Ceri started her career in local government where she qualified as a CIPFA accountant. She then spent over 20 years in corporate and investment banking with BNP Paribas, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds. She specialised in project finance, equity investments and securitisation, and worked across a number of sectors including infrastructure, housing and energy for both private and public sector clients. She then spent over six years at Laing O’Rourke leading the investment and treasury functions. She sits on the HCA Social Housing Regulator Committee, is a board member of Red Funnel and a member of the Investment Committee for a private equity Infrastructure Fund.

Nabeel was appointed to the Board of Be First in July 2022 and brings 15 years experience of working with senior policy makers and politicians across a range of economic development and regeneration projects in the public sector. He currently heads up the economy and culture division at London Borough of Lambeth, where his remit covers place-shaping, inward investment & business support, cultural programming and supporting residents into good work.

He used to work for the Mayor of London where he was responsible for delivering the Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy and has worked on major regeneration projects at various stages in their development cycle, ranging from negotiating commercial development agreements to help unlock key regeneration sites for new housing estates and schools to working on the land assembly of a £1bn mixed-use shopping centre redevelopment scheme.

He is also a Board Director at Homes for Lambeth, a Registered Provider and not-for-profit company which builds, sells and manages private, intermediate and genuinely affordable homes in Lambeth.

Davena was appointed to the Board of Be First in July 2022. She is currently the Director of Projects at the Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation (OPDC) with responsibility for the organisation’s regeneration and economic development programme.

Davena started her career in the private sector where she qualified as a chartered development surveyor. She then spent almost 15 years in a consultancy environment – working for Drivers Jonas and Deloitte – advising public sector clients on the implementation and delivery of complex and long running regeneration projects. Over the last 10 years, she has worked in local government, for the Greater London Authority and OPDC, specialising in land acquisition and assembly, developer procurement and structuring development and joint venture agreements

Catherine has held senior marketing and communications roles in real estate and fashion retail including Debenhams and Land Securities, and has a particular affinity with tech, data, content, reputation and experience convergence.

Her skills in place making and destination marketing were honed at Land Securities, where she led the communications team for Victoria SW1, including Nova, the highly successful mixed-use complex. She has also worked on major European and Middle Eastern real estate and luxury retail projects.

Catherine co-founded strategic communications agency Brand Love, is a Governor of Lady Eleanor Holles Girls School and a non-executive director of SoundOut, the leading music and fashion predictive data platform.

Synthia has over 15 years of experience working in museums, local authorities and across the cultural sector and currently curates the Regeneration & Community Programme at Tate. She has extensive experience of leading programmes of work on community and audience participation as well as cultural led regeneration and commissioning artists. She originally studied Fine Art with a particular interest in relational practice. She is a recognised arts leader having been part of the Museums and Resilient leadership programme supported by ACE. She has previously presented and contributed towards conferences nationally and internationally.

Adam joined the Board of Be First in July 2023. He has considerable experience as a designer, project manager, and built environment expert in both public and private sectors.

He trained as an architect and won a prestigious RIBA President’s Medal award, before spending several years at architecture practice 5th Studio. Moving to the public sector in 2010, he was a member of Design for London and the Greater London Authority Regeneration Team where he made a significant contribution to the planning and steering of development in the capital. He led the ground-breaking high street initiative and helped shape programmes such as the High Street Fund, Crowdfund London, and Social Supermarkets. He also oversaw delivery of numerous capital projects, including the mayor’s award-winning regeneration programme in Croydon.

Since 2016, he’s been responsible for the delivery of hundreds of homes as part of Harrow and Ealing’s ambitious council home building programmes.

He’s an independent expert advisor to the Design Council and DLUHC, sits on several design review panels, and is a mentor with social enterprise Public Practice.

Pam is a highly regarded non-exec director, commercial business development consultant and strategic consultant to boards.

She is an Ambassador for Women on Boards UK and one of Boardroom Advisors’ most experienced Advisors, an organisation that provides part-time CEOs, exec directors and NEDs internationally.

Pam is a NED on the board of IMPRESS, the independent news media regulator, where she also chairs the Business Development and Communications Committee and sits on the Audit and Finance Committee. She is a NED on the board of Hendeca Group, a specialist health and safety provider, and the board of Energy & Utility Skills Group, as well as a Trustee of The British Ecological Society.

Pam also sits on an Advisory Board for the charity DEBRA, is a member of the Chairman’s Network, and has contributed to advertising effectiveness textbooks and articles including IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards.

Gabrielle’s banking career spans over thirty-five years specialising in real estate, social housing, and local authority debt. Her most recent full-time role was as Director of Loans at Homes England (September 2019 – April 2021) where she led a team of 65 deploying government funding to support residential development in England.

Gabrielle’s previous roles include Director of Real Estate at Metro Bank PLC and Head of Real Estate at Lloyds Banking Group.

Gabrielle is a Governor of Sheffield Hallam University, a committee member for GreenSquare Accord, and a board member for both Habitare Homes and HomeNow. She has held previous board and committee member roles for Midland Heart Housing Association and Metropolitan Housing Trust.

Gabrielle has a BSc(hons) in Accounting and Financial Analysis from the University of Warwick, and qualified as an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (Financial Stream), now known as the Chartered Governance Institute.

Cathy joined the Board in September 2023. She has a long history of regeneration and housing policy as a civil servant, including working on social exclusion and neighbourhood renewal from 2000.  Since then, Cathy has worked on a series of social and economic policies including transport and exclusion, youth crime, local economic growth and from 2019 as DLUHC Director, Places, Housing Delivery and Infrastructure.

Prior to her current post Cathy worked in healthcare, leading a technology transformation programme in NHS England.  In 2013 Cathy undertook a secondment to Barclays Bank PLC where she led a digital transformation programme.

She is passionate about regeneration and the opportunities to transform lives and build communities where families can thrive and where the public, community and private sector come together to build great places for people to live, work and spend their leisure time.

Former equity partner and Real Estate Development lead at Drivers Jonas and Deloitte, Jon Milward is the Managing Director of Milward Associates, where he advises a diverse range of senior management teams on real estate development issues across public and private sectors.

A dual-qualified surveyor and town planner, Jon lives and works in central London.  He specialises in complex real estate development and regeneration projects in the UK and overseas, most often advising at the interface between developers, landowners and public authorities.

Amongst the highlights of a 35 year + career, Jon advised Defence Estates on the sale of Chelsea Barracks to Qatari Diar; the University of the Arts on the strategy, funding and implementation of Central St Martins’ move to King Cross Central; the LLDC on its first  major development partner procurements at the Olympic Park, post the 2012 Games; and HS2/Network Rail and DfT on the business case, strategy and implementation of their comprehensive development proposals for Euston Station with Lendlease.  His current client list includes landed estates, developers, public sector institutions and family offices.

In addition to his professional work, Jon is a Non-Executive Director of Old Oak Common and Park Royal Development Corporation and Chair of their Development, Investment and Sustainability Committee, a Member of the Dept for Business and Trade’s Capital Advisory Panel and is a Business Ambassador for Centrepoint homeless charity.