Antonia Orr
National and international partnerships manager, Impact on Urban Health, UK
Antonia joined in November 2021 and is part of the Research and Development team in Impact on Urban Health, working closely with other programmes as well as communications and policy colleagues.
In June 2023, she joined the Policy and Influencing team, where she continues to develop on our national and international partnership work.
Prior to joining Impact on Urban Health, Antonia was chief executive of Coalition for Efficiency, a small, collaborative charity that supports charity and community leaders to reflect on, measure and manage the impact of their organisation and initiatives. Antonia has close ties with Mexico, where she worked for Semillas, a women’s fund supporting gender justice initiatives.
Daniel Black
Research director, TRUUD, UK
Daniel is a research director specialising in urban development, corporate decision-making, and bridging academic research to real world impact. He is currently based at the Bristol Medical School and co-leads the TRUUD £10m research consortium.
Daniel trained originally in economics, then urban design and planning, before specialising in impact assessment methods for large-scale development. He set up his own consultancy, Daniel Black + Associates | db+a, in 2012. Since then, he has led with academic partners a series of successful research bids covering urban planning; public health; corporate decision-making; climate change; food; energy; water; and waste.
Having spent over a decade in practice, learning about processes and detail downstream in a range of urban disciplines, including transport, urban design, building construction and community engagement, Daniel now leads research into decision-making that takes place upstream: governance, partnerships, corporate strategy, and risk management.
Andreas Markides
Chairman, Academy of Urbanism, UK
Andreas Markides BSc (Hons) MSc CEng AoU FCIHT FICE is experienced in the planning, design and management of major development projects, urban extensions, and town centre regeneration schemes. He has also been involved in the design and supervision of infrastructure works. His specialist traffic expertise includes traffic impact studies for new development proposals, highway design, development of transport strategies, and expert witness at planning inquiries. In October 2016, he set up Markides Associates, which currently employs more than 30 transport planners and engineers.
For three years, he served on the Committee of the Thames Valley branch of the Institution of Civil Engineers and was chairman of that Association (AMG&S) for the period 1989-90. He was president of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) for 2017-18 and is currently a trustee of that Institution. He is also a founding member of the Academy of Urbanism. In 2014, he acted as planning commissioner for the island of Cyprus.
Sunand Prasad
Chair, UKGBC; Principal, Perkins&Will, UK
Sunand Prasad is a principal at Perkins&Will. While designing across several sectors, he has been consistently engaged in healthcare and sustainability for four decades. At the core of his architectural practice, alongside interdisciplinary collaboration, Sunand holds a passionate belief that expertise and aesthetic judgement are most effective in creating truly successful environments when they are catalysed by the everyday experience of people.
Sunand has been active in the wider built environment industry, particularly championing low-carbon, regenerative design, and since 2020, as chair of the UK Green Building Council. He was president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) from 2007 to 2009, campaigning for action on climate change. He was founding member of the UK Government’s Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment; a London Mayor’s design advocate; a trustee of the Centre for Cities; and chair of the Trustees of Article 25, the humanitarian architecture charity. He currently chairs the Editorial Board of the Journal of Architecture and the External Advisory Board of TRUUD, a major research project on the fundamental links between health and urban development. He has written widely on architecture, sustainability and healthcare design, such as the book 'Changing Hospital Architecture'.
John Zeisel PhD
President, Hearthstone Alzheimer Care and the I’m Still Here Foundation, USA
Dr Zeisel has a background in sociology and architecture. He received a PhD from Columbia University and a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. John’s work at the I’m Still Here Foundation is focused on creating inclusive, community-based arts and culture programming.
Max Farrell
Founder, LDN Collective, UK
Max is Founder & CEO of the LDN Collective, a network of built environment experts and creatives fighting to improve people’s lives and the planet’s prospects. Members are experts in social impact, zero carbon and modern methods of construction as well as architecture, engineering, graphic design and film-making. They are a dynamic and collaborative ‘one stop shop’ for projects anywhere in the world. Current projects include masterplans for garden communities in Oxfordshire, Peterborough and Solihull; new health and wellbeing resorts in London and the South East; detailed planning applications for Clarion, the UK’s largest housing association and #ParkPower – a crowdsourced vision for the future of London’s green spaces.
