Gordon Seabright

Chief Executive
Creative Land Trust

Gordon Seabright is Chief Executive of Creative Land Trust, the charity tackling the loss of creative workspace for artists and makers in the UK. Before that he led environmental charities for a decade, most recently as CEO of the Eden Project, following periods at the helm of the national cycling charity and the Royal Horticultural Society. Outside work he is a trustee of parkrun Global, Five Talents (a development charity operating in East Africa) and a community orchard in Cornwall, a Fellow of the Linnean Society and an Honorary Fellow of University of Exeter Business School.

Russell Pedley

Director & Co-Founder
Assael Architecture

Russell is Director and Co-Founder of Assael Architecture. With over 30 years as an architect and 15 years in urban design, he has a strong passion for creating a sense of place with historical and cultural connections in all of his work.

Russell spent many years spearheading Assael’s skills in the design of professionally-managed Build to Rent communities in the private rented sector. Following years of research, including many study trips to the US, and producing design guides for the UK, Assael is now one of the leading architects in the sector, paving the way with key projects such as Union Wharf in Greenwich for Essential Living, Blackhorse Mills in Walthamstow for Legal & General, and Pontoon Dock in Newham for Linkcity. Russell also co-authored both editions of the Urban Land Institute’s Build to Rent: A Best Practice Guide, which was sponsored by the British Government, and he is now Chair of the ULI’s UK Residential Council and advises on MHCLG’s Build to Rent Joint Committee.

Alexander Jan

Non-Executive Chair
Central District Alliance

Professor Katy Shaw

Professor of 21st-century writing + publishing - Northumbria University
/ Programme Director - UKRI

Katy Shaw is Professor of 21st-century writing and publishing at Northumbria University, UK and Director of the UKRI/AHRC Creative Communities programme.

Her research interests include diversity and inclusion in the creative industries (the subject of her 2022 TED talk) and the redistribution of the creative industries from the capital to the regions and nations as part of the ‘levelling up agenda’. She is the author of the 2021 APPG Inquiry report ‘The Case for Culture’ that set out policy recommendations, many of which have since been adopted by UK government, on how to rebuild rebalance and recover cultural production post-covid.

She sits as a commissioner on the LGA Culture Commission and the Gordon Brown Union Commission. Her policy consultancy focuses on R&D, innovation and the role of HEIs and further education in cultural partnership working. As Professor of writing she is the author of five monographs, four edited collections as well as journal articles and essays on contemporary British literature and is the author of the British Council ‘Write Now: Teaching 21st-century Literature Globally’ report.

She can be found on Twitter @profkatyshaw

Professor Rebecca Madgin

Professor of Urban Studies
University of Glasgow

Rebecca Madgin is Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow. Rebecca’s research examines the relationship between the emotional and economic value of place and has published widely on the role of heritage within placemaking and emotional attachments to urban places. Rebecca also retains an active involvement with a number of heritage organisations in the UK.

Denz Ibrahim

Head of Retail & Futuring
LGIM Real Estate

Denz Ibrahim joined Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) Real Assets in 2019 as the Head of Retail and Futuring. He has a creative background in Design and Urbanism with extensive experience in retail, placemaking and re-building the urban environment for the future. Denz is a graduate of the London School of Economics Cities Programme and was previously the Head of Special Projects at Appear Here and then the Head of Placemaking for BNP Paribas Real Estate. Since joining LGIM Real Assets, Denz’ role has been to completely re-invent how the business considers retail, both spatially and culturally, and drives a cross-sector approach to consumer centric placemaking, curating environments, which re-connect people with places and brands. He is responsible for LGIM Real Assets thought processes as an organisation to better understand the cultural shifts in the way people live, work and play across the entirety of its consumer facing environments, delivering future fit places. Denz is a member of the LGIM Real Assets Equity Senior Leadership Team, a frequent contributor to industry journals and press, and sits on the board of Foundry, a co-working provider and business support incubator, co-founded by LGIM Real Assets in 2022.

