Our board

Suki brings over 20 years of experience in non-executive director roles in a variety of sectors including consumer goods, building (both commercial and social housing), education and e-commerce, as well as charities and industry association boards in the leisure and hospitality sectors. He is currently also Chair of Paragon Asra Housing and is NED and chair of the retirement living part of Housing 21. Suki also brings 25 years of knowledge and experience from his careers in senior executive roles at Coca-Cola, Forte & Le Meridien Hotels, and Unilever - Dove Spa. He is a past advisor to the United Nations Secretary General for Sustainable Development (Earth Summit) supporting and liaising with leaders from 100 sovereign states on environmental and climate change policy.

For the last 20 years Simon Blanchflower has been involved in leading the development and delivery of major infrastructure projects. Following the successful conclusion of his role as the Major Programme Director on the Thameslink Programme, which included the re-building of London Bridge station, he has recently been appointed as the Chief Executive of East West Rail Co Ltd. He has experience of chairing the Boards of charitable companies and for the last 30 years has invested into his local community in North Kensington with particular interests in education and housing. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz OBE was elected the Mayor of Newham in May 2018. Since her election, she has been leading a transformative and radical agenda in Newham, reflecting a series of manifesto commitments to address inequality and poverty, invest in young people to widen opportunities, embed Community Wealth Building as the economic approach being adopted by the Council, increase participatory democracy and respond to the Climate Emergency.

As part of an ambitious programme of scaling up Council housing delivery in the borough she is leading one the most ambitious genuinely affordable housing programmes in London through a number of significant regeneration schemes. Under her leadership, Newham also became the first council in the country to make the health, happiness and wellbeing of its residents the key indicator of economic success. 

As an advocate for racial justice and equalities, Rokhsana was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to Black and Minority Ethnic Communities in the UK.

Sukhvinder Kaur-Stubbs has spent over 30 years placemaking through her community development work for English Partnerships, infrastructure with the Black Country Development Corporation, regeneration with the Regional Development Agency (West Midlands) and then overseeing joint ventures as a member of the Home Group and Chair of Swan New Housing. She is an accomplished CEO having led two high profile organisations (Barrow Cadbury and Runnymede Trust), through major change programmes and onto success in influencing government policies on inclusion, diversity and community cohesion.  

Currently, she is MD of Engage-Building networks of Trust and, active at community level in the London Borough of Lewisham building a voluntary-community infrastructure to support those at greatest risk of vulnerability. Sukhvinder has served across the public, private and voluntary sectors including the boards of Severn Trent Water, Government's watchdog Consumer Futures, the Cabinet Office Better Regulation Executive and Chair of the Taylor Bennett Foundation. Currently, she is Vice-Chair at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust where she also leads Workforce and Education for the 7,000 staff.  Additionally, she is board member of the Tower Hamlets GP Care Group, Governor at the Leathersellers Federation and proud to be a Champion for the Mayors Our Time Programme.

Jamie Kerr is a Chartered Surveyor with more than 30 years’ experience in property development and finance. He has particular knowledge around retail, transport related development, masterplanning and town centre reinvention and has worked for LCR and John Laing Plc as an Executive Director. He sits on the Board of the Solihull Urban Growth Company and has recently established Urban Development Partnerships to focus on the renewal of town centres.

Geoff Thompson MBE FRSA DL was the World United Karate Organisation world heavyweight champion and world team karate champion between 1982 and 1986 and won more than 50 national and international titles during a distinguished sporting career.
 
Following his retirement from competitive sport, he established himself as an influential sports politician and administrator, taking on numerous public and private sector appointments with the aim of promoting equality, diversity and inclusion at all levels of society. Having experienced material deprivation and social and cultural exclusion while growing up in Hackney, Geoff is a lifelong advocate for the role that education, sport and culture can play in improving the lives of disadvantaged young people through the bidding, hosting and legacy of major games.
 
He is the Founder and Chair of the Youth Charter, a UK-based international charity and United Nations Non-Governmental Organisation that uses the ethics of sport and artistic excellence to tackle the problems of educational non-attainment, health inequality, anti-social behaviour and crime in some of Britain’s most troubled communities.
 
Geoff is also an Advisory Board Member of the Muhammad Ali Centre, Louisville, Kentucky. His public and private sector appointments have included chairing Sport England's Advisory Group on Racial Equality in Sport and serving as a member of its grant assessment panel, Director of the Sports Council Trust Company, board member of the New Opportunities fund, an honorary fellow of the former Institute of Leisure, Amenities and Management, fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Independent Assessor for the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. He was the Chair of the Board of Governors of the University of East London between 2017 - 2019.
 
In 1995, Geoff was appointed an MBE for his services to sport and in 2016, 2017 and 2018 he was included in the Top 100 BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) Leaders in Business List, in association with the Sunday Times and was also named in the Evening Standard’s top 1000 influencers in London.  He is also a Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester and was this year awarded an honorary professorship of the International Business School at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China. Geoff was recently appointed as an Independent panel member of Professional Footballers Association.

Cllr Guy Nicholson is the London Borough of Hackney’s Deputy Mayor for delivery, inclusive economy & regeneration. 

Gurpreet Dehal is an experienced Non-Executive Director whose current portfolio includes Defence Infrastructure, Equiti Capital UK, The University of Derby and E-ACT Multi Academy Trust. His executive career had a strong focus on risk, business and operational leadership, working for large corporations including Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse - where he held the role of Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer for Global Prime Services. He left Credit Suisse in 2014 to begin his portfolio career. 

Gabrielle Appiah is a former member of Legacy Youth Board from 2014-19 who went on to study Planning at undergraduate and Masters level. She is currently a Project Coordinator at Soundings, a community engagement consultancy which delivers inclusive programmes of engagement and capacity building with diverse communities.  Gabrielle is Co-Vice Chair of Women in Planning London, a Licentiate representative member of The Royal Town Planning Institute General Assembly, and a contributor to the New London Architecture’s Diversity Think Tank and BAME in Property.