WORLD HABITAT - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Awards ( Programme Manager )
- Officer for the World Habitat Awards
Abigail joined World Habitat as Programme Officer for the World Habitat Awards in November 2020. She helps co-ordinate the Awards' process and works with previous awardees on World Habitat's exChange programme.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Finance and Investment Committee
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Adam Challis Chair of Finance and Investment Committee
Adam leads Strategy & Operations for Global Residential at JLL. His role brings together a market-leading agency and advisory capability to provide a range of solutions for clients across the global residential marketplace.
Adam's experience spans over 20 years of real estate advisory with both public and private sector clients. He is regularly cited in national and international media as a commentator on the factors that shape residential markets, notably through new housing supply. He provides public policy advice and is particularly focused on providing affordable access to good quality homes, across tenures.
Adam holds an MBA from London Business School, an MSc Urban Regeneration from the Bartlett, University College London and BA Economics from Western University (London, Canada). He is a member of the Urban Land Institute and is a Board Trustee and Chairperson of the Investment & Finance committee at World Habitat.
Andy has 17 years experience working in marketing and communications after spending the early part of his career with Cooperative Financial Services. After leaving the Co-op, he then spent 9 years in a variety of marketing and communication roles with the UK's largest outsourcing business, Capita.
In the past 5 years Andy has expanded his career working on projects with a variety of organisations including Centrica, world renowned analyst firm HFS Research, and the Emerging Europe Alliance before joining World Habitat in October 2021.
An ideal day for Andy is creating well-thought-out engaging content and using his experience to help drive business and organisational development.
Job Titles:
- HR & Facilities Officer
- in 2022 As HR & Facilities Officer
Becky joined World Habitat in 2022 as HR & Facilities officer. Her main responsibilities include managing the recruitment process and coordinating all HR related tasks as well as providing administrative assistance, to enable the delivery of a range of World Habitat activities. This includes the World Habitat Awards and Transfer Programme, the European End Street Homelessness Campaign, the Global Community-led Housing Programme, Communications and Finance & Resources.
Christophe Lalande is the Housing Unit Leader at UN-Habitat. His professional experience is in housing policy and development, in particular in the design and implementation of inclusive and sustainable national housing policies and programmes in countries and cities. His work at UN-Habitat is supporting the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goal 11. He is coordinating the Housing at the Centre initiative, producing policy guidelines, methodologies and tools to address the global housing affordability challenge and to promote the right to adequate housing for All.
David joined World Habitat as Chief Executive in June 2014. He has been a housing activist all his working life, working for local authorities, government, the media and charities. He is a trustee of the charity Action Homeless and currently co-chairs the Association of Charitable Foundations Housing and Homelessness group. David is an Associate of the Centre for Comparative Housing Studies at DeMontfort University.
While Chief Executive of the Empty Homes Agency, David persuaded successive UK governments to introduce legislation and fund programmes to get empty homes back into use. These experiences have given David great optimism that the people and the means to ensure everyone has a safe and secure home already exist and that it is World Habitat's job to help them achieve their goal.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Angus Kennedy is widely recognised to be one of the UK's most influential regeneration professionals. He has over 40 years' experience working in the public and private sectors. He is best known for his work as Chief Executive of Castle Vale Housing Action Trust (HAT), Birmingham, the award winning 12 year £320m regeneration programme that transformed one of the most deprived parts of Birmingham.
He is Chair of Opportunity Peterborough (the Peterborough Economic Development Company). He was Chair of Cross Keys Homes (Peterborough) from 2008 to 2017. He was Chair of the RTPI Regeneration network from 2005 until 2013 and was on the RTPI Policy, Practice and Research Committee. He also served as a Neighbourhood Plan Independent Examiner from 2013 to 2018.
Angus was awarded the OBE in 2004 for Services to Social Housing in Birmingham, and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Birmingham University in 2005 for his work in the regeneration of Castle Vale and his wider contribution to the City of Birmingham and the West Midlands. He completed his 6-year term as an independent member of the Voluntary and Community Sector Honours Committee in 2017.
