Shaun McCarthy

Chair, Commission for a Sustainable London 2012

Shaun is a leading advocate of sustainable business practices, he has led many innovative projects during his career including the development of a pioneering e-procurement process; a leading electricity procurement strategy and CO2 strategy.Having had lengthy careers with Shell UK and BAA, Shaun has more than 20 years experience in commercial business and has spent the past 10 years as a senior manager specialising in sustainable purchasing and construction and addressing the impact of major business on climate change.

Shaun is currently Chair of the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 and a founder Director of Action Sustainability, a social enterprise set up to inspire sustainable procurement

Gill Taylor

Chief Executive, Academy for Sustainable Communities

Gill took up the post as Chief Executive of the ASC on January 1st 2006. This followed a twenty year career in local government management, the last ten of which were at Chief Executive level.

Prior to local government, Gill worked as a consultant, a researcher into urban policy, and as a project officer in the voluntary sector. She is the joint author of “The Politics of the Urban Crisis” (A Sills, G Taylor and P Golding, 1986)

Her professional background began in economic development, regeneration and corporate policy, and her particular professional interests have been in the areas of sustainable communities, regeneration, community engagement, leadership and social cohesion.

She is a Fellow of the RSA, a keen hill walker and likes music and the arts.

Anne Power

Professor of Social Policy and Deputy Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics.

Areas of expertise - Cities and sustainable development; disadvantaged and run-down neighbourhoods; race relations; international and UK housing and social change. In 1999 she became a member of the Government's Sustainable Development Commission.

Trevor Cherrett BA, MRTPI

Trevor Cherrett is currently Head of Planning, Housing & Transport with the Commission for Rural Communities, recently launched officially as a successor to the Countryside Agency with a remit as advisor, advocate, and watchdog on the real needs of people living and working in rural England.

His career spans local and central government, teaching and research, rural community councils (he was with Action in rural Sussex for 20 years) and consultancy, with a focus on rural community development issues, including affordable housing, parish planning and community planning. He is also a consultant on the Carnegie UK Trust rural action research programme.

(Photo to follow soon) Ehjaz Gull

Ehjaz Gull has worked in the Equality and Diversity field in various capacities for over 20 years. This has involved
extensive working with TECs, community organisations, LSCs, SRB and the Home Office, he has also been heavily
involved in helping traditionally excluded groups to access training and employment programmes.

Ehjaz is now the Assistant Director of Accent Community Partnerships, a part of the Accent Group. In his role at
Accent, he is responsible for the group’s urban regeneration activity locally and nationally, and more importantly
in the promoting and embedding of all aspects of equality and diversity in the design and delivery of services
offered by the group. Ehjaz strongly believes that equality and diversity begins at the top of an organisation and
should have equal importance at all levels.

Iain Wright MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government

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).

Anders Franzén

Development Manager

Background:

• University masters degree in Political science and Public Administration.
• Head of Planning Department for 17 years and responsible for strategic spatial planning and sustainable development.
• Member of different national and regional boards for planners, managers and construction workers.
• Chairman of steering committees in international projects regarding environmental management and transport infrastructure.

Key Experiences:

• Responsible leader of the city’s work to become fossil fuel free resulting in nomination as the Greenest city in Europe
• Involved in many international projects regarding spatial and environmental planning.
• Speaker at several international conferences regarding Växjö´s successful environmental work.

Trevor Beattie

Head of HCA Set-up Team

Trevor Beattie is English Partnerships' Director of Corporate Strategy. He joined English Partnerships at its inception in 1993, having worked on the legislation to develop an Urban Regeneration Agency as a member of the Inner Cities Policy Unit in what was then the Department of the Environment (DoE). He was responsible for DoE’s sponsorship of the London Docklands Development Corporation in the mid-1980s and was Private Secretary to four successive Ministers of Local Government and Inner Cities. He was a member of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Coalfields Task Force. Trevor is head of the HCA Set-up team which is preparing for the creation of Homes and Communities Agency. In this capacity he is responsible for the overall co-ordination and delivery of the Set-up team’s work, reporting direct to Sir Bob Kerslake. Trevor also chairs the Group that co-ordinates communications activity for the HCA.