Philip Kolvin

Philip was appointed as Chairman of the Civic Trust on 31st July 2007.

He is a practising barrister and Head of Licensing in the Chambers of Mark Lowe QC, Grays Inn Square, London. Philip is also Chairman of the Institute of Licensing (the national body for licensing professionals) and has a particular interest in the night time economy and the impact it has on local communities.

Philip has written a number of publications, including Licensed Premises: Law and Practice, Gambling for Local Authorities: Licensing, Planning and Regeneration. He is also the author of Saving Open Space which is a guide for campaigners.

Philip has a long standing interest in the environment, and has served as a national Trustee of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. He has been involved in a number of campaigns, including the Crystal Palace Campaign which successfully prevented the building of a multiplex cinema on an historic park.

Nigel Burton

Nigel was appointed chairman on 1 April 2004, and retired on 31st July 2007, although he remains on the Board of Trustees.
Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and for more than 30 years, has worked as the property or estates director of multiple retail companies, including Dorothy Perkins, Clarks Shoes, Boots and Tesco. He retired as Development Director at Waitrose in July, although continues to work for the company as a consultant. Please click here to read Nigel’s interview for the John Lewis staff magazinie.

Nigel was a member of the Board of the British Council of Shopping Centres from 1983 to 1993, President in 1990/91. In recent years he has been active in a number of Trade and Property bodies, including a period as President of the Property Managers’ Association and Chairman of the Real Estate Committee of the British Retailer’s Association. Nigel is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and is a member of the Board of the successful Abergavenny Food Festival. 

Karen Mason

Karen is a commercial property solicitor and a partner at Mayfair firm Boodle Hatfield solicitors.

Karen is a Governor at her secondary school Francis Bacon, St Albans Hertfordshire. She is a former conciliation officer for the Office for the supervision of solicitors and a tribunal chairman for the Lord Chancellor’s department.

Appointed a Trustee of The Civic Trust on 18th July 2000.

Dr Peter Diplock

Peter is a Chartered Engineer, Member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and a Certified Management Consultant. He is an experienced consultant in the management of change in organisations, and a founder director of consultancy Tesseract Limited. He has a particular research interest in the areas of leadership and culture change, and creative problem solving.

He has also worked for business consulting practice, PA Consulting Group. Prior to his career in consultancy, he worked for the Mars Corporation.

He has been a member of the Marlow Society for many years, serving as Chairman of the Local History Group, then on the Executive Committee, as Chairman. He is currently Vice-President. He is also Chairman of ANTAS (the Association of North Thames Amenity Societies).

Appointed a Trustee of the Civic Trust on 1 April 2004 and is a member of the Policy Committee.

Professor David Banister, BA, PhD, MLIT

Professor of Transport Planning at the University of London and Director of Research at the Bartlett School of Planning at University College, London. David has been a key researcher in the EPSRC Sustainable Cities Initiative. David was appointed a Trustee in 2005 and chairs the POlicy Committee. 

Kevin Trickett, BA (Hons), MBA, MA (Phil), MAPM

Kevin is an experienced project manager in the Department for Work and Pensions andis a Member of the Association of Project Management. He has been a committee member of Wakefield Civic Society since 1990 and was elected as the Society’s President in 2002, since when he has embarked on a modernisation strategy to increase the Society’s membership and income and also to raise the Society’s profile and influence within the city’s business community.

Kevin is also a member of the Executive Committee of theYorkshire and Humber Association of Civic Societies (YHACS) where he has worked closely with fellow Executive Committee members to strengthen the civic society movement across the region.

Appointed a Trustee of the Civic Trust on 1 April 2004, Kevin now chairs the National Committee for Civic Societies. His ambition for the National Committee is that it should help societies and regional associations to develop their own strategies to face up to the particular challenges they face in the twenty-first century. Kevin’s interests include reading,theatre (as an audience member!), foreign travel and philosophy. 

