Meet the leaders

June Barnes

Leading on: high-density housing

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: East Thames Group

Sector: Affordable housing

June Barnes is at the heart of the action, as head of a registered social landlord rooted in London’s Olympic area and the Thames Gateway. But Barnes’ lead in the density debate had already brought her to prominence.

Barnes has consistently highlighted the need to ensure that higher densities are not achieved at the expense of liveability and quality. It is a cause close to Barnes’ heart. East Thames Group provides about 14,000 homes in east London and Essex, many of the homes in high-density developments and many for families.

Since PPG3 first came into force in 2000, East Thames Group has commissioned research on the subject, culminating in a website on delivering successful higher-density housing containing useful documents and toolkit guidance. The toolkit is now regarded as one of the best pieces of design guidance on the matter around.

In addition to heading East Thames, Barnes is chair of the London Sustainable Development Commission established by the London mayor, a member of the National Centre for Housing Group and of the advisory group for Design for London.

Nick Johnson

Leading on: cool and clever development

Job title: deputy chief executive

Organisation: Urban Splash

Sector: residential development

Urban Splash’s adventures in residential development are now the stuff of legend. But deputy chief executive Nick Johnson is a lot more than the Robin to Tom Bloxham’s Batman.

Johnson is managing more than £300m of development projects including the burgeoning millennium community at New Islington in east Manchester. Those projects involve working with signature architects such as Will Alsop and Foster + Partners, as well as new practices that are embarking on their first projects.

That is only his day job. Johnson is also the Edward P Bass distinguished visiting architecture fellow at Yale University in New Haven, USA, and is a Cabe commissioner. At the local level, Johnson is chairman of Marketing Manchester, the agency charged with the task of promoting Manchester and its region around the world, and is a director of Castlefield Gallery.

A chartered surveyor by profession, Johnson began working with Urban Splash as a consultant. But he liked it so much he joined the company and has now been with them for more than a decade.

Terry Hodgkinson

Leading on: Yorkshire

Job title: chairman

Organisation: Yorkshire Forward

Sector: delivery agency

Terry Hodgkinson’s role at Yorkshire Forward gives him responsibility for the continual refreshing, updating and promotion of the regional economic strategy, which has a direct influence on the region’s £71bn economy. Ultimately accountable for Yorkshire Forward’s performance and output targets, Hodgkinson reports directly to senior government ministers and provides the interface with Yorkshire Forward’s stakeholders.

Hodgkinson also leads on a number of national issues on behalf of all regional development agencies (RDAs) including maintaining relationships with the Treasury, CBI and TUC. Until 31 March 2008 he is taking a national lead role for the RDA network, managing relationships with ministers and government departments.

Outside his work with the RDA, Hodgkinson has been involved with many property and building-related businesses in the region. He is chair of property developer Magna Holdings, where he is involved in brownfield sites, redundant and historic buildings and work in conservation areas.

Clive Dutton

Leading on: city-wide vision

Job title: director of planning and regeneration

Organisation: Birmingham council

Sector: local authority

With its groundbreaking city-centre masterplan under way, Birmingham council is putting placemaking and integrated city-wide regeneration at the top of the agenda. There is plenty of regeneration activity going on in the city centre, but the 20-year masterplan is crucial in providing the links between projects, and will bring together physical, economic and cultural development.

Clive Dutton has to see the bigger picture. As the mastermind for regeneration of England’s second city, he is responsible for the largest local authority planning, urban regeneration, highways and transportation and building consultancy department in Europe.

Dutton brings both private and public sector experience to the job. Former roles have included director of regeneration at JJ Gallagher, head of regeneration at Sandwell council and chief executive of Tipton City Challenge.

Dutton’s experience has also made him a valued contributor to national and regional reviews, including the government’s urban taskforce, the Oldham independent review (following the 2001 civil disturbances), the creation of the Gaeltacht quarter in west Belfast and the DCLG planning reform board. Dutton was awarded an OBE in 1998 for services to the regeneration of the West Midlands.

Ian Cox

Leading on: partnership working

Job title: managing director

Organisation: Bellway City Solutions

Sector: private housing

Ian Cox is both a group director at Bellway Homes and managing director of the group’s Bellway City Solutions, the arm responsible for major brownfield, regeneration and partnership projects.

