Dr Hilary Cottam OBE, Social Entrepreneur, Thinker and Policy Advisor
Dr Hilary Cottam OBE is a social entrepreneur, thinker and policy advisor. Her work includes the creation of new approaches and services for ageing, family life, work and care. Her first book Radical Help (pub. 2018) was hailed as ‘mind-shifting’ by David Brooks in the New York Times, has been translated internationally, and is widely credited with shifting narratives and practice around welfare systems across Europe. Her new book The Work We Need challenges us to think differently about work and place-based economic policy. Her current research and practice centres on the future of urban and rural work and on new care economies. Hilary holds an Honorary Professorship at the Institute of Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL; she was named UK Designer of the Year in 2005 for pioneering the field of social design and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. www.hilarycottam.com.
Cormac Russell, Managing Director, Nurture Development
Cormac is a social explorer, an author and a much sought-after speaker. He is the Founding Director of Nurture Development and a member of the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute, at DePaul University, Chicago. Over the last 25 years, Cormac’s work has demonstrated an enduring impact in 35 countries around the world. He has trained communities, agencies, NGOs and governments in ABCD and other community-based approaches in Africa, Asia, Australia/Oceania, Europe and North America. His most recent books are The Connected Community- Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods (Coauthor John McKnight); Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2022, and Rekindling Democracy – A Professional’s Guide to Working in Citizen Space; Cascade Books, 2020.
Cormac’s TEDx talk can be viewed here
Amanda Askham, Strategic Director, Strategy and Change, London Borough of Ealing
Amanda is a public sector leader with a passion for community power and social innovation. For the last two years she has been leading transformation and community powered practice in one of London’s largest and most ambitious boroughs, driving change in relationships, shifting the power and control closer to residents and communities and developing the fabric of health and happiness with people in Ealing. Before this, she spent over 10 years in Cambridgeshire, successfully delivering transformation and system shift grounded in community led approaches and new organisational models. She has been a national leader in developing new models for local government and tries to always centre her practice around humility, curiosity and compassion. In her early career she worked with a diverse and international range of companies in the fields of research and development, innovation and service design, spending several years in South Africa working deeply in communities following the end of apartheid. She is a Policy Fellow at Cambridge University Centre for Science and Policy.
Zoë Billingham, Director of IPPR North
Previously, Zoë worked as a civil servant for the UK government including in HM Treasury and as economic policy adviser to the deputy prime minister during the coalition. Zoë has also led the Centre for Progressive Policy think tank and worked in finance. Zoë regularly appears on broadcast media, including on Channel 4 News, BBC, The Today Programme, LBC and Sky News. She writes for a range of online and print publications. Alongside her role at IPPR North, Zoë is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a UK2070 commissioner.
Carl Brown, Systems Practice Manager, MEAM
Carl provides bespoke systems-focused support to help local areas tackle problems related to multiple disadvantage. Before joining MEAM Carl worked within the homelessness sector in a range of frontline services including Housing First and 18 months as an evaluator for the national Housing First Pilot. As someone with lived experience of homelessness and multiple disadvantage he is passionate about his work. Carl has experience working within transformational teams, applying systems thinking methods to bring about positive change and working with the police and social housing providers.
Juliet Can, Founder, Director, Stour Trust
Juliet is a Director of Stour Trust and co-founder of Stour Space, providing affordable work, civic and creative spaces. Juliet co-led the formation of the Hackney Wick & Fish Island Community Development Trust and sits on the Board of London Community Land Trust. She has worked in the third sector, focussing on social justice issues. Juliet is a Member of the Portfolio Investment Committee.
Rachel Coldicutt OBE, founder and executive director of research consultancy Careful Industries
Rachel Coldicutt is a researcher and strategist specialising in inclusive, community-powered innovation and the social impacts of new and emerging technologies. She is founder and executive director of research consultancy Careful Industries. She was previously founding CEO of responsible technology think tank Doteveryone where she led influential and ground-breaking research into how technology is changing society and developed practical tools for responsible innovation. Prior to that, she spent almost 20 years working at the cutting edge of new technology for companies including the BBC, Microsoft, BT, and Channel 4, and was a pioneer in the digital art world. Rachel is an advisor, board member and trustee for a number of companies and charities and, from 2020-2023, served as a non-executive director at Ofcom. In 2019, Rachel was awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours for services for the digital society.
