Will Alsop  | Chairman

For over 30 years, Will Alsop has led an international practice guided by the principle that architecture is both vehicle and symbol of social change and renewal. He forms localized responses in his work that extend beyond the project site to include the canvas of the street and town, its users and history.

He was a tutor of sculpture at Central St. Martins College of Art & Design, London, for several years and has held many other academic posts. Alsop actively promotes the artistic contribution to the built environment - his paintings and sketches have been exhibited alongside his architectural projects in dedicated exhibitions at Sir John Soane's Museum, Milton Keynes Gallery, Cube Gallery, Manchester and the British Pavilion at Venice Biennale. His works have been exhibited by the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Royal College of Art along with many other prestigious institutions.

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Peter Bishop  | Director of Environment

Peter Bishop, Director of Culture and Environmental Services in the London Borough of Camden

Peter Bishop is Director of Culture and Environmental Services in the London Borough of Camden. Peter is currently co-ordinating the Council's negotiations on the King's Cross railway lands - one of the biggest development sites in London, and terminus of the new Cross Channel Rail Link. He has commissioned major urban realm studies on Euston Road, Bloomsbury and King's Cross. He is also responsible for transport, street management, regeneration and community development.

During his career he has worked in a range of planning, research and regeneration roles for the London Boroughs of Westminster, Newham, Islington, Haringey and Tower Hamlets, where as a Director in the mid 1980's he was involved in major development schemes including Canary Wharf and Spitalfields Market. As Director of Environment for Hammersmith & Fulham, he negotiated major schemes including the White City Shopping Development, the redevelopment of the BBC's sites, Imperial Wharf and Fulham Football Club.

He has been planning adviser to the ALA, (Association of London Authorities) and has taught and lectured.

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Patricia Brown  | Chief Executive

Patricia Brown is chief executive of Central London Partnership (CLP), the sub-regional partnership for central London. CLP brings together key central London organisations and businesses that have a responsibility for, or stake in, the area. As a partnership it is crosses sectors, boundaries and disciplines, providing a place to consider and advance central London's needs as a unified whole. Central to its mission is improving the heart of the capital, helping to ensure that London remains in the select 'premier league' of World Cities.

Patricia has many years experience working in urban affairs, centred mainly on London communications and governance. She has brought this experience to bear in CLP's work, putting CLP at the forefront of a range of initiatives to improve the way central London works as a place, notably bringing Business Improvement Districts to London and promoting projects that will have a positive influence on the experience of walking within, and enjoying, the heart of the capital.

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Xiangming Chen  | Professor of Sociology and Urban Planning and Policy

Xiangming Chen is Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, and Urban Planning and Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as Lecturing Professor in the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai. He has received fellowships and grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Exchange, the Open Society Institute, and Harvard University. With Anthony Orum, he co-authored The World of Cities: Places in Comparative and Historical Perspective (Blackwell Publishers, 2003; Chinese edition from People's Press of Shanghai, 2005). Most recently, he is author of As Borders Bend: Transnational Spaces on the Pacific Rim (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005). He has published in Urban Affairs Review, Urban Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Cities, Studies in Comparative International Development, Policy Sciences, Asian Survey, Asia-Pacific Population Journal, and China: An International Journal.

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Joan Clos  | Mayor of Barcelona

Joan Clos has been Mayor of Barcelona since 1997. In 1999, he was elected to a four-year term, and was then re-elected in the municipal elections of May 2003. He is also president of Educating Cities, president of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local Authorities (UNACLA), president of the Association of Major Metropolises (Metropolis)and vice-president of United Cities and Local Authorities (UCLG),the major association of cities. He graduated in medicine, specialising in epidemiology, community medicine and health-resource management. In 1979, he joined the local government as director of Health Services and was later the coordinator of the Department of Public Health. He was elected to Barcelona City Council in 1983 and named head of the Department of Health. In 1987, he was appointed councillor/president of the district of Ciutat Vella, the historic centre of the city, and undertook the task of the comprehensive regeneration of this area.

