Episodes
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Real Estate Advisor
"The way I was always told earlier in my career to try and understand my own role in the process is to be the ‘ringleader’. Imagine it’s a circus and you’re the one that’s trying to chaperone and cajole and bring everyone together. And on my best day, I like to think that that’s what I do – that’s what I add to the process" - Nicola Rigby
With over 20 years’ experience, Nicola is a property advisor with specific specialism in regeneration strategy and delivery.
Based in Manchester for most of her career (aside from a brief stint in London), she leads the Avison Young regeneration offer nationally, overseeing a team of 13 people including planners, surveyors, and economists, working for both public and private sector clients.
Nicola has a real passion for delivering meaningful positive change for existing communities – with specialisms in masterplanning and delivery strategy for existing housing estates and existing housing areas.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Strategic Director of Growth
"We have not seen a drop off in demand for commercial space – take up is still really strong – and, if anything, there is an undersupply – but people use the space differently" - Becca Heron
Becca Heron is the Strategic Director of Growth and Development at Manchester City Council. Formerly Director of Economy and Skills at Wigan Council, Becca’s career has included a number of different public sector roles, including previous positions within both Manchester City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA).
During her time with the GMCA, Becca led on a series of high-profile and complex initiatives, including the development of 2014 Devolution Agreement. At Wigan, she took on the economic development and regeneration brief, playing a pivotal role in bringing key sites forward for development and kickstarting the redevelopment of Wigan town centre.
As Strategic Director of Growth and Development at Manchester City Council, Becca has a key role in the delivery of the ambitions set out in the Our Manchester strategy, leading the city’s recovery following the pandemic, building on the successes of the last two decades to drive inclusive growth that will ensure the city continues to be one of the most exciting destinations in Europe to live, work and play.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Architect Founder
"Increasingly, all businesses are recognising the need to show and demonstrate what impact they’re having on the environment, and the community. And there are many ways to do that, from reducing a building’s operational carbon footprint, to improving access to amenities. But in addition to those environmental and social benefits, I think it’s important to recognise that ESG brings value to developers – so climate-ready and healthy buildings are much more valuable" - Rachel Haugh
Rachel co-founded SimpsonHaugh Architects in 1987, and has since played an integral role in building the practice’s strong project portfolio and reputation as leading urban and civic design architects. Having studied at the University of Bath, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 2018 by The University of Manchester and in 2021, received the ‘Outstanding Contribution’ Award from the Manchester Society of Architects. Involved in all projects, practice management and strategic direction, Rachel is a strong, intuitive designer, powerful critic, and passionate advocate of the rigorous interrogation essential to maintaining design quality through to completion.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Head of Regeneration
"We want to bring people on the journey with us, rather than us as people from outside the borough coming in and saying, ‘this is what you should have in your town’. It’s amazing how many people don’t have that approach" - Cathy Palmer
Cathy is an experienced regeneration specialist managing teams delivering large-scale complex projects to drive inclusive growth, build communities and improve outcomes for citizens. Utilising government funding often to rebalance risk on challenging brownfield sites, including working with Community Interest Companies, developers, a range of public sector agencies and multidisciplinary consultant teams, Cathy is passionate about new challenges and opportunities facing the UK’s regional towns and cities.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Interior Design & Strategy Director
"We’re talking about neurodiversity quite significantly these days - every person has a specific requirement from the office. We need to consider that the space is usable for every type of need. And allow people to give their best" - Atepheh Amid
Atepheh is an Associate Director in AECOM Interior Design & Strategy team with specific interest in user requirements-centred design focusing on how built environments can function to support their occupants’ needs. She has a strong background in understanding and developing initial analytical data and business objectives, into creative solutions that provide effective long-lasting design.
She is recognised as a trusted advisor by her clients and a visible team lead who dedicates time to the driving client-focused design, innovation, lessons learnt and mentoring colleagues with a strong emphasis on future-proof design, sustainability, inclusivity, value-for-money, safety, wellbeing, and award-winning quality.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Sustainability Consultant
"Be curious. And stay curious. Keep learning, and if you see something you’re interested in, even if it’s a niche thing, go after it" - Wendy Broomhead
Wendy is a Partner at Ridge and Partners, and was a founding director of Scott Hughes Design. She has over 30 years of experience in construction, as both a Structural Engineer and Sustainability Consultant.