William Cooper, Deputy Head of Strategy and Engagement, Barnet Council
Will is an experienced leader in local government with a passion for community power and enabling people to participate in civic life. Responsible for community participation and engagement in the London Borough of Barnet, Will is leading Barnet’s transformation journey to strengthen its relationship with communities through involvement and coproduction. A 2022 manifesto pledge to be a ‘listening council’ has seen Barnet explore new ways of working that build trust with residents and work together to tackle inequalities.
Josie Cowgill, Co-Founder, Trinity Rooms Stroud
Josie co-founded the Trinity Rooms Community Hub in 2020. Since then the Trinity Rooms has grown into a vibrant hub with the underlying mission to promote the health of planet Earth and all its inhabitants. By addressing systemic inequalities Josie and the team are aiming to build a healthier, more sustainable, just, and connected community where people feel they belong and have value.
Dan Crowe, Director, 3ni
Dan is director of 3ni, a new social value partnership, recently spun-out from Local Trust and now developed by Capacity CIC. 3ni brings together policy, practice, and the latest research and cutting-edge data and diagnostic tools to support local government and public sector partners to work with disadvantaged communities to transform neighbourhoods across the country. It also hosts the national network for neighbourhood improvement, sharing best and next practice to support community-led regeneration.
Nick Davies, Programme Director, Institute for Government
Nick is the programme director leading the Institute’s work on public services and outsourcing. He has also previously overseen research on infrastructure. Before joining the Institute, Nick led the public services team at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. He has also worked at Children England, London Youth and as a parliamentary researcher for an MP. Nick is a regular commentator in print, on the radio and TV, for outlets including BBC News, Sky News, Times Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, the Guardian and the Telegraph.
John Denham, Professorial Research Fellow, Department of Politics and International Relations and Director, Centre for English Identity and Politics , University of Southampton.
John is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Director of the Centre for English Identity and Politics at the University of Southampton. He was Labour MP for Southampton Itchen (1992-2015) and served as a Minister (1997-2003 and 2007-2010). John’s final Ministerial role was as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. He chaired the Home Affairs Select Committee from 2003 – 2007). Outside the University he was a founding Director of the Southern Policy Centre, an independent regional think tank. John co-authored New Local’s 2024 report, Place-Based Public Service Budgets: Making Public Money Work Better for Communities, with Jessica Studdert.
Piali Das Gupta, Strategy Director, London’s Future, London Councils
Piali is helping boroughs to deliver their Shared Ambitions on issues such as increasing the supply of good quality affordable housing and enhancing opportunities for Londoners through access to skills and jobs. Prior to that, she held senior roles at a number of councils including London Borough of Newham, Surrey County Council and Birmingham City Council. Piali got her professional start with the Government of Canada, where she led the team that developed the country’s national homelessness strategy.
Greg Fell, Director of Public Health, Sheffield
He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in biochemistry and physiology in 1993. He has worked as a social researcher in a maternity unit; a number of roles in health promotion and public health before joining the public health training scheme. Greg worked as a consultant in public health in Bradford in the PCT then Bradford council. Since Feb 2016 he has worked for Sheffield City Council as the Director of Public Health for the city. Greg was also appointed to the role of Vice President to the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) in December 2021 and then became President in October 2023.
Anna Francis, Director, Portland Inn Project
Anna Francis is an artist and researcher whose work aims to create space to discuss and reframe city resources, through participatory art interventions. She creates situations for herself, the public and other artists to explore places differently. In recent years the interventions which Anna has worked on focus on the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and use an action research process to recognise untapped resources, and co-create solutions with communities. This has included transforming an abandoned garden into a pocket park, and retrofitting a derelict pub to become a creative community hub.