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Harry Dimitriou| Professor of Planning Studies

Harry Dimitriou is Bartlett Professor of Planning Studies at University College London. His principal areas of research and teaching include Urban Land-use/Transport Interaction and Planning, Urban Transport Policy and Sustainable Development, Mega Transport Infrastructure Appraisal and Planning and Institution-building for Urban Development and Transport. Much of his work has concentrated on cities and regions in the Developing World. Professor Dimitriou has held numerous advisory positions, including for EC, IBRD, UN, Hong Kong Government, Government of Indonesia, and SEEDA and LDA in UK. He is author/editor of several books including: Strategic and Regional Planning in the UK (with Robin Thompson) (forthcoming); Land-use/Transport Planning in Hong Kong: An End of an Era? (with Alison Cook); A Developmental Approach to Urban Transport Planning: An Indonesian Illustration; Urban Transport Planning: A Developmental Approach and Transport Planning for Third World Cities. He is currently preparing a book on Motorization and Sustainable Development in Asian Cities with John Ernst.

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Frank Duffy  | Founder

Frank Duffy co-founded DEGW, a multi-disciplinary "space planning" firm in London in 1973. Duffy believes in research in the context of practice. Trained as an architect, he continues to rely on the social sciences to develop the methodologies that DEGW uses to enable clients to make more efficient, more effective, and more expressive use of workspace. He is a prolific writer and has taken a leading role in the debate about the future of the architectural profession. Now back in DEGW's London office, Duffy was based in New York from 2001 to 2004 and was a Visiting Professor at MIT. Recent DEGW architectural projects include the Camelia Botnar Laboratories at Great Ormonde St Children's Hospital (1996), extensions to and refurbishment of the Boots' headquarters in Nottingham (1997) and the new Business School for the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Current consulting assignments include work for BBC, BP, Google, HM Treasury, Microsoft and The British Museum, Duffy was President of the RIBA from 1993-95, and in 2004 he was awarded the British Council for Offices (BCO) President's Award for a unique contribution to the art and science of office design.

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Nicky Gavron  | Deputy Mayor of London

Nicky became the first Deputy Mayor of London when the Greater London Authority was established in 2000. Her function plays a key role in London government, including the responsibility for the environment, strategic planning and children and families.
Gavron has been at the forefront of environmental and transport issues in London for over two decades. During the 1990s she was Chair of the London Planning Advisory Committee (LPAC) and developed many of the key planning, environmental and transport policies, for the sustainable development of London and the initial strategy on congestion charging.
As Deputy Mayor, Gavron successfully established the Mayor's Children and young People's Unit and led for the Mayor on developing the London Plan - the long-term strategic plan for greater London, which has as its vision to develop London as an exemplary sustainable world city. She introduced sustainable design and construction into the London Plan and is now producing supplementary guidance for all new London developments.
In addition to this Gavron established, and now chairs, the Hydrogen Partnership for London, accelerating the introduction of the hydrogen economy and played and secured funding for expanding doorstep recycling in London.

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Ian Gordon  | Professor of Geography

Ian Gordon is a Professor of Human Geography at the LSE. After graduating in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University, he worked as a civil servant in regional economic planning for 6 years. Gordon taught in an interdisciplinary social science programme at the University of Kent, and directed the Urban and Regional Studies Unit. Before coming to the LSE in 2000, he was Professor of Geography at Reading University. His research interests are in the socio-economic development of cities, with a focus on labour markets and on the London region. His publications include: The London Employment Problem (with Buck and Young), Divided Cities: New York and London in the contemporary world (edited with Fainstein and Harloe), Working Capital: life and labour in contemporary London (with Buck, Hall, Harloe and Kleinman), London's Place in the UK Economy (with Travers and Whitehead) and Changing Cities: rethinking urban competitiveness, cohesion and governance (edited with Buck, Harding and Turok).

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Peter Hendy  | Managing Director of Surface Transport

Peter Hendy joined Transport for London in January 2001. Surface Transport embraces London Buses, the Public Carriage Office, which regulates taxis and private hire vehicles, Croydon Tramlink, Dial-a-Ride, Victoria Coach Station, TfL piers on the River Thames, and TfL's corporate interest in Transport Policing and Enforcement, as well as responsibility for operating conditions on 580km of London's most important roads and traffic management, congestion charging and road safety. Peter started his career with London Transport in 1975. He was previously Deputy Director - UK Bus for FirstGroup plc. In this role he was responsible for FirstGroup bus operations in London and southern England, bus development and light rail, including the operation of Croydon Tramlink, and managing their shareholding in a bus and ferry company in Hong Kong. In 2005 Peter was appointed Chair of the Commission for Integrated Transport by the Secretary of State for Transport. CfIT provides independent advice to Government on future transport policy options, the potential for new technology and best practice in transport.