He has worked alongside City Solutions chairman Bill Stevenson to bring forward complex schemes such as EASEL, the £1.2bn regeneration of East and South East Leeds being undertaken in joint venture with the city council.

Such schemes are Cox’s stock in trade. He has been involved in mixed-use and mixed-tenure urban renewal for more than 25 years.

Like many of our leaders, Cox has also given back to the industry and played his part in shaping its future by representing Bellway on government initiatives involving regeneration.

Barry Horne

Leading on: Nottingham

Job title: corporate director environment and regeneration

Organisation: Nottingham council

Sector: local authority

Making transformation work in a city like Nottingham is not easy. The city has been more closely associated with the negatives of urban life than the positives. Horne’s role is to manage the physical changes, his duties covering everything from planning and street scene to the city’s tram link.

As one of the government-designated core cities, Nottingham is destined for growth and regeneration and it is making progress. Its Market Square has been transformed and the Transit tram link is set to be extended if approval is granted in summer for a 9.8km extension.

Although Horne has only been at Nottingham for five years, he is a local government player in his region. He has been chief executive of the East Midlands Regional Local Government Association for the past 11 years, was centrally involved in the work to establish the East Midlands regional assembly and development agency and was secretary of the regional assembly for its first five years.

Anu Vedi

Leading on: affordable housing

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Genesis Housing Group

Sector: affordable housing

Anu Vedi is one of the most respected names in affordable housing. He heads Genesis Housing Group, which has more than 40,000 homes in management and is developing more in such London regeneration locations as Wembley and Canning Town. Genesis is also a member of the Logic Homes consortium of housing associations, contractors and architects.

Vedi is an accountant by profession and that was where he began his career before moving into housing in 1982. He has been chief executive of Genesis for nine years and three years ago was awarded a CBE for services to housing.

Nick Shattock

Leading on: London mega-projects

Job title: deputy chief executive

Organisation: Quintain Estates & Development

Sector: mixed-use development

Quintain works on the large canvas of mega-projects – and that alone would be enough to put deputy chief executive Nick Shattock in the vanguard of regeneration. The property investment, fund management and development company’s projects at Greenwich Peninsula and Wembley have a gross development value of £8bn.

At Greenwich, the company is bringing through a 20-year, 14 million ft2 scheme that will provide 10,000 homes and create 24,000 jobs. Shattock was a partner at city law firm SJ Berwin before joining Quintain. He rose from heading Quintain’s special projects division to the deputy chief executive’s role two years ago.

Steve Inch

Leading on: the other athletes’ village, and Glasgow

Job title: executive director of development and regeneration services

Organisation: Glasgow council

Sector: local authority

London is not the only city in the UK gearing up to create a village to house athletes for a major sporting event. Glasgow is also about to take on that job, in its case for the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Inch is the executive director at the council responsible for the job, among other tasks.

Inch arrived at the then newly formed department of development and regeneration services in the council a decade ago as deputy. He rose to the director’s role three years ago. The department implements the council’s regeneration strategies and has an annual revenue budget of more than £200m.

Cinema fan Inch is also chair of the Glasgow Film Office and a director of the Lighthouse Trust. His interest in social inclusion is reflected in his role as chair of two Glasgow community development finance institutions – Developing Strathclyde and Scotcash.

Jim Gill

Leading on: Liverpool

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Liverpool Vision

Sector: delivery agency

Jim Gill became Jim Gill OBE in the New Year’s Honours last year. It was recognition for his work in delivering regeneration in the city. The chief executive of urban regeneration company Liverpool Vision spent the first 20 years of his career in the Department of Trade and Industry, working initially on regional economic analysis and later on a range of wider industrial planning and regional development issues.

He is now guiding Liverpool Vision through its next stage of evolution, as the URC is rolled in with other city organisations to become a city development company. Gill was also inaugural chair of the urban regeneration company chief executive’s group, advising the ODPM/DCLG.

Tim Hough

Leading on: customer service

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Miller Homes

Sector: private housebuilding

When Tim Hough joined Miller Homes, he put customer care at the cornerstone of his growth strategy. He has helped to introduce a raft of initiatives to boost customer communication and alleviate the stresses linked with moving house.