She enjoys working on a diverse range of projects from commercial developments through theatres & sports stadia to schools, universities, and healthcare facilities. Wendy has developed a reputation for being pro-active and client focused. Over the past twenty years, she has developed her sustainability services offering to include Net Zero Carbon, ESG, Sustainability Accreditations (e.g. BREEAM, Homes Quality Mark, LEED, SKA, WELL & Fitwel), Post Occupancy Evaluation and Life Cycle Costing.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Residential Consultant
"The naming of a scheme is the hardest part, and that’s why you have great marketing and creative agencies – the name stays with a building forever" - Louise Emmott
Louise specialises in residential consultancy and her career has spanned over 20 years working for Chesterton, King Sturge and JLL. More recently, Louise has set up her own residential agency, Kingsdene.
Louise has been involved in many city centre developments in one form or another, working with developers such as Muse Places, Clarion Housing Group, Renaker, and Urban and Civic. She provides developers with either combined or individual UK and international sales and marketing strategies from conception to completion, and is passionate about delivering the correct design and specification of individual apartments and amenity spaces to create residential communities.
Louise is also a committee member for Women in Property North West.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Health and Safety Advisor
"I sit at the table. If it’s a good team, they welcome our professional input. But you don’t always get such a good team. And that’s the frustration; when you walk away and think they’ve heard nothing that I’ve said" - Karen Bennett-Jones
Karen Bennett-Jones MSc is a Chartered Health & Safety Consultant with Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB), working in different sectors such as residential, science, retail, and infrastructure. She is based out of their Manchester office and leads the Liverpool office health & safety team.
She has been involved in the construction industry for over 20 years after starting her career working for the family construction company and moving on into health and safety in the private sector and consultancy services. Karen has also worked in health and safety management and safety systems in the Middle East, within the hospitality industry.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Property Services Manager
"One of the biggest challenges we’re facing in the social housing sector is ‘old design’" - Kerry Whittle
Kerry is a building surveyor and social housing refurbishment specialist whose career has spanned over 25 years, working in the social housing sector, having had the opportunity to work both client (housing association) and contractor side.
More recently, Kerry has been involved in PFI delivery with Housing 21 who act as managing agent on behalf of Oldham Council.
Kerry has a passion for passing the opportunity ladder down to young people who are just starting their career path within the property and refurbishment sector, in particular the social housing sector, this led to Kerry being one of the first careers enterprise advisors for the North West, and founder member for Women in Social Housing North West. Kerry has also been involved with Women in Property North West where she was a committee member for 4 years, and has more recently become a trustee for Wigan and Leigh Community Charity, an organisation which supports the start-up and sustainable development of Social Enterprises in the Wigan and Leigh Area.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Workplace Strategist
"Sometimes, the biggest part of that workplace strategy is just engaging the people and letting them have a voice. That’s key" - Kathryn Mitchell
Kathryn is a leader in workplace strategy and design, balancing her understanding of buildings with insight, engagement, and creativity. She enjoys the transformative design process, delivering authentic purpose and where holistic sustainability starts with ‘making better use of the spaces we have.’
Her career spans over 23 years within practice and on the client-side, where her in-depth knowledge of the corporate ‘client-side’ governance process provides a unique lens for creating and delivering regenerative workplaces.
She founded Intrinsic in 2013 building up a highly respected reputation for delivering successful workplace and education interior design strategies across the UK.