Anna is Professor of Art and Society at Staffordshire University, and a Director at The Portland Inn Project, an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation.
https://theportlandinnproject. com/
https://theonehundredyearplan.com/
Research outputs: https://eprints.staffs.ac.uk/view/creators/FRANCIS=3AAnna=3A=3A.html
Robin Fry, Inclusive Economy Advisor for the North of Tyne Combined Authority
Robin joined the North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA) in November 2022, having spent 20 years working in the voluntary and community sector. In 2024 NTCA transitioned to become the North East Combined Authority covering a population of almost 2 million people. Robin’s role is to support the Combined Authority to build inclusivity into every element of a thriving regional economy. He’s interested in social value, citizen engagement, social capital and supporting strong neighbourhoods.
Kirsten Fussing, Neighbourhoods & Cohesion Manager, Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council
Kirsten is the Calderdale Council lead for Cohesion. She has developed the boroughs approach to Building Stronger Communities in this West Yorkshire borough and has a long history of leading local authorities to take community development approaches to celebrating and building resilience in diverse places. The approach she has developed embeds key social cohesion builders as foundational practice across an LAs sphere of influence and service delivery. The empowerment of communities to have direct influence on how this is enacted in practice forms a key part of that approach.
Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director, Public Interest News Foundation
Jonathan began his career as a journalist at the Observer and has also served as Editor of the Fabian Review, Director of English PEN, Director of Programmes at the Sigrid Rausing Trust and CEO of IMPRESS. He has written for newspapers and magazines including the Telegraph, Guardian and New Statesman, and journals including Critical Quarterly, the Journal of Media Law and the British Journalism Review. He has given evidence to several Parliamentary inquiries and is regularly invited to speak at conferences in the UK and internationally. Jonathan has a PhD from the University of Cambridge and has held visiting fellowships at King’s College, London, the University of East Anglia and the University of Stirling. He is a Leadership Fellow at St George’s House, Windsor and Chair of the Stephen Spender Trust. His first book, The Press Freedom Myth, was published in 2019.
Eve Holt, Head of Policy and Implementation, GMCA
Passionate about people, participation, place and planet. Previous roles include being a Manchester Councillor, VCFSE leader, Director for GM Moving and public law solicitor.
Dr Catherine Howe, Chief Executive, Adur and Worthing Councils
Dr Catherine Howe is Chief Executive of Adur and Worthing Councils. She is an expert in digital innovation, focusing on the areas of digital democracy, systems practice and digital transformation. Her current area of focus is public service reform and she writes and comments on that very many moving parts of this on her website as well as writing in other spaces. She has a background which connects together technology, community and social change and has worked across a number of different sectors including education, not for profit and the technology industry. She has worked with new collaborative technologies and social networking tools for over 15 years. Her research interests cover digital civic space, citizenship and systems thinking and she is the Chair of the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny.
Rebecca Inskip, Director of Programme – Local Government, Belong-The Cohesion and Integration Network
Rebecca leads the strategic design and delivery of Belong’s place-based practice and national policy programming. She brings over 13 years of experience in policy and leadership, including roles as Head of Policy and Strategy at Crest Advisory and Programme Director for Serious Violence Prevention at Devon and Cornwall Police and Office for the Police and Crime Commissioner. There, she led a public health approach to tackling violence and directed the recovery of the 2021 Plymouth mass shooting. Rebecca previously led the Strong Cities Network, supporting over 140 cities worldwide to counter extremism, polarisation, and misinformation. She has advised national governments and international bodies including the UN, EU, and has served as an expert advisor to the UK Department for Education.
Indy Johar, Co-founder, Dark Matter Labs
Indy is co-founder of Dark Matter Labs and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00. He is also a founding director of Open Systems Lab, seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) and Open Desk (open source furniture company). Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization. He is on the advisory board for the Future Observatory and is part of the committee for the London Festival of Architecture. He is also a fellow of the London Interdisciplinary School. Indy was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University. He was Studio Master at the Architectural Association – 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. He is currently a professor at RMIT University. He was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022 and an MBE for Services to Architecture in 2023.
Sunder Katwala, Director of British Future
Director of British Future. He has previously worked as a journalist. He was general secretary of the Fabian Society think tank from 2003 to 2011 and was previously a leader writer and internet editor at the Observer, a research director of the Foreign Policy Centre and commissioning editor for politics and economics at the publisher Macmillan. He celebrated his 10th wedding anniversary with his wife, Stacy, in 2011, and is the proud father of four children, Zarina, Jay, Sonny and Indira. His support for Everton and Southend United football clubs reflects an upbringing in Cheshire and Essex, though he was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, to parents who came to Britain from India and Ireland, to work for the NHS.
