Leadership (Board of Trustees)

Susan is a Chartered Town Planner with nearly 30 years' experience as a planning practitioner in local government and over 12 years in the development industry. She was Head of Planning for six years at Northampton Borough Council and has a proven track record in successfully managing the department through a difficult period of change and transformation. Since 2014 Susan has worked as an independent planning consultant working with both public and private sector clients.  She has practical experience of dealing with a wide range of projects from rural exception sites to new settlements and sustainable urban extensions with a proven track record of working in partnership in a multi-agency and disciplinary environment.  Susan was re-elected as Chair of the Board in 2020 and will serve until the end of 2022.

Andrew Taylor is Group Planning Director at Countryside and leads the company’s planning function. Countryside develops private and affordable homes through partnerships with landowners, registered providers and local authorities, with a focus on urban regeneration schemes and delivering landscape led developments and new settlements. Before joining Countryside, Andrew was Head of Planning for a developer in the Eastern Counties and prior to that spent over 18 years in planning authorities in the south east of England. He has experience of both urban and rural planning from small scale exception needs housing to master planning new settlements, major town centre redevelopments and international airport expansion. Andrew chaired the RTPI Board of Trustees for 4 years to December 2016 and took on the role of Hon. Treasurer in January 2017. Andrew Chairs the Leeds Beckett University Partnership Board, is a member of the Women in Planning Advisory board and Chair of the National Planning Forum’s Management Committee, championing planning and inspiring all those involved in the planning process and in delivering the new planning agenda.

Bernadette is a Planning and Licensing solicitor with thirty years’ experience working as a lawyer and a planner in London and the regions.  She is a partner and Head of Planning at Sharpe Pritchard.  She is Honorary Solicitor and Climate Change Champion for the RTPI and sits on the Board of Trustees.  She is a member of the Law Society’s Planning and Environmental Law Committee and was voted “The Planner” Woman of Influence in 2020.  She provides strategic Planning advice, negotiates complex Planning Agreements and conducts Planning appeals, Judicial Reviews and Statutory Challenges in the High Court and Court of Appeal.  She lectures regularly on planning law topics to clients, planning consultants and developers.

Wei Yang FRTPI FAcSS MCIHT is the President of the Royal Town Planning Institute for 2021. She is a lead figure in researching, promoting, and implementing 21st Century Garden City approach worldwide.  Wei is the Founder of Wei Yang & Partners, an award-winning master planning firm in London. Actively promoting joined up thinking between different professionals, Wei is a Fellow of Academy of Social Sciences, an Independent Trustee of the Landscape Institute, a board member of the British Library, and a Board Trustee of Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre.

Having studied Town and Country Planning as a Postgraduate at Manchester University, Sue started her career at Birmingham City Council. She then moved to academia as a senior lecturer in planning law and practice at the University of Central England, before returning to the public sector as Head of Planning and Transport at Advantage West Midlands. In 2005 Sue joined Arup where she led their Midlands Planning, Policy and Economics Business, followed in 2009 by a move to become National Planner for the RTPI Planning Aid England. In 2011 Sue moved to the Pegasus Group as a Regional Director and since 2018 has run her own practice which specialises in strategic advice on community engagement and consultation in relation to development projects. She is a visiting lecturer at Birmingham University, a Fellow of the RSA and RGS and is RTPI Immediate Past President.

Timothy Crawshaw MA MRTPI FRSA is the Vice President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, working as an International Planning and Development Consultant in the areas of urban design, planning, green infrastructure, energy efficiency and sustainable transport. With experience in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East, alongside an expanding UK practice, he has a specific interest in the role of the nature based approaches to addressing the climate emergency, alongside improving health and wellbeing outcomes and tackling inequality.

Timothy is an experienced lecturer, trainer and facilitator with a passion for community development, and he continues to champion the role of planning as a key part of the solution to the challenges of our times. Timothy is currently the Chair of the Tees Valley Nature Partnership.

