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.

Dr Wei Yang FAcSS FRTPI MCIHT is Chair of Wei Yang & Partners, an award-winning master planning firm in London, and an Honorary Professor at University College London. Wei was President of the Royal Town Planning Institute for 2021. She is a lead figure in researching, promoting, and implementing 21st Century Garden City and green & low-carbon development approach worldwide.  Wei is Co-chair of Digital Task Force for Planning and the Global Planners Network (GPN)’s representative at UN Habitat Professional Forum. She champions a revival of spirit and a modernised planning profession to tackle the global challenges in a systematic way, and thus to achieve collective wellbeing and fulfilment for all. 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.

Timothy Crawshaw MA MRTPI FRSA is the 2022 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.

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.

Janet Askew is a chartered town planner and a past President of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She is the President of the European Council of Spatial Planners, new chair of the Planning Policy and Research Committee, and former 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.

Meeta is a chartered town planner and a UK qualified planning solicitor. She is a founding partner of Town Legal LLP, the boutique planning law firm, and before joining Town, Meeta was a planning solicitor at city law firm King and Wood Mallesons (formerly SJ Berwin) and prior to that a planning officer at Westminister Council. She has experience of dealing with a wide range of development schemes of all types and scale, up to and including urban extensions. However, her specialism is large scale mixed-use redevelopment and regeneration schemes, both in London and across the country. She regularly advises on all aspects of planning and associated issues such as highways, compulsory purchase, CIL, heritage, affordable housing and scheme viability, development plans, judicial review, planning appeals. Meeta has been involved with the RTPI at both a regional and national level for over 20 years and is a past chair of RTPI London. She is also currently chair of the Membership and Ethics Committee, one of the RPTI's standing committees.

Rebecca is a chartered planner with over twelve years of experience in consultancy, local authority and client-side roles. She works for has her own planning consultancy business, Oriel Planning, based in the North West. Rebecca has held roles on the North West RMB since 2018, as General Assembly representative, Junior Vice Chair and more recently Ex-officio, whilst supporting the RAC’s Education, CPD and Awards task groups. Prior to this, Rebecca worked in Birmingham, 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 as Trustee for the Nations and Regions and has been re-elected for 2022-2024.

John Powell is a commercially focused, Big 4 trained, Chartered Accountant with extensive back-office (IT, HR, logistics and company secretarial) financial and operational transformation experience, covering all phases of the business-cycle from start-up right through to managed closure. After spending roughly the first quarter of his professional career in "blue-chip" public practice (PwC and EY, audit and management consultancy) and the middle half in industry and commerce (largely international, customer-facing, consumer electronics) board-level roles, the last dozen or so years have been spent engaged in a range of positions in the not-for-profit sector (recognised by being awarded the ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting - DChA), predominantly at SMT level.

Tony Crook, was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Sheffield and is now Emeritus Professor of Town and Regional Planning.  He Chairs the Conservation Volunteers and the Construction Industry Council's Housing Panel; is a lay Privy Council appointee to the Architects Registration Board, is a Director of the Kensington & Chelsea TMO Residuary Board; and an Academy of Social Sciences council member.  Former roles include; member of the Board of the Royal Town Planning Institute (and former Chair of Education Committee); Deputy Chair of Orbit Housing and of the Construction Industry Council; Chair of Rotherham MBC governance review; Chair of Shelter Trustee Board and of Sheffield Homes Ltd; and member of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust; the Lloyds Banking Group Housing Commission and the Housing Commission for Northern England.

His research covers private rented housing and planning obligations.  His latest book 'Planning Gain' (Wiley Blackwell) won the RTPI Research Excellence Award in 2016 and jointly with Professor Christine Whitehead he won the Sir Peter Hall award in 2020 for research on land value capture.  In 2004 he was elected, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and was appointed CBE in the 2014 New Years Honours for services to housing.

Jeffrey is a chartered town planner and has extensive planning experience in the UK and Hong Kong. Jeffrey is currently working at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead as the Principal Planning Officer. Jeffrey has been elected to the RTPI Board of Trustees for 2022-2024 as Trustee for Young Planner. He has also held roles on the RTPI South East since 2018, as a member of the Regional Activities Committee, and later as Honorary Treasurer and a member of the Regional Management Board, supporting Region, the CPD development, minerals and waste planning, and the planning schools’ partnership in the Region. Jeffrey has a passion for volunteering in planning. Jeffrey was one of the UK representatives to attend the Young Planners Worksop of the European Council of Spatial Planners in Paris and Plymouth and was the Member of the International Committee. Jeffrey was also a member of the BOB-MK Steering Group to support the CPD training development. Before moving his planning career to the UK, Jeffrey was a member of the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. Jeffrey was also a Youth Ambassador of the Macao Urban Planning Forum, Hong Kong City Gallery, and the HKMTR Island West Line Community Project. Jeffrey has been rewarded with several highly prestigious scholarships and awards from his universities, employers, and the RTPI. Jeffrey is the winner of RTPI South East Young Planner of the Year 2018, the Finalist of the Young Planner of the Year 2020 and 2021, and the Finalist of the "Employee of the Year" 2018 in Surrey County Council.