Katie Kelly, Chair, New Local
Katie Kelly is the former Deputy Chief Executive with East Ayrshire Council and has recently retired following an incredible career of over 30 years in the public, health and communities’ sectors. She has led a wide portfolio of services and partnerships including Housing, Communities, Transformation, Economic Growth, Transport, Net Zero and Wellbeing, and Health Improvement. Katie was also employed by the NHS to set up the Community Health Partnership and integration arrangements in Ayrshire with a strong focus on co-creating health and ensuring full engagement of patients, their families and wider communities in local healthcare and wellbeing. Katie has a proven, evidence-based track record of leading whole system transformational change and co-designing innovative, sustainable, people-centred and citizen-led services which have released large scale recurring revenue savings and simultaneously improved outcomes for local people. She developed and led the unique and nationally acclaimed Vibrant Communities approach in East Ayrshire which is underpinned by the findings of the Christie Commission and delivered whole system transformation with a focus on community power and community led regeneration. Vibrant Communities has now been running for over 10 years and has made a major impact locally and nationally by valuing the talents in communities and transforming the relationship between public bodies and the people they serve. This approach is the clearest expression of community power and has influenced practice in public bodies across the UK and helped to shape key legislation around community empowerment and public service reform. Katie is passionate about working alongside people and communities, reducing inequalities, collaborative leadership, coaching and helping to make a positive and lasting difference to people lives. Katie is an outspoken champion for community power, community wealth building and public service transformation.
Sahil Khan, Director of Community Strategy, Funding and Partnership at Peabody
He has worked in the housing sector for over 15 years. Sahil’s previous roles have included Director of Community Investment at Catalyst and a trustee at Local Trust, a charity overseeing the distribution of £150m of funding to 150 neighbourhoods across England to enable community led place based social action. Sahil started his career as a youth worker and has a long-standing interest in youth work, community development and social innovation. Sahil is committed to being an inclusive leader and is passionate about promoting diversity. Sahil is co-chair of the Peabody Race Equality Network and a founding member of HACT’s Racial Equality Group.
Nick Kimber, Director of Public Service Reform, Cabinet Office
Nick is the Director of Public Service Reform (Place, Design and Innovation) within Cabinet Office where he leads the Test, Learn and Grow programme, focused on place-based innovation and how that can drive ‘re-wiring’ within central government. He is on secondment to HMG but his day job is Director of Strategy, Design and Insight at the London Borough of Camden. He leads on corporate strategy and is responsible for service and policy design, taking a leading role in introducing new digital and design capability into the Council and local government more generally.
Between September 2022 and December 2021, he was the senior Council officer responsible for the Camden’s Renewal Commission, chaired by Cllr Georgia Gould and Mariana Mazzucato, which developed four community-led renewal missions which are now embedded within the Council’s strategic plan. He was formerly a Policy Fellow in the IIPP Policy Studio at the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) and was the co-author of the Missions Critical report, a collaboration between IIPP and FGF. The report makes recommendations about the implementation of missions at a national level.
Meena Kishinani, Director of Transformation, London Borough of Barking and Dagenham
As Director of Transformation at the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, Meena was responsible for one of the largest and most ambitious local authority transformation programmes within London. In 2015, presented with a large budget gap and a whole host of aspirations for local residents and businesses, Meena took on her new role – supporting the new Administration and Chief Executive to develop a new organisational wide transformation strategy and associated programme of exploration, design and implementation. Previously Deputy Director for Children’s Services, and various other senior leadership in local government before that, Meena was able to bring her experience, skills and relationships to drive an unprecedented programme of change. Affecting over 3,500 staff, Meena led a multi-faceted programme of activity to deliver a new kind of council, one that would not just weather the storm of austerity but continue to be sustainable in the long term. Meena has a 35-year career in local government and in May 2021, began a new chapter of her career as a Management Consultant. Her first assignment was with Birmingham City Council, working alongside CEX Deborah Cadman. More recently Meena has worked with the LGA on developing their strategy for the future and is currently delivering a programme for the development of senior leaders in Local Government. A great supporter of New Local, Meena has worked closely with the organisation for many years. She is honoured and very excited to now be part of the Board and to offer her expertise, skills and experience to further develop the organisation and to actively promote the work it does with empowering communities.