Angus joined World Habitat's Board of Trustees in 2016 and is currently Chair.
Job Titles:
- Research Fellow at the School of Real Estate
Dr Claudia Murrayis a Research Fellow at the School of Real Estate and Planning, University of Reading. Her research interests focus on the socio-cultural and economic implications of rural and urban development of the built environment. Claudia has received several research grants from councils including the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Council. She is the Latin American regional convenor for the Academy of Urbanism, a Fellow of the RSA, and an associate of the Walker Institute for Climate Change. She is also a consultant for the Newton Fund Programme and a reviewer for research councils in the UK and abroad. Claudia has a degree in Architecture, a MA in Cultural Studies, a MSc in Real Estate Appraisal and a PhD in Human Geography/Architecture. She has published widely in the areas of environment and development, sustainable housing and housing policies, urban inequality and participatory design methods. Her book, Real estate and development in South America was published by Routledge in 2018 and the second volume covering Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean countries is currently in press with a publication date for October 2020.
Job Titles:
- Homelessness ( Programme Manager )
Ella joined World Habitat in January 2022 as Programme Manager (Homelessness).
Ella previously worked for a Local Authority in the UK, managing an EU-funded programme supporting people experiencing homelessness. Prior to this Ella worked at Crisis, a leading UK Homelessness Charity, for seven years. During this time she managed programmes funded by the Government and through Crisis, and led on best practice around youth homelessness and shared housing solutions.
After completing an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Sussex in 2005, Ella travelled and volunteered in South-East Asia before settling in Italy for two years where she taught English as a second language. Returning to the UK, she worked at St Giles Trust (a UK based charity supporting people leaving prison) supporting ex-offenders to find and sustain housing to help their resettlement into the community, alongside completing a Master's degree in Children, Youth and International Development at Brunel University. As part of her Master's degree, Ella spent some time in Sierra Leone carrying out research into the relationship between young offenders and the police. In 2019 Ella completed a PG Certificate in Leadership and Management: Homelessness and Housing, at London South Bank University.
In 2018 Ella was awarded a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust (WCMT) Travel Fellowship to explore the potential role co-housing could play as an alternative housing option for young people experiencing homelessness. As part of this research, she visited existing co-housing communities in Sweden, The Netherlands and the USA.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Adam Challis Chair of Finance and Investment Committee
- Director in the Climate Team at the Children 's Investment Fund Foundation
Jess is a director in the climate team at the Children's Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF).
She joined CIFF in 2019 from the UK Government, where she held roles including Head of Carbon Trading (Department for Business and Energy); Head of Energy (HM Treasury); and Chief of Staff to the Energy Minister (Department for Energy and Climate Change). Prior to joining the UK Government, she spent seven years working with vulnerable countries on the intersection between climate change and development, including roles with the United Nations Development Program in Nepal, and the International Institute of Environment and Development in the UK, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Jess holds a PhD in International Climate Change and Development (LSE/ICCCAD); and MSc's in both International Development and Public Policy (both LSE).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Professor of Housing
Jo Richardson is Professor of Housing and Social Inclusion and Associate Dean (Research) based in Nottingham Business School at Nottingham Trent University. She is Past President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. She joined as a Trustee of World Habitat in Spring 2018. Jo's research in housing includes work funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation looking at conflict resolution in site management and delivery for Gypsies and Travellers plus ESRC and AHRC funded studies on co-production of research and working with communities; additionally she has undertaken a range of work evaluating projects for councils and housing organisations across the country.
Jo has worked with local partners on the ‘End Street Homeless' campaign in Leicester and undertaken projects further afield, including a visiting lecture at Harvard University in 2016 and a Visiting Fellowship small research project on housing disadvantage for Indigenous communities, at Swinburne University in Melbourne. Prior to her career in academia Jo was a housing practitioner working with a local authority, a housing association, also in policy and practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Job Titles:
- Head of Finances and Resources
Joanne joined World Habitat in September 2009 as Financial Controller and is now Head of Finances and Resources. Her main responsibilities are to ensure the organisation has excellent Financial Management, manage the Human Resources, ensure the IT system is sufficient for the smooth running of the organisation and to manage the Land and Investment Portfolio.
