Our Board of Trustees

Elle is a Chartered Town Planner who has worked predominantly within the private sector for almost 30 years.  Her career began with a short period working on the Shrewsbury and Atcham Local Plan, and has since included working for a regional planning consultancy, a national house builder, two global commercial real estate companies and as Head of Planning at SLR Consulting an international environmental consultancy. She thus has experience across a range of sectors, organisations and geographies.

Elle is currently Head of Built Environment Growth at SLR focusing not only on project delivery, but ensuring that clients have available the most comprehensive technical advice to optimise the positive environmental, social and sustainability outcomes of their proposals.  She advises a range of clients from investors, enablers, developers and charities through to the public sector, across a full spectrum of uses including tourism, leisure, housing, retail, care, education, industrial and logistics. 

Elle’s passion for helping to shape the built environment and the positive outcomes which great development can deliver is supported by her regular involvement in projects from pre-acquisition due diligence, inception, design and public consultation, through to site promotion and planning, project management and site delivery.

Catherine is a senior planner in the Northern Ireland Civil Service with 30 years of experience working in the public sector. The last 15 years she has spent working on securing the transformation of planning and local government in Northern Ireland, including a key role in the making of the Planning Act 2011. She also led the introduction of community planning to Northern Ireland, developing cross-sector relationships and overseeing a significant capacity building programme.

To embed the new planning system, Catherine worked with the Welsh Government to assist with establishing regional oversight of the new local development plan system. She also project managed the Planning Engagement Partnership, collaboratively working with public, private and third sector organisations across Northern Ireland, whose report ‘Planning Your Place: Getting Involved’ was announced by the Minister in March 2022 containing recommendations on how to improve community engagement in planning and place shaping.

Catherine is a Corporate Member of the RTPI Northern Ireland Executive Committee, and has an active role in the Residents Association where she lives in a Conservation Area. She is committed to harnessing the value of planning, to produce positive societal outcomes at local, regional and national levels. She is also enthusiastic in her pursuit of self development along with professional development. She works with colleagues to provide a Women’s Mentoring Programme for women across the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and is also an active member of the ‘More to Life’ Foundation which is a global community of people committed to transforming their lives and communities through their own personal development.

Catherine chairs the RTPI's Nations and Regions Panel and the Policy, Practice and Research Committee.

Simeon Shtebunaev is an interdisciplinary researcher in the built environment working for Social Life. Their PhD project at Birmingham City University explores how young people engage in the planning of future 'smart' cities. He was a principal investigator on the AHRC funded project “Are you game for climate action?” developing the board game Climania with young people focusing on the role of the built environment in climate change.

Simeon was selected as the RIBAJ Rising Star 2021 and RTPI Young Planner of the Year 2022. He chairs the Cultural Infrastructure and Investment working group part of the WMCA Cultural Leadership Board.  

Simeon is a member of the RTPI Finance Committee and chairs the Panel of Young Planners Network chairs.

Jack having trained as an accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers then became a Chartered Town Planner (now retired) who has worked across the public and private sectors.

Jack has held senior management positions in economic development in a number of local authorities and public agencies, these included Trafford Park Development Corporation, Manchester Investment Development Agency Services (MIDAS), Stockport Metropolitan Council and Birmingham City Council. His roles have centred around attracting inward investment to the UK, innovation, employment and municipal entrepreneurship having set up various companies for ‘social good’ covering procurement, green energy and finance.

He then moved into corporate finance becoming Investment Director and Compliance Officer for Finance Birmingham Ltd and then for Frontier Development Capital Ltd, a subsidiary of Mercia Asset Management PLC which provides venture capital, private equity and debt investment across the UK.

Jack now advises a range of clients on financial restructuring, raising finance and growth.

Jack chairs the Finance Committee and is a member of the People & Culture Committee and the Governance Committee having previously been a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Nick Gallent is a professor of housing and planning at University College London.  He has more than 30 years’ experience in UK planning education and research and was Head of the Bartlett School of Planning between 2011 and 2019.  Nick is a Fellow of the RTPI, RICS, and the Academy of Social Sciences.  His research is mainly focused on planning for housing and on planning in rural areas, and he is the author of a numerous books and articles on these subjects.  He has been actively involved with the Institute for a number of years, spending nearly a decade on the Partnership and Accreditation Panel (PAP) and on various university partnership boards. 

Nick chaired PAP between 2016 and 2018. 

He is currently chair of the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee and a member of Nominations Committee.

Nicky is a chartered town planner and independent planning consultant, working primarily with the public sector.  She has been involved in a wide range of projects including as a member of the Team that developed the Planning Advisory Service’s Local Plan Routemapper and Toolkit, Interim Director of Planning during the set-up phase of the Ebbsfleet Development Corporation, consultant planning inspector, supporting local authorities on plan-making and developing local place-based plans and a Design Council Built Environment Expert. Nicky is also the Planning Officers Society Communications Manager and acts in a voluntary capacity as the Society’s Subject Specialist on housing delivery, transport and climate change.

