Cllr Nicola Beech

Cabinet Member for Spatial Planning and City Design
Bristol City Council

Councillor Nicola Beech was elected ward councillor for St George Central in 2016 and was appointed by Mayor Marvin Rees to the cabinet in July 2017 to lead on Spatial Planning and City Design. This sees her play a key role in delivering the West of England’s Joint Spatial Plan and Bristol’s Local Plan. She also represents Bristol on the West of England Combined Authority infrastructure advisory board and is the 2017 councillor representative on the West of England Nature Partnership Board.

Following her relocation to Bristol in May 2010 Nicola has worked in the area of brownfield regeneration, and property management and development.

Nicola splits her time and is employed as the strategic communications manager for a multinational utilities company conducting the internal and external communications and stakeholder engagement activity across the UK.

Nicola is also a trustee of the Meadowvale Community Association and a governor of Speedwell Nursery in east Bristol.

Matt Cross

Head of Inward Investment
Bristol & Bath

An inward investment specialist with a masters in International Business from Birkbeck College. Matt has worked in international business in both the public and private sector for most of his career, spanning London, New York, Plymouth and Bristol. He worked for internet companies during the .com boom and inward investment focused accountants. But for most of his career he has worked in inward investment for London building a reputation working for large complex global businesses investing or invested in London.

Currently he is Head of Inward Investment for Invest Bristol & Bath, the West of England Combined Authorities investment promotion agency. 

David Biggs

Managing Director, Property
Network Rail

With over 25 years’ experience operating as a senior executive for major companies, David is the Managing Director for Network Rail’s property division. He has established a new strategic direction for the business based on a strong customer centric philosophy applied across all commercial activities including Retail, the Commercial Estate and Development. David has also been instrumental in the adoption of a partnering approach with developers to drive commercial value from the railway estate and releasing land for housing as well as leading on the Network Rail property disposal programme.

Mayor Marvin Rees

Mayor of Bristol
Bristol City Council

Marvin Rees was elected mayor in May 2016. On that day Bristol became the first major European city to have elected a mayor of black African heritage. He describes becoming mayor as another expression of a deeper commitment to building a fairer, more inclusive world. He is a Yale World Fellow and graduate of Operation Black Vote who has worked and studied in the UK and the US. He is a former BBC journalist, Public Health Worker, voluntary sector manager, co-founder of the City Leadership Programme and has developed the One City Plan for Bristol.

Tony Pidgley CBE

Chairman
The Berkeley Group

Tony Pidgley CBE is Chairman of the Berkeley Group. He left school at 15 to form his own company in haulage and plant hire. At 19, he sold his business to Crest Homes and became a Building Director, before leaving to form Berkeley in 1976. Under his leadership the business has grown to become a FTSE 100 company and builds more than 4,000 homes a year. At Berkeley, Tony has led some of the country’s most challenging and celebrated regeneration programmes, including the reinvention of the Royal Arsenal munitions site in Woolwich, and the revival of Hackney’s Woodberry Down estate. He has pioneered a holistic approach to placemaking and is passionate about working in partnership with local people to create welcoming communities that inspire civic pride and enhance wellbeing. Tony has advised successive Governments on regeneration, housing and developing public land. He was a member of Lord Heseltine's Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel, the Thames Estuary 2050 Growth Commission and the Mayor’s Outer London Commission. He was the longest serving President in the history of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was awarded a CBE in 2013 for “services to the housing sector and the community.