Joanne assists the Chief Executive with World Habitat's governance and she attends meetings of the Board of Trustees and Finance Committee.
She provides financial information to the Chief Executive, Staff and Board of Trustees when required to ensure the assets of the Foundation are well managed, the organisation's actual spend is per the agreed budget and any potential risks are highlighted.
Joanne also prepares the annual accounts, manages the annual audit, prepares the budget and assists the Chief Executive in preparing the business plan.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director of the Shift
Julieta Perucca is the Deputy Director of The Shift. A law graduate from the University of Maastricht, with a degree in International and European Law, and a Political Science degree from the University of Ottawa. She is an experienced researcher and human rights activist, working for the last four years alongside former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing, Leilani Farha, conducting missions, assisting with thematic and country reports, as well as helping to launch The Shift. She has been expertly trained in the right to housing, and as the Deputy Director, she facilitates engagement with The Shift network. She leads the work on housing and climate change for The Shift.
Louise joined World Habitat in July 2016 and is currently Deputy Chief Executive, with over 20 years' experience in the community and enterprise sector.
Louise graduated with a Law Degree and spent four years working as a housing advisor and trainer for Shelter (a national housing and homelessness charity). In her voluntary time, she worked with other local residents to establish a community credit union (loans and saving co-operative) in her hometown and discovered a love of community enterprises. Moving to London, as a Credit Union Development Manager, she established a community credit union which now has nearly 8,000 members and has lent over £33 million to local people. She also completed a MSc in training and organisational development.
She has held a number of national roles which has enabled her to combine successful national policy-making with community-based work, including Policy Manager for Locality (a membership organisation of 600 community enterprises) and Director of a national campaign to change the UK benefit system and create community-based jobs for people who are long-term unemployed.
All members of staff can be contacted via info@world-habitat.org or individually using firstname.secondname@world-habitat.org.
Professor Nabeel Hamdi qualified at the Architectural Association in London 1968. He worked for the Greater London Council between 1969 and 1978, where his award-winning housing projects established his reputation in participatory design and planning. From 1981 to 1990 he was Associate Professor of Housing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was awarded a Ford International Career Development Professorship.
In 1997 Nabeel won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for his work on Community Action Planning. He founded the master's Course in Development Practice at Oxford Brookes University in 1992, which was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2001. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa in 2008. He was ARUP Fellow at the University of Cape Town, Adjunct Professor at the National University of Technology, Trondheim Norway and recently visiting professor at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He is currently Professor Emeritus at Oxford Brookes University.
Nabeel has consulted on housing, participatory action planning and upgrading of slums in cities to all major international development agencies, and to charities and NGOs worldwide. He is the author of The Spacemakers Guide to Big Change (Earthscan from Routledge 2014), The Placemakers Guide to Building Community (Earthscan 2010), Small Change (Earthscan, 2004), Housing Without Houses (IT Publications, 1995), co-author of Making Micro Plans (IT Publications 1988) and Action Planning for Cities (John Wiley and Sons, 1997), and editor of the collected volumes Educating for Real (IT Publications 1996) and Urban Futures (IT Publications 2005).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Nick has extensive experience in housing policy and practice across local authorities and housing associations in both Executive and Non-Executive roles. Built on an ethos of resident involvement, he has led the development of award winning services which have improved tenants' homes, including transformational regeneration and new build programmes, with a strong focus on environmental sustainability. As a member of the senior civil service he was responsible for developing national housing policies and preparing future legislation.
He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing where he sits on their national Policy Advisory Committee. Through the Institute Nick has participated in study visits to housing organisations in different cities around the world and hosted international delegations in return. Nick is also a Visiting Fellow of Nottingham Trent University.
Originally from South London, Nick has a passion for supporting communities to tackle disadvantage. He joined the world Habitat Board in 2018.
