Our presenters

In 2010 in the library at the LSE, Reza Merchant set up The Collective, frustrated by the lack of high-quality, accessible accommodation for young people in London. The Collective is one of the most innovative and dynamic property companies in London. It is the UK’s first and the world’s largest co-living provider, providing young people with a new way to live, focused on community, convenience and quality.

Richard Brown is Research Director at Centre for London. He leads our research and events programme, and writes and speaks widely on urban economics, housing and government.

He joined Centre for London in 2014 from London Legacy Development Corporation, where he was Strategy Director, planning the development of London’s Olympic Park and the surrounding area. Before that he worked at the Greater London Authority, first as Private Secretary to Mayor Ken Livingstone, and then as Manager of the Mayor’s Architecture and Urbanism Unit, which promoted great architectural and urban design in policies and projects.

He previously worked as a journalist, and as a researcher on local government at the Audit Commission.

Richard MBA (Warwick), DipM, BA (Hons), is Managing Director of The JGA Group, a well established and fast growing W London apprenticeship and training organisation. They pride themselves on quality and are always looking out for entrepreneurial opportunities. They trained the 2018 W London Apprentice of the Year and are W London SME of the Year (Highly Commended). His previous experience is in in steel and ePublishing and he is past Chair of the Warwick London Alumni Network.

Roger is Chief Executive of the Omega academic Knowledge Transfer Network on aviation sustainability, based out of Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. Omega started in January 2007 involving 9 universities and a wide range of stakeholders. Previously Roger headed up work in the UK Department for Transport on air quality and environmental technology aspects of aviation's environmental impact.

He has 20 years experience in aviation during which time he has also worked for Defence Evaluation Research Agency and QinetiQ on aviation environmental research management and emissions technical issues.

Director at Spark! West London's leading education business charity, established in 1980. Ruby brings over a decade of experience in education-business partnership to the role, understanding the complexities of sustaining long-term partnerships and embracing ideas to innovate. Most importantly, Ruby has tremendous passion for positively influencing the future lives of young people. She says, "I’m drawn to organisations that define their purpose by their contribution to society. I believe careers education is a vehicle to change for individuals."

Rupa Asha Huq is a British Labour Party politician, columnist, academic and DJ. She was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Ealing Central and Acton at the 2015 general election. She was formerly a lecturer in Sociology at Kingston University. In 2008, she served on a UK government Foreign and Commonwealth "Understanding Islam" delegation to Bangladesh.

In May 2015, Huq won the Ealing Central and Acton seat. Huq was appointed vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Music Group and All-Party Parliamentary on Crossrail. She is also chairing an All-Party Parliamentary Group on London, with specific reference to planning and the built environment. Since her election, Huq has also been a member of the Justice Select Committee. In October 2016, Huq was appointed as a member of the Shadow Home Affairs team in the Labour Party's frontbench in Parliament. She is Shadow Home Office Minister for Crime Prevention. In June 2017, in the general election, Huq retained her seat with an increased majority of 13,807.

Ryan is the CEO and co-founder of AEROPOWDER, a startup developing sustainable insulation materials from surplus feathers. 

He received his PhD from Imperial College, where he studied the effects of air pollution on the lungs. Now, with a passion for solving tangible problems in the world, his work with AEROPOWDER has culminated with the release of pluumo, the world’s first feather-based thermal packaging material for deliveries.

Ryan has been recognised for his work by becoming an Echoing Green Climate Fellow (2017) and being featured on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe List for Social Entrepreneurs (2017). 

WilkinsonEyre Director, Sam Wright joined the practice in 2001 and leads the Sports and Leisure Team, delivering award-winning projects such as the Liverpool Arena; the London 2012 Olympic Basketball Arena and more recently, the redevelopment of the Compton and Edrich stands at Lord’s Cricket Ground. His work has been instrumental in the expanding of WilkinsonEyre’s work in the sporting sector.

Satwik Mehta manages the Virtual Engineering team at HSSMI. He has extensive experience in manufacturing predominantly in the automotive sector. After graduating from the University of Pune in Mechanical Engineering, he worked for the Volkswagen Group on multidimensional facets of planning new products and processes.

Satwik has also acquired an MSc in Manufacturing Engineering from the University of Warwick where he developed a framework for operations sustainability. Satwik oversees delivery of research and commercial programs for the Virtual engineering team at HSSMI. He is also leading an Industrial working group for developing design and installation guidelines for collaborative robots.

Sebastian Steinhauser is CEO of Parcelly (www.parcelly.com). He is accountable for the concept and management of one of UK’s most innovative omnichannel logistics start-up’s, converting redundant space in businesses and private homes into carrier agnostic parcel storage capacity. Parcelly’s award winning mobile application, allows consumers to collect and return their online purchases when and where it is most convenient for them.

Sebastian has spent 7 years in London’s City with some of Europe’s leading financial institutions supplying financial solutions to institutional Investors. Prior to his career in London, Sebastian gained experience in different strategic positions in Germany and France where he obtained a triple accreditation in International Management.