Patricia Brown MBE

Director
Central

Patricia runs Central, a niche consultancy advising civic and business leaders on urban change. She has over 25 years of direct experience thinking about, influencing and improving London, and at the heart of many of the initiatives that have been part of the city’s successful evolution.

In the mid 1990s she worked alongside real estate guru Honor Chapman in helping to establish London’s first inward investment body, promoting London as a premier business destination. She became CEO of the Central London Partnership in 1997, leading a cross-sector partnership and agenda set on maintaining the capital’s position as a global world city. At CLP, she led much of the early work to achieve this sustained success through ensuring it was a city that people wanted to be in; a people-focused, liveable city, with improved quality of life and built environment.

Tom Kiehl

Deputy CEO & Director of Public Affairs
UK Music

Leigh Natasha Salter

Managing Director
Movers & Shakers

Leigh Natasha Salter is Managing Director of Movers & Shakers, having formerly been the Business and Events Director. Leigh has been responsible for developing the brand over the last 14 years and was responsible for the launch of the Movers & Shakers UK Regional events programme. Previously she worked in marketing, communications and research, and also ran the Windsor & Maidenhead Borough’s Business to Community Partnership, facilitating CSR for businesses. She qualified at Oxford University with a BA Honours in Human Sciences, and a scholarship, and is also a member of the BPF, WPA and UK-GBC.

Sarah Ellis

Director of Digital Development
Royal Shakespeare Company

Shain Shapiro PhD

Author, Founder, Thought Leader & Senior Executive
Sound Diplomacy

Shain is a globally recognised thought leader at the convergence of music, culture and urban policy. This is showcased in his debut book, This Must Be The Place: How Music Can Make Your City Better, due out on Repeater Books (distributed in the United States by Random House) on September 12, 2023. Shain has defined a new way to think about the value of music in cities and places and through it, influenced over 130 cities and places to invest in music and culture as founder and executive chairman of Sound Diplomacy and founder and executive director of the not-for-profit global Center for Music Ecosystems. He has authored authoritative reports on the role of music in cities, tourism, the night time economy, real estate and recovery, including the most extensive guide to music and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ever written, in partnership with the United Nations. He has spoken at hundreds of global conventions, such as SXSW and the UN World Urban Forum and delivered the first ever TEDx talk on music’s role in cities. Shain holds a PhD from the University of London and lives in East London.

Prof. James Bennett

Director
CoSTAR National Lab

Professor James Bennett is Director of CoSTAR National R&D Lab for Creative Technologies and Associate Pro Vice Chancellor at Royal Holloway, University of London. The CoSTAR National Lab is a £51.1m UK national infrastructure project funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Project, led by Royal Holloway in partnership with Pinewood Studios, BT, Disguise and the Universities of Surrey, Abertay and the National Film & Television School. James was led over £85m of research and commercial R&D funding working with partners such as The National Gallery, Meta, Heathrow, BBC, Niantic and David Olusoga to deliver innovation in immersive and AI technologies.  

Richard Thompson

Architectural Director
Parabola

Richard is a qualified architect with over 30 years of experience. Before joining Parabola he worked in private practice on high profile masterplan and construction projects including the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Saïd Business School in Oxford and Parabola’s Kings Place in central London. He has experience of all aspects of the development process, but with a strong a focus on detailed design and construction. He has been involved in Parabola’s master planning work at Edinburgh Park for 10 years.

Phoebe Gardiner

Associate Director, Corporate & Consumer
London Communications Agency

A communicator by trade, Phoebe inhabits an interesting intersection between the creative industries and the built environment. For a decade, Phoebe delivered in-house and freelance PR and communications for some of the country’s preeminent arts and cultural organisations, including Arts Council England, Historic Royal Palaces, Shakespeare’s Globe and Southbank Centre. She is now Associate Director at London Communications Agency, where she brings this specialism to some of London’s most important new places and spaces. Her work always has an inclination towards accessibility, education and community engagement. Phoebe is a volunteer Director of the first ever Alton Arts Festival, and Chair of LCA’s Diversity Working Group, driving forward equity, diversity and inclusion within the industry.