Patricia joined World Habitat in June 2023. She is responsible for creating and delivering a communications strategy that supports the charity's many programmes, partnerships and campaigns. Her role focuses on increasing the visibility of World Habitat partners' work and spreading knowledge of outstanding housing ideas, projects and programmes from across the world.
Patricia has worked in communications within the non-profit sector for 15 years, helping organisations in the education and health sectors to interact meaningfully with diverse audiences. She has delivered campaigns aiming to improve literacy education, promote the right to adequate medical care, raise awareness of the importance of the arts in schools and support teachers in the UK with strike action.
After the COVID pandemic Patricia decided to develop further as a communications professional and now holds a Master's degree in Strategic and Digital Marketing (Distinction). She also has a Batchelor's degree in English Literature and Hispanic studies, a postgraduate qualification in business management and is a fluent Spanish speaker.
Job Titles:
- Civil Engineer
- Awards ( Associated Programme Manager at UrbaMonde - France )
Pierre is a French-German Civil engineer and urban planner by training, currently working at the NGO urbaMonde-France, a French partner organisation from where he has collaborated with our World Habitat Awards team since September 2021.
He has built his expertise on housing policies and community-led housing through a self-managed 10 month-trip across South America, documenting social production of habitat initiatives and struggles for the Right to the City. In addition he has increased his knowledge through professional experiences in the fields of habitat and urban development.
Since Pierre finished his MSc in Urban Planning, Habitat and International Cooperation at the Institut d'Urbanisme de Grenoble (IUG, France) in 2012, he has been working for the French research institute for development (IRD) in Mexico City, the UN-Habitat office in Mexico City, the Mexican NGO Cooperación Comunitaria, and the Housing Institute of the City of Buenos Aires (IVC) in Argentina, as well as the Local Agency for Energy and Climate for the Eastern greater Paris (ALEC-MVE).
Additionally, Pierre co-directed the ethnographic documentary ‘Leti&Elis. Two faces of a day in the Valley of Mexico' (2018) and is the co-author of the self-edited book ‘Habitat en Mouvement' (2016 in French and Spanish), as well as several papers on housing policies. Besides exploring and promoting non-speculative community-led housing, he loves to dive into different cultures and worldviews, practice urban photography and Chinese martial arts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
Rumana has a long track record as a development practitioner working globally in conflict, emergency, and development contexts.
She started her career as an architect and participatory action researcher working on low-income housing in Bangladesh. She then turned into an aid worker for Oxfam, Save the Children rebuilding after the Tsunami in Indonesia and the earthquakes in Pakistan. Rumana then became a consultant for the United Nations, the World Bank, and many other international agencies, to help governments and people in disaster-prone countries to deliver housing, community development, and disaster risk governance strategies and programmes.
Currently, Rumana works as a civil servant in the UK, and as a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. Rumana gives lectures at various universities worldwide on housing, urban development, disasters and climate change.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Vice - Chair of the Board of Trustees
- Director of PR and Communications
Stuart is the director of PR and communications business See Media, which specialises in the UK social and affordable housing sector.
He is also a former award-winning journalist and editor on several national and business trade publications, including Inside Housing, Building, Property Week, the London Evening Standard, The Herald and The Scotsman.
Stuart was named PPA business editor of the year 2010 and was president of membership body the International Building Press 2013/14. He has been a World Habitat Trustee since 2016.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Trustees
- Structural Engineer
- Director at Engineering Consultancy Buro Happold
Tom is a structural engineer with significant experience of humanitarian response and post-disaster shelter.
He has been active in the field of emergency and post-disaster shelter for many years, including leading CARE International's global shelter team for six years, and sitting on the Strategic Advisory Group of the Global Shelter Cluster. He has worked on humanitarian responses in Nepal, Philippines, Jordan, Lebanon, Haiti and many other countries.
Tom is currently a director at engineering consultancy Buro Happold and leads their London Structures team and is a trustee of the Happold Foundation, and was a trustee of Engineers Without Borders UK for over ten years.