Each Future Leaders candidate is paired with a senior mentor from our cross-sector network. These mentors provide a ‘safe space’ sounding board for candidates, as well as invaluable experience and insights from their own careers. See here for more about mentoring.
Ru Anwar – Partner, Investment & Development, Trowers & Hamlins
Ru has 20+ years of commercial property and development expertise with public and private sector clients from the NHS, local authorities and registered providers to international retailers. She advises on matters from general landlord and tenant issues to Development Agreements and restructuring PFI schemes. She has led on multi-million pound new-build NHS schemes and on many development projects, with a specialism in dealing with registered providers, ‘golden brick’ and new-build residential projects for social housing. She has also been a lead advisor for large registered providers acquiring major mixed use schemes.
Jemma Billing – Associate Director of Nursing, Quality & Safeguarding, NHS GM ICB
Jemma brings 15+ years of nursing experience across both provider and commissioning roles in the NHS. She is a skilled communicator who thrives in complex systems, bringing partners together to drive service improvement through collaboration and shared purpose. Passionate about reducing health inequalities and championing patient advocacy, Jemma is committed to delivering high-quality, compassionate care. As a mentor, she offers insight, support, and a reflective space for aspiring leaders to grow in confidence and capability. Jemma is a Leaders Plus alumna.
Shannon Conway – Co-Founder, Picture This
Shannon is a Chartered Surveyor and co-founder of purpose-led residential developer Picture This, whose developments are age-inclusive, carbon-conscious and support neighbourhood values. Shannon has worked in the urban residential sector for almost 20 years. Starting in estate agency, she rose to become a national director at JLL. In 2019 she joined Glenbrook, one of the UK’s leading Build-to-Rent developers, helping design and fund a development pipeline of over 4,000 homes. She sits on the national board of Women in Property, the board of her local Community Land Trust, and GMCA’s Ageing, Housing & Planning working group. In 2022 she was named a Property Disruptor by Northwest Business Insider, and Residential Property Personality of the Year in 2023.
Laura Green – Associate, Turner and Townsend
Laura is a Chartered Surveyor with 20+ years’ experience across Greater Manchester in regeneration, development and real estate. She has held senior roles at Stockport Council, joined the Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation at its inception, and worked for Manchester City Council. Her experience spans housing, town centre regeneration, economic development, land, development and public-private partnerships. Laura works across the public and private sectors to turn regeneration ambitions into deliverable programmes, with particular strengths in stakeholder engagement, leadership, governance and delivery. She has been a non-executive board member of Southway Housing, and is a Leaders Plus alumna.
Nicola Kane – Director, Steer
Nicola has 25 years of public and private sector experience, including eight years as Head of Strategic Planning at TfGM, leading the development of Greater Manchester’s award-winning local transport plan. Since joining Steer in 2022, she has advised cities across the North on strategic transport issues, including long-term transport strategy and business cases for major rail station and mass transit programs. Nicola is on the advisory board of the Institute for Transport Studies in Leeds and is on the DfT’s Capital Review Panel, advising the Transport Secretary of State on national transport investment priorities.
John Keyes – Director, John Keyes Consulting
John is a highly experienced property and development professional with 35 years advising public sector agencies including Manchester City Council, Salford University, Manchester College and Manchester Metropolitan University. John is both a chartered town planner and surveyor and advises on estate strategy and the delivery of property change, as well as council committees and public sector boards and governors. He has significant management experience, having led the Manchester office of Cushman & Wakefield, including through a period of organisational merger, and was its UK Public Sector lead.
Chithra Marsh – Architect
Chithra is a built environment professional with over 30 years’ experience across architecture, community engagement and the wider property and construction industry. She is passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion and has built a career on connecting people, creating opportunities and championing varied perspectives. Chithra has held leadership and voluntary roles with RIBA; served as National Chair of Women in Property, where she is still a Board Director; and volunteered with social enterprise PLACED, where she developed experience in placemaking engagement. As a mentor, Chithra combines her professional and voluntary experience to help others develop confidence, recognise strengths and navigate their careers.
Paul Richards – Deputy Chief Executive, Stockport Council | Chief Officer, Birmingham East MDC
In his role at Stockport, Paul leads on all things ‘Place’ including regeneration, planning, highways, neighbourhoods, economy, culture and leisure. He was also CEO of Stockport Mayoral Development Corporation and oversaw the creation of Town Centre West as a new neighbourhood in the heart of the town. Previously as Director of Development, he led the Council’s interventionist approach to changing its town through a £1bn transformation programme. Paul spent 28 years of his career in the private sector including senior roles for well-known retailers running large property portfolios and capital works programmes. He has recently been appointed as the Chief Officer for the newly-formed Birmingham East Mayoral Development Corporation.
