Sandra was appointed to the Board of Trustees in December 2019.

A Chartered Accountant, she was formerly Finance Director of the Canal & River Trust. Prior to that she spent eight years as Finance Director at NHBC (the National House Building Council). She is a Non-Executive director of Finsbury Growth & Income Trust plc as well as being Chair and Governer of Headington School in Oxford. She previously held senior finance positions in the commercial sector, most notably for BMW GB.

Deborah was appointed to the board of Trustees in December 2019.

She brings 30 years’ experience as a Senior Investment Banker primarily as a Director for Barclays Investment Bank and Merrill Lynch. She is now a Non-Executive Director and member of the Investment Committee of The Methodist Insurance Company.and a pension fund trustee for the Leprosy Mission International.

 

Nick was appointed to our board of trustees in December 2019.

Nick is the Research Manager for the Faculty of Science at the University of Sheffield. He previously worked on the ‘Realising Just Cities’ project, helping to co-ordinate the programme of work and the design, delivery and evaluation of co-production projects across two-city regions in the North of England. He has a PHD in the natural sciences and is also a qualified Chartered Surveyor.

Jon Irvine, from Homes England, joined the board of Trustees in September 2019. Jon is an experienced Chartered Surveyor who has worked for Homes England (previously the Homes and Communities Agency) since 2004 in a number of roles including management of the agency’s Commercial Joint Ventures and leading the Development and Disposals teams. Jon currently leads the Contingent Assets and Liabilities and Commercial Disposals Team dealing with the resolution of historic land and property matters alongside disposals of the agency’s non-core and commercial land.

Louise Brooke-Smith is a Chartered Surveyor and Chartered Town Planner and was appointed to the board in December 2019. She has over 30 years commercial experience across the land, property and construction sectors, within the UK and overseas, inter alia, establishing a national planning consultancy. Arcadis acquired her company in 2017 when Louise became a Partner and UK Head of Development & Strategic Planning.

She stepped down from the Partnership in 2019 to take up a number of Non-Executive Directorships and international advisory positions. She had previously served as RICS Global President (2014-15)

In June 2019 Louise was awarded an OBE for services to the built environment and to diversity and inclusion – recognition for her passion for equality across the land, property and construction industries. She is a Freeman of the City of London; was named as National Construction Achiever (2015) and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Wolverhampton, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham City.