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David Lunts  | Executive Director of Policy & Partnerships

David Lunts is the Executive Director for Policy & Partnerships at the Greater London Authority, with responsibility for planning, regeneration, environmental and social policy.
Before moving to the GLA in February 2005, he was Director of Urban Policy at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, where he played a key role in the sustainable communities plan and wider urban and regional policy, including sponsorship of English Partnerships, the Core Cities and the Northern Way.
In 1996 Lunts ran the Urban Villages Forum in London, a widely supported membership not-for-profit group, and established a joint projects team with English Partnerships to deliver major mixed development schemes.
He became the chief executive of the newly formed Prince's Foundation in 1998, a projects, teaching and policy charity for the urban and built environment.
He was also a member of Lord Rogers' Urban Task Force.

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Fred Manson  | Former Planning Director

Former Director of Regeneration and Environment at the London Borough of Southwark (1994-2001). Studied at the University of Michigan in the USA and the Architectural Association in London. He is a registered Architect.

At Southwark he oversaw economic development, planning, property management, environmental management, regeneration, leisure and community services. He represented Southwark on projects such as the Tate Modern, the Greater London Authority headquarters and the Peckham Library.

He is a member of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment design review panel. He is a trustee of Artangle, London Open House and the Foundation for Allergy Information and Research. In 2000 he was awarded an honorary OBE.

He was a non-executive director in Alsop Architects in 2004.

Since 2004 he worked with the Thomas Heatherwick Studios on public land private commissions in Hong Kong.

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Anthony Mayer  | Chief Executive

Anthony Mayer has been Chief Executive of the Greater London Authority since November 2000. He is also the Greater London Elections Returning Officer.

Between 1967 to 1985 Anthony Mayer worked in a variety of policy posts in the Civil Service, including the Central Policy Review Staff (1974 - 1976), Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Transport (1980 - 1982) and Head of the Local Government Finance Division at the Department of the Environment between 1982 - 1985.

Anthony Mayer joined N M Rothschild & Sons Limited in 1985. In 1987 he was appointed as Managing Director (Finance, Administration and Personnel) at Rothschild Asset Management. In 1991 he was appointed Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation. He was a member of the Egan Construction Task Force, Deputy Chairman of the Urban Task Force and Chairman of the Housing Construction Forum.

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Graham Morrison  | Partner

Graham Morrison is a founding partner of Allies and Morrison. In the last two years, the practice has completed a number of major projects in London including the BBC's Media Village at White City, the public landscape at Tate Britain, the Chelsea College of Art, the London College of Communications, the City Lit, and the London School of Contemporary Dance. They are currently engaged on a large development adjacent to Tate Modern, the refurbishment of the Royal Festival Hall and a new commercial tower in the City of London. In addition, the practice is working on three of the largest masterplans in London, Cricklewood Brent Cross, the development of the Lea Valley for the London 2012 Olympics, and King's Cross Central. Graham Morrison has been a member of CABE's design review panel and a visiting professor to Nottingham University. He is currently a member of the London Advisory Committee for English Heritage.

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Guy Nordenson  | Professor of Structural Engineering

Guy Nordenson is a structural engineer practicing in New York and a professor at Princeton University. In 1987 he established the New York office of Ove Arup & Partners, and in 1997 formed his own office. Recent projects include the 2,000 foot tall World Trade Center Tower 1 that was adapted to become the Freedom Tower (2003), the design of permanent exposed bracing for the slurry wall at the WTC site, as well as the Museum of Modern Art with Taniguchi and Associates; and the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo and New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York with SANAA architects. Nordenson is active in earthquake engineering and initiated and led the development of the New York Seismic Code from 1984 to its enactment into law in 1995. He co-founded the Structural Engineers Association of New York and organized the inspections by SEAoNY engineers of 400 buildings in the restricted zone around the WTC after 9/11. In 2004 he co-curated with Terence Riley an exhibition on Tall Buildings at the Museum of Modern Art

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Ben Plowden  | Managing Director

Ben Plowden was Transport for London's Director of Borough Partnerships from July 2002 until 1 February 2005, when he was appointed as Managing Director, Group Communications, Transport for London. Before coming to TfL, he spent ten years working in a variety of senior roles for a number of national campaigning organisations, including Age Concern England and the Council for the Protection of Rural England. In 1997, Ben became the first Director of the Pedestrians Association, which he successfully re-launched in 2001 as Living Streets, the campaign for safe, high quality and accessible public spaces.