Lisa Taylor – Executive Director, Future of Greater Manchester | Director, Coherent Cities
Lisa established Future of GM in 2020 at the invitation of Eamonn Boylan and Richard Leese, and focuses on strategy, partnerships, governance and our place-focused leadership development programmes. At Coherent Cities, Lisa is a sought-after facilitator and coach, working with cross-sector teams and partnerships across the UK. From 2013-2019, she was CEO of Future of London, building its influence, membership and revenue and creating Leaders Plus and the Diversity Network. She was twice one of The Planner’s ‘Women of Influence’ and is still recovering from a career in global TV and event production.
Miri Thomas – Head of Public Affairs & Stakeholder Engagement, Roland Dransfield PR
Miri helps businesses build meaningful connections with the people, organisations and opportunities shaping Greater Manchester. She brings more than 20 years’ experience in business journalism, content strategy, communications and place-based storytelling, having previously been Editorial Director at Insider Media. Miri has led editorial teams, chaired major business events and worked with organisations across the region to tell their stories and build their profile.
Ben Townsend – New Business Director NW, L&Q
Ben has 20 years’ experience of housing, development and regeneration, most recently in the role of New Business Director NW at L&Q. He is a passionate advocate for the impact housing has on people’s lives, communities and the built environment. Having started his career at English Partnerships and Great Places, Ben leads on strategic, place-shaping projects with a range of tenures and an aspiration for the highest quality in design and build. He leads teams identifying and securing new homes as well as pursuing a comprehensive stock rationalisation programme. He also sits on a number of successful joint venture boards.
Caroline Todd – Director of People, Civic
Caroline is a Chartered CIPD-qualified HR professional with over 25 years’ senior experience in retail, media, broadcast engineering and the built environment. She is passionate about creating inclusive, supportive workplaces where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. Caroline brings expertise in organisational development, employee relations, change management, and talent development, alongside a proven ability to shape culture and drive positive change. With a people-first approach, she is committed to developing leaders, and helping organisations unlock potential through environments that value diversity and growth.
Fiona Tuck – Director, Metro Dynamics
Fiona leads the Metro Dynamics Sectors, Clusters & Innovation team. With over 20 years’ experience in economic development consultancy, she specialises in sector, place and innovation ecosystem analysis and strategy, with a strong focus on clustering and industry development. Fiona has delivered major strategies and research projects across the UK, helping regions align industrial and institutional strengths with local opportunities. She is a member of DSIT’s Regional Innovation Expert Group and part of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s MoreChem Labs initiative. Fiona is passionate about connecting people, ideas and places to drive innovation-led growth.
Marc Watterson – Associate Director, Arup
Marc has 30 years’ experience as a Town Planner working in local government and consultancy. He currently leads a town planning, transport panning and economics team at Arup, across Manchester and Liverpool, and sits on the Manchester Strategic Leaders group. Marc delivers planning permissions, policy, research and regeneration work for a wide range of clients mostly in the north west of England. He prides himself on high-quality work outputs, happy clients and perhaps most importantly, and happy and successful team. Marc is a Leaders Plus alumnus and is on FoGM’s board of directors.
David Watson – Director, Hive Land & Planning
David leads on Hive’s socio-economic service. With over 20 years’ experience in regeneration and economic development, he advises local and combined authorities, other public sector organisations, landowners and developers on projects supporting inclusive growth, investment, regeneration and placemaking. David specialises in socio-economic impact; regeneration visions, strategies and masterplans; as well as unlocking public sector funding through business case development. He is passionate about shaping better futures for places, putting socio-economic impact at the heart of regeneration and placemaking. David is also involved in supporting PLACED Academy and is a Leaders Plus alumnus.
Ciaron Wilkinson – Head of Partnerships & Engagement, Manchester Museum
Ciaron is Head of External Relations at Manchester Museum, one of the largest University Museums in the UK recently crowned European Museum of the Year. The Museum reopened in February 2023 following a £15m redevelopment that changed not only its spaces but also its ways of working. Ciaron has previously led stakeholder engagement at Manchester City Council, Manchester International Festival and Marketing Manchester. He is also on the board of Arts Council North.
Follow this link to see the mentors from GM Leaders Plus, running March-January.
Recent Events
July 1 – Summer Celebration + Alumni Awards
Our summer celebration brought that network back together. Alongside recognising our alumni award winners, we heard from bursary recipients on the vital role of the voluntary and community sector in shaping better places. Congratulations to our award winners, recognised for their leadership in Inclusive Growth, Impact, Collaboration, Climate & Resilience and Innovation. Their work is creating stronger communities, more sustainable places and better outcomes across Greater Manchester. See more.
May 13 – Mentor Dinner: How do we help people and places feel safe(r) in such volatile times?
Caroline Field, partner at event sponsor PA Consulting, led an insightful discussion to our full house of mentors at new venue Elnecot in May. Coming just before UKREiiF, this was timely chance to make new friends, share thought leadership with an influential audience & have a lovely meal with our brilliant volunteers. See the write-up here.
For details on our events and for early invitations, join our mailing list.