Conference Speakers

Born in Dundee in 1967, Joe FitzPatrick was educated at Whitfield High School.

He studied forestry at Inverness College and worked for the Forestry Commission before gaining a first class honours degree in science from Abertay University.

A former assistant to Shona Robison MSP and Stewart Hosie MP and, from 1999, a Dundee City Councillor, Mr FitzPatrick was elected in May 2007 to the Scottish Parliament, where he represents the Dundee West (now Dundee City West) constituency.

Mr FitzPatrick previously served in the Scottish Government, from 2012 to December 2020, firstly as Minister for Parliamentary Business and then Minister for Public Health, Sport and Wellbeing.

Laura is Senior Planner in the Masterplanning, Design and Conservation Team at Aberdeen City Council. She has worked at the Council for over 12 years and prior to this worked across the North East in Local Development Planning, Strategic Planning as well as in a  Development Management role.  Laura’s interests are in Masterplanning, Placemaking, Conservation and the reuse and redevelopment of historic buildings. She has been involved in a variety of projects and developments across the City, but most recently the fantastic redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. 

Laura enjoys working closely with colleagues and knows the importance of peer support and the continued engagement with colleagues and other RTPI members.  She also thoroughly enjoys a little planning debate between Colleagues on a Friday afternoon. Finally Laura is also a member of the General Assembly and the Chair of the Communication, Education and Lifelong Learning Sub-committee.

Cheyne Hamm is the Sustainability and Climate Change Officer for East Lothian Council. Originally from California, he earned an MSc in Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh and has been working in local government since then. In his current role at East Lothian Council, he is in the Planning Service but works with all teams in the Council. He is currently developing the Council’s next Climate Change Strategy and sees planning as having a crucial role in helping residents live lower-impact lifestyles and being protected from the effects of climate change.

Amy joined the Steering Group in 2023. She has an MSc in City Planning from the University of Glasgow, graduating in 2020. After graduation she undertook a 9-month research post at Heriot-Watt University, exploring the role of the planning system in tackling racial inequalities in housing. In 2022 Amy won an RTPI Research Award for this work. Following this, Amy spent 18 months working at the Improvement Service, supporting the work of Heads of Planning Scotland and also working on spatial data improvements for planning authorities. In conjunction with the RTPI, Amy worked on the Future Planners project which explored options for getting more planners into Scotland’s public sector. As of April 2023, Amy now works at East Ayrshire Council in the Development Plans team, and is looking forward to putting her knowledge of the development planning system into practice!

Lesley graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2010 with an MSc in City Planning and Real Estate Development. She became a Chartered Member of the RTPI in September 2014. Lesley joined the Strategic Land team at Taylor Wimpey in 2016, following her time spent in the development plans team at North Ayrshire Council, and was the SYPN Chair in 2017/18. In 2020 Lesley moved into the Land team at Taylor Wimpey West Scotland and assesses sites across the West of Scotland, to identify and deliver housing opportunities.  In 2020, Lesley welcomed her daughter Molly into the world and has recently returned to work this year following the birth of her second daughter, Grace. In her spare time Lesley is a keen netballer, playing in the Glasgow Netball League, and loves to travel with her family.

James graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 2013 (MA (Hons) in Geography and Spatial Planning) and is a Chartered Member of the RTPI. James is a Senior Planner with Aberdeenshire Council's Strategic Development Delivery Team, and works primarily on National and Major Energy and Transmission Developments. He has been a member of the SYPN since 2019 and is the current Chair for 2024.

Duncan is a Chartered Town Planner with over 11 years’ experience across infrastructure consenting, environmental assessment and policy development. He leads on offshore planning and environmental policy at ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), with responsibility for co-ordinating policy and strategic work to facilitate the efficient deployment of renewables projects. Duncan advises on infrastructure consenting regimes, manages strategic stakeholder engagement and leads SPR’s response to offshore planning and environmental policy consultations across the UK and Ireland. He also leads on consenting and environmental strategies for SPR’s three ScotWind projects with a total capacity of 7GW.

Prior to joining SPR Duncan had 9 years’ consultancy experience, including leading the delivery of planning and EIA services for major infrastructure projects and managing Strategic Environmental Assessments to support the development of spatial plans across the UK.

Duncan has been involved with the RTPI since joining the West of Scotland Chapter as Events Co-ordinator in 2014 and has twice served as Chapter Convenor in 2016 and 2020. He is currently a member of the RTPI’s Scottish Executive Committee, lead member for planning on Scottish Renewables’ Barriers to Deployment – Enabling Group and developer representative on the Offshore Wind Industry Council’s Pathways to Growth Co-ordination Group.

Nikola is a chartered planner with a range of experience in the public, private and voluntary sectors, having worked as a planning consultant, for Planning Aid Scotland, RTPI Scotland and as Head of Planning Practice at Homes for Scotland, specialising in housing policy and supporting the house building industry to deliver more homes across Scotland. Nikola is currently a Principal Planner at the Scottish Government, heading up the Energy Branch within the Planning, Architecture and Regeneration Division, supporting the delivery of offshore and onshore renewable energy development and the implementation of National Planning Framework 4. She has volunteered for the RTPI throughout her career as a former Committee Member and Junior Vice Convenor, former Convenor of the South East Scotland Chapter, former Vice Chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network, and she continues to be an assessor for the RTPI APC. Nikola is currently Chair of charity The Newark Trust, working to fight hardship and disadvantage in Inverclyde.

Anthony is an experienced Planning Consultant with over 25 years professional experience. He started his career in the public sector and has now been with Colliers for 20 years, having led a UK wide national team for the last dozen years. He represents a wide range of clients including landowners, developers, institutional investors and corporate clients.

Erin Fulton is the Community Development Manager at Planning Aid Scotland and hold a Masters of Education in Community Development. Erin's primary focus revolves around managing our Sustaining Choices project, which centres on collaborating with communities to develop active and sustainable travel interventions. She is an experienced facilitator and has a diverse background in charitable work, including the delivery of volunteering programmes, project management and youth engagement.

Jo Elston is newly involved in the Planning system through her role as Volunteer Co-ordinator with Planning Aid Scotland. Jo's background is in Volunteer Co-ordination and the Co-operative and Community Business sector which she continues to work in part time.

Anne completed her BSc in Urban Planning and Property Development at Heriot Watt University before moving onto an MSc in Urban Studies. Through her MSc she studied in Brussels, Vienna, Copenhagen and Madrid before she decided to settle back down in Edinburgh.

Anne worked a little bit as a planning assistant in the private and public sector. She was also an Intern Project Officer for RTPI Scotland in 2018/2019.

For the past two years Anne has been working as a Housing Strategy Officer in East Lothian Council. She's specialised in the housing need of young people and the delivery of home adaptations. She also enjoys her collaborative work with her planning colleagues, for example on the needs of the Traveller community. 

With over 20 year’s recruitment experience, Laura brings positivity, honesty and care to everything she does. She is passionate about working within the property sector and want’s to bring a fresh perspective on how recruitment should be done.

Sarah joined the world of recruitment in 2022 and has developed a love for working within the built environment sector and building lasting and meaningful relationships within her network. She particularly enjoys networking events and meeting new property professionals!

Experienced adviser, inquiry advocate, blogger, author and conference speaker - Neil Collar is one of Scotland's best known planning lawyers and a partner at Brodies LLP. He is a Legal Associate of the RTPI.

Gillian is the Manager of Spatial Planning – Research & Development team within the Development Plan Group at Glasgow City Council.  She has a BSc (Hons) in Town Planning from Heriot-Watt University and BSc (Hons) in Human Geography from the Open University.  She is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and currently the Chair on their Partnership and Accreditation Panel. She has  completed six years as the RTPI nominated practitioner rep on Queen University Belfast Planning school partnership Board, which she also chaired for the final two years. She has spent the last three years in a similar role with the Technical University Dublin Partnership Board, where she currently the chair.

Gillian had the lead role for the Council within the Horizon 2020 Connecting Nature project, where Glasgow was one of the front runner cities.  http://www.connectingnature.eu/glasgow Glasgow is used its Open space Strategy and Delivery Plan (opportunity mapping) as it’s exemplar within this project.

Glasgow is now one of the Role model cities in the UNEP programme UN Generation restoration

Gillian started her career in Banff & Buchan / Aberdeenshire before moving to Glasgow 19 years ago. She therefore has a broad breadth of experience working both very rural and highly urbanised areas.  Gillian’s team takes a place- based approach with a nature-based solutions focus to all that they do. The team has the following Objectives:

Create liveable, productive, adaptable, multifunctional spaces/places;

• Support climate change adaption and mitigation;
• Increase resilience, both of communities and their environment;
• Foster community engagement with, and ownership of, space/place;
• Develop places that support healthy, active lifestyles and engender well-being;
• Promote connectivity and permeability, both spatial and social;
• Establish integrated environmental infrastructure as a fundamental requirement for successful urban development;
• Facilitate innovative uses for vacant and derelict land and under-utilised greenspace;
• Nurture biodiversity and expand thriving habitats;
• Highlight and strengthen the link between community planning and the physical environment, particularly with a view to reducing health inequalities;
• Positively influence infrastructure/asset investment decisions to maximise environmental quality.

Etive has a varied and privileged role within GCC. She is the co-designer of the Scottish Place Standard Tool, and as such, represents the Council at national, international, and global levels to talk about the place standard tool as well as run training sessions on the tool.  Etive is a WHO (World Health Organisation) Place adviser and contributes to global research, development, and delivery on everything placemaking.

Etive is now lead on the new Play Sufficiency Assessment process in Glasgow and contributes nationally on all things play.  This is building on the national place-based approach and creating a collaborative and co-design approach with children and young people about where they go, what they do, and what needs to change.

Jennifer Russell is the Town Planning Manager at the University of Glasgow and is responsible for providing professional planning advise with specific responsibilities on the campus development and management of the historic environment.  Jennifer joined the University in 2009, having held previous roles in economic development, urban regeneration, and local government.  She has provided expertise which has helped to successfully delivery 10 new university buildings to date.

Jennifer successfully led the teams on the masterplan and Planning Permission in Principle which were approved in 2016 for the ambitious £1.2b investment programme.  Jennifer has been involved in all projects delivered on the western campus development to date. 

Jennifer acts as the principal negotiator and coordinator with the Planning Authority and other key statutory bodies such as HES. She has helped to establish key working groups to support the campus development and continues to manage the complex consenting requirements which underpin the development.

A Chartered Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute for over 20 years and qualified Urban Designer.

Craig McLaren is Scotland's first National Planning Improvement Champion. This role was established in the 2019 Planning Act to monitor planning performance and support improvement; to identify, share and apply good practice; and to establish strategic challenges and broker action. Craig is based in the Improvement Service and took up post in September 2023.

Prior to that he was Director of Scotland, Ireland and English Regions in the Royal Town Planning Institute; Director of the Scottish Centre for Regeneration in Communities Scotland/ Scottish Government; Chief Executive of SURF (Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum); Scottish Policy Officer at RTPI; and a planner in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

Craig writes a regular column for The Planner magazine called Planning Positive and is a Fellow of both the RTPI and the RSA, and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism. He has sat on the Boards of Scotland's Towns Partnership, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Greenspace Scotland, Resilient Scotland and the Jim Boyack Memorial Trust.

His spare time revolves around family, football and music. He tries to attend a gig a month, plays the drums and can strum a guitar badly.

Dr Sepideh Hajisoltani is a chartered member of the RTPI and IHBC. With a multidisciplinary background in architecture, conservation, and community-based development in Iran, she moved to the UK and graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London (UCL) in 2011 (MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development). She has had a number of roles within Aberdeen City Council in the areas of Development Management and also Masterplanning, Design and Conservation. She has a PhD from Northumbria University in 2023 and her research focuses on the "Future of UK City Centres". Her latest publication is contributions to two chapters of the book "The Future of the City Centre- Global Perspectives" which was published in late 2022. She is a member of the RTPI Scotland Executive Committee and IHBC Scottish Committee and acts as the Education and Training Standards Rep.  Sepideh joined the Scottish Young Planners' Network in 2019 and is the Past Chair.