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- Open Meeting 2003: Speakers' Biographies
Open Meeting 2003: Speakers' Biographies
12 November 2003
Tate Modern, London
Margaret Ford
Chairman, English Partnerships
Margaret Ford became Chairman of English Partnerships on 1 April 2002. She has had extensive leadership experience throughout her career in economic development and social housing. She is a former Executive Director of Scottish Homes, the national housing agency in Scotland, and has worked closely with the Housing Corporation and Government organisations throughout the UK and internationally. She is at present Chief Executive of Good Practice Ltd, an international online publisher.
She is currently a Non-Executive Director of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority and of the communications company Thus Group plc. She was formerly Chairman of the Lothian Health Board and a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Prison Service. In 1993 she was appointed to HMIC in Scotland as a Lay Inspector of Constabulary.
David Higgins
Chief Executive, English Partnerships
David Higgins is Chief Executive of English Partnerships. He joined English Partnerships in March 2003 having previously been Managing Director and Group Chief Executive of the Lend Lease Group.
He was a student at Riverview College in Sydney and attended the University of Sydney where he graduated with a degree in civil engineering. He also has a Diploma from the Securities Institute of Australia.
Following graduation from University, he spent time working in the United Kingdom and Africa. He returned to Australia and in 1985 joined Civil & Civic in Brisbane as a site engineer. Civil & Civic was the wholly owned project management and construction division of the Lend Lease Group that is now known as Bovis Lend Lease.
Chief Executive, Peterborough City Council
Gillian Beasley commenced her career in local government in 1983 as a Trainee Solicitor for Leeds City Council. Gillian worked as a lawyer in a number of local authorities including Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, leaving that authority in 1997 to become Director of Law and Administration for Peterborough City Council in 1997. In 2000 she became Director of Environmental and Legal Services.
In the early 1990s, Gillian worked for a number of government departments in bringing forth guidance for the Children Act 1989. She also worked for a number of national bodies in the health, social care and children arena and also lectured nationally for the Law Society on children’s law.
More recently she worked as a consultant for the DfES on a project to produce a competency-based recruitment programme for personal advisers for the Connexions Service.
Gillian has been Chief Executive for the Peterborough City Council for over a year and has worked on major projects, including the regeneration and redevelopment of multi-million pound retail and leisure facilities within the city centre, the negotiation of an innovative strategic partnership for Corporate Services and the integration of Adult Social Care Services with the local Primary Care Trust, one its first in the country.
John Lewis
Director of Strategic Joint Ventures, English Partnerships
John Lewis is Director of the Strategic Joint Ventures Division for English Partnerships. He started his professional career with Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1991 qualifying as a chartered surveyor with the Commission for the New Towns in 1993. In 1994 he joined international property consultant, DTZ, becoming an associate director in 1996.
He joined English Partnerships in 1998 to take over operational responsibility for the development and regeneration of its commercial portfolio in the Southern English New Towns and became Projects Director to take forward the Strategic Joint Venture Initiative in 2001. In that year, John also completed an MA in Urban Regeneration.
As director of the new Strategic Joint Ventures Division, he is responsible for ensuring that English Partnerships and its partners make best use of the nation’s scarce supply of land. By developing a comprehensive national brownfield strategy and analysing the register of surplus of surplus public sector land and the National Land Use Database, the division will bring forward a "supply line" of land able to accommodate projects which can deliver the government’s domestic agenda.
Peter Walls
Group Chief Executive, Sunderland Housing Group
Peter Walls has been in housing for more than 30 years. He started his career as a housing trainee in 1970 moving through all the housing ranks from lettings and estate management to finance and development. He emerged in 1985 as ‘Peter Two Jobs’, serving as the Housing Executive for Washington Development Corporation whilst also acting as the Deputy Director of Housing at Sunderland City Council.
Peter was appointed Director of Housing for Sunderland City Council (SCC) in 1988. He led SCC to become the top performing Metropolitan Council in the country by 1998.
In 2000 Peter led a customised LSVT in Sunderland successfully resulting in the establishment of the Sunderland Housing Group (SHG) in 2001. SHG comprises a parent company and five local companies spread geographically across the city. It also includes a design and build facility, and has recently established Emperor Management, a Facilities Management & Property Development company.
Victor Benjamin
Deputy Chairman, English Partnerships
Victor Benjamin is Deputy Chairman of English Partnerships and was Acting Chairman from 1 October 2001 to 31 March 2002. He practised as a solicitor at Berwin Leighton Paisner in the areas of property finance and mergers and acquisitions, retiring as a partner in the firm in 1994. He is now a consultant to the firm. In 1971 he joined the Board of Lex Service and became its Deputy Chairman in 1973, retiring in 2001.
In 1982 he became a Director of Tesco and was appointed Deputy Chairman in 1983, retiring in 1996. He became Chairman of Wincanton plc in March 2001 and is a trustee of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
Dr Norman Perry
Chief Executive, Housing Corporation
Dr Norman Perry became Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation in October 2000 after five years as Chief Executive of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and six years as Chief Executive of Wolverhampton City Council. A Civil Servant between 1975 and 1990, with spells in the Department of the Environment, Department of Employment and Department of Trade and Industry where he was Grade 3 Regional Director for the West Midlands.
Dr Perry is a former Chairman and Secretary of the Association of Metropolitan Chief Executives, former Chairman of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and a former Governor of the University of Wolverhampton. He is a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Housing and Neighbourhoods Committee.
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