Lucy Seymour-Bowdery is a Team Leader at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) where she specialises in developer contributions. Before Lucy joined MHCLG she was a Senior Planner at West Sussex County Council. Lucy was the Trustee for Young Planners for four years before her election to Corporate Trustee.  In 2015-2016 Lucy was Chair of the South Coast Young Planners' Network and chaired the organising committee for the Young Planners' Conference in Southampton, which was shortlisted for an Association Excellence Award.  Lucy is currently Chair of the Nomination Sub-Committee and Vice-Chair of the International Committee.

Janet Askew is a chartered town planner and a past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She is the Vice-President of the European Council of Spatial Planners, and chair of the International Committee of the RTPI, in which role she has led on the production of a new international strategy for the RTPI. A long career in the public and private sectors and academia included leading the School of Planning and Architecture in Bristol for many years. She is currently the Visiting Professor in Planning Law in Ulster University, Northern Ireland, and visiting lecturer at Cardiff University in Wales. She has worked in all four nations of the UK and lectured extensively in various European countries, China and Taiwan. Her main area of research is in planning law, specialising in legal and regulatory regimes, and she has advised various governments on planning regulations and planning systems.  She is a member of the International Platform of Experts in Planning Law, most recently working with planners and lawyers in Poland and Spain, as well as an advisor to the German ARL (research academy) on planning reform. She chairs the RTPI partnership boards of planning schools in the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and University College Cork, Ireland. 

Stefano is a commercial and pragmatic development planner with a strong customer focus. He has over 30 years of UK professional experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams within  planning, environmental, design and engineering consultancies. He is the Founding Director of Stefano Smith Planning – an independent planning consultancy established in 2019. He has extensive experience in providing development planning and project management services in the environment, infrastructure, energy, commercial, industrial, housing and mixed-use sectors. He has specific experience in statutory planning (including approvals & consents and expert witness), sustainability, regeneration, master planning & urban design, consultation & engagement strategies & tools, development economics and urban analytics. He is an Expert on the Westminster Government’s High Streets Task Force set-up in 2020. He has successfully advised, negotiated and delivered complex land development and infrastructure projects of a range of sizes. He has been intrinsically involved in the evolution of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 participating in various Scottish Government workshops. He is currently a member of Scottish Government’s Transformation Programme: Development Planning. He is a regular member on research & advisory panels, including Scottish Government research on the infrastructure levy (2017) and the value, impact and incidence of developer contributions (2020/2021). He has been an external practitioner on Heriot-Watt University's Final Year Planning & Property undergraduate degree course.

Stefano is an RTPI Board Trustee for Scotland, Chair of the Education and Lifelong Learning Standing Committee and Vice-Chair of the Audit Committee, as well as a member of the RTPI Scotland Executive Committee and past RTPI Scotland Convenor.

Laura is a Senior Planning Policy Officer at Portsmouth City Council, having previously worked in the private sector, and has a range of experience consisting of environmental impact assessments, large infrastructure projects, planning appeals and residential developments. Laura was awarded RTPI South East Young Planner of the Year in 2019 and was elected as the RTPI Young Planner Trustee in 2020. Her main passions at work include creating effective engagement strategies, digitalising the planing process, biodiversity and connecting with future generations. Outside of work Laura runs a Brownie unit where she goes by the name of Flamingo, is part of a choir, loves a book or a podcast and enjoys long walks and bike rides. 

Rebecca is a chartered planner with over ten years of experience in consultancy, local authority and client-side roles. She works for WSP | indigo as an Associate Director in Birmingham. Rebecca has held roles on the North West RMB since 2018, as General Assembly representative and more recently Ex-officio, whilst supporting the RAC’s Education, CPD and Awards task groups. Prior to this, Rebecca worked in Manchester and London, and volunteered with the London region as Young Planner and later as Honorary Secretary. She has a passion for nurturing the next generation of property professionals, through university liaison and mentoring colleagues. As recognition, she was awarded the 2016 Rising Star in Property Award, which supports the future pipeline of female leaders. Rebecca was elected to the RTPI Board of Trustees for 2020-2022.