Hough took over the helm at Miller Homes, the UK’s largest privately owned housebuilder, six years ago. Since then, Hough has delivered strong year-on-year profit growth for the company. He orchestrated Miller Homes’ acquisition of Fairclough Homes in late 2005 for £264m, propelling the company into the top 10 in the housebuilding league table.

Miller Homes is involved in a number of housing-led regeneration projects, including Allerton Bywater millennium community in Leeds and a 2,500-home regeneration project in Salford.

Pam Alexander

Leading on: the South-east

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: South East England Development Agency

Sector: delivery agency

Pam Alexander is charged with the task of ensuring that the country’s South-east economic powerhouse keeps on motoring. The South-east is a focus for national prosperity, but keeping it that way is an continual challenge. Alexander has all the issues – which include housing affordability, housing growth and regeneration of coastal areas – firmly in her sights.

As chief executive of SEEDA Alexander chairs the Margate renewal panel, the Hastings and Bexhill taskforce and is deputy chair of Ashford’s Future. She also chairs the South East Partnership 2012.

Alexander joined SEEDA in the chief executive’s role four years ago, having previously led English Heritage and been deputy chief executive of the Housing Corporation. She has made many contributions to the broader industry and is chair of the Peabody Trust and a non-executive director of the Housing Finance Corporation. Alexander’s most recent appointment 18 months ago was as co-chair of a new women’s enterprise taskforce.

Paul Tennant

Leading on: RSL merger

Job title: group chief executive

Organisation: Orbit Housing Group

Sector: affordable housing

Orbit is a big player in affordable housing. South Warwickshire Housing Association is its latest merger partner, pushing the group's total number of homes in management in central England, East Anglia and Kent over 30,000.

Group chief executive Paul Tennant began his career in local government, and before moving to Orbit in 2003 was chief executive at Leeds Federated Housing. He is also a member of the National Housing Federation board and national council.

Max Steinberg

Leading on: housing market renewal

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Elevate

Sector: delivery agency

East Lancashire is difficult regeneration territory, afflicted by problems of low demand and housing market collapse. Five years ago, Max Steinberg took on the job of turning that market around by heading up housing market renewal pathfinder Elevate. The solutions he has come up with are innovative and broad ranging. The pathfinder has a budget of £95m for 2006-08 and has attracted complementary funding of more than £30m from public agencies and the private sector.

Steinberg has worked as regional director of investment and regeneration for the Housing Corporation and, among other roles, chaired the urban taskforce working party that developed the concept of housing regeneration companies now being piloted. In 1981 Steinberg was part of the environment secretary’s team after the civil disturbances in Merseyside.

Steinberg is chair of the European Institute for Urban Affairs at Liverpool John Moores University and helped found the Career Opportunities for Ethnic Minorities project. He is also a board member of the National Housing and Planning Advice Unit.

Jackie Sadek

Leading on: industry networking

Job title: chair

Organisation: BURA

Sector: industry body

Jackie Sadek is one of the best known figures in regeneration, a status confirmed by her present role as chair of BURA. She chairs the association at a key time and one of her first tasks has been to appoint a new chief executive.

Sadek’s career has taken her from the London Docklands Development Corporation to Stanhope, Tesco, Brierley Hill Regeneration Partnership and the Royal Docks Partnership.

In 2003, she was made chief executive at Kent Thameside before moving on to the top job at west London’s Park Royal Partnership.

The chairmanship of BURA might take up a lot of time, but it is not officially a full-time job and Sadek is combining the role with her new day job as head of regeneration at agency CB Richard Ellis.

Stephen Stone

Leading on: housing innovation

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Crest Nicholson

Sector: private housebuilding

Estates regeneration at Park Central in Birmingham, Design for Manufacture competition-winning houses and waterside regeneration by a signature architect at Bristol Harbourside. All of this and more feature in the output of Crest Nicholson.

Stephen Stone rose to the chief executive’s job at the regeneration housebuilder three years ago – and he knew exactly what he was taking on. He had joined Crest in 1995 and was appointed to the board just three years later.

A chartered architect by training, Stone has consistently championed his company’s role in regeneration, questioned conventional industry thinking and positioned the group to lead the often complex and challenging job of delivering sustainable communities.

