Our diverse team of experts from across the public and private sectors are helping to steer the direction of our foundation
Prof. Sadie Morgan OBE (Chair)
FOUNDING DIRECTOR, DRMM
Sadie Morgan is a founding director of Stirling Prize-winning architecture practice dRMM. In her role as a design champion, Sadie is involved in a number of advisory roles, including chairing the Independent Design Panel for High Speed Two and being one of ten commissioners for the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). She has been instrumental in setting up the NIC’s Design Group and in 2017 was chosen as a Mayor’s design advocate for the Greater London Authority and became a non-executive director of the Major Project Association. Most recently she was appointed as a non-executive director of U+I and as a member to the Homes England board, the UK government’s housing accelerator.
John Alker
DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND PLACES, UK GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL (UKGBC)
John leads UKGBC’s long-standing policy and advocacy work, and its growing programme of activities on cities and place. He has responsibility for the Advancing Net Zero, Cities and Social Value programmes, as well as UKGBC’s work on health and wellbeing in the built environment. Based in Manchester, John also leads UKGBC’s local networks and regional membership strategy.
Jonny Anstead
FOUNDING PARTNER, TOWN
Jonny is founding Director of TOWN, a developer with a focus on delivering well-designed and sustainable homes, streets and neighbourhoods. Set up in 2014, TOWN works at varying scales, including community-led housing projects of 20–40 homes, mixed-use, residential-led town centre regeneration schemes, and large-scale urban extensions. TOWN is the developer of Marmalade Lane, a 42-home cohousing project in Cambridge. At larger scale, Jonny is leading TOWN’s work on a 5,500-home new quarter of Cambridge, in partnership with U+I Plc.
Deborah Cadman OBE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, WEST MIDLANDS COMBINED AUTHORITY (WMCA)
Deborah became Chief Executive of the WMCA in September 2017, following over 30 years’ in public services. Previous senior roles included Head of Policy at Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council and Local Government Advisor to the Ministerial Team at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. Following roles at St Edmundsbury Borough Council and the East of England Development Agency, Deborah was Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council from 2011 to 2017. She was born and bred in Birmingham and attended the University Birmingham. Deborah received an OBE in 2006 for services to local government and is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Trust and Joseph Rowntree Housing Foundation.
Julia Hobsbawm OBE
WRITER AND SOCIAL HEALTH ENTREPRENEUR
Julia is a writer and entrepreneur who addresses the problems and solutions of humans in the machine age. She put the phrase “Social Health” on the map to describe how we cope in the always-on digital age. Julia runs the highly successful network Editorial Intelligence and is Editor-at-Large for Arianna Huffington’s new well-being platform THRIVE Global. Her book Fully Connected: Social Health in an Age of Overload was shortlisted for Management Book of the Year 2018 and Business Book of the Year 2018. Her new book, The Simplicity Principle, will be published in April 2020 in the UK and US.
Calum Green
CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LONDON COMMUNITY LAND TRUST (LONDON CLT)
Calum has been with London CLT since 2011. During that time, he has taken the organisation from having its first site identified to securing four further sites in in Lewisham, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets and Redbridge, with more in the pipeline. Until 2017, Calum also worked as a Senior Organiser for Citizens UK. In this role he trained over 500 community leaders across the UK in organising and helped found Peckham Citizens, an alliance of 11 community organisations that work together to build the capacity of local people to tackle injustice in their neighbourhood.
Annalie Riches
FOUNDING DIRECTOR, MIKHAIL RICHES
Annalie established Mikhail Riches Architects to improve the quality of housing and neighbourhoods in the UK. Her focus is on the delivery of projects that change the perceptions of the places they touch, making enjoyable new places, as well as great homes. Annalie contributes across all the scales of architectural practice; she is recognised for her masterplanning and strategic abilities, as well as her in-depth knowledge of housing. Annalie is also well known for her ‘hands on’ expertise in architectural design and detailing. Mikhail Riches with Cathy Hawley won the 2019 RIBA Stirling Prize for the Passivhaus and high-density Goldsmith Street social housing scheme.
Sam Salih
SENIOR INNOVATION MANAGER, TELEFONICA UK
Sam works with Telefonica UK’s business innovation division, where he has developed an expertise in the application of new technologies within the Smart Cities use cases, due to their potential to reduce resource consumption and improve quality of life. Sam has worked with government to help advise SMEs to access funding and for a range of companies such as EDF Energy to grow its innovation unit. Sam co-founded one of the first digital, multi-utility suppliers in the UK with the purpose of improving students’ quality of living. Sam is also a founding trustee of The National House Project, a charity that works with care-leavers to improve their lives.
Prof. Flora Samuel
PROFESSOR OF ARCHITECTURE IN THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT, UNIVERSITY OF READING
Flora is known for her work in supporting research in architectural practice, breaking down barriers between practice and academia and also for her leading role in demonstrating the value of architects. She leads on the Design Value strand of the UK Centre for Collaborative Housing Evidence (CACHE), was the first RIBA Vice President for Research and leads the Social Value Toolkit for Architecture, which will be published in 2019. This is an output from the Research Practice Leads group, a group of leaders of research in practice from some 40 practices who have been meeting quarterly since May 2016.
