William Butler, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects

Bill Butler joined Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects in 1979. He is currently the Design Team Leader for the Paradise Street Development Area in Liverpool, England. This master plan covers an area of 43 acres involving new and refurbished buildings, pedestrian streets and spaces and embracing a wide range of uses and activities, continuing the existing retail core of the City with mixed use development.

Most recently, Bill was the Design Team Leader for the new 400,000 square foot, 5-story Minneapolis Central Library in Minnesota which opened May 2006. He was also the Design Team Leader for the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisconsin. The 560,000 square foot cultural arts complex includes a 2,200 seat multi-purpose hall, a 800-seat proscenium theater, 350-seat thrust theater, and a new facility for the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Prior to this project, Bill was the Design Team Leader for several significant projects including: the Seay Psychology Building at the University of Texas at Austin; the Master Plan for the University of Texas at Austin; the Master Plan for Abandoibarra in Bilbao, Spain and the Mathematics, Computing and Engineering Center at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Mr. Butler has also worked as a Designer on many significant commercial and institutional projects, including the World Financial Center in New York City; Herring Hall at Rice University, Houston, Texas; and, Norwest Tower in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Mr. Butler received both a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Architecture from Rice University in 1979 and 1981 respectively.

Paul Rice, Liverpool Commercial District

Born and raised in Liverpool Paul has been Chief Executive of Liverpool Commercial District Partnership since its formation in 2006, having previously held the post of Chief Executive of the Manchester City Centre Management Company since 2004.

He was formerly the Liverpool City Centre Neighbourhood Manager, Town Centre Manager in Warrington and worked in the private sector as a Development Manager at Clear Channel UK. Prior to that he had worked in a variety of roles for Liverpool City Council for 14 years.

Paul is married to Ruth and spends far too much time and money following Liverpool FC at home & abroad when not providing a taxi service for his two teenage daughters.

Keith Feeny, Director of IT & Operations, Hill Dickinson LLP

Keith Feeny began his career as a Network Systems Engineer providing networking and IT support, predominantly to professional services firms, on behalf of a North West IT support organisation. He joined Hill Dickinson as IT Manager in 1995.

Keith progressed quickly within Hill Dickinson, with responsibility for telecommunications, facilities, purchasing, library and archiving, front of house and ultimately secretarial services. He was made Director of IT & Operations in November 2005, sits on the firm's Management Board and is part of the Executive Management Team.

Against the backdrop of Hill Dickinson's unprecedented growth and expansion, Keith successfully project managed a number of key firmwide developments, including the firm's conversion to LLP status; operational elements of more than ten mergers; and the logistics of expansion into a variety of new buildings, all of which were key contributors in driving the firm's progression.

Most recently Keith has project managed the multi-million pound fit-out and move into Hill Dickinson's new landmark premises at No.1 St. Paul's Square, Liverpool. Now fully operational, the project brought together over 550 lawyers and support staff from four different city centre offices. This new environment supports collaboration, communication, interaction, knowledge share and business development opportunities, whilst also providing a healthier, fresher, more invigorating workspace for the lawyers and support staff.

Hill Dickinson offers a comprehensive range of legal services from offices in Liverpool, Manchester, London and Chester, and its associated firm Hill Dickinson International has offices in London and Greece. It is a top 35 sized UK law firm with over 150 partners and a complement of more than 1000 staff.

Philip Ross, CEO, Cordless Group

Philip is a consultant, commentator and writer on emerging technology and its impact on work, the workplace and people's lives.

He has worked with organisations such as Ernst & Young, Allen & Overy, McKinsey & Co, Cushman & Wakefield and Royal Bank of Scotland on future concepts and opportunities for innovation.

Philip has spoken at conferences around the world including the Wall Street Journal Europe CEO Forum on Converging Technologies, alt.office in the USA and CoreNet Global Summits in Beijing and Melbourne.

In 1994 he wrote and published The Cordless Office Report and in 1996 launched UNWIRED Ventured Ltd. He has written three global best selling books on the future of work and workplace: The Creative Office, The 21st Century Office and Space to Work (all co-authored with Jeremy Myerson) and has contributed to a number of books including the Responsible Workplace and The Corporate Fool.

Philip founded Cordless Consultants in 1994, and is now CEO of Cordless Group.

Stuart Keppie, Partner, Keppie Massie

Stuart Keppie is one of two founding partners of Keppie Massie, which was established in 1999. The Practice has grown to comprise 32 personnel including 14 fee earners including a residential division established 2005. The core business of the Practice has been commercial agency, principally office and industrial in the area surrounding Merseyside, and professional work with a particular emphasis on regeneration which now accounts for potentially £11billion worth of development throughout the North of England, including many major schemes in Manchester and Merseyside. Within the last 5 years a Management Department has been established and an office opened in Manchester to cater for the increasing workload in the Greater Manchester area.

Stuart Keppie joined HH & J Robinson, an established practice of chartered surveyors, in 1981 and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1984. He was promoted to a Regional Executive of Hepper Robinson in 1987 following the take-over of HH & J Robinson by Halifax. In 1992 he became a Regional Director of Richard Ellis following the takeover of Hepper Robinson. Stuart was the head of North West commercial agency at Richard Ellis with principal responsibility for office and industrial agency and general commercial consultancy work.

In August 1997 Stuart moved to Mason Owen & Partners to take charge of the office agency department with the responsibility of expanding the existing instruction base and professional work, before forming Keppie Massie.

Stuart is recognised as being one of the foremost commercial agents in the North West region, and has acted on many of Merseysides largest office transactions for lettings, sales and purchases. He also has considerable experience in valuations, rent reviews, development, refurbishment, investment, mixed use site appraisals and has acted as an expert witness and independent expert.