Alan Cherry

Leading on: sustainable communities

Job title: chairman

Organisation: Countryside Properties

Sector: private housebuilding

Countryside Properties was promoting the cause of sustainable communities long before government policy made it a must-do. The company’s chairman Alan Cherry has spread the word via the conference platform, through the many government reviews and inquiries he has worked on and in developments such as the Greenwich millennium village in east London.

With the housebuilder having its roots in Essex, the company and its chairman have also been strongly engaged in the Thames Gateway. Cherry is chairman of the Kent Thameside Economic Board and a member of the Medway Renaissance Board. He is also a member of the Manchester Salford Pathfinder board and a board member of MEPC.

Cherry served on Lord Rogers’ urban taskforce, was a member of the Duke of Edinburgh’s inquiry into British housing and was a member of the Inner City Commission. The list goes on. His achievements have been recognised with an MBE and a CBE.

Stephen Boyle

Leading on: Leeds

Job title: chief regeneration officer

Organisation: Leeds council

Sector: local authority

Stephen Boyle made his name as the area manager for east Leeds working on the negotiations for the massive EASEL East and South East Leeds regeneration initiative. The £1.2bn project covers a 1,700ha area across four council wards and seeks to transform the area with the delivery of 5,000 homes, new health and educational facilities and possibly an electrically powered bus system.

Almost two years ago, Boyle was promoted to chief regeneration officer for the council.

He brings to the job a wealth of experience in government regeneration initiatives, having worked on City Challenge, Single Regeneration Budget and New Deal for Communities schemes.

Ken Knott

Leading on: private development in the North-west

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Ask Property Developments

Sector: private sector development

Ask someone to name the top players on the North-west regeneration scene, and the answer will be Ask. The company is working in partnership with seven of the 10 local authorities in Greater Manchester. Ken Knott was one of the three founders of the firm and is chairman of Ask:Akeler Developments, as well as director of Ask’s urban micro-flat offshoot Abito, and Crosby:Ask.

Knott has worked in commercial property for more than 25 years, having previously been director of Amec Developments. Ask was set up eight years ago by Knott, Andy Dodd and Simon Bate, and in May 2003 merged with Manchester regeneration specialist, Westport Developments. The firm is now involved in some of the North-west’s largest schemes and is a key player in the revitalisation of Manchester.

Until 2005 Knott was also joint chair of Ashton Regeneration, a five-year regeneration project for Ashton under Lyne in Tameside.

Richard Powell

Leading on: 2012 and Elephant & Castle

Job title: director

Organisation: First Base

Sector: private housebuilding

RIchard Powell led the team that bid for and won the Stratford City regeneration project, including the 2012 athletes’ village, and he continues to play a role in the delivery of this scheme. The director of First Base is also implementing the wide-ranging development partnership agreement with the London Borough of Southwark for the regeneration of Elephant & Castle, and leads on business strategy for the company.

Before joining First Base, Powell was shaping government policy. In 1997 he became a founding member of the first Labour taskforce, Treasury taskforce (latterly Partnerships UK).

Richard moved to Lend Lease five years ago as a director of Lend Lease Retail and Communities in Europe. He led the negotiations for Lend Lease for the investment in First Base and supported its successful English Partnerships’ London-Wide Initiative bid. First Base’s first LWI project, the highly innovative Adelaide Wharf, has just been completed.

Matthew Harrison

Leading on: award-winning affordable homes

Job title: deputy chief executive

Organisation: Great Places Housing Group

Sector: affordable housing

You may well have heard of Islington Square, those love them or hate them new homes with the curvaceous dutch gables in New Islington, Manchester’s millennium community. You might also have heard of Guest Street, the follow-on phase of homes at New Islington in a contrastingly minimalist style. Both schemes are products of the developer-housing association partnership of Urban Splash and Great Places Housing Group.

Matthew Harrison is the man behind the housing association side of the partnership, as deputy chief executive at Great Places. Harrison moved from Northern Counties HA to Great Places and became director of development at 29. He hasn’t looked back since.