Kathryn’s other passion is rhino conservation with an inclusive community approach.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Director of Commercial Research
"The perception is that affordable workspace is a problem, but I think it’s a solution to a lot of problems. You’ve got all these start-ups coming in to key cities – not just London – so if we can house them, and give them the right space, then we can allow them to grow" - Clare Bailey
Clare Bailey is a Director in Savills' Commercial Research team and has written extensively on themes within the regional office markets. Clare has written a number of articles looking at the ‘S’ of ESG and has contributed to Savills office magazine ‘Core’ looking at the key ingredients to a happy and productive workplace, as well as recently writing a report (commissioned by the BCO) on the importance of affordable workspaces – a solution not a problem. Clare presents at a number of industry events including Savills regional ‘Cross sector’ seminars and Savills Financing property events.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Construction Owner
"Generally, construction is a hard industry to be in. When it’s going well, it’s so rewarding and it’s such a fabulous sector – you could start as a joiner and become a managing director in 15 years. There is a breadth of different roles you can become, and I don’t think there’s another sector like it. But it is a hard sector. It’s very timebound, it’s quite transient, you have to be able to work as a team - because it’s all about collaboration" - Nicola Hodkinson
Nicola Hodkinson is owner and director of family managed contracting and house-building business, Seddon, where her role is all about ‘people’ – people Seddon employ and people Seddon work for.
Her role encompasses everything from overseeing employee wellbeing to company culture and upholding the Seddon values.
Nicola believes that an inclusive workplace is a better workplace and fits with her mantra that ‘everyone deserves to have a good day at work.’ Her work with Girls Out Loud, where she now sits on the Advisory Board, demonstrates her commitment to ‘closing the gap’ and making construction a more inclusive industry.
As an advocate for mental health awareness in the workplace and more specifically, the construction industry Nicola became a trustee board member for leading UK mental health charity Mates in Mind. In 2017, she led on the businesses new approach to mental health with the launch of the award-winning Jordan’s Conversation initiative, a campaign that set out to let everybody know that ‘it was ok, not to be ok’.
As a passionate promoter of careers in construction she has been championing apprenticeships for many years and has worked hard to build strong industry connections to create a hub of knowledge and opportunities for construction skills. She believes that we need to celebrate apprenticeships more and look at alternative pathways to bring more talent into construction.
Nicola is the first female to be appointed to the Seddon board and helps to steer the family business alongside her brothers Jonathan and Jamie Seddon. Upholding family values is important to Nicola who believes that ‘how a business operates is as important as what they do’ and with this in mind aims to create a business that is productive with a happy workforce, where employee wellbeing is as important as profit.
As a custodian of the Seddon family business and as fourth generation Nicola wants to ensure she is looking after and developing the business for the future, assuring longevity and a sustainable future for the next generation of the Seddon family and the families it employs.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Landscape Architect
"There are lots of different skills in landscape architecture. We are the jack of all trades and the master of none. You’ve got to know about horticulture, materials, planning, architecture, lighting and culture" - Kate Weston
Kate is a director of Asri, a boutique landscape design studio based in Manchester, UK.
Kate is a Chartered Landscape Architect and holds a degree and postgraduate diploma in Landscape Architecture from Leeds Metropolitan University.
Asri focusses on high-end garden design, residential design, and small scale bespoke commercial design. Asri’s schemes aim to be evocative and awaken the senses, spaces that enhance physical and mental wellbeing are at heart of the practice. Asri has a strong focus on planting design with an emphasis on craft and beautiful detailing.
Outside of work, Kate loves all things constant yoga, food and travel.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Building Services Engineer
"Be inquisitive, don’t be afraid to ask a stupid question of another discipline. If you don’t know why an MEP engineer is banging on about something, just ask them" - Ellie Griffiths
Ellie is a Senior Associate at Hoare Lea, specialising in Building Services design and leading multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver a range of exciting buildings. These teams/services involve not only mechanical, electric and public health (MEP) services, but also sustainability, fire, acoustics, vertical transportation, air quality, lighting, ICT and intelligent buildings. Her key focusses are operational and embodied carbon reduction and finding pathways to the rightly reducing carbon level targets.
Ellie is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion and the benefits it brings to individuals and the workplace. Outside of work Ellie loves the mountains and most activities involving them, a little contrary given she hates the cold and is scared of heights!
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Heritage Professional
"These systems and regulations are there to make sure we have good places to live and work that are good for our well-being and family life and making sure we don’t erode that" - Kate Kendall
Kate Kendall is a historic environment professional with a love of conservation and historic buildings. Following 10 years in local government she left Manchester in 2011 to put her skills into practice on a new project. With her partner they renovated a French farmhouse which was completed in the summer of 2012.