He was one of the founders of the influential Merseyside Property Forum established in 1996 and is the current Chairman. He is also on the steering committee for Prohelp, and a member of Interact, a national property and construction networking organisation.

Jim Gill, OBE , Chief Executive, Liverpool Vision

Jim Gill was born and brought up in the North West of England and educated at the London School of Economics and the University of Sussex.

Following a long career as first an economist and then a senior administrator in the Department of Trade and Industry, he joined the AMEC Group where he was a Director of AMEC Developments.

In 1994 he moved to English Partnerships where, as Regional Director, he built up the Agency’s Programme in the North West, including the creation of the Speke – Garston Development Company joint venture with Liverpool City Council. Later, as Commercial Director of the Agency he helped to transform the performance of Priority Sites, a joint venture with the Royal Bank of Scotland, and set up other commercial joint ventures; Network Space and English Cities Fund, the latter of which is currently undertaking the St Paul’s Square scheme in Liverpool’s Commercial District.

In July 2001 he became Chief Executive of Liverpool Vision, the Urban Regeneration Company responsible for overseeing the regeneration of Liverpool City Centre. In January 2008 he was appointed Chief Executive of a new Economic Development Company for Liverpool bringing together the organisations responsible for physical regeneration, business support and enterprise promotion and investment marketing in the City. By a remarkable coincidence, the new company is also called Liverpool Vision.

In the 2006 New Year Honours he was awarded an OBE for Services to Regeneration.

Jack Pringle, Pringle Brandon

Jack studied at the Bristol University where he won the Professors Prize before qualifying as an architect. He worked for Sir Phillip Powell at Powell and Moya for eight years, working on social housing and other public sector projects. In 1981 Jack started his own practice and in 1986 this became Pringle Brandon when Chris Brandon and Melvin Starling joined him.

Since then Jack has worked for an international client base building offices, hotels and particularly, major office fit-out projects. Pringle Brandon has clients such as Barclays, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Allen and Overy, Diageo, L’Oreal, London Underground and Customs and Excise.

During this period Jack has become involved in changing the world of work through research, collaboration and practice. He is particularly interested in how new technologies drive new work practices and how smart premises design can support business objectives. Jack led Pringle Brandon’s ground breaking research in the mid 90’s, 20/20 Vision, which led to the world’s first major flat screen technology dealing room (for Barclay’s Capital) and predicted a move to simpler desks, denser occupation and plus more social work-settings in the workplace to support the interaction needs of an emerging generation of knowledge workers.

Jack is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary member of the American Institute of Architecture, a Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres and a member of the RIBA.

Jack has worked extensively for the RIBA in the area of practice and education, which he has travelled extensively for the institute advising governments, universities and schools of architecture on architectural education. Jack was elected President in September 2005 for a two year term during which he campaigned on climate change, reforming the UK public procurement of PPP and PFI, training architects to work with school children, improving the design quality of the 2012 Olympics, reforming the planning system and developing the RIBA’s world class cultural collections.

Jack is a founder trustee and deputy chair of the increasingly successful charity Architects for Aid which operates from Jack’s office.

For recreation, Jack flies airplanes and races offshore sailing boats.

Bill Addy, Group Business Development Director, Iliad

A Chartered Builder with nearly 30 years’ experience in the construction industry, Bill has a wealth of knowledge and the skills necessary to successfully create and deliver developments across the industry spectrum.

For the last 15 years Bill worked for a major construction and development group. His ability to recognise opportunities and to deliver real value earned him a position as a Main Board Director with responsibility for business growth.

Gary Thompson, Digital Industries Convergence Consultant

Gary is a consultant providing consultancy services to public and private sector organisations in the Digital and Creative Industries. This includes Business and Strategic planning, future analysis of changes in digital industries supply chain, event management and planning and project management.

He has a particular interest in Digital Industries Convergence and which has been developed throughout his career at Marconi, the NWDA and as a consultant.

He has developed Visions, Strategic propositions and Framework Business Plans for a number of initiatives. These include Liverpool Digital and its Multi-platform Technical Architecture for 21st century “Converged Digital Market”, an International Digital Distribution Centre and Network, Media Enterprise Centres and an International E-Trade Centre for Liverpool which will complement developments at mediacity:uk.

Gary developed a number of Telecommunication products at Marconi between 1991 and 2000. These products provided the company with revenues in the region of £1bn. Between 2000 and 2002 he launched, developed and implemented Change Management Programme for large directorate within Marconi. He is also experienced in developing Property Solutions for Telecommunications Environments, having designed, developed and Project Managed the development of a Workplace Solution for an Embedded Systems Laboratory at Marconi.

In 2002 Gary initiated the sale of the Marconi property in Liverpool for £17.25m to the North West Development Agency (NWDA’s). This sale was used a driver to save 900 Marconi jobs in Liverpool and to start the NWDA’s strategic project: Liverpool Digital.

For the NWDA Gary led the Business Development of Liverpool Digital a major economic development project for the Creative and Digital Industries between 2002 and 2005. This included strategic, business, property, technical, inward investment, financial and physical master planning of a 120 acre site, based on Market analysis of converging media, digital, TV/Film and Telecommunications markets. Working with partner organisations obtained funding for Liverpool Digital which was in the region of £100m.

Leslie Chalmers, CEO, English Cities Fund

David Quinn, Regional Editor, Estates Gazette

David Quinn is the North and Scotland regional editor of Estates Gazette, one of the UK's largest business magazines, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2008. After joining EG in London as a graduate, he subsequently established an editorial presence for the magazine in Birmingham in 2002 and, in 2004, became EG's first full-time journalist to be based in Manchester. He has written for the Times, as well as a number of other publications, and has also worked as a media officer for Liverpool city council. Originally from Rochdale, David covers all aspects of commercial property news and features for EG and the magazine's website, EGi.