Before setting up her consultancy Nicky spent 25 years working in unitary and district councils including as a Chief Planning Officer.  During that time she gained a wide range of experience including in Development Management, Planning and Transport Policy, Economic Development, Masterplanning and Community Engagement.  She was also actively engaged in regional and sub-regional partnerships.

Nicky has been a member of the RTPI General Assembly, Policy and Practice Research Committee and English Policy Committee. She also chaired a national working group with representatives from a wide range of organisations with an interest in housing which produced a toolkit for assessing local housing need and co-founded a charity which operated overseas.

Nicky is Vice Chair of the Board, Chair of the Membership and Ethics Committee and Chair of the Nominations Committee.

Maria is a Chartered Town Planner with over 19 years experience in the public sector. Maria joined Birmingham City Council in January 2020 as Head of Development Policy and is currently Acting Assistant Director - Planning. Maria's current role includes leading planning committee planning policy and economic policy for Birmingham.

Maria was RTPI West Midlands Regional Chair in 2017 and 2025.

Maria was named the West Midlands Young Planner of the Year in 2013, was shortlisted for the national Young Planner of the Year in 2014 and was featured in The Planner's Women of Influence in 2019 and 2023.  Maria was awarded a long service award by the RTPI in 2021.

Maria is vice chair of the England Policy Committee.

With over 20 years of experience in the built environment, Tom specialises in delivering region and city-wide growth plans to shape the future of places and communities across the globe.

As a Director at Prior + Partners, Tom has led many complex, interdisciplinary projects. Across all this work, he takes a head-on approach to modern-day challenges including the climate emergency, integration of critical infrastructure, improved quality of life through sensitive placemaking, and preservation of heritage within urban environments. Most recently in the UK this includes overseeing a multidisciplinary team to deliver the Southampton Renaissance, a cohesive investment and spatial strategy for the local Council that celebrates the historic port city.

Tom has been an active member of the RTPI for the past 20 years and has held a number of positions as an elected trustee and former chair of RTPI London. Tom became a fellow of the Institute in 2025.

Tom is Chair of the People and Culture Committee and vice chair of the Finance Committee and Nominations Committee.

Alan has over 40 years’ experience of delivering business transformation throughout a range of service organisations, including working with international banks on digital processes.

Jan is a Strategic Planning Adviser at Pinsent Masons law firm and has significant experience of examining (former Examining Inspector at the Planning Inspectorate) and advising on a wide range of nationally significant infrastructure and major development projects across the full range of sectors including new settlements and urban extensions, energy, water and waste water, transport, business and commercial, ports and airports dealing with a wide range of issues from development consent orders, strategic plans, EIA, biodiversity, design, Water Framework Regulations, Habitats Regulations Assessment, community engagement and compulsory purchase. Jan has been recognised as one of ‘the most influential women in UK planning’. She is immediate past Board Chair of the National Infrastructure Planning Association and is a member of the Building with Nature Standards Board.

Jan is RTPI President, a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (FRTPI) and currently sits as Vice Chair of the RTPI English Policy Committee, Vice Chair of the Nations and Regions Panel and is North East Regional Representative on General Assembly. She also continues to be engaged with Planning Aid.

Jan is a Strategic Planning Adviser at Pinsent Masons law firm and has significant experience of examining (former Examining Inspector at the Planning Inspectorate) and advising on a wide range of nationally significant infrastructure and major development projects across the full range of sectors including new settlements and urban extensions, energy, water and waste water, transport, business and commercial, ports and airports dealing with a wide range of issues from development consent orders, strategic plans, EIA, biodiversity, design, Water Framework Regulations, Habitats Regulations Assessment, community engagement and compulsory purchase. Jan has been recognised as one of ‘the most influential women in UK planning’. She is immediate past Board Chair of the National Infrastructure Planning Association and is a member of the Building with Nature Standards Board.

Jan is RTPI President, a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute (FRTPI) and currently sits as Vice Chair of the RTPI English Policy Committee, Vice Chair of the Nations and Regions Panel and is North East Regional Representative on General Assembly. She also continues to be engaged with Planning Aid.

Samer was a Trustee of the RTPI for three years, prior to being elected as Vice President for 2025.

Professor Samer Bagaeen’s breadth of experience lies across local government, academia, and urban planning. He is a Technical Director with the Environmental Planning team at Arcadis, a Professor of Planning & Resilient Systems at the University of Kent, and a Councillor since 2019.

Samer is a Chartered Town Planner, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Design Council Expert, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is a Non-Exec Board Member for the South East at Royal Institution for Chartered Surveyors. He is Vice-Chair of the RTPI’s International Committee. Samer sits on the Kent Housing and Development Group and advises the Kent Chief Planners Group.

He is a founder member of Hydrogen Sussex and sits on the Advisory Board of the BAME Planners Network.

He previously worked with the Rockefeller Foundation’s global resilience programme as an Associate Director. In Kent, Samer currently manages Cultural Co-location, a Creative Estuary project funded by the Cultural Development Fund and his team has developed a planning for culture toolkit.

Samer served on the Policy Council at the Town and Country Planning Association from 2010-2020 where he also served as a Trustee for five years. He also worked for the RICS as an officer looking after thought leadership relationships. Samer is a regular speaker at conferences and events.