Emma Wilcox

Head of Culture
Royal Borough of Greenwich

With thirty years’ experience in the cultural and creative industries, Emma specialises in purposeful placemaking, delivering culture-led regeneration with equity and relevance. Emma is highly skilled in leading ambitious projects with multiple stakeholders, building dynamic and durable partnerships and securing investment.

From 2019-2023 Emma was the Director of Creative Estuary, a pioneering £7.7m programme to transform the Thames Estuary through investment in cultural and creative industries. Her work has often been situated in the area between private and public sectors and she is highly accomplished at managing the transition between different organisational cultures, structures and sectors, translating needs into action. Emma is committed to equity and inclusion and enabling diverse voices and those with lived experience to shape the most relevant solutions. Emma now works as a consultant and strategic advisor as well as on interim assignments, currently acting as Head of Culture at the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

Ailish Christian-West

Chief Operating Officer
Get Living

Kirsten Dunne

Senior Manager, Cultural Infrastructure & Public Realm
Mayor of London

Kirsten leads the Space for Culture Team at the Mayor of London's Office. The team works to ensure that culture, creativity and community are hardwired into the fabric of our city, by protecting, creating, improving and promoting the many types of space that make up London’s rich cultural ecosystem. The team is responsible for the delivery of Creative Enterprise Zones, London Made Me pop up & business development programme, Creative Land Trust, Culture & Community Spaces at Risk, Fourth Plinth and Public Commissions, as well as new cultural infrastructure including East Bank and Fashion Residency at Studio Smithfield and supporting cultural organisations and businesses to find appropriate space – often in partnership with new developments. Kirsten was a founding board member of London's Creative Land Trust and Margate's Creative Land Trust and led the team that placed the first statue of a woman in Parliament square.

Sam Cotton

Head of Asset Management
Battersea Power Station

Sarah Dance

Chair
South East LEP

Joss Taylor

Head of Enterprise and Placemaking
Bow Arts Trust

Joss leads a team delivering creative placemaking, affordable workspace management and consultancy services at Bow Arts Trust. A Dezeen Award winning cultural placemaker, he has responsibility for the strategic delivery of projects across London helping put arts at the core of communities, developing long term sustainability and opportunity through astute management of property. Joss was a trustee (Chair 2020-22) for The Ella Roberta Family Foundation.

Yamin Choudury

Joint CEO & Artistic Director at Hackney Empire Theatre;
AD of Culture & Creativity at The London Borough of Haringey

Yamin Choudury is the Joint CEO & Artistic Director at the Hackney Empire Theatre, and the Joint AD of Culture & Creativity for the London Borough of Haringey. Yamin’s lived experience and unconventional journey into arts & culture leadership, has informed, Yamin has been focused on creating vital platforms, pipelines and roadmaps for diverse, representative and emerging stories, ideas, artists, audiences and participants.

Access is the foundation of Yamin’s creative and professional practice. Working, in collaboration, to develop a more open and engaging sector, and insisting that we should all have the ability to experience the transformative power of storytelling through arts & culture; to be impacted in how we think about ourselves, our society and our environment.

Since March 2018, Yamin has been responsible for conceiving, developing and delivering a new artistic business plan that would reinvent The Hackney Empire Theatre, a 1,200+ seat theatre in London’s East End, as a landmark institution once again. Yamin led the creation of new relationships and audiences, and an unprecedented financial and critical turnaround for the organisation – the education, participation and creative engagement programme that Yamin developed at Hackney Empire in 2012, remains acknowledged as one of the most significant, transformative and impactful programmes in the Capital.

Rehana Mughal FRSA

Director of the Global Creative Economy programme
British Council

Rehana is Director of the Global Creative Economy programme at British Council, where she works through a dispersed team, with governments, creative industry professionals and leaders in the creative sectors in over 30 countries, to develop policies that support creative economies to thrive. She is a fellow of the Royal Society or Arts and a member of the Creative Industries Council, a joint forum between the UK creative industries and Government. Rehana has lived and worked in the Gulf and in China where she lead high performing teams to deliver culture and sports projects. Prior to working with the British Council, Rehana worked at Arts Council England, Southbank Centre and Creativity, Culture and Education. With over 27 years experience, of working on arts and cultural projects and a track record as an accomplished innovator, she has led high performance arts and, cultural programmes which drive cultural engagement, build cultural relations and support strategic partnerships. Rehana is passionate about the transformative power of arts and culture and he role it plays in strengthening communities, in her spare time she is a mentor at the Global Women of Colour Network and a keen cyclist.

