The regeneration of towns, cities, regions and neighbourhoods requires a wide variety of skills, experience and expertise. The Future Cities Forum has assembled a wide network of experts and consultants to advise the Forum and its members on current issues. They represent the government, public sector, private sector experts, academia and the third sector to cover a broad spectrum of skills.
Anna Ostręga, Ph.D. Eng.
Anna is a senior lecturer in the Mining and Geoengineering Faculty at the AGH University of Science and Technology. Her scientific interests are concentrated in the field connected with the revitalisation of post-industrial sites and cities , as well as the ecological and legal aspects of mining activities. In 2003, Anna Ostręga took part in the scholarship programme entitled ‘Exploring the Ruhr in Germany – The Role of Flagship Projects in Regional Restructuring and Urban Regeneration’ organized by Initiativkreis Ruhrgebiet. She was awarded first prize in the competition for the best flagship project for the Ruhr Area. In her doctoral dissertation she prepared a method of designing the revitalisation of large and diverse post-mining regions, which fulfils the principles of objectivity by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The doctoral dissertation was honoured by the Minister of the Infrastructure. Applying the AHP in the regeneration field she presented in 2005 on the VIII International Symposium on Analytic Hierarchy Method in Honolulu, Hawaii. Professor T.L. Saaty – creator of the AHP granted her award for the best paper.
Anna Ostręga supervises several revitalisation projects for the cities, including post-industrial and post-mining areas. On the basis of inventory of each site needing repair and their socio-economical surroundings the concepts for their regeneration were proposed. She has been also involving in many projects for the mines (eg. lignite mines, limestone mine, gypsum mine), which are connected with their reclamation and regeneration.
Anna Ostręga took part as a partner or external expert in several projects co-financed by the EU, that are connected with mining and post-mining activities and cities regeneration: The Study of Minerals Planning Policies in Europe (2004); INCORD – Integrated Concepts for Regional Development (2004-2005); ENMR – European Network of Mining Regions (2005-2007); REGENTIF – Network for Enhancing Innovation Regenerating Old Industrial Facilities (2004-2006); ReRegions – Reclamation and Utilization of Brown Coal areas in Europe (2005-2007); COURBIT – Complex Urban Investment Tools (2006-2008).
Zulfi Hussain
Zulfi is an International Speaker and ‘hands on’ Practitioner in the areas of the Inspirational Leadership, Equality & Diversity, Executive Coaching & Mentoring, and Social Enterprise. He is one of Yorkshire & Humber’s best known and most respected entrepreneurs and has been recognised as one of the top 100 most influential people in the region. He has also recently been awarded an MBE for his Services to Business and Charity.
Zulfi’s inspirational leadership, creativity, tenacity and inclusive approach has transformed his vision of ‘making a positive difference to people’s lives around the world’ into reality.
Zulfi is an amazing individual who has used his talent and his imagination to inspire, strengthen and empower individuals and communities around the world to play a greater role in the global village of today and the future.
Zulfi has a strong business & commercial focus with significant experience of developing effective long term strategic client and supplier relationships, providing consultancy, managing large scale change and working with people at all levels, across the UK, Europe, USA, India, Pakistan and Africa.
Zulfi has won numerous awards for his personal and professional achievements including IAB Social Entrepreneur of the Year, IOD Director of the Year, and CSV Volunteer of the Year.
Ivana Bursikova
Ivana is a director of Agora CE, NGO fostering democracy and promoting public participation in CR.
She has been 8 years a member of Prague Magistrate and has a deep knowledge of communal problems in the Czech Republic. She is well informed about topics concerning strategic planning, urban development, transport, regeneration of housing estates etc. She organized a seminar about Sustainable transportation and public involvement for communal politicians at the Magistrate. She writes articles about these topics (about 30 in national newspapers).
Since 1999 she was working as a project manager in Agora CE, where she had the possibility to deepen her knowledge of participation and interactive policy making. She was managing projects in Varnsdorf, Praha 12, Řepy and Děčín. She was responsible for the debating project of Agora CE and also for students debates The Way to the Parliament. She represents Agora CE on international events and works as an expert on pubic participation and communication skills in CR and abroad (e.g. Balkan states, Albania, Georgia).
