'Make it Happen' East Midlands Conference

With more than 20 years in international urban and architectural practice, Laura’s work in the UK includes the award-winning Design Quality Framework for Nottingham City and its acclaimed engagement platform Co-PLACE, consultancy for several award-winning schemes, advisory support to local and regional authorities, and co-authoring the Placemaking Guide for a major British housebuilder. Laura also works as an expert advisor to regional design councils and review panels, and as an expert speaker and coach for several renowned institutions. She is also a writer, critic, and broadcast commentator, with contributions to major broadsheet publications. Laura is the East Midlands Convenor for the Urban Design Group, and was amongst the first recognised urban design practitioners in the UK. She is a guest lecturer at a broad range of universities, including Nottingham, Manchester, and Newcastle. As a qualified Community Organiser, she maintains several active roles where she passionately promotes place democracy.

Peter was elected as Leicester’s first City Mayor in 2011 and has served in that role ever since, having been re-elected in 2015, 2019 and 2023. He was previously Leader of the Council for 17 years in the 1980s and 1990s, and Member of Parliament for Leicester South from 2005 to 2011.

Since becoming City Mayor, Peter has led the delivery of the Connecting Leicester programme, investing in walking and cycling infrastructure, developing quality public realms including Jubilee Square and Green Dragon Square, and also transforming the waterside to attract regeneration developments such as Pioneer Park, Great Central Square and Space Park Leicester. 

John is Managing Director of Marketing Derby Ltd, the King's Award-winning Inward Investment Promotion Agency which has attracted over 5,000 jobs and £500m of investment into the area.

John has a BA (Hons) in Politics and Government from the City of London Polytechnic and is a graduate of the UK Leadership Forum at Oxford University and the Columbia University Business School Executive FMBA in New York City. 

John's passion is regeneration and the development of cities and has led Urban City Tours of Baltimore and Barcelona and been Project Leader on a World Bank programme in post-war Mostar, Bosnia.

John is director at Leonard Design Architects, an award-winning global architectural practice headquartered in Nottingham, with three further offices in London, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney, Australia. John has more than 20 years’ experience as a chartered architect with a focus on the design and delivery side of the retail, sports and leisure, commercial and residential sectors.

Prior to joining Leonard Design Architects, he worked for the world’s largest shopping centre group, Westfield, as design director, taking on the delivery of many of its major developments as well as playing a leading role in the successful negotiation of key business objectives and department store negotiations.

In-depth, diverse knowledge and extensive experience working on, leading and delivering some of the most prestigious retail regeneration projects in the UK and Europe over the past decade and beyond. John is passionate about making a difference to the landscape and environment we inhabit every day.

Stefan is an urban designer and has spent most of his career in local government. He has advised Homes England on design quality and has worked for local planning authorities across the country in both development management and policy. Previously he was a CABE Enabler and Design Council ‘Built Environment Expert’.

Currently, Stefan dedicated most of his time to Charnwood Borough Council supporting development management and its emerging Design Code. Stefan serves on the Design Review Panels for Design:Midlands and Design:West; advises Homes England on Building for a Healthy Life that he co-authored.

Owen Reading is an Associate Urban Designer at David Lock Associates, with experience across a wide range of scales of placemaking, and a particular interest in creating healthy places. He is one of the authors of Active Design, guidance from Sport England on how to create places that encourage physical activity, and is engaged in the rollout of their Active Environments Programme. Owen has worked on projects at different scales and in varied contexts, including town centres, urban expansion strategic sites, new settlements and has taken a leading role in masterplanning the future of the UK's national laboratory facilities. 

Shona is their Director of Design, a Chartered Landscape Architect with 30 years’ experience and oversees the landscape design side of the business.

Shona has a multidisciplinary skill-set which unites a knowledge of landscape design, planning and project management.  She has worked on projects of national significance, managing high profile heritage, public realm and conservation projects.  Shona studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Greenwich at undergraduate and post graduate level.  She started her career in London where she worked for 20 years including in Local Authority, Architecture and multi-disciplinary practices before becoming an Associate at one of the UK’ s largest environmental practices. She was predominantly focused on healthcare, heritage and public realm work, before relocating to Nottinghamshire to raise her son in 2012.