Iona Lawrence, Co-Founder and Chief Deceleration Officer, The Decelerator
Iona spends most of her working week overseeing The Decelerator’s day-to-day operations and works with the team and our wider networks to steward our vision and strategy. Her passion for bringing endings out of the shadows and putting them on the table emerged gradually over a decade working in civil society organisations. Over this time Iona was part of some suboptimal endings, some better ones, and even some pretty good ones. Iona brings with her experience across civil society, from being founding Director of the Jo Cox Foundation, to being a community organiser in the refugee camps in Northern France, to being a trustee of the Rural Coffee Caravan, and many other things in between.
Adam Lent, Senior Consultant in the Leadership and Organisational Development team, The King’s Fund
For the last twenty years he has worked on public sector innovation and public service reform, with a particular focus on community-led approaches, new models of leadership, and organisational culture change. Before joining The King’s Fund, Adam was Chief Executive of New Local – a think-tank and peer-learning network that seeks to deliver a community power vision for public services, society and the wider economy. Adam previously worked as Head of Economics at the Trades Union Congress and was Director of the Action and Research Centre for the Royal Society of Arts. He has researched and written extensively throughout his career and holds a PhD from Sheffield University.
Miriam Levin, Director of Participatory Programmes, Demos
Miriam was previously Chief Executive of Engage Britain until their merger with Demos. Prior to that she was Engage Britain’s Programme Director and led their people-powered policymaking work on health and care, which knitted deliberative and participatory methods together to build policy from the grassroots up. She has also worked for the UK government as Head of Community Action, where she led the government’s first deliberative democracy programme, and was Head of Outreach at English Heritage.
Tom Loosemore, Founder, Public Digital
He is a leading figure and pioneer in the area of digital transformation, well known for propagating a broader definition of digital that goes beyond technology and focuses on organisational culture. Tom has advised the senior leaders of a diverse range of influential public and private sector organisations around the world, from the likes of Phoenix Group to HSBC to the NHS, including helping the Government of California and the Premier League respond to the pandemic. He helps senior executives lead their organisations towards internet-era ways of working, coaching them to adopt a leadership style which empowers their teams to respond to a rapidly changing world.
Sara Masters, Principal Practice Lead, New Local
Sara Masters is Principal Practice Lead at New Local. She began her career as an actor and was Director of human rights theatre company, iceandfire, for seven years. Juggling theatre with bringing up children was a tough act so Sara became a funder working with civil society organisations across London. She has worked in a number of national charities including The Cares Family and the National Trust leading programme design and delivery aiming to build community and connection. She is an Associate Director at London Funders and Chair of Governors at a local-authority maintained primary school.
Joe Mitchell, Deputy Director, Public Interest News Foundation
Joe Mitchell co-founded and co-directed Democracy Club from 2016-2020. Previously, he gained experience in comms and advocacy with Purpose PBC, the UK Civil Service and Commonwealth Secretariat, and has experience with NGOs such as Transparency International and Global Witness. He has degrees from UWaterloo, SOAS and Oxford.
Salena Mulhere, Deputy Chief Executive, Test Valley Council
Salena has worked in local government for over 20 years, starting her career as a temporary admin assistant before moving quickly into front line customer services where she developed a real passion for the difference local government could make to individuals and communities if it listened to, and worked in partnership with, local residents and local organisations across a range of sectors.
In 2020 she was appointed Assistant Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lewisham with a wide strategic portfolio including Organisational Development and Transformation, Policy and Communications. In 2023 she joined Test Valley Borough Council in Hampshire as Deputy Chief Executive.
