NI Planner Live Chairs and Speakers

Emma is a Senior Planner with over 7 years professional planning experience, having worked across both the public sector and private sector in England. Since moving back to Northern Ireland in 2021, Emma has joined JUNO Planning and Environmental Ltd and has started to develop her knowledge of the planning sector within Northern Ireland. Emma has extensive experience on all aspects of planning and has significant experience in dealing with complex major planning applications and working within large multidisciplinary project teams on high profile developments.

Emma was awarded NI Young Planner of the Year in 2023.

Justin Cartwright is National Director for Northern Ireland at the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), where he leads NI policy and external affairs work. Justin is a chartered member of CIH and holds a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) from RMIT University in Melbourne, having undertaken research on acoustics in the built environment. He is a trustee of Supporting Communities and of the North of Ireland Family History Society.

Mark is a Chartered Town Planner with over twenty years’ experience working in the public sector in Wales.  This included development management, planning enforcement, appeals and policy followed by management and leadership roles.  Prior to starting at the Royal Town Planning Institute in March 2024, Mark was a Head of Service with responsibility for planning, building control, regeneration, highways and flooding.  He also has seven years’ experience of the planning system in Northern Ireland, having been commissioned by the Department for Infrastructure to advise on measuring planning performance and by a District Council to review its planning service and advise on the implications of the 2022 Northern Ireland Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee reports.

Mark is a past Chair of the Planning Officers’ Society Wales and of the South East Wales Strategic Planning Group, was an external examiner for Cardiff University’s School of City and Regional Planning, and is a past member of the RTPI’s General Assembly.  He is passionate about the role of planners in making the world a better place, and the collaborative approach with all built environment professions that is needed to achieve this.

As the Director for Wales, Northern Ireland and Planning Aid England, Mark is responsible for leading the Institute’s policy, public affairs and member services work in Wales and Northern Ireland and is the lead Director for our planning advice service delivered by approximately 400 volunteers for Planning Aid England. 

Outside work, Mark lives with his partner and Wilson the beagle, Sebastian the cat and Karma the chameleon.  He enjoys travel, caravanning, photography and socialising.