Yasmin Jones-Henry

Financial Times Writer & Co-founder of
The Lab E20

Yasmin Jones-Henry works in the space where fashion meets finance and culture meets commerce. Through her work as a writer with specialisms in sustainability (ESG), design and investment, she has established a career championing the role culture and creative enterprise can play as a catalyst to inclusive regeneration. As cultural placemaking strategist Yasmin is a thought leader and an advocate for rethinking retail, scaling circular economy design principles and working to diversify the talent pipelines across the fashion industry and the built environment. Alongside circular and regenerative design pioneer Christopher Raeburn, Yasmin is also the co-founder of The Lab E20, London's creative hub and incubator for circular economy driven fashion start-ups.

Mike Tucker

Head of Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation
Coram

Mike is Head of Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, a national cultural education charity that transforms lives through the unique power of Shakespeare. Since the charity was founded in 2000 by the creator of the BBC’s Shakespeare: The Animated Tales series, Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation has engaged more than 340,000 young people in primary, secondary and SEND schools nationwide. Its work supports young people in building their knowledge, confidence and essential skills. Passionate about giving as many children as possible the opportunity to take part in oracy and performance programmes, Mike has worked at the charity for 10 years, following a variety of roles in the higher education sector. Mike studied Law at King’s College London and LSE, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Shanaz Gulzar

Creative Director
Bradford UK City of Culture 2025

Errol Michael Henry

Chairman of The i2 Music Group, EMH Global Media,
EMH Global Consulting & Founder of Music-Justice

Errol Michael Henry is the founder of Intimate Records, The i2 Music Group, Music Justice and EMH Global Consulting. He is a keen supporter of entrepreneurial endeavour and has been a business owner for more than three decades. Also known as The Sound Principle, Errol has an extensive and eclectic discography as an expert sound designer and record producer. Artistic independence lies at the heart of everything he does. The companies he has founded and the brands he continues to develop are all built with this ideal in mind.

A prolific author, Errol has dedicated the past 25 years of his career working with educational faculties and conglomerates, creating bespoke training programmes to help improve personal performance. His most recent work: Win@Life - has been designed to support artists and aspiring creative entrepreneurs unlock their true potential.

Benjamin O’Connor

Director
NLA

Benjamin started as Director of NLA in September 2015 developing several new streams of activity including a comms strategy, consultations, urban rooms, learning programmes, exhibitions and public events

Benjamin has 16 years of experience working across the cultural and built environment sectors in London for both the public and private sectors, he trained in Fine Art to MA level at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design, has curated a number of exhibitions, been a Features Editor and sits on a number of committees for Cultural Development, Public Realm, Sustainability and Diversity across London.

In the past 5 years Benjamin has led all of NLA’s content and communications and the development of both NLA collaborate; working with a wide range of clients to solve critical issues facing London and the One City project; London’s most followed and engaged with development area Instagram platform, promoting the City as a world class destination.

Zerritha Brown

Head of Culture
London Borough of Camden

Sara Coppola-Nicholson

Head of Research Programmes
disguise

James Dowdell

Chief Operating Officer
ActionFunder

I’m passionate about finding innovative ways to use tech for good and helping to bring good ideas to life. I’ve spent the last 9 years doing that at ActionFunder, in the corporate social responsibility space, helping companies like Unilever, Iceland Foods, Carling and Thames Water (and many more) deliver high-impact community engagement campaigns.

