Kent General Development Plans 2014

FOUR of Kent’s Leading Development Figures will be presenting their development/investment plans for the next couple of years!

Event Sponsored by:                  Programme Sponsored by: 

Event Format

• 1530 – 1600; Registration
• 1600 – 1645; Networking with Wine, Beer and Soft Drinks
• 1645 – 1815; Speaker Presentations
• 1815 – 1900; Networking with Hot Food, Wine, Beer and Soft Drinks
• 1900 – 2200; National Sponsor’s Dinner (INVITE ONLY)

Speakers

Fenlon Dunphy; Vice CEO (UK Projects); Kuwait European Holdings

Christine Clarke; Development Director, Land Securities

Michael Cassidy CBE; Chairman, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation

Michael Cassidy CBE has followed parallel careers in the law and in local government in the City. Advising the UK’s biggest Pension Fund through the 70’s and 80’s he was involved in complex investment transactions here and overseas.

Leader of the Council in the City of London 1992-7, he led the implementation of the “Ring of Steel” following to 2 IRA bombs and negotiated a new relationship with the incoming Blair government which removed the previous abolition threat – mainly based on increased involvement by the City with the adjoining Boroughs. He was previously Planning Chairman during the period when consent was given to rebuild a third of the office stock in the City.

Senior Non-executive Director at Crossrail, he has recently been appointed by the Government to Chair the Ebbsfleet Urban Development Corporation when it is established in Spring 2015.

Barbara Cooper; Corporate Director for Growth, Environment & Transport, Kent County Council

I have worked in local government for over 20 years and have managed a range of services in the London boroughs of Kingston upon Thames, Croydon and Bromley and in Portsmouth City Council and Swale Borough Council.

I am the Corporate Director of Growth, Environment and Transport at Kent County Council. The post includes both the strategic and the operational, ranging from the corporate running of the authority as well as responsibility for the performance of our front line services. The services include economic development, highways, waste, planning, environment, community safety, trading standards, arts and sports. My priorities include ensuring that local and national partners share Kent’s aspirations and understand their challenges; developing positive relationships with local businesses and developers; working on unlocking growth in both jobs and homes across Kent but particularly in the Thames Gateway, Ashford and coastal East Kent. I work closely with district colleagues to properly calibrate the cost of growth and to understand the funding gaps that arise. Needless to say, no two days are the same.

Although originally from Portsmouth where the sea was my front door, I have set up home in rural Kent and share my garden (involuntarily) with pheasants, squirrels and rabbits. I actively champion local traders, cycle around the back roads of Kent and make a virtue of eating in as many local restaurants as possible.