Simon Burton

Regional Managing Director West Midlands and South
Galliford Try

Ashley Kensington

Managing Director
St Joseph, Berkeley Group Plc

Ashley has 20 years’ experience within in the development sector specialising in property investment, acquisition and obtaining planning consents. For the last 15 years she has worked at the Berkeley Group with posts held in St James, Berkeley Commercial and more recently in St William where she assisted in setting up the joint venture with National Grid.

In August 2018, Ashley moved to St Joseph to assist the Berkeley Group’s expansion into the West Midlands with responsibility for land, planning and asset management.

Rob Valentine

Director
Bruntwood

Bruntwood is a family-owned property company whose goal is to create the right places for people to succeed. Bruntwood develop, let and manage all of their own buildings, combining an innovative approach to property development with a single minded focus on the needs of the customers. Founded more than 40 years ago, Bruntwood is committed to helping make the UK’s great city regions even greater.

Director of Bruntwood Birmingham, Rob Valentine is at the heart of the West Midlands region, driven by his passion to make the city recognised as one of the best connected places to work and live. Working for the business for over 18 years, Rob is focused on creating the right environments for businesses to thrive, no matter what sector they operate in. Rob is passionate about developing great ideas and businesses, improving communities and creating places for business success.

Nicola Hewitt

Commercial Director
West Midlands Growth Company

Martin Reeves

Chief Executive
Coventry City Council

Martin has been Chief Executive of Coventry City Council since April 2009. He was the Chief Executive and the Head of Paid Service of the West Midlands Combined Authority from March 2016 to September 2017. He had previously been with Bedfordshire County Council for three and a half years as Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive. Martin was previously Head of Performance Improvement at Westminster City Council in the heart of London. He was also Programme Director for WorkSmart the City Council’s flagship transformation programme.

Martin spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher, and has a PhD in applied economics.He is a Governor on the Board at Coventry University; is the first Honorary President of LARIA (Local Authorities Research and Intelligence Association) and on the board of the Centre for Cities. He was the President of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives) in 2013. He is the Local Government Association (LGA) National Procurement Champion. In 2015, Martin was invited onto the independent taskforce, which produced the new 5 year national cancer strategy. He chairs the national cross system board for sustainable health & social care. He is also a member of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Advisory Board. In 2018 Martin was once again included in the top 50 of the Local Government Chronicle’s list of most influential people in local government.

Laura McMillan

Director of Operations and Legacy
Coventry City of Culture Trust

Laura began her career in the Sales and Marketing department of Warwick Castle before moving to the Royal Shakespeare Company where she spent four years in their Marketing department. In October 2015, Laura moved to the Coventry City of Culture Trust to manage the citywide bid to be UK City of Culture. Since Coventry was awarded the title in December 2017, Laura has taken the role of Director of Operations and Legacy responsible for supporting the running of the company and the setting of strategic legacy plans including monitoring and evaluation.