First names of judges announced for Future Cities Forum Winter Awards 2021

Jenny Rowlands - Chief Executive - Camden Council, joins our all female panel of judges

Future Cities Forum is releasing the first group of names of the judges who will be voting in our Winter Awards 2021. The judges will consider projects selected by Future Cities Forum across seven categories including master-planning, infrastructure projects and cultural cities.

In an all female judging panel the Chief Executive of Camden Council, Jenny Rowlands will join the Head of Sustainability at Kier Group, Jo Gilroy, Historic England's Regional Director - Midlands, Louise Brennan, CBRE's Senior Director - Asset Management, Abi Labbett, and architects Naila Yousuf, Partner at Wright and Wright and Associate at SPPARC, Georgia Katsaouni.

Jenny Rowlands became Camden Council's Chief Executive in 2019. On her appointment former Chief Executive, Mike Cooke talked of her extensive experience of leading and inspiring staff, of transforming services and of involving communities in her work. He said she is committed to the council's vision that in 2025 Camden will be 'a place where everyone has a chance to succeed and nobody gets left behind - a borough that works for everyone and where everyone has a voice.' Before her appointment as Chief Executive, she had served the council since August 2016 as Executive Director for Supporting Communities. Prior to joining Camden, Jenny was Chief Executive of Lewes District Council.

CBRE's Senior Director, Asset Management, Abi Labbett, is also joining our group of judges. Abi has over 17 years of experience in commercial real estate, primarily as an asset manager of retail and mixed-use developments. She works with a range of clients including the Worshipful Company of Mercers (the senior livery company in the City of London) and Shaftesbury PLC on their jointly owned Covent Garden London estate around Seven Dials, and also for the Festival Place shopping centre in Basingstoke.

Jo Gilroy is Group Head of Sustainability and Environment at the leading construction and infrastructure company, Kier Group. She says that for Kier, 'sustainability is a mindset that seeks to create a resilient, purpose driven business by safeguarding three vital features no business can successfully operate without: a resilient environment, a resilient community (workforce, supplier and customer base) and a resilient balance sheet.' To embed this mindset across the business she states, 'Kier has a sustainability framework focussing on two key components: environmental sustainability and social sustainability'. Before joining Kier, Jo was Head of Sustainability at Bunzl PLC.

Regional Director - Midlands, Louise Brennan heads up Historic England's successful Heritage Action Zone programme for the regeneration of the UK's high streets and heritage streetscapes, which has included funding and interventions in Coventry, King's Lynn, Dewsbury, Northallerton, Kirklees, Sunderland, Swindon and Walworth in London. Louise has been with Historic England for 22 years and is based near Derby. Louise commented at a recent Future Cities Forum:

'The vast majority of the historic environment is adaptable and the High Street needs to learn to wash its face. The High Street (across the UK) needs new uses and it needs to diversify with more than just shopping. We need use our historic buildings and not be precious. The historic environment of the high street is egalitarian, you don't have to pay an entrance fee to enjoy it, it is for everyone.'

Since joining Wright & Wright Architects in 2015, Naila Yousuf has worked on high profile, cultural projects, with a focus on resolving complex planning applications on sensitive sites. In this capacity she led the team on the recently completed redevelopment of the Museum of the Home, a much loved East London institution documenting the universal theme of 'home'. Naila also led the team on the planning application for Lambeth Palace Library, created to house the Archive of the Church of England. Prior to this, Naila worked at CZWG where she was mentored by Piers Gough and Rex Wilkinson and worked on a range of housing and civic projects. She had graduated from the University of Nottingham where she was awarded the Halsal Lloyd Prize for Best Design Portfolio and Car Prize for Excellence in Architectural Research.

Georgia Katsaouni joined SPPARC as a qualified Architect Engineer in 2014 and since then she had been involved in numerous projects from conceptual planning to construction, most notably on Kensington Church Street, an award-winning mixed-use scheme in London, the Bear Gardens boutique hotel located within the cultural quarter of the Southwark’s Bankside conservation area and office buildings in London and Reading. Georgia was appointed Associate Director in 2017 and is currently working on the London Olympia masterplan, a large-scale project that will transform the current exhibition centre to a unique cultural hub, in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. Georgia studied Engineering and Architectural Design at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece receiving her MEng in 2010. She attended Architectural Association (AA) where she received an MSc in Sustainable Environmental design in 2011.