She is currently overseeing the delivery of the £14m regeneration of Batley Town Centre and the £7m creation of the National Trust’s first new nature reserve at Sandilands, Lincolnshire.  Shona is a mentor on the Landscape Institute’s Pathway to Chartership and has studio tutored at the Universities of Sheffield and Lincoln.

Influence Landscape Planning and Design Ltd is a SME and Registered Practice with the Landscape Institute, the professional body for Landscape Architects.  They are based in Newark on Trent and are Chartered Landscape Architects, urban designers and environmental planners.

Sara is their Managing Director, a Chartered Landscape Architect with 30 years of industry experience. She oversees the landscape planning side of the business. 

She is a skilled expert witness and leads projects encompassing the delivery of strategic land advice, landscape and visual impact assessments and landscape sensitivity studies. 

Sara is highly sought after by clients, particularly within the energy, residential, leisure, education and care sectors.  Sara was born and raised in Lincolnshire, she studied Landscape Architecture at the University of Leeds at undergraduate and post graduate level and started her career on the south coast working in large environmental practices before returning to her roots to start Influence with her former business partner in 2010.

She took over the business in 2018 and recently was accepted into the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme for high-growth small businesses.  She is currently delivering a range of services focused on sustainable energy solutions within the landscape.

David Singleton’s experience covers a wide range of environmental design and management practice, from planning scale down to detailed design working with commercial, voluntary and public sector clients.  He is an advisor to CIRIA in the on Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and worked on the CIRIA SuDS Manual.   He is an author of the NHS/Homes England’s Building for a Healthy Life.  This has now been adopted by over half of England’s local authorities. 

David set up DSA Environment + Design in 2005.  His geographical background has enabled him to focus the practice on his particular interest of bringing people and the environment together to make places.  He believes that the creation of carefully considered well-managed blue-green infrastructure is an effective way to do this.

David’s intention is to be always at the leading edge of innovative work and thinking.   He teaches at the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.  He is a member of the Design Midlands Design Review Panel and past chair of the Landscape Institute, East Midlands.  He has given talks on SuDS planning, design and management of SuDS/WSUD in the UK, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Poland, Australia and China. 

DSA projects have picked up many design awards including Building Better Healthcare, Design in Mental Health, RICS, LABC, and ProCon.  Forest Way School won the national Best New Build Primary School award in The Times Education Supplement.  Numerous projects are CIRIA susdrain case studies. 

Dan is a chartered town planner with over 25 years' experience in local government, working in planning policy and development management, but primarily in building conservation and urban design.  During this time, he was also a part time senior lecturer in the School of the Built Environment at Birmingham City University, and is a visiting teacher at the University of Birmingham.  He is an associate lecturer with the School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University.  He has worked for Homes England for over 10 years, currently as a senior manager in the Master Development & Design team.  Primarily, he is involved in the agency's design quality assessment and project master planning work. 

Mark has a background in heritage and urban design, and worked for both county and district authorities, helping to deliver heritage projects, sustainable urban extensions, town centre regeneration schemes, public realm works and a science and enterprise park. He is currently the Team Leader for Natural & Built Environment at Charnwood B.C. and focusing on delivering the Council’s design code.

MEC Consulting Group Ltd stands as a beacon of excellence in the field, offering a multidisciplinary approach to engineering and environmental consultancy. The firm is dedicated to delivering technical solutions that span a wide spectrum of projects, encompassing the private and public sectors. These projects range from residential and commercial ventures to industrial, retail, leisure, education, and healthcare endeavours.

What sets MEC apart is its commitment to harnessing the diverse skills, technical expertise, and collective experience of its dedicated teams. The company's primary focus is on delivering tangible results and fostering collaboration to develop innovative, sustainable, and cost-effective solutions.