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Anne Power MBE | CBE Professor of Social Policy

Anne Power is Professor of Social Policy and Director of the MSc in Housing at the LSE. In 1997, Anne Power became Deputy Director of LSE's Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE). She is a member of the UK government's Housing and Urban Sounding Boards, and of the Sustainable Development Commission. In 2002 she was appointed Chair of the Independent Commission into the Future of Council Housing in Birmingham. Her books and publications include: One size doesn't fit all (2002) Estates on the Edge (1999) and The Slow Death of Great Cities? Urban abandonment or urban renaissance, with Katharine Mumford (1999).

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Jason Prior  | Regional Vice President

Jason is the Regional Vice President of EDAW Europe. He is an urban designer, landscape architect and environmental planner specialising in leading multi-disciplinary teams and providing integrated, broad based solutions for a variety of complex design and planning projects. His experience includes design and implementation of major landscape, urban design and regeneration projects.

Jason was one of the key consultants responsible for the development framework, detailed masterplan and public realm strategy for Manchester City Centre following the 1996 bombing. Other work includes Piccadilly Gardens (the foremost green space within the city centre), the regeneration and landscape design of Speke Garston in Liverpool, the masterplan for Eastland's SportCity (2002 Commonwealth Games stadium), King's Cross Regeneration (providing masterplanning advice), and the Royal Docks (provided the development framework).

He currently serves as Commissioner for CABE Space and led the Lea Valley Regeneration and Olympic Games Masterplan for the London Development Agency and London 2012.

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Bridget Rosewell  | Consultant Chief Economist

Bridget is Consultant Chief Economist to the Greater London Authority and one of the founding directors and Chairman of Volterra Consulting. She was responsible for setting up the GLA's Economics Unit, both developing its analytical tools and recruiting and managing its staff.

Her current projects include work on transport infrastructure needs, regeneration and accessibility, monitoring and forecasting the London economy, the economic geography of London and the environmental impact of its growth. GLA Economics monitors the progress of sectors within London, including tourism.

Volterra Consulting was established in 1999 to apply novel ideas to business problems and new approaches to economic analysis and forecasting. Prior to this she was Chairman of Business Strategies Ltd, which is now owned by Experian.

Bridget is one of the most experienced economists and commentators on the UK economy practising today and has particular experience in both regional economics and planning and development

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David Rudlin  | Director

David Rudlin is URBED's northern director and leads the company's urban design work. On joining he was responsible for the BURA Award winning Little Germany Action project in Bradford, followed by a range of high profile consultancy projects including the Oldham Beyond Vision and the Selby Renaissance Charter. He has also been responsible for private sector masterplans such as Temple Quay in Bristol, The New England Quarter in Brighton and a 4,500 home scheme in Southall West London. He has authored a number of papers including '21st Century Homes' for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation alongside other high profile documents for Friends of the Earth and the Urban Task Force. This writing is coalesced into the book 'Building the 21st Century Home' for the Architectural Press. David has also been a member of the CABE design review committee, a TCPA policy council member and a trustee of the architecture centre CUBE.

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Edward Soja  | Professor of Urban and Regional Planning

EDWARD SOJA is Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA and Centennial Professor of Sociology at LSE. His interests have focussed of making connections between the spatial disciplines of geography, architecture, and urban and regional studies, and in promoting a critical spatial perspective in the social sciences and humanities. Concentrating in particular on Los Angeles, he has published widely on processes of urban restructuring and the transformation of the modern metropolis. His most recent research has ranged from developing new approaches to regional governance in Catalonia to studies of labour-community-university coalition building and what he describes as the search for spatial justice. His major books include Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (1986), Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places (1996), and Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions (2000).

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Ian Thomas   | Chief Superintendent

Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Ian Thomas joined the Metropolitan Police Service in May 1977.

He was appointed Borough Commander for Southwark in March 2003 and is responsible for policing a challenging inner-city borough with over 1100 staff.

