Speakers
The following speaker participants have confirmed so far…
Sunand Prasad, MA, AA Dip, PhD, RIBA, FRSA
Sunand is currently President of the RIBA (2007 - 2009) and a founding partner of Penoyre & Prasad, an architectural practice known for designing a diverse range of award winning buildings.
He was one of the founding Commissioners of the UK Government’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, serving from 1999 to 2006. He is RIBA Vice President for Policy and Strategy and a member of their Council and Board. He played a central part in the development of the Construction Industry Council’s Design Quality Indicators. He has written about architecture and cultural diversity, the value of design, architecture and construction, hospital design, urbanism and domestic architecture of North India, and the work of Le Corbusier. Sunand has taught and lectured in many schools of architecture, acted as external examiner and continues to be occasionally involved in teaching. He lives in London with his family in a house designed and built together with friends.
Richard Simmons, Chief Executive, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)
Richard Simmons has been the Chief Executive of CABE since 2004. He has a Doctorate in Urban History and Urban Economics. He worked as a town planner before joining the Inner Cities Directorate of the Department of the Environment, advising on regeneration policy. Richard moved to the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1987, leading teams developing masterplans for the development of the Royal Docks and Canary Wharf, building infrastructure and selling land for development. In 1993 he became Chief Executive of the Dalston City Challenge regeneration company in Hackney, where he led a five-year programme of economic, social and physical renewal before becoming Director of Development and Environment for the new Unitary Council of Medway.
Jill Rutter, Director of Strategy and Sustainable Development, Defra
Jill Rutter joined Defra in February 2004 to head up a new Directorate with responsibility for Departmental Strategy and Sustainable Development. Her team produced the UK SD Strategy, “Securing the Future” published in March 2005 and undertook Defra’s Strategy Refresh for David Miliband in 2006. She spent the previous six years in BP in a variety of posts including helping to design BP’s internal Pilot Emissions Trading Scheme. Before joining BP, the bulk of her career was in the Treasury, with posts including tax policy and international debt and local government finance, as well as running the Chief Secretary’s Private Office and as the Chancellor’s Press Secretary. She also spent a two year spell in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit where her responsibilities included environment and health policy.
Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment
Hank Dittmar became Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment in January 2005. Mr. Dittmar is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism, an international membership organization that promotes the creation and restoration of compact, walkable, mixed-use cities, towns, and neighbourhoods. Mr. Dittmar has over twenty years of progressively responsible international experience in urban design and development and urban and transport policy.
Prior to assuming the post with The Prince’s Foundation, Mr. Dittmar was President & CEO of Reconnecting America. Mr. Dittmar was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton to the White House Advisory Committee on Transportation and Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development’s Metropolitan Working Group, which he served as Chair.
The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment website
Professor Paul Ekins, Professor of Energy and Environment Policy, King’s College London
Paul Ekins joined King’s College London as Professor of Energy and Environment Policy in January 2008, having been Head of the Environment Group at the Policy Studies Institute and Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of Westminster since 2002.He is also a Member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution and, from 2003-2007, was on the UK Government’s Sustainable Energy Policy Advisory Board. He is a Co-Director of the UK Energy Research Centre, in charge of its Energy Systems and Modelling theme, and leads King’s College’s involvement in large research consortia on Bioenergy and Hydrogen.
Recent European projects include projects on the sustainability assessment of both trade negotiations (SIAMETHOD) and the European structural funds (SRDTOOLS), and on indicators of eco-innovation (ECODRIVE). Paul also leads a European Consortium in the project Resource Productivity and Environmental Tax Reform in
Europe (petrE), one of the final research programmes of the Anglo-German Foundation, and is Director of the UK Green Fiscal Commission, and Chairman of the UK Government-funded National Industrial Symbiosis Programme.He is the author of numerous papers and articles, and his most recent book is Economic Growth and Environmental Sustainability: the Prospects for Green Growth (Routledge,
London, 2000). He is co-editor of the book Understanding the Costs of Environmental Regulation, which will be published by Edward Elgar in 2008.In 1994 Paul Ekins received a Global 500 Award ‘for outstanding environmental achievement’ from the United Nations Environment Programme.
Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS, VMH
Professor Sir Ghillean Prance is Scientific Director of the Eden Project in Cornwall, Visiting Professor at Reading University; President of Christians in Science was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1993 and awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1999. He has served as President of the Linnean Society, the Systematics Association and the Institute of Biology. He is married with two daughters; one lives in Recife, Brazil, and the other is a surgeon.
http://www.cis.org.uk/about/president
Stephen Stone, CEO, Crest Nicholson PLC
As a chartered architect Stephen Stone started his career working at a number of London based architectural practices before joining Countryside Properties in 1983. From Countryside he joined Crest Nicholson in 1995, and was appointed to the Board of Crest Nicholson in 1999. In 2005 he became Crest Nicholson’s Chief Executive. Throughout this period he has continued to champion Crest Nicholson’s reputation as a driving force in the regeneration field, questioning conventional thinking within the industry and positioning the Group decisively to lead the complex and challenging process of delivering environmentally sensitive, high quality, sustainable communities.
Sue Riddlestone, Executive Director BioRegional 
Sue co-founded the environmental organisation, BioRegional and as co-director has built it up to anorganisation with a turnover of £2 million with 35 staff and six spin out companies. She is also a co-director of the ‘One Planet Living Initiative’. Major achievements include the £15 million BedZED eco-village which has led to a property company spin out in 2005 backed by Quintain. Sue established the Laundry, London’s first kerbside recycling collection for small businesses and has led a marketing campaign generating annual sales of over £2 million for the local recycled paper product. More recently, Sue secured the contract for BioRegional to write the sustainability strategy for London’s 2012 Olympic bid. Sue is also a member of the London Sustainable Development Commission.
Pooran Desai, OBE, co-founder BioRegional, technical director of One Planet Living Communities
Originator of the term ‘One Planet Living’, Pooran studied at Oxford and Cambridge Universities before co-founding BioRegional Development Group with Sue Riddlestone.
Initially he worked on sustainable woodland management and charcoal production, working to launch BioRegional Charcoal Company Ltd (BRCC) of which he remains Managing Director. He led on BioRegional’s Lavender Project and in 1998, he drew together the partnership to construct BedZED.
During his time at BioRegional, Pooran has been a sustainability consultant to central government, local authorities and developers, in the UK and overseas and lectures widely. For three years he chaired the Homes and Environment group of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment (ACCPE).
In 2005, Pooran helped found property development company BioRegional Quintain Ltd (BQL). He stepped down as co-director of BioRegional Development Group to take up the role of Sustainability Director at BQL. Pooran now divides his time between BQL, working for BioRegional Development Group as a director of the “One Planet Living” communities, and continuing as MD of BRCC.
In 2004, Pooran was honoured with an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by the Queen for services to sustainable development.
Mike Beaven, Sustainability Leader, Arup Associates
Mike Beaven leads Building Services and Environmental Engineering in Arup Associates. He joined Ove Arup and Partners in 1987 and moved to Arup Associates in 1997 after time in the London, Tokyo, New York, Sydney and Cardiff Offices. He has worked on a broad range of building types and masterplans throughout the world.
He has wide experience in building services and environmental design at all scales, from the productive workplace to external environment for a variety of masterplans, international sports and exhibition buildings; high rise, speculative and corporate offices, museums and art galleries, residential and product design.
Specialising in design for sustainability and high quality, low energy and low environmental impact, internal and external environments, he is active in promoting and teaching environmental design to architects, engineers and other construction professionals. Mike is also active in the British Council for Offices’ Green Issues Committee and has presented at conferences throughout the world. Mike has published articles in the journals of CIBSE and IMechE. He teaches and lectures internationally. He is an academic referee for industry related journals.
British Council for Offices website
Tom Andrews, Director of Programmes, Soil Association
Tom Andrews joined the Soil Association as Director of Programmes in 2007. His early career in London focused on providing organisational development and communications advice to voluntary and public sector clients. Since returning to university in 1998 to complete his post-graduate studies, Tom has worked for a wide range of environment and development non-governmental organisations in the UK and abroad. He lives in west Wales with this young family.