Rosanna Lawes is to step down from her position as Executive Director of Development at London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) at the end of this financial year after 13 years.

Rosanna leaves LLDC, the body responsible for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and its regeneration, as it moves onto the next stage of the highly successful legacy project. Her leadership of the development of the Park has seen the delivery of a new piece of city with projects rooted in the community and high quality design delivering lasting and sustainable benefits.

Under Rosanna’s leadership her team has delivered the transformation of the former Press and Broadcasting Centres now established as a hugely successful new business district at Here East with high-value jobs and businesses. In spite of the economic down-turn and the challenges brought by the pandemic, the pace of delivery has been sustained including 880 homes at Chobham Manor and some 500 homes in the first two phases of East Wick. Progress on the remaining development sites including the remaining phases of East Wick & Sweetwater, Pudding Mill, Stratford Waterfront and Rick Roberts Way is well advanced.

As the Senior Responsible Officer, Rosanna played an instrumental role in the delivery of East Bank, the new cultural and education quarter, overseeing the modification of the Park’s original masterplan, business plan and contractual negotiations with partners and to enable an innovative approach to placemaking. The scheme as seen two new campuses opened for UCL East and UAL’s London College of Fashion. Sadler’s Wells East will open to the public in February 2025 followed by the V&A East Museum and BBC Music Studios.

Rosanna’s Olympic journey started almost a quarter of a century ago in 2003 at the London Development Agency (LDA), demonstrating to the International Olympic Committee the viability of the planned Stratford site and the associated land acquisition proposals. Following the London bid’s success in 2005, Rosanna led the team to assemble the 560-acre site including two Compulsory Purchase Orders to acquire land, relocate 240 businesses with 3,000 employees and more than 100 households. Included in the programme was a nationally significant infrastructure project to underground 5km of powerlines.

Following the winding up of the LDA in 2010, Rosanna oversaw the transition of projects and programmes to the Olympic Park Legacy Company and held the commercial interface with he Olympic Delivery Authority to ensure legacy objectives, planning agreements and ground remediation works were delivered.

Rosanna is also chair of the Homes for Londoners CPC responsible for building a strong collaborative relationship between the GLA family members. She is also a trustee of the Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills charity responsible for the restoration of the historic mills.

Rosanna Lawes said: “This is the right time to pass on the baton as LLDC starts the next part of its journey. It has been a privilege to have led such a complex and challenging project.  To have worked with a fantastic team and partners for so many years has been hugely rewarding and key to that success is a project with such a clear, strong, and constant vision. This programme has been instrumental in shifting London’s growth east and I believe profoundly that everyone deserves to live and work in well-designed environments, and I am so proud of the scale and quality of buildings, parkland, public realm, and neighbourhoods delivered on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We have set a high bar and shown that it can be done.”

Lyn Garner, Chief Executive of LLDC, said: “Rosanna has made a huge and vital contribution to the regeneration of east London over the last two decades and more. You can see the impact of her work everywhere you look around the Park, from East Bank to new homes, high quality public realm to new business districts. She should be rightly proud of the team she has built who will take forward the regeneration project as we embark on the next phase of our journey.”

The Executive Director of Development role is currently out for recruitment, link here and Rosanna will remain in post until March 31, 2025.

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