Max’s expertise lies in urban planning & strategic communications. He was a Partner at Farrells for 10 years, the internationally renowned architects with offices in London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, before leaving to set up the LDN Collective. In 2021, Max was appointed Chair of Cultural Co-Location for Creative Estuary. With £4.3m funding from DCMS, as part of the Thames Estuary Production Corridor, the ambition is to transform 60 miles of the Thames Estuary into the most exciting cultural hub in the world. Max was Project Lead and Author of the Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment, commissioned by the UK Government, which made 60 recommendations spanning education, outreach & skills; design quality; cultural heritage; economic benefits & architecture policy, many of which have been implemented. He is an adviser to London National Park City, Urban Design London, the Place Alliance, the Urban Room Network, the National Arts and Place Consortium, Community Consultation for Quality of Life and Wild Streets.
Julia Thrift
Director of healthy place making, Town and Country Planning Association, UK
Julia's work at the TCPA focuses on collaborating with a wide range of partners to help create healthier places. She contributed to 'Putting health into place', the guide to creating healthier new communities, published by NHS England in 2019 and produced through a collaborative partnership between the TCPA, the King’s Fund, the Young Foundation, NHS England, Public Health England, and the ten NHS England Healthy New Towns. In addition, she leads the national Green Infrastructure Partnership, a network of more than 2000 people and organisations working to improve green infrastructure in the UK. Throughout her career she has been interested in the links between the design of the built environment and the quality of people’s lives. Earlier in her career, she was the founding director of CABE Space, the Government's advisor on policy and practice regarding England's urban parks and public spaces. She began her career as a journalist, writing about design, architecture and art. She has a degree in philosophy from UCL.
Michael Chang
Programme manager - planning and health, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, Department of Health and Social Care, UK
Michael is a chartered town planner and honorary member of the UK Faculty of Public Health. He led the Town and Country Planning Association's 'Reuniting Health with Planning' initiative, producing widely-regarded publications and supporting local authorities on the policy and practice of delivering healthy places through the planning process. At Public Health England (now Office for Health Improvement and Disparities), he provides expert planning input across a number of topic areas. Michael also co-founded the Health and Wellbeing in Planning Network.
Layla McCay MD
Director, Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health; Director of policy, NHS Confederation, UK
Layla is director of the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, a think tank that explores how to design better mental health into cities. As a British medical doctor and global public health specialist, she has held international roles at the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and at several global health NGOs, think tanks and universities based in Washington, Tokyo, Hong Kong and London, as well as leading teams across Africa and Asia.
Chris Liddle
Director, HLM Group, UK
Chris is lead of HLM's Custodial, Justice and Defence sector. He is hands-on in many of HLM's flagship projects and a champion of social architecture.
Robert Huxford
Director, Urban Design Group, UK
Robert is director of the Urban Design Group, an international membership charity for people concerned about improving the design of cities, towns and villages.
He is co-founder of PRIAN, the Public Realm Information and Advice Network, and a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers Municipal Expert Panel.
Jeremy Porteus
Chief executive, Housing LIN, UK
As director of the Housing Learning and Improvement Network, Jeremy works with policymakers, commissioners and providers of housing, health and social care nationally to improve housing with care choices for older people.
Previously, Jeremy was national programme lead for housing at the Department of Health. He is also chairman of the Homes and Communities Agency's Vulnerable and Older People's Advisory Group, and was Inquiry Secretary to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Care for Older People.
Tye Farrow
Senior partner, Farrow Partners, Canada
Tye Farrow, FRAIC, BArch, MArch.U.D, LEED AP, OAA, MAIBC, MNSAA, NAA. Tye has gained international recognition for designing places that enhance our capacity to thrive – culturally, economically, mentally and physically. He has initiated a global “Cause Health” movement, which is aimed at raising expectations for design as the basis for total health, extending beyond technical sustainability and physical health to encompass our state of mind.