May 11 2007
English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency, has made three new appointments to its National Consultancy Unit (NCU) to help broaden the expertise available to its clients.
Fiona Piercy is promoted to head up the NCU, moving from her role in English Partnerships’ north west/west midlands regional team where she led major regeneration initiatives in North Staffordshire and Warwickshire. She will be responsible for developing the NCU as a centre of regeneration excellence responding to the needs of its internal and external customer base. Fiona is a chartered architect and surveyor with 19 years experience in the development industry. Previously she has worked for Amec, private architectural and surveying practices and within local authorities in both direct development and management roles.
Jill Channer joins the NCU on secondment from the Prince’s Regeneration Trust where she was formerly Director of the UK Historic Building Preservation Trust (the Prince of Wales’s Phoenix Trust). Jill’s new role as Heritage Policy Advisor will provide English Partnerships’ staff with advice, support and assistance on all aspects of historic buildings and heritage policy. Previously Jill spent 18 years at English Heritage where she held a number of roles including Inspector of Historic Buildings, Head of the South West Regional Team, and Major Projects Director.
Bruce Edgar joins the NCU on secondment from the Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment in London, where he was Senior Urban Designer and Senior Project Manager in the projects team working on masterplanning and developing codes for sustainable development using new urbanist principles. He will work with the Urban Design Team advising and developing methods of best practice in regeneration, bringing knowledge gained from over 25 years in the development industry, both in Government and private practices. His experience includes working as a chartered architect, urban designer, registered builder, heritage advisor/consultant and planner, in England and New South Wales, Australia. Before joining The Prince’s Foundation he was Director of Architecture Classique, a private practice in Sydney.
Trevor Beattie, English Partnerships’ Director of Corporate Strategy, said, “It is vital that modern regeneration schemes learn from and build upon each area’s historic legacy, and we greatly appreciate the skills and experience of both the Trust and the Foundation in terms of project delivery and the promotion of best practice.
“These secondments are a new way of forging closer working ties between our respective organisations and I am delighted that we will now have Jill and Bruce’s expertise embedded within our project delivery teams. And with Fiona’s new leadership the NCU will become an increasingly vital advisory service on increasingly complex regeneration schemes.”
Ros Kerslake, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Regeneration Trust, said, “I am delighted that Jill’s secondment will strengthen our links with English Partnerships and demonstrates a real recognition of the importance of heritage in regeneration.”
Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment commented, “We are pleased that our experience in urbanism and stakeholder engagement can be of use to the NCU, and happy to add another link to our strategic relationship with English Partnerships.”
The secondments are for six months initially and will be based at English Partnerships’ Milton Keynes office.