He has served mostly in borough based, operational, posts. These include Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Bromley, Greenwich and South East TSG. As a TSG Inspector he ran uniformed teams as well as the surveillance capacity for the Southeast. He has led a Department of Professional Standards team, dealing with corruption, covert operations and critical incidents. One of his most demanding roles has been leading the MPS response to the Victoria Climbie Inquiry.

He is currently advanced public order trained and has operated at all of the major public order events in London in recent years.

He was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1989.

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Julia Thrift  | Director

Julia Thrift joined CABE (the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) in June 2003 as the founding director of CABE Space, the unit within CABE that champions improvements to urban public spaces and parks in England. CABE Space has a team of 11 staff and a network of more than 150 professional advisors who provide strategic advice to local authorities to help them improve the public realm. It is funded by the government department, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Before joining CABE Julia spent five years at the Civic Trust, the national charity that campaigns for improvements to the built environment. Prior to this she spent 10 years as a journalist, writing about design for a wide range of national newspapers and specialist journals. She is a fellow of the Royal Society for Arts.

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Tony Travers  | Director

Tony Travers is Director of the Greater London Group, a research centre at the London School of Economics. He is also Expenditure Advisor to the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Skills, a Senior Associate at the King's Fund and a member of the Arts Council of England's Touring Panel. He was, from 1992-1997, a Member of the Audit Commission and has worked for a number of other Parliamentary select committees. Travers was a member of the Working Group on Finance, Urban Task Force in 1998-1999. He has published a number of books on cities and government, including, Paying for Health, Education and Housing, How does the Centre Pull the Purse Strings (with Howard Glennerster and John Hills) (2000) and, most recently, The Politics of London: Governing the Ungovernable City (2004).

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Roger Zogolovitch  | Director

Roger Zogolovitch AADipl, RIBA. is managing director of AZ Urban Studio, a consultancy offering advice on design and development in the city . He is a client and promoter of development projects specialising in design led development.

He has been part of the teaching staff at the London School of Economics Cities Programme since its establishment in 1998, his teaching explores the relationship between urban design and development.

He has completed town and city masterplanning in collaboration with David Mackay of MBM Arquitectes of Barcelona for Hastings & Bexhill 2001 and Plymouth 2004.

He was the developer of award winning dense experimental housing project at 'One Centaur Street' London SE1.

He has contributed to a new book entitled 'Experiments in Architecture' published in 2005. He has contributed to 'Be Valuable' a publication commissioned by Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment - DTI published 2005

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INTERNATIONAL GUESTS

Geetam Tiwari  | Advisor on Transport

TRIPP Chair Associate Professor, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme, Indian Institute of Technology

Geetam Tiwari has been a faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi since 1990. Tiwari has experience as a principal investigator on many transportation-related projects in India specifically addressing public transport , nonmotorised transport, traffic flow and road infrastructure issues. Has worked closely with Delhi Transport Department, Delhi Traffic Police, Central Road Research Institute and Asian Institute of Transport Development on transportation and traffic projects. She has also done research projects for the Indian Central Pollution Control Board on policy development for future traffic management for Delhi with the objective on controlling motor vehicle emissions. Her research papers have been published in national and international journals of repute since 1985. Prof. Tiwari and Prof. D.Mohan are the receipient of Center of Excellence grant form Volvo Research Foundation to work on Sustainable Transport for Less motorised countries. Research collaboration with several international institutes like Transportation Research Laboratory, UK, Interface for Cycling Expertise, The Netherlands and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA, INRETS, France.

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Laurence J. Vale  | Head of the Department of Urban studies and Planning

Lawrence Vale is Professor Urban Design and Planning and Head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at M.I.T. He holds degrees from Amherst M.I.T., and the University of Oxford. Vale is the author or editor of six books examining urban design and housing. These include Architecture, Power, and National Identity (winner of the 1994 Spiro Kostof Book Award for Architecture and Urbanism from the Society of Architectural Historians), From the Puritans to the Projects: Public Housing and Public Neighbors (2001 "Best Book in Urban Affairs" Award from the Urban Affairs Association), and Reclaiming Public Housing: A Half Century of Struggle in Three Public Neighborhoods (2005 Paul Davidoff Book Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning). He is also Co-Editor, with Sam Bass Warner, Jr., of Imaging the City (2001), and co-editor, with Thomas J. Campanella, of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover From Disaster (Oxford University Press, 2005).

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