Speaker Biographies

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Rebecca Willis, Vice Chair, Whitehall, Sustainable Development Commission

09:30

Rebecca Willis is an independent researcher and Vice-Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission. Her work focuses on environmental politics and policymaking at both a national and regional level. She has researched and written on issues such as climate change, energy policy, public attitudes to the environment, government spending and taxation, and the environmental and social impact of new technologies.

As Vice-Chair for Whitehall, Rebecca represents the Sustainable Development Commission in central government, working with government ministers, advisers and officials to ensure that government policy reflects sustainability goals. Her freelance portfolio involves work with a range of organisations including Defra, Greenpeace, Natural England and the NorthWest Regional Assembly.

Rebecca is a regular speaker at conferences and seminars, and has written for The Guardian, New Statesman and the journal Renewal. She is an Associate of the think-tank Demos, and of environmental group Green Alliance. From 2001-4 she was Green Alliance’s Director. Previously, Rebecca spent two years as a policy adviser at the European Parliament in Brussels, specialising in international environmental issues.

Rebecca has a first class degree in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge, and a masters degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex. She lives in Cumbria with her husband and two young sons, and divides her time between London and the Lake District.

Dr Tim Williams, Chair, The Williams Commission

09:35

Before joining Navigant Consulting, Tim was special advisor to David Miliband at ODPM where he worked on the Local Government White paper and regeneration, planning and housing policy. He continues to advise DCLG Minister Yvette Cooper on regeneration, planning, housing and growth areas. Having been chief executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership in its formative period between 1998 and 2003 Tim played a leading role in making the Gateway a national priority. He renewed his experience of East London and local government in the last year when developing a strategy for Tower Hamlets on exploiting the Olympic opportunity. He is advising on the emerging business plan of Communities England, the new national regeneration and housing body and is chairing a Housing Corporation commission into the design of affordable housing in the Thames Gateway.
In 2003 Tim was named as the leading regeneration personality in the UK by a panel of his peers. He has had a weekly column in Regeneration and Renewal since it was established in 2000. In addition to his practical experience of local government he has considerable development experience having set up and run one of the government's flagship Urban Regeneration Companies, CPR Regeneration in Cornwall.
Tim is married with an 18 month old daughter. He was educated at Bryncelynnog Comprehensive, Peterhouse Cambridge, Merton Oxford and the Inns of Court. He as a Ph.D in history and was called to the Bar from the Inner Temple in 1998.

Presentation: •Housing: Can it be green and good at the same time?

In our determination to reduce the carbon footprint of development, will we lost sight of critical architectural and urban design issues?

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Mike Grenville, Founder, Forest Row Transition Village

09:55

Mike Grenville is a technology journalist and event organiser focussed
on the mobile messaging industry. He has campaigned for many years on
environmental issues and has been behind a number of front page
newspaper reports. More recently he established the Transition Forest
Row project to engage the community to respond to the challenges of
both Climate Change and Peak Oil. The Transition Town approach is for
the community to build local resilience and develop its own energy
descent plan to a way of living beyond oil.

Presentation:

• Local Communities empowering local people

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Ian Sutcliffe, UK Chief Executive Taylor Wimpey

10:15	Ian joined George Wimpey in February 2006 as George Wimpey UK Managing Director and in October 2006 joined the Plc Board. Following the merger between George Wimpey plc and Taylor Woodrow plc, Ian took on the role as UK Chief Executive. Prior to joining George Wimpey, Ian held a number of senior roles with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, lastly being Vice President Retail for Shell Oil in the US
	Presentation: • A housebuilder's perspective on what sustainability means in practice • How they are embracing the need today... and plan to do so in the future Back to top of page

Michael O'Higgins , Chair, Audit Commission

Michael O'Higgins became Chairman of the Audit Commission in October 2006. For the previous ten years, Michael was a Managing Partner with PA Consulting, leading its Government and IT Consulting Groups, latterly as a member of its International Board.
He was previously a partner at Price Waterhouse, worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris and held academic posts at the University of Bath, the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the Australian National University. He is also currently the Chair of Centrepoint, having been on the Board of Trustees since 2002, became a Trustee of the National Centre for Social Research early in 2007, and a member of the Cabinet Secretary’s Capability Review Moderation Panel in May 2007.

Iain Wright MP , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, CLG

Iain Wright was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in June 2007.

Iain entered Parliament after being elected in a by-election in September 2004. Since entering Parliament he has been a member of the Public Accounts and Modernisation Standing Committees (2007), and Parliamentary Private Secretary to a health minister (2005-06).

Iain is a chartered accountant and prior to being elected MP for Hartlepool, he worked as an accountant at OneNorthEast (a regional development agency) (2003-04), and at Deloitte & Touche (1996-2003). Iain studied History at University College London (BA 1994, MA 1995).

Iain has been married to his wife Tiffiny since 1995. They have 3 sons and 1 daughter.

Iain enjoys spending time with his family, history, listening to music, and watching football in his spare time. He is an avid supporter and season ticket holder of his local football team, Hartlepool United.

Chris Church , Chair of Trustees, London 21

Chris Church works on environment and sustainable development issues at international, national, local and community level. He chairs the Board of the London 21 network. He is co-director of Community Environment Associates (CEA) and has worked independently since 1990. From 1984 – 1990 he worked for Friends of the Earth UK, with responsibility for local and regional development. He is an advisor to the Community Development Foundation on sustainable development issues. He also co-chairs ANPED, the Northern Alliance for Sustainability, an EU-funded network for all part of Europe that focuses on sustainable consumption and production.

Recent work has focused on building the engagement of non-environmental voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations in work on climate change and environmental action. This has included the development of the Every Action Counts programme for the Community Sector Coalition and Defra, and the ‘Local Action, Global Impact’ report on climate change and the VCS. Chris is a resident of Hackney, living near the 2012 site, and has been involved in the Olympics programme for some time, chairing early stakeholder meetings in the key boroughs.

Steve Cox, Executive Director, Strategy & Development EEDA

Steve Cox joined EEDA in January 2000 as infrastructure and planning advisor and is now director general, development.

Steve has been responsible for leading EEDA's contribution to the East of England plan, the strategy which guides planning and development across the region to the year 2021.

Steve led the work with the East of England Regional Assembly to define the region's transport priorities, which helped ensure a £3.8 billion investment package for transport in 2003. He also led on EEDA's response to the government's White Paper on the future of air transport, including plans for delivering sustainable economic benefits for the region with the growth of Stansted and Luton airports.

Steve leads the development directorate, which is the main outward facing directorate, managing our contact with businesses, delivering our activities, and acting as our contact with the department of trade and industry (DTI) and department for education and skills (DFES).

Before joining EEDA, Steve was key employment sites manager at Hertfordshire County Council where he oversaw the sustainable development of several sites including the redevelopment of the 800 acre former BAe site in Hatfield into a new campus for the University of Hertfordshire.

Mike Grenville, Founder, Forest Row Transition Village