David Prichard - BSc DipArch RIBA FRSA

David runs Metropolitan Workshop LLP. He was a founding member of MacCormac Jamieson Prichard Architects in 1972, a partner from 1980 to 2001, and a director after incorporation. He is responsible for many of the practice’s master planning and urban design commissions as well as a range of building projects.David led the multi-disciplinary team on the Ballymun Regeneration project in Dublin that won the Irish Planning Institute’s Planning Achievement Award. He was in charge of the Durham Millennium City Project involving a theatre, visitor centre, library and major new civic space, designed the Archive for the States of Jersey and was responsible for Cable and Wireless College campus in Coventry. He was responsible for the masterplans and six built schemes for Queen Mary University of London and major student residence projects for Imperial College, London.Since 1980, he has been an RIBA Part Three External Examiner at the Bartlett, Canterbury and UNLand has been involved in Diploma Year reviews at University of Brighton. He has been a guest critic at RCA, Cambridge, Newcastle and Cardiff Universities, and most recently as an RIBA external examiner for the degree course at Edinburgh College of Art.

Appointed a Trustee of the Civic Trust on 1 April 2004 and is currently Chairman of the Civic Trust Awards National Panel. 

Dr Helen Walker

Helen is Chair of Department of Urban Development and Regeneration at the University of Westminster. She has been seconded to the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit and is currently on loan to the National Centre for Sustainable Communities Skills Project Team in ODPM. Her professional interests include sustainable development and the built environment. She is a member of the CABE Research Steering Group.

Appointed a Trustee of the Civic Trust on 1 April 2004 and is a member of the Policy Committee.

Malcolm Sharp

Malcolm’s current Position is as one of three Corporate Directors for Huntingdonshire District Council, together with line management responsibility for Housing, Planning, Environmental and Community Health, Technical Services and Operations (Waste, recycling, parks, countryside services etc.).

He is a graduate of London University in Geography and a Planner by Profession. Malcolm has 35 years local government service in a variety of authorities including London Borough of Hackney, Northampton New Town Corporation, East Midlands Airport (secondment), Nottingham City Council and Huntingdonshire where he was latterly Head of Planning. He has a wide experience of all aspects of urban and rural planning, economic development, and environmental issues generally.

He is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, is a member of the Environmental Advisory Group to the East of England Regional Assembly. Until taking up his present post in 2006 he was also on the National Committee of the Planning Officer’s Society.

Malcolm has been a long term supporter of the Civic Trust. Appointed a Trustee in 2007, Malcolm represents the interests of civic societies on the Board. 

Peter Cooper BSc CEng MICE

Peter is a Chartered Civil Engineer.  He worked for contractors, local government and consultants on a wide variety of infrastructure projects until he suffered a spinal cord injury in 1994.  This meant that was no longer able to pursue his civil engineering career and had to employ his work experience in other ways.  He spent five years as a volunteer at the local Citizen’s Advice Bureau, joined Scarborough & District Civic Society where he was Chairman for over four years, and was a founding member of the Yorkshire and Humber Association of Civic Societies, becoming Chairman in January 2002. When the Urban Renaissance project was launched in the Y&H region, Peter became vice-chairman of the Scarborough Town Team.

Appointed a Trustee of the Civic Trust in 2008.

Hilary Silvester

Hilary, a native of Nottingham, was educated at Nottingham Girls’ High School and King’s College, University of London, where she read for a BA Honours degree in English. After graduating she remained in London, working in business and later in journalism, before returning to Nottingham where she has lived ever since. Hilary’s career in education culminated in a post as a headteacher; she has also been involved in lecturing and in organising courses for the Open University.

She has for many years had a strong involvement in voluntary movements, and has served on the national committees of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers and the Victorian Society. She has been an active member of other voluntary and professional organisations and has considerable involvement with local government negotiating and consultative bodies.

A long standing member of Nottingham Civic Society, she has chaired the society for the past five years and has recently been appointed a Vice President. She is currently Vice Chair of the East Midlands Association of Civic Societies and represents the Association on a number of bodies, inluding the Civic Trust’s Natinal Committee. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Hilary was appointed as a Trustee in 2008.