David Lunts

Chief Executive Officer
Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation

David Lunts was appointed as the permanent Chief Executive Officer of Old Oak and Park Royal Development in January 2021. He had previously been the interim Chief Executive Officer for OPDC since February 2019, and combined his work on London’s largest Opportunity Area with his duties as Executive Director of Housing and Land for the Greater London Authority. Between 2009-2012 David led as the Executive Director for London at the Homes and Communities Agency. His earlier career included three years at the GLA as Executive Director of Policy and Partnerships under Ken Livingstone, a leading role in housing and regeneration with Manchester City Council during the 1980s and early 90s and a three-year spell as director of Urban Policy for John Prescott at the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

Anita Laremont

Executive Director
New York City Department of City Planning

Anita Laremont currently serves as Executive Director and Chief Analytical Officer of the Department of City Planning.  Before taking on this role Anita served as the General Counsel of City Planning for (4) years.

Prior to joining City Planning, she was a partner in the law firm of Harris Beach PLLC, where she had a real estate and land use law and government agency practice.

Before joining Harris Beach, Anita served for more than sixteen (16) years as General Counsel of Empire State Development Corporation, New York State’s primary economic development entity, where she was involved with numerous large-scale land-use projects, including the 42^nd Street Development Project, Queens West, Hudson River Park, Governors Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Atlantic Yards and Columbia Manhattanville. 

She is a magna cum laude graduate of Mount Holyoke College, and is a graduate of the New York University School of Law, where she was a Root Tilden Scholar. 

Mike Kiely

Chair
Planning Officers Society

Mike is a chartered town planner and MBA qualified manager with over 40 years’ experience in local government, most of that in London and 14 years at service head level and above. He is a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, formerly president of the Planning Officers Society and now chair of its Board. Mike works closely with government and across the sector to shape planning in England. In 2015 he set up his consultancy, Mike Kiely planning + regeneration, to specialise in assisting local authorities to perform better and be more effective. His extensive experience in successfully delivering major planning and regeneration projects means he can add value over and above the chief planning officer role, constructively challenging accepted thinking and proposing innovative solutions. 

Heather Cheesbrough

Director of Planning and Strategic Transport
London Borough of Croydon

Heather is a landscape architect and town planner, specialising in spatial planning, urban design, public realm, masterplanning and regeneration. She has nearly 30 years’ experience of working in the public and private sectors, consisting of five London boroughs and a district authority and the urban design consultancies Urban Initiatives and EDAW/AECOM. Her present position is at London Borough of Croydon where she is Director of Planning and Strategic Transport.

Her work focuses on collaboration and partnership of communities, developers and key stakeholders to create high quality places and buildings through exploring different viewpoints and drivers and facilitating honest conversations around the art of the possible. The use of technology and innovative engagement techniques is an area of particular interest so that young people and other hard to reach groups can take part in shaping their environment.  

She has brought forward and prepared several Local Plans and Planning documents, as well as worked on the delivery of a range of recent developments to include the mixed use High Street Quarter in Hounslow, Brentford and Hounslow town centre public realm improvements, Whitgift shopping centre redevelopment, Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme, - part of the Brighton Mainline Upgrade project. She has also led the preparation of sustainable transport strategies, including Liveable Neighbourhood schemes and a tram strategy .During her time at Westminster City Council, she was responsible for public art and facilitated a project with Artangel to bring the international multimedia artist Tony Oursler to Soho Square.

Faraz Baber

Operations Director - Midlands & South East
RPS

Faraz Baber is the Operations Director for Planning at RPS Group covering London, South East, Midlands and the North of England. RPS was founded in 1970 and is a leading global professional services firm which employs c. 5,500 staff. Faraz is a dual qualified chartered town planner and chartered surveyor; he currently serves as a member of the British Property Federation’s Planning Committee and, as the former chair of the RICS Planning Policy Panel, he also advises RICS on current planning policy issues. His specific areas of planning reform interest and expertise include the evolution of Community Infrastructure Levy and more recently helping to provide technical input into the proposals for an Infrastructure Levy. Faraz provides both strategic and technical expertise to planning projects and over the duration of his career, he has successfully worked on a wide and varied caseload of large and complex schemes across England.