Michael Wiseman

Head of Workspace Leasing and Innovation & Life Science
British Land

Ian Taylor

Strategic Projects Consultant Placemaking
UAL

Ian works at the University of the Arts London, working on place and regional development. Ian has worked in a research role at the University of Oxford, following a decade of commercial and management roles in industry. His publications focus on responsible business, cross-sector collaboration, and place-based approaches to regeneration. He is a Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, and he is an Investment in Places Policy Fellow at The Productivity Institute, University of Manchester. Ian sits on the Place Taskforce and on the steering group for an ONS/Cabinet Office cross-government collaboration insights study.

Anthea Harries

Asset Management Director
Related Argent

Simeon Aldred

Strategy & Founder
Broadwick and Vibration Groups

Sir Peter Bazalgette

'The most influential man in British TV'
British TV and Production / Government Creative Industry Council

Mark Davy

Founder
Futurecity

Mark Davy is the Founder of Futurecity, a multi-disciplinary agency set up in 2007 to promote culture-driven placemaking. He sees culture as the guiding narrative for the regeneration and development of towns, cities and regions. Mark has persuaded the private sector to invest in major art projects including the Crossrail Culture Line, the Illuminated River Project and a cultural strategy for Wembley Park. Mark is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Advisory Panel, a Trustee to Hypha Studios, an Executive Director for the Land Economic Society and a Member of the NLA Expert Panel for Culture and National Trust Regional Advisory Group.

Laura Turner Laing

Commercial Director
Creative UK

Forming a key part of the organisation’s Executive Leadership Team, Laura’s role is focused on delivering long-term, sustainable partnerships that align with Creative UK’s strategic priorities: to connect creative people, invest in creative businesses, and support creative ideas while championing the power and value of the Creative Industries. Prior to joining Creative UK, Laura has worked for a broad range of organisations in the Creative Industries, including Disney, Discovery, Fremantle and the London 2012 Olympic Games Committee. Through these roles, she has developed and deployed strategic partnerships across a wide range of Creative Industries, including TV, music, video games and print publishing, as well as in the education sector. 

During her most recent position at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as Associate Director of Corporate Partnerships, she delivered revenues traversing corporate membership, sponsorship, and grants, and developed strategic partnerships with the build environment sector. Laura comes from a creative background, and in past lives, has managed music artists and producers and freelanced in tour production. 

Mark Ball

Artistic Director
Southbank Centre

Joining the Southbank Centre as Artistic Director in 2021, Mark Ball is responsible for the delivery of our entire artistic programme, working with the Southbank Centre’s Artistic and Creative Engagement teams and extensive creative networks to produce a dynamic and world class programme at the heart of London. 

Prior to the Southbank Centre Mark was Creative Director at Manchester International Festival (now Factory International), where he led the artistic programme for the newly opened Aviva Studios and has also held positions as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT), Head of Events and Exhibitions at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Artistic Director of Fierce! Mark is Chair of Belarus Free Theatre.

Blewska

Singer, Songwriter, Poet and Actor

Rio Sterling

Artist, Singer, Songwriter

Rio Sterling is an artist from South London who makes creates electrifying and eccentric music, that brings sounds of the past into the present. His charismatic performance style, alongside his silky vocals and catchy melodies, will have you filled with energy and excitement.

Rain

Actress, Script-Writer, Spoken-Word Artist and Musician

Rain is an 18 year old actress, script-writer, spoken-word artist and musician based in London. Her work focuses on current affairs to spark conversations and encourage her audience to prioritise and embrace the community around them and afar. She’s been performing since she was young and loves storytelling through acting & writing her own stories which she hopes to develop in the future.

Albie Salter

Professional Actor, Musician, Singer & Script Writer

Albie is 12 years old and has a huge passion for performing arts. He is an experienced actor and musician. In 2021 Albie made his professional debut in Carousel on the West End, followed by a lead role in 101 Dalmatians the Musical in 2022. Last year Albie worked on the Sony Pictures feature film ‘Here’, alongside Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, and Paul Bettany, which is set for worldwide release in November. Beyond performing, Albie is an avid songwriter and scriptwriter, and is currently progressing his composition and production skills. Albie aims to create music that connects with people and equally inspires and motivates them!