She is a member of OSF and Meetfactory steering boards, Czech Heritage Fund and a member of Prague 4 city district assembly.
Jiřina Bergatt Jackson, B.Arch. ARB
Jiřina works as director of a Czech civic association, which focuses on promotion of sustainable urban development. She is one of the key European NGOs brownfield experts. Her commitment to advocacy and promotion of brownfields forged the „visibility and fundability“ of brownfield land into national policies and structural funds priorities in the Czech Republic and across the Central Europe. She also masterminded creation of educational materials targeted to the EU new members’ countries focusing onto improvements to brownfield know-how. She publishes and lectures extensively about brownfields to local and international audiences.
For the last 3 years she concentrates onto wider concepts of sustainable urban development and participates in stakeholders and EU experts´ groups formulating new policies and approaches to delivering sustainable urban development. In the Czech Republic she now focuses onto advocating and lobbying following issues:
• strengthening institutional support for sustainable urban development,
• enhancing development and sustainable development skills of the self-governing local authorities,
• partnerships forms of delivering sustainable urban development.
As an architect she has a broad architectural and development experience from the UK, where she worked in a private practise as an urban designer and planner and in a public development agency as a design and project manager. Her experience in the Czech Republic covers consulting in real estate development, strategic planning, urban design, sustainable land use evaluation, project development and project management. For several years she also held a position of a development manager for large development company in Prague.
Martijn Kanters
Martijn is an Associate Director and Head of Consulting & Research in DTZ Praha s.r.o.. His main expertise and experience is real estate market analysis, feasibility studies, concept design and brownfield regeneration.
Relevant project experience:
• Regeneration strategy of a 150 ha. Steel Manufacturing Plant in Ostrava, Czech Republic (2002). Acted as deputy Team Leader under the first strategic Brownfield regeneration project in the Czech Republic, managed by CzechInvest and financed by the EU Phare pre-accession fund;
• Feasibility study and producing the first alternative Master Plan for the 60 ha. “Karolina” site in Ostrava, Czech Republic (2004);
• Urban development expert in the last Phare Technical Assistance project in the Czech Republic aimed to prepare the country’s institutions for the EU Structural Funds: “Finalisation of Structures and Measures to Increase the Absorption Capacity at the National and Regional Levels”. Responsible for managing the preparation of 20 construction projects to be co-financed by ERDF (2004);
• Whilst at MEI: Project management and acquisition of development sites in the Czech Republic (2005-2006), most of them of a Brownfield nature;
• Development strategy for a 1,600 ha. Portfolio of mining land in the Moravia-Silesia region, Czech Republic (2007);
• Feasibility studies for the development of shopping malls in Tbilisi (Georgia), Modřany Prague 12, Háje Prague 11, Kladno, Žilina (2007);
• Feasibility studies for residential development sites in Brno, Plzeň, České Budějovice (2007);
• Development strategy and concept design for a 100 ha site in Constanta, Romania (2007);
• Development strategy and concept design for a 123 ha Brownfield site in Brasov, Romania (2007)
• Economic Impact Assessment for a 1.2 million m² mix-use project in Prague 7 (currently, the largest urban development project in Prague) (2008).
Martijn is a member of the Urban Land Institute and Institute for Sustainable Land Use (IURS).
Monika Dziegielewska-Geitz
Monika is currently working as a SWITCH Lodz Learning Alliance facilitator for the past 2,5 years (SWITCH – is an EU project dealing with facilitation of paradigm shift in urban water management) with the University of Lodz, facilitator at the International Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences – European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology u/a UNESCO responsible for international cooperation and knowledge transfer. Monika is founder and director of Lodz Integrated Restoration Institute – agency promoting the art and science of all aspects of restoration/integrated revitalization and creative redevelopment. Monika is also initiator and organizer of a series of events 2006 – 2008 called “Vision Lodz 2023”, aiming at facilitating the process of development of a plan of integrated revitalization of Lodz and the complex revitalization of the city to be completed by the year 2023.
