People

Managing Partner, CMC

Bristol

Craig is a Managing Partner at Cambridge Management Consulting.

He was the Deputy Mayor for Finance and Governance at Bristol City Council (BCC) throughout the development and delivery of the BCL model and was chair of BCC’s City Leap Programme Board. Craig brings an in-depth knowledge and unique understanding of some of the key challenges and risks arising from the BCL model from a political perspective.

Craig also brings significant experience of LA governance processes, including wholly owned companies. 

Independent Consultant

London

Dee Korab is the founder of Sparkd, a strategic advisory firm focused on advancing sustainable finance and accelerating the climate transition. With over a decade of experience in global banking across HSBC, NAB, and ANZ, Dee brings deep expertise in real estate finance, sustainable finance, and climate risk.
 

Her work sits at the intersection of finance, sustainability and the built environment, with a particular focus on designing innovative funding mechanisms to support decarbonisation. She has co-developed novel financial instruments, including property-linked finance and blended capital structures, in collaboration with partners such as the Green Finance Institute. Dee works with financial institutions on climate risk and sustainability strategy, helping them respond to emerging risks and opportunities.

She holds degrees in Economics and International Studies, certifications in Sustainable Finance and Climate Risk, and is currently part of the Global Real Estate Leaders Program at MIT and Maastricht University.
 

Dee takes a practical, systems-based approach to her work and is committed to helping shift finance towards outcomes that are more aligned with long-term environmental and social value.

Partner

London

Elizabeth is an interdisciplinary cities and built environment specialist with over 20 years of experience spanning local and central government, consultancy, academia and the charitable sector. Elizabeth brings a proven ability to work across and between disciplines to build the partnerships and consensus needed to create better places.

While Assistant Director of Strategy for Homes