He has built the group’s development capacity up from £2m a year to 2008’s impressive £150m programme. Today Harrison is heading a multi-award-winning development and regeneration team involved in some of Britain’s most exciting and innovative schemes.

John Holmes

Leading on: Hull

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Hull Citybuild

Sector: delivery agency

Hull’s urban regeneration company, Hull Citybuild, is now morphing into one of the government’s new-look city development companies, with the new name of Hull Forward. It has a new chief executive to lead it through this evolution: John Holmes, who also takes on the role of chief executive designate of the CDC. With CDC status, the Hull delivery agency will broaden its scope, incorporating economic renewal alongside the physical regeneration.

For Holmes, the move marks a return to the city whose regeneration he set on course as project manager of Victoria Dock in the 1980s. In the period in between, he was director of regeneration and tourism at regional development agency One North East.

Sir Howard Bernstein

Leading on: city leadership

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Manchester council

Sector: local authority

Who could be better as an advocate for city leadership than Manchester’s Sir Howard Bernstein? He has brought change to all quarters of the city: from Hulme to Ancoats, from the Bridgewater Hall to the Velodrome, from the Metrolink to the much debated congestion charge.

Bernstein’s rise from city clerk to city leader is well charted. It was as chief executive of Manchester Millennium, the public-private taskforce established to oversee the reconstruction of the bombed city centre, that Bernstein really rose to prominence.

Bernstein is known for his business acumen, for forging partnerships with the city’s key players and for successfully attracting millions of pounds into the city. Knighted in 2003 for his contribution to the city, he continues to work tirelessly at promoting Manchester as a global city.

Roger Madelin

Leading on: King’s Cross

Job title: joint chief executive

Organisation: Argent

Sector: mixed-use development

Not since Lord Grosvenor and Thomas Cubitt developed a few fields surrounding Buckingham Palace has someone had as big an impact on London as Roger Madelin is set to have. The scale of development at King’s Cross Central is immense – as was Madelin’s often-charted struggle to win planning approval for the project.

King’s Cross Central is the successor to Argent’s seminal city-centre project, Brindleyplace, in Birmingham, which Madelin worked on through the 1990s. Both schemes set out Madelin’s and Argent’s stall for visionary sustainable urban development, an approach that won Madelin a CBE in 2007.mixed-use development

Not since Lord Grosvenor and Thomas Cubitt developed a few fields surrounding Buckingham Palace has someone had as big an impact on London as Roger Madelin is set to have. The scale of development at King’s Cross Central is immense – as was Madelin’s often-charted struggle to win planning approval for the project.

King’s Cross Central is the successor to Argent’s seminal city-centre project, Brindleyplace, in Birmingham, which Madelin worked on through the 1990s. Both schemes set out Madelin’s and Argent’s stall for visionary sustainable urban development, an approach that won Madelin a CBE in 2007.

Ken Perry

Leading on: people-focused change

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: PLUS Housing Group

Sector: affordable housing

Ken Perry is an advocate of people-centred change. That is clear from both his views on regeneration and housing policy and in the approach he has taken in the creation of PLUS Housing Group, with its people-focused approach to housing, regeneration, neighbourhood management and social enterprise. Perry’s substantial experience has included working for Ellesmere Port and Neston council, St Helens council and Salford council.

He became group chief executive of PLUS on its creation six years ago, having previously been chief executive of CDS Housing, one of the PLUS members.

Tony W Pidgley

Leading on: housing-led regeneration

Job title: managing director

Organisation: Berkeley Group Holdings

Sector: private housebuilding

Tony Pidgley is one of the industry’s leading lights. He has been managing director of Berkeley since it was founded in 1976. Now the top regeneration player operates through a number of divisions, including Berkeley Homes,

St James and St George. Pidgley’s knowledge of the housing market, entrepreneurial skill and strategic thinking helped Berkeley Group become Britain’s leading urban regenerator. He is in demand on reviews and committees and has served as a trustee of the Prince of Wales’s Foundation for Architecture and the Built Environment.

Peter Andrews

Leading on: east London

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: London Thames Gateway Development Corporation

Sector: delivery agency

When Peter Andrews took on the top job at the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation three years ago, the location of the 2012 Olympics was undecided. Now the world’s biggest sporting occasion is coming to his territory. LTGDC will be playing its part in the delivery of the Games legacy in the Lower Lea Valley and has a central role in the Gateway’s regeneration.