Roy van Dalm
Roy (1955) is innovation writer for Het Financieele Dagblad, The Netherlands and senior lecturer on creative cities at HAN University of Applied Sciences, Arnhem, The Netherlands. He is a guest lecturer at several universities and academies. For three years he was the Dutch representative of Richard Florida’s Creativity Group, speaking across Europe. For HAN University he has set up Creative Masterclasses, working on the theme of creativity with Kjell Nordström, Richard Florida, Pekka Himanen, Charles Leadbeater and Peter Senge. Roy started his career as a popmusic critic, going on to fashion and design and later on to regional economic development, real estate and urban development, human resources and management innovation. For several years he was an editor on European economic policy for the European Commission. This November, Roy’s first book (as co-author) will be published: 50 Smart Cities in Europe, from Aveiro to Zagreb.
Dan Sequerra
Dan is a retired senior local authority officer having spent 5 years at Sheffield City Council as Director of Employment and Economic development and 11 years at Kirklees Council as Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director. He previously worked in national government on economic regeneration.
He is currently Chair of the Cultural Industries Quarter Agency in Sheffield and Chair of BURA’s (British Urban Regeneration Association) Best Practice in Community-Inspired Regeneration Award. He is a Trustee of the Sheffield Civic Trust.
He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on the link between cultural industries and economic regeneration and is active within INTA (International Association for Urban Regeneration) based in The Hague in Holland.
He is currently advising Portuguese local authorities on regeneration and culture issues. One of them, Obidos, is leading a EEC transnational project under the URBACT II programme.
Julian Stanyer
Julian is a Chartered Surveyor with extensive experience of advising public and non-for-profit land owners on the most effective way to regenerate strategic sites within their area. His hands-on style has resulted in the establishment, delivery and management of a number of award winning schemes.
He was formerly Director and Deputy Chairman of the British Urban Regeneration Association.
Julian’s finely-honed analytical and research skills have resulted in the publication of three best practice guides.
In certain circumstances Julian will act as the ‘client’ on behalf of public bodies lacking the expertise or capacity to bring about their proposals.
Julian’s recent projects include procuring development partners, leading negotiations, agreeing Heads of Terms, negotiating development agreements and overseeing the delivery of projects. He has wide experience of creating and developing public/private sector partnerships across the public, private and community sectors.
His client have induded:
London Boroughs of Barking & Dagenham, Newham, Waltham Forest and Greenwich
City of Westminster
The Jones Lang LaSalle Research Trust
Diocese of Chelmsford
Diocese of Rochester
Church Urban Fund
Eurotunnel Developments
Gerald Cary-Elwes
Gerald is an experienced consultant involved with the setting up of major organisations in various sectors. A major player in the regeneration field, he is able to bring together leaders in Governmental, Local Authority and Private Sector Organisations in the UK and the wider developed world, both in his capacity as a business consultant and developer and by bringing together partners in new ventures.
Gerald successfully formed the British Urban Regeneration Association in 1990, raising considerable sums of sponsorship support and membership income, formulating effective and lasting networks, thus enabling BURA to become the leading independent regeneration forum in the UK, with equally significant international links.
Prior to his work establishing BURA, Gerald worked in the retail sector (including Harrods and Harvey Nichols), and then as a Conference Director, organising events nationally and internationally, on freight transportation, property, urban regeneration and food. This included conferences to accompany trade fairs and exhibitions in London, Madrid, Brussels, the Middle East, Chicago and Singapore.
Gerald is now Chief Executive of International Regeneration (developed from Regeneration @3), an association looking at global regeneration challenges and innovative solutions.
International Regeneration provides a network of contacts worldwide so that policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders can benefit from a global learning culture, exchanging information, knowledge, experience and expertise to promote economic, social, physical, environmental and cultural change.
Current involvment includes marketing the UK’s regeneration expertise to emerging and developing countries in East and Central Europe. Gerald has led outgoing UK missions to Bulgaria and Poland. He recently collaborated with European Renaissance in a study visit to the Czech Republic.
International Regeneration also organises exchange visits between countries in order to develop better mechanisms and processes, supporting the sustainable regeneration of towns, cities, rural areas, regions, communities and neighbourhoods, and with an emphasis on the learning process on regeneration issues as part of national and international agendas and priorities.
