Our team

Max is the new Chair of the Healthy City Design Congress, guiding its next chapter at a pivotal moment for health, place, and public policy. In this role, Max will bring valuable knowledge, expertise and an extensive network of developers, investors, planners, designers, public health professionals, policymakers, and community leaders to strengthen the Congress as the leading interdisciplinary platform for evidence-led debate, collaboration, and action in the creation of healthier cities. Max’s interests and expertise closely align with the ambitions of the Congress. With a background in urban planning and strategic communications, he has long championed people centred placemaking, social value, and the integration of health into the planning, design, and delivery of the built environment, with a particular focus on improving quality of life and reducing inequalities through better places. Alongside his role as Chair, Max is Founder and CEO of the LDN Collective, a network of built environment specialists working to improve people’s lives and the planet’s prospects. The Collective brings together expertise in placemaking and urban design, social value and co design, branding, communications, and engagement. Current projects include major regeneration initiatives, new communities, and innovative approaches to public realm, retrofit, and reuse across the UK and beyond. Max is Immediate Past President of the LAI Land Economics Society, London chapter, Chair of Built Environment Policy for West London Business, Lead Judge for the Healthy City Design Awards, and a Fellow of the RSA. He was Project Lead and Author of the Farrell Review of Architecture and the Built Environment, commissioned by the UK Government, which made 60 recommendations, many of which have since been implemented. He advises a number of organisations working at the intersection of health, place, and policy, including Demos, Urban Design London, the Place Alliance, the Urban Room Network, and the Quality of Life Foundation.

Jeremy Myerson has been academic, author and activist in design for more than 40 years. He co-founded the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design in 1999, and was its director until 2015. Last year, he received emeritus professor status at the RCA, and he continues to direct his own venture, the WORKTECH Academy, which provides a forum for academics and practitioners to share new ideas on the future of work and workplace. He is the author of more than 20 books on a wide range of subjects in art, design and architecture, and he has curated many national design exhibitions. He has been at the helm of the Healthy City Design Programme Committee since the Congress’ inception in 2017.