Meet The Experts
A panel of experts will be on-hand during the Challenge to give advice and draw on their various backgrounds to lend their expertise to the challengers
National and Local Planning
Steve Quartermain CBE, Chief Planner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
Steve Quartermain CBE was appointed Chief Planner at MHCLG in 2008. In this role, he is the head of Profession and has done significant work to promote and champion the role of planning in the civil service. A current objective is to raise the profile of the benefits of good design across Whitehall and beyond. Steve began his career as a trainee planner having studied geography at Durham. He took a post graduate qualification and became an RTPI member in 1982. His early career was mostly in Development management in Epping Forest and Dartford. Steve moved to Yorkshire to be Head of Development Control and then in 1988, he was made Head of Planning. In 1996, Steve was appointed as a Director of Planning and Environmental services which included all front line services except for housing benefits. During 2004/05, Steve was president of the Planning Officers Society.
Housing Delivery and Infrastructure
Terry Fuller, Regional Director, Strategic Land, Planning and Estates, Homes England
Terry is an experienced housing specialist with over 20 years’ experience of housing delivery in the public and private sector. Terry joined Homes England at its establishment in 2017, in his current role he leads a national team delivering large scale mixed use strategic sites with a GDV of £18 billion. Terry was previously an Executive Director at the Homes and Communities Agency where he was responsible for delivering the Government investment in housing, affordable housing, regeneration and land development for the Agency across ten counties and 85 local authorities and 50 providers. Previous to this Terry held executive posts at Taylor Wimpy and Taylor Woodrow.
Local Government, Place and Community
Cllr Brenda Warrington, Executive Leader, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
Councillor Brenda Warrington became the Leader of Tameside Council on January 31, 2018. Brenda is the first female chair of the Greater Manchester Pension Fund in its 95-year history, the largest Local Government Pension Scheme in the UK at £23 billion. She has served as the council’s lead member for Health and External Relations and Scrutiny as well as being chair of the Personal and Health Services Scrutiny Panel. Under that role she was responsible for the integration of health and social care and merging Tameside Council and Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group. Brenda served as Deputy Mayor in Tameside in 2008 to 2009 and Mayor in 2012 to 2013.
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Joyeeta Das, Founder and Chief Executive, GYANA Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
Joyeeta Das is founder and chief executive of GYANA, a self-service data science platform that enables anyone at any level of technical knowledge to unleash the power of artificial intelligence technologies. GYANA’s goal is to democratise data sciences for everyone. Her career began in engineering and programme management, having risen through the leadership ranks in large international tech companies such as Cisco. Joyeeta holds a degree in electronics engineering as well as physics, and an MBA from the Saїd Business School at the University of Oxford, where she received a Fellowship from their Entrepreneurship Centre. She is also an ambassador for “technology” for Innovate UK and has represented UK in UK-Brazil, UK-USA and UK-Canada delegations.
Urban Design
Darryl Chen, Partner and Urban Designer, Hawkins Brown
Darryl has successfully delivered significant strategic and regeneration projects both overseas and in the UK. Working for both the private and public sectors, Darryl has led strategic frameworks, vision documents, town centre and campus masterplans, development feasibility studies and public realm projects often at the place where planning strategy and architectural form meet. His work includes large-scale regeneration projects for the London Boroughs of Hackney and Enfield, an urban extension in Chengdu as well as the conceptual masterplan for Heathrow City. Darryl is also a leading urban design practitioner and has led design units at the Architectural Association and Bartlett schools of architecture.
Community, Place Revival, Social and Tech Enterprise
David Barrie, Urban Regeneration Advisor
David Barrie is an advisor in regeneration and impact entrepreneur. David advises real estate developers, public agencies, joint-venture partnerships and for-profit and non-profit organisations on community and social enterprise. David has founded several long-running social ventures that have contributed to the revival of places and their buildings. These include The People’s Supermarket food co-operative, the Middlesbrough Urban Farming Project and Wild Blue Cohort angel investment network. He has founded, managed or advised area-based regeneration initiatives in London, Yorkshire, Russia and Canada. Current projects include improvement to the retail performance of Redchurch Street, East London, development of meanwhile uses and new community enterprise in Old Oak Common and a creative, educational campus for Croydon. David is also a member of the TFL Sustainable Development Advisory Panel and a Futurecity Associate.
Meet The Judges
The judging panel for the Challenge Event is made up of 6 senior professionals from both the public and private sector. Between them the judges have a wealth of knowledge and experience of property, regeneration, place and community. On the panel are:
Janet Young, Government Chief Property Officer, Cabinet Office
Janet Young began her role as Government Chief Property Officer at Cabinet Office in June 2018. She is a chartered surveyor who has managed a range of central and local government estate portfolios including housing, schools, offices, prisons and British embassies overseas. Janet is the Head of the Government Property Profession and champions the development of property capability and expertise within Government and the wider public sector.
Steven Pleasant MBE, Chief Executive, Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council
Steven Pleasant has been Chief Executive of Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council since 2009. Steven is a highly regarded and experienced local authority Chief Executive specialising in Sustainability, Government, Strategic Planning, Stakeholder Management, and Strategy. In September 2016, Steven was also appointed as Accountable Officer of NHS Tameside and Glossop Clinical Commissioning Group following a short interim period. This ensures single leadership with his dual role at Tameside MBC.
Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, British Property Federation
Melanie joined the British Property Federation in 2015, following nine years as Director General of the Food and Drink Federation. Melanie began her working life as a Police Constable in the Metropolitan Police Service. She joined HM Customs in 1988 and subsequently held senior roles in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Office of the Rail Regulator and the Cabinet Office. Her role is to champion UK real estate and to promote a sustainable partnership between governments and the sector to deliver a high quality built environment.
David Camp, Senior Partner, D & J International Consulting
As Senior Partner with D & J International Consulting, David brings over 30 years’ experience to a range of leisure, recreation and real estate development projects across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His experience covers areas such as tourist attractions, theme parks, mixed use developments, sports arenas and venues, entertainment activities, Expos and events, health and fitness centres, resorts and accommodation. Projects have included assessments of theme & amusement parks, museums, water parks, observation attractions, brand centres, aquaria, expos, one-off events, and mixed use schemes. A number of his studies have involved visitor attractions that form part of larger mixed-use schemes that provide cross-funding opportunities. David has been involved in undertaking due diligence for many of the theme park and leisure transactions competed in Europe in recent years. He has also undertaken studies on a wide range of recreational and leisure activities. He is a member of the International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions and the Themed Entertainment Association. He speaks regularly at real estate and leisure conferences, and his series of articles on the visitor attraction business was published in Attraction Management Magazine during 2016 and 2017.
Steve Quartermain CBE, Chief Planner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
Steve Quartermain CBE was appointed Chief Planner at MHCLG in 2008. In this role, he is the head of Profession and has done significant work to promote and champion the role of planning in the civil service. A current objective is to raise the profile of the benefits of good design across Whitehall and beyond. Steve began his career as a trainee planner having studied geography at Durham. He took a post graduate qualification and became an RTPI member in 1982. His early career was mostly in Development management in Epping Forest and Dartford. Steve moved to Yorkshire to be Head of Development Control and then in 1988, he was made Head of Planning. In 1996, Steve was appointed as a Director of Planning and Environmental services which included all front line services except for housing benefits. During 2004/05, Steve was president of the Planning Officers Society.
Terry Fuller, Regional Director, Strategic Land, Planning and Estates, Homes England
Terry is an experienced housing specialist with over 20 year’s experience of housing delivery in the public and private sector. Terry joined Homes England at its establishment in 2017, in his current role he leads a national team delivering large scale mixed use strategic sites with a GDV of £18 billion. Terry was previously an Executive Director at the Homes and Communities Agency where he was responsible for delivering the Government investment in housing, affordable housing, regeneration and land development for the Agency across ten counties and 85 local authorities and 50 providers. Previous to this Terry held executive posts at Taylor Wimpy and Taylor Woodrow.
The BPF Futures Challenge will take place on the 24 and 25 of September. Check back here for more details as they are announced.
Find out more about the Challenge here.
The 24-hour challenge process was developed by partners Crystal Interactive – using their experience of designing collaborative events and workshops for private, public and voluntary sector bodies. The process is designed to unearth the most viable solution to the urban centre regeneration challenge, by providing teams with a friendly but competitive environment, access to experts and local knowledge to inform their solution and access to collaboration technology which enables the judges and experts to ensure teams are working towards high-quality solutions. Our goal is that every participant has an unforgettable 24-hours of professional challenge and development – everyone either wins or learns.
The event is underpinned by Crystal Interactive’s unique collaborate solution which enables teams to log their ideas as they develop, to request help and support from experts and to share their solutions with judges.
The BPF Futures Challenge 