On Kate’s return to the UK, she completed a Masters in Commercial Building Surveying at Liverpool JMU for which she achieved a distinction in late 2013 and received an award for from the IHBC. After 9 years at Historic England working with heritage at risk, channelling grant funding and working on Heritage Action Zones, Kate left HE in summer 2022 to join the Heritage Fund, expanding her passion for all things heritage.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Editor
"I think curiosity is the most important skill to have as a journalist. I don’t think you learn that you either have it or you don’t" - Samantha McClary
Samantha McClary is a real estate journalist with more than 20 years’ experience in the sector. Beginning her career at Caterer & Hotelkeeper, she soon made the jump into pure commercial real estate with a job at “property bible” EG. Working her way up the ranks from reporter to news editor, deputy editor and for the last four years, editor, Sam is passionate about the business of real estate and a champion of its transformation, digitally, design-wise and from a D&I perspective.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Safety Lawyer
"Experience as much as you can outside of your school environment, try and invest in as many external extra-curricular that you can. The biggest piece of advice I would give, and I wish I knew this more when I was younger, is don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is just a learning experience" - Erin Shoesmith
Erin leads the Safety practice at Addleshaw Goddard. Her work includes general health and safety, fire and building safety, food and product safety mandates. She is regularly instructed by clients facing investigation and prosecution, whether that be the Police, HSE, Local Authorities or the Fire & Rescue Services.
Erin’s remit also incorporates Public Inquiries and Inquests. She is working on the Grenfell, Manchester Arena, Scottish Hospitals, Scottish Child Abuse, Post Office and COVID-19 Inquiries.
Sources describe Erin as having "a deserved reputation as being in the very top drawer. Her dedication to her clients shines through. There is nobody better".
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Marketing Director
Professionally I think I’m quite a good analyst. People think I’m creative because I work with a lot of creative people, but my strength is connecting what I think an audience needs, what I think the brief is and what best fits that brief. I've always thought I’d be a good curator of a gallery, rather than an artist - Katie McLean
Katie is UK & Ireland marketing director for Crown Paints.
As the strategic marketing lead, Katie was instrumental in the development of the brand’s better, braver, beautifuller. proposition, that demonstrates the impact of colour and paint to people working across the built environment.
Formerly Head of Marketing at ao.com and a Senior Marketing Manager at L’Oréal Paris, Katie has over 15 years of experience as a corporate and consumer brand and marketing specialist, across a range of sectors including retail, beauty and consumer technology.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Landscape Engineer
"I turned up on site at West Ham Station with my suitcase; they threw it in a dumper truck and took me off to site. I thought, wow this is amazing. I was twenty-one then - the only female onsite with two hundred men" - Lisa Sawyer
With over 20 years of experience and gaining chartered engineer status in 2004 Lisa has worked on a wide variety of structural and civil engineering projects both in contracting and consultancy.
Lisa’s new role as Director of Sustainable Drainage at Land Studio will help bring together a fully integrated landscape and civil engineering approach, bringing sustainable drainage into the wider site design to enhance the landscape providing climate resilient designs which reduce flooding, enhance biodiversity and create a better sense of place. Lisa is a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers and Women In Property.
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42 Roles in the Built Environment - Transformation Director
"Transformation, think of it like a three-legged stool. People, process and systems. For all of those things, all of those aspects of transformation you need to have quite a systematic approach" - Kate Morris-Bates
Kate is Group Resources & Transformation Director at Harworth Group, a leading sustainable regenerator of land and property for development and investment. Kate has responsibility for Harworth’s HR, Business Support, Technology, Workplace Development and Internal Communications functions.
Working with the Executive team and across the business, Kate’s role is critical to delivering Harworth’s strategy to grow the business to £1bn by 2027. Kate has spent 25 years working within facilities, risk management, learning & development as well as a time running her own consultancy and wellbeing businesses. Kate and her family are self-confessed outdoorsy people with a passion for nature.
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