Deborah Cadman OBE

Interim Chief Executive
Birmingham City Council

Deborah became Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority in September 2017, following a long and distinguished career in public service.

After gaining a degree in politics, she began her career in 1984 with the London Borough of Newham, before moving to Birmingham City Council where she worked on major regeneration projects and gained a master’s degree in economics. Moving to Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in 1996 as Head of Policy, Deborah gained a second master’s in management, before taking up a two-year secondment with the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions as Local Government Advisor to the Ministerial Team. In 2003, after being appointed the Audit Commission’s Best Value Service Lead Inspector for the London region, she became Chief Executive at St Edmundsbury Borough Council, before becoming Chief Executive of the East of England Development Agency. Deborah was Chief Executive of Suffolk County Council from 2011 to 2017 and has also been interim Chief Executive of Waveney District Council, Babergh District Council and Mid-Suffolk District Council.

She is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Trust and Joseph Rowntree Housing Foundation and as a dedicated and passionate female advocate at the forefront of the public sector, Deborah recently won the First Women Award for Public Service. Deborah is listed in Local Government Chronicle’s ‘100 Most Influential in the Sector’. Deborah was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to local government.

Huw Rhys Lewis

Managing Director
Urban Growth Company

Huw has been Managing Director of the Urban Growth Company (UGC) since it was formed in 2016 and is responsible for spearheading the preparation and delivery of infrastructure and development at the UK Central Hub site in Solihull.  The infrastructure investment value in The Hub over the next ten years is expected to be in excess of £1.6bn.

The UGC has published its Hub Growth and Infrastructure Plan which brings together the ambitions of Birmingham Airport, the NEC, Jaguar Land Rover, Birmingham Business Park and Arden Cross – the site for HS2’s Birmingham Interchange Station – with the potential to generate up to £4.1bn GVA per annum. 

Huw has 25 years’ senior director experience in the private and public sector working on asset, facilities and estates management, design, construction and procurement.  He has lived and worked in the UK and internationally, across sectors including retail, office, leisure, transportation, waste, education, housing, infrastructure and regeneration.

Huw’s previous roles include Development Director for UCI and Village Roadshow Cinemas covering their circuits Internationally, Vice President Stations Metronet, Director at Balfour Beatty overseeing their health and education portfolios and their works at Terminal 5 and Terminal 2, Investment and Board Director at Shanks plc , and more recently Property Director at the City of London Corporation, overseeing all capital projects on behalf of the City of London with a property portfolio of over £2 billion generating a rental income of over £100m per annum. 

Denise Li

Founding CEO
PGC Capital

Award-winning businesswoman, Denise Li, founded PGC Capital in 2015 after an illustrious career assisting companies achieve their international aspirations and expand into China including Formula One, the English Premier League, Porsche, Zespri, Nissan, Omnicom, Hilton Hotels Group and Amway. In 2014, Denise launched the International Financial Summit to introduce sophisticated global investment insights and opportunities to Chinese high net worths, corporations and institutional investors.  The previous year, Denise introduced International GolfWeek to China, before going on to co-found Shanghai International GolfWeek (China) Limited to encourage entrepreneurs to raise funds for China’s most deprived children.

Denise and PGC Capital have been frequently profiled in the UK property media, The Times (London) and the Financial Times.  She is also a regular panellist at Financial Times Live and Movers & Shakers events. PGC Capital’s first residential development in the UK is situated in the famous Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham.  Its next development, to be known as Lunar Rise, will offer 517 units in two 10 storey and one 25 storey block and will be situated in the Digbeth area of Birmingham.

At the end of 2017, she was appointed Executive Chairman of the Confederation of China Business UK.   

Dr Colin J Clinton

Regional Project Manager, Midlands Engine Investment Hub
Department for International Trade

Colin started his civil engineering career working in the public sector on major Inner City infrastructure projects and Urban Regeneration schemes for Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council, West Midlands County Council and the City of Birmingham for a sustained period from 1971 to 1988. Colin joined Arup in 1988 in their Birmingham office. He managed several projects across Midlands UK, and into Continental Europe. In 1994 he was Senior Project Manager for the first Japanese investment by Toyota into their Car Plant in Derbyshire. In 2002, Colin was appointed a Director of Arup, and in 2004 became the youngest President of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In January 2010 he was appointed Director of Business Development East Asia Region (EAR) based in Hong Kong. From June 2011, and in addition to his BD role, he was Project Director for the Rose Rock International Finance Centre (RRIFC) in Tianjin, Northern China. Throughout 2013 and 2014 Dr Clinton developed relationships with some of China’s largest construction and investment firms. In April 2015 he returned from China to the UK and was based in Arup’s Liverpool Office. In Sept 2015 Colin accepted an invitation by UK Gov’t for a part time secondment role as Head of China Business in UKTI Regeneration and Investment Organisation (RIO). He accompanied the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to China for the Economic and Financial Dialogue (EFD). From January 2016 Colin has been based in Birmingham supporting the inward investment strategy for Birmingham, WMCA and the Midlands Engine. He directed the production of the ME investment Pitchbook and help launch it at MIPIM in Mar 2016. He joined DIT full time in Jan 2017 as Regional Project Manager within the Midlands Engine Investment Hub.

Jane Kemp

Partner and Consultant
Adducere LLP

Until co-founding niche property consultancy Adducere LLP in 2009, Jane was a solicitor and has over 20 years experience in the Property Market. Her career experience has been both client side, as an in-house solicitor with national property companies, and she has also occupied senior positions with law firms – Eversheds, Hammonds and Clarke Willmott. Jane continues to work with DLA Piper as a consultant. 

In September 2016 Jane co-founded the West Midlands Women's Voice Group which aims to ensure that the voice of women influences emerging policy from the West Midlands Combined Authority. 

Jane’s recent focus is on a joint venture between Adducere LLP and Wilmott Dixon to provide public bodies with an alternative funding model through Adjuto Funding Solutions. 

Gareth Bradford

Director of Housing & Regeneration
West Midlands Combined Authority

Gareth is Director of Housing and Regeneration for the West Midlands Combined Authority where he oversees over £600m+ of devolved housing and land funds across an area covering 19 local councils and 3 local enterprise partnerships. He leads the development and implementation of the region’s ambitious housing and regeneration strategy including its goal of delivering over 215,000 new homes by 2031 and for the region to lead nationally in design quality, advanced methods of construction, brownfield remediation and town centre regeneration. He runs a directorate responsible for policy and delivery on town centre regeneration, brownfield development, employment land, land assembly and remediation, affordable housing, one public estate, design, housing supply and securing unprecedented new investment from the public and private sector into real estate.

From 2010 to 2017, Gareth worked in a variety of roles in Central Government. For nearly 3 years he was a policy adviser to the Prime Minister at No10 Downing Street during the Coalition and Conservative-led governments. During his time in Government, Gareth led a cross-Whitehall division responsible for securing regeneration and housing on the back of major infrastructure (eg HS2) and led work on town centres and coastal communities. In 2012 he led the Government’s flagship neighbourhood planning policy through Parliament as part of the Localism Act.