Donna Nolan, Chief Executive for Watford Borough Council
She has a proven track record in promoting and driving through forward-thinking, ambitious plans that benefit everyone. Since joining Watford, Donna has transformed its culture and performance. She has also reset the Council’s approach to strategic planning and driven a new focus on economic development, health, housing, sustainability and commercial relationships. With a strategic mindset and dedicated to understanding and improving people’s quality of life, Donna balances the competing demands of service provision, organisational performance and partnership working. She follows a visible-management approach: developing talent; creating opportunities; investing in training; and forging a culture of active engagement. Donna is a solicitor by profession, has practised in the private sector, and has held a number of board level roles in local government.
Paul Pawa, Group Strategic Development Director, Norse Group
Paul spearheads the overall strategic development of the Norse Group including brand, proposition and supporting the marketing strategy. Before joining Norse Group, Paul was part of real estate and infrastructure outsourcing at Capita PLC, focusing on large-scale London-based regeneration projects. In addition, he held the role of Regional Director at Adare International, where he built an international marketing outsourcing division across 25 markets in the EMEA space.
Grace Pollard, Head of Policy and Insights, New Local
Grace joined New Local in October 2019. Prior to this, Grace was a Policy Adviser supporting the London Assembly Transport Committee, and held previous roles supporting the Police and Crime Committee and EU Exit Working Group. Before this, Grace was a trainee on the CharityWorks graduate scheme. At New Local, Grace leads on developing the evidence base for community power – looking at the impact of these practices across the public sector. She also manages our member research programme of Innovation Insights and Innovation In Depths. Grace holds a BA in Archaeology and Anthropology from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Law, Anthropology and Society from the LSE.
Cllr Doug Pullen, Leader, Lichfield District Council
Leader of Lichfield District Council and has promoted a shift towards community-led initiatives by encouraging the council to take a step back and allow residents to lead. Under his leadership, the council supported projects like “Back the Track,” where a local group is working to reopen a disused railway line, and “Lichfield Litter Legends,” a volunteer network tackling litter. His former office was handed over to local history group “Lichfield Discovered” to be used as a museum.
Gavin Roberts, Head of Systems Practice, MEAM
Gavin leads the Systems Practice Team at MEAM, overseeing our system intervention support for local areas and our systems leadership programme. Gavin is a board member of the national body SCiO, holds a Level 7 qualification in leadership and management and is undertaking a Level 7 apprenticeship in Systems Practice. He has 11 years experience as a systems practitioner working within local authorities and the VCS, specialising in multi-organisational context. Gavin has worked at all levels, from frontline staff to CEOs, including regular one-to-one and team coaching and mentoring.
Beckie Shuker, Campaign and Communications Manager, Public Interest News Foundation
Beckie is a campaigner, previously at Oxfam and Save the Children International, where she worked on campaigns including ending child marriage, climate and economic justice and most recently calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She has a particular interest in public interest journalism as a vital component to stop the rollback of democratic rights and shrinking civic space in the UK.
Jonathan Stephenson, Joint Chief Executive of Brentwood Borough Council & Rochford District Council
Jonathan has worked within local government for over 20 years, predominately undertaking senior leadership roles, across a range of different organisations, Ipswich Borough Council, The London Borough of Enfield, Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils and Brentwood Borough Council. Jonathan is currently Joint Chief Executive at Brentwood Borough Council and Rochford District Council. Working more widely in Essex he is also the lead CEO for Housing and Infrastructure for the Association of South Essex Local Authorities (ASELA) and a Commissioner for the Essex Climate Action Committee. Jonathan also holds an external board level role as a Non-Executive Director for Solace in Business and is a board member of Suffolk New College (Further education college).
Emma Stubbs, Assistant Director of Neighbourhoods, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Having had a somewhat “wiggly career” spanning civil service, private and third/ charity sector, Emma settled in the world of local authority after falling in love with the systems leadership and public service reform agenda at GM Fire Service. Working at Wigan Council for a number of years she learnt from some of the leaders in the field, developing a good understanding of ethnographic approaches and asset based practice. There she tested out practical models of system-wide neighbourhood working and contributed to the thinking around how we can share power. At Stockport for the past three years, she now oversees a broad range of Place Management, public realm and front facing services. Stockport’s creative culture allowing her to bring the Public Realm into the spotlight as part of their Thriving Places priority, thinking differently about how physical places and spaces support the broader determinants of health and wellbeing as the foundation of a preventative approach.
