Our presenters

Dr Michelle Ryan is a Senior Research Fellow in Psychology at the University of Exeter, UK. She is a leading scholar in the field of gender discrimination in the workplace. Together with her colleagues she has uncovered the phenomenon of the glass cliff, whereby women are more likely to be placed in leadership positions which are risky or precarious.  Research into the glass cliff is represented in top academic journals, industry publications, and in the media including BBC, CNN, ITV, and all major British Newspapers.  Dr Ryan currently holds the Jantina Tammes Chair at the University of Groningen.

Neil established Metropolitan Workshop in 2005 and is experienced in leading complex mixed-use residential masterplans, collaborating with many of the UK’s best housing practices. 

During his career, he has designed major urban projects and buildings in sensitive contexts of conservation, heritage and greenbelt, in locations such as Durham, Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Neil serves on a range of Design Review Panels, including DCCabe, Croydon, Newham, Harrow, and provides Urban Design for London with training programmes for Local Authorities on principles of Urban Design.

In the past 30 years, Nic Pryke has gone from a cabinet maker to the Design Director at London’s leading workplace design and build company, Oktra. He understands the value of workplace design, as it has such an impact on people’s lives and how they work. Nic’s design team are responsible for the design of a hundred million pounds worth of workplace environment construction each year.

Nic has shared his experience of the industry at numerous conferences and talks, including Mix Inspired; Mix Round Table; WeWork; Work 2.0 and The Lawyer. His written features include Workplace by Facebook, The Times and Sky.

Nick Belsten, London Director, WSP | Indigo

Nick has over 20 years’ private practice planning experience and leads WSP | Indigo’s London Planning Consultancy team following the acquisition of Indigo Planning by WSP. His track record is focussed on Greater London, providing strategic advice to a wide variety of private and public sector property owners, developers and occupier businesses. His portfolio includes high-profile redevelopment and regeneration schemes, including King’s Cross Central, London Dock, Kensal Rise, the Francis Crick Institute, UK Dementia Research Institute and Google’s European HQ. Nick is a Commissioner for the London Urban Transformation Commission

Nick Swanson is Senior Policy Officer for technology at the Greater London Authority. He leads on City Hall’s programmes to support tech companies of all sizes to grow and innovate, access capital and reach their market. Prior to working at the Greater London Authority, Nick was a founder of a startup himself.

Chairman of Slough Estates plc since 1976 (Chairman and Chief Executive 1976-96). Sir Nigel is non-executive chairman of Bovis Homes, non-executive director of Howard de Walden Estates and Chairman of Trustees of Historic Royal Palaces. He is a former non-executive director of Barclays Bank, Kingfisher and Cookson Group, and was a Member of the Committee on Corporate Governance (Hampel). He has been Lord-Lieutenant for the county of Buckinghamshire since 1997. 

He past away at aged 67, (22 Sep 1937 - 21 Oct 2005)

Having originally trained as an architect, and written an undergraduate thesis on the development of London suburbs, Nigel has run a digital media consultancy – Decipher - for 20 years.  He launched Chimni in 2017 having realised how much data about his home was owned and controlled by other people, and how unprepared even he was for the digitisation happening in the property industry.

Olly is the CEO of Almond.org, a new environmental impact platform and app that rewards people for becoming more responsible consumers. He has 12 years experience in the FMCG sector. He founded the health drink brands Alibi, What A Melon, FACT and Waterbomb advisory. Founding 2015 UK B Corp cohort. He co-founded VITL, in the med tech space. Co-founder of Liquid Fusion, private label drinks NPD for brands inc. Itsu & Hotel du Chocolat. Recipient of Virgin VOOM award from Sir Richard Branson. He has also advised for Diageo, SAB Miller and Tesco PLC.

Oli Davey is a traffic engineer and co-founder at Urban Movement who specialises in the study, planning and design of streets and other public spaces in our towns and cities. He has a degree in Civil Engineering, a Masters in Transportation Planning and Engineering. He is a guest lecturer at Southampton University, was a design advisor to the Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf bridge and is a member of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation’s Urban Design Panel. His current work includes being the design lead on the £7M Liveable Neighbourhoods project to improve the Romford Ring Road.

Ollie Phillips, former captain of the England Rugby 7’s team, lives an extraordinary life. Following an illustrious career in professional rugby, he is now a highly successful business man in one of the world’s largest professional service networks, PWC. A Guinness World Record Holder, motivational speaker and expedition leader to name a few, he is proof that anything is possible. Aside from his adventuring success, Ollie's entrepreneurial spirit has catapulted him into the role of 'Head of Innovation' at Price waterhouse Coopers, PwC. Ollie uses his skills in management and applied his 'on the pitch' tactics to his corporate role to achieve success and help clients take a fresh approach to any challenges they face. Ollie is a dedicated ambassador for the Alzheimer's Society as well as the rugby charity, Wooden Spoon and a strong supporter of Cancer Research UK.