Leadership (Board of Trustees)

Susan is a Chartered Town Planner with nearly 30 years' experience as a planning practitioner in local government and 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. As a planning practitioner she has experience of developing and implementing development and regeneration projects and a proven track record of working in partnership and in a multi-agency and disciplinary environment. 

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.

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.

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.

Tony Crook is former Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor of The University of Sheffield and Emeritus Professor of Town & Regional Planning. He is Deputy Chair of the Orbit Housing Group; director of a regional house- builder, and chairs working groups of the Academy of Social Sciences. Recent former roles include: member of Northern Housing Commission; independent chair of the review of governance in Rotherham; chair of Shelter Trustee Board;; Coalfields Regeneration Trust trustee; Academy of Social Sciences council member; Sheffield Homes Ltd chair; and Lloyds Banking Group Housing Commission member. His current research includes private renting and planning obligations. His latest books are 'Private rental housing: comparative perspective' (Edward Elgar) and 'Planning Gain: providing infrastructure and affordable housing' (Wiley Blackwell), the latter winning the 2016 RTPI Research Excellence Award.

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.

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.