Jessica Studdert, Chief Executive, New Local
Jessica is New Local’s Chief Executive, providing strategic oversight of the organisation. She writes and speaks about numerous subjects related to localism, devolution, public service reform and local finance. She co-authored the Community Paradigm with Adam Lent which was published in 2019 and continues to inform much of New Local’s research and practice. She joined the organisation in September 2015. Previously, Jessica was political adviser to the Labour Group at the Local Government Association (LGA). She led policy there, working closely on public service reform and devolution. This included a secondment to the Policy Unit of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office during 2013-14 to lead on the Local Government Innovation Taskforce, a commission that reported into Labour’s Policy Review ahead of the 2015 General Election. Prior to that, she worked in policy roles in the voluntary sector for a homelessness and children’s charity, and she began her career at the Fabian Society.
Ian Thomas, CBE, Town Clerk & Chief Executive, City of London Corporation
Ian believes in learning, coaching & mentoring to help drive improvement & continuously seek best practice from other people elsewhere. He enjoys learning from his staff, particularly his frontline workers, who he spends time with regularly. He is hard working & passionate about improving delivery and achieving high impact. As the 51st Town Clerk & Chief Executive of City of London Corporation, a role that has existed for 750 years, he enjoys working with Members & officers to ensure our priorities are delivered at pace.
Crispin Truman, Director, Rayne Foundation
He has over 25 years’ experience of charity leadership, working across sectors and with all levels of government. He was previously CEO of CPRE, the countryside charity, CEO of the Churches Conservation Trust for 14 years and of Revolving Doors Agency before that. Crispin has chaired and been trustee of several organisations including UK and European heritage networks, Rethink Mental Illness, the London Cycling Campaign and was chair of governors at Stoke Newington School in London.
Shaheen Warren, Head of Practice and Strategy, New Local
Shaheen leads New Local’s practice offer, supporting councils, health and social care organisations, and voluntary sector partners to embed community power principles into strategies for positive, place-based change. With over 12 years of experience in public service transformation, her expertise spans healthcare, education, and adult social care, emphasizing service design, systems thinking, and design thinking methodologies. Previously, Shaheen spearheaded global city innovation initiatives focusing on design, digital equity, and resilience to foster community empowerment within local government. Her roles at Boston Consulting Group’s Centre for Public Impact and The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change involved partnering with national and local governments to reinvent public service delivery. An expert facilitator, Shaheen specializes in strategy development, partner mobilisation, digital transformation, community engagement, and deep listening, consistently advocating for inclusive, community-driven approaches to public services.
Karin Woodley, CBE – CEO, Cambridge House
Karin Woodley joined Cambridge House as Chief Executive in April 2013 and has over 35 years’ experience in community empowerment, education, the arts, and social justice. Karin is a ‘lived experience’ leader and a committed social activist who specialises in the development of social policy and the delivery of empowerment services. In recognition of her outstanding contributions, Karin was honoured as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s 2021 Birthday Honours list for her services to social justice and received the prestigious Lifetime Achiever Award at the 2016 Excellence in Diversity Awards. Karin holds several positions beyond Cambridge House, including Chair of the Race Equality Foundation; trustee of the Felix Project; membership of the National Lottery Community Fund England Committee and the Funding Committee of the City Bridge Foundation; and a core member of the Better Way Network. Prior roles include her tenure as CEO of ContinYou, a multi-regional and nationally dispersed education and learning service; CEO of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, where she oversaw the delivery of the £10 million purpose-built Stephen Lawrence Centre; Director at the Tabernacle Centre for Arts and Learning, where she received the 2004 London Development Agency award for Business Excellence, Achievement, and Mentoring, and the 2001 ESF/NIACE New Learning Opportunities Award in the category of Young BME Adult Learners. Past non-executive roles have included parliamentary appointments to the governing bodies and audit and risk committees of the Ministry of Justice’s Office of the Public Guardian, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Legal Services Board Consumer Panel; Vice Chair of Locality; UK representative on the Global Social Economy Forum; membership of the Wellcome Trust’s Understanding Patient Data Advisory Committee; Chair of the Southwark Learning Disabilities Provider Forum; and membership of the Healthwatch Southwark Advisory Board.