Before working at LTGDC, Andrews was chief executive of urban regeneration company New Swindon Company, where his work resulted in revisions of local and regional planning policy to support regeneration of the town centre.

Ashy McKay

Leading on: Bristol

Job title: head of regeneration

Organisation: Bristol City Council

Sector: local authority

Ashy McKay is the council’s head of regeneration, reporting directly to chief executive Nick Gurney. She is responsible for leading on economic development; area-based regeneration schemes; the council's co-ordinated approach to planning and regeneration in south Bristol, and a number of projects delivering the city's housing and employment growth targets.

McKay honed her skills at Birmingham council where she was regeneration manager for the west of the city, and at Southwark council.

Anthony Glossop

Leading on: brownfield turnaround

Job title: chairman

Organisation: St Modwen

Sector: mixed-use development

Anthony Glossop can bring about the most powerful of transformations. The Cambridge law graduate started his working life as a constable in the Metropolitan police, then returned to law to become a company secretary. He became chief executive of a West Midlands engineering group, but in the recession of the 1980s transformed that company into the mighty St Modwen.

St Modwen’s name is associated with many large-scale regeneration projects around the country, its specialisms being town centres, partnering industry in its restructuring, brownfield renewal and restoring heritage sites and buildings.

Throughout his career, Glossop has been active in the communities in which he has lived or worked. He has been a member of the Worcester Enterprise Agency, the North Staffordshire Partnership and the Stoke Local Partnership. He has also been a director of the West Midlands Development Agency and the Worcestershire Community Health Trust and chairman of the Worcester Civic Society.

Mark Clare

Leading on: low-carbon housing

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Barratt Developments

Sector: private housebuilding

Barratt is Mark Clare’s first employer in housebuilding and he came in right at the top as chief executive, immediately making his mark with industry rivals and city players by acquiring Wilson Bowden for £2.2bn.

Clare is an astute and skilled businessman, whose ascent up the career ladder has taken him through a variety of industries: defence electronics, telecommunications and energy.

The latter experience is an asset in a housebuilding industry wrestling with the demands of the Code for Sustainable Homes. Last November Clare took on the task of chairing the UK Green Building Council’s zero-carbon task group. With the company announcing a deal with power company Eon to deliver low and zero-carbon homes, Clare is putting his company at the forefront of the environmental debate.

David Cowans

Leading on: mixed-tenure communities

Job title: group chief executive

Organisation: Places for People

Sector: affordable housing

DAVID COWANS is showing both private and public sectors the future of housebuilding. That future is not about housing for sale, nor for rent, but about mixed-tenure communities with high-quality, environment-friendly homes, good management structures and life chances for all.

Its focus on that broad business agenda prompts Places for People to describe itself not as an affordable housing provider but as “one of the largest property management and development companies in the UK”. Next year, it will build more private homes than affordable rented ones for the first time.

All the while, the ebullient Cowans has driven growth and pulled off deals more usually done by the men in pinstriped suits from the private sector. His joint venture with brownfield specialist Cofton, Making Places, is producing weighty sites, notably the 1,200-unit Smith’s Dock on North Tyneside.

Cowans, a graduate of the local authority sector, clearly relishes his role, and his views and experience have the power to influence government policy, most recently through the Hills review on the social housing and the Callcutt review of housebuilding.

Patrick Wiggins

Leading on: urban regeneration companies in Scotland

Job title: chief executive

Organisation: Irvine Bay URC

Sector: delivery agency

Patrick Wiggins headed back north of the border to head one of its second wave of urban regeneration companies. He joined the Irvine Bay URC when it was founded two years ago, having previously been director of regeneration and housing at Bradford council.

Wiggins’ track record in Scotland includes working with Scottish Enterprise and the former Scottish Development Agency. He has led big economic regeneration projects in both Lanarkshire and Ayrshire.

At Irvine Bay, Wiggins has a lot to do. The largest of Scotland’s URCs covers a coastal area of outstanding natural beauty, but it is afflicted by declining employment, an ageing population, lack of investment in the built environment and deprivation. These issues are being tackled in a 12-year programme.