government. This includes policy development in supporting the publication of the new National Planning Policy Framework and associated guidance in 2018 and Secretary of State decision making, most notably as part of the team responsible for delivering development consent for the Thames Tideway Tunnel in 2014. Coming to a career in the built environment after having lived and worked in many neighbourhoods in cities around the world. He brings a breadth of skills and experience from roles at all levels in public, private and third sector organisations.

CLAIRE JAMIESON

Claire is an architecturally trained academic and researcher, with over seven years experience as a lecturer, most recently running the Critical and Contextual Studies programme for the school of architecture at the University of Hertfordshire. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has held editorial positions on peer-reviewed journals. Her doctoral research on the radical architectural group NATØ, funded by the AHRC, was published as a monograph by Routledge in 2017. Prior to entering academia, she led the RIBA’s think-tank Building Futures, most notably authoring ‘The Future for Architects?’ – challenging the profession to consider its changing roles.

FINN WILLIAMS

Finn has over 9 years of experience working in the public sector at Croydon Council and then the Greater London Authority (GLA). As the Regeneration Area Manager for North West and Central London he led new initiatives on placemaking, workspace, street markets, infill housing and crowdfunding. Finn is a CABE Built Environment Enabler, member of the Planning Advisory Service Board, sits on the Raynsford Review Task Force, Labour Planning Commission, and RIBA Planning Group. Finn is a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Innovation & Public Purpose at UCL, has tutored at the Royal College of Arts, and was co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

LILLI HOIKKA

Lilli has over 15 years’ experience working in various administrative roles at a number of architectural and engineering practices across London. She is an Associate member at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and a keen volunteer for Open House London, Fluid Mentoring, Isokon Gallery and London Cycling Campaign. She is originally from the garden city of Tapiola, in Finland. Growing up in such beautiful surroundings got her interested in buildings and landscape from an early age and taught her appreciation of great planning.

NIKKI LINSELL

Nikki is an architecturally trained operations and management consultant specialising in social impact startups. She has co-founded and help set-up a number of built environment charities, managing projects and ethnographic research across Europe, Asia and Africa. Following this, she moved into consultancy, overseeing a major university restructure and most recently, helping raise £750,000 in angel investment for a workplace wellbeing tech start-up. Nikki has also held senior lecturer positions in Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Nottingham and Brighton and is currently writing up an EPSRC funded doctorate on the ethics and economics of the Architecture profession and its 'humanitarian capitalism'.