Stephen Stone

Chief Executive
Crest Nicholson plc

As a chartered architect Stephen Stone started his career working at a number of London based architectural practices before joining Countryside Properties in 1983. In 1995 he joined Crest Nicholson and since this time his experience, knowledge and breadth of understanding of the sector, combined with his visionary design aspirations, has seen him rapidly climb the career ladder. He was appointed to the Board of Crest Nicholson in 1999, subsequently becoming Chief Executive in 2005.

In 2011 he was also appointed to the House Builders Federation (HBF) Board. Throughout this period he has continued to champion Crest Nicholson’s reputation as a driving force in the sector, questioning conventional thinking and positioning the Group decisively to lead in the complex and challenging process of delivering environmentally sensitive, high quality, sustainable communities. He led the relisting of the Group on the London Stock Exchange earlier this year. 

Marc Vlessing

Co-founder & CEO
Pocket

Marc is Co-founder and CEO of Pocket, London’s first private developer that focuses exclusively on delivering intermediate housing for the starter market. Pocket’s award winning housing requires no grant, is secured as affordable in perpetuity and sold outright to people on low to moderate incomes.

Sir Edward Lister

Chairman
Homes & Communities Agency

Sir Edward Lister joined the Homes and Communities Agency as Chairman in June 2016. Sir Edward has considerable experience of the housebuilding industry, in particular infrastructure investment and large-scale developments. From 2011-16, he was London’s Deputy Mayor of Policy and Planning and Chief of Staff at the Greater London Authority, which included serving as Deputy Chairman of the Old Oak & Park Royal Mayoral Development Corporation. He was previously Conservative Leader of Wandsworth Borough Council from 1992-2011. As the longest-serving council leader in the country, Sir Edward made Wandsworth the most successful value-for-money local authority in the country with the lowest council tax charge and top satisfaction ratings from its residents.

In 2016, Sir Edward was appointed as Senior Advisor to the Regeneration and Investment Organisation within UKTI. He is also a consultant for CBRE’s One London team and a Non-Executive Director of Stanhope Ltd. 

Mary Parsons

Executive Director and Main Board Member
Places for People

Mary is an Executive Director and main Group Board member of Places for People. She is responsible for placemaking and the planning, design and delivery of many major and complex development and regeneration programmes. Her present projects include the promotion of 10,000 homes in Hertfordshire, the regeneration of a former dockyard in North Tyneside, 1500 new homes on the Olympic Park and major regeneration programmes in Sheffield, Birmingham and Bristol. She is also responsible for the Group's joint jv entire activities and is a Trustee and Chair of the Town & Country Planning Association.

Reza Merchant

CEO
The Collective

Reza's journey started whilst in his first year at the London School of Economics. Frustrated by the lack of high-quality and affordable accommodation for fellow students in London, he decided to tackle this problem by creating his own lettings agency, Share in the City. Seeing an opportunity to provide a superior product in the market, Share in the City quickly evolved into The Collective, with a focus on developing and operating living space for young professionals. In May 2016 The Collective opened the world’s largest (546 units) and UK’s first co-living building, The Collective Old Oak. Now, at the age of just 29, Reza has his sights set on rapid global expansion starting with three cities in the US and two in Germany. The Collective’s second building is due to open in Canary Wharf in Summer 2019. It will be the first co-living building to offer a truly flexible way of staying in the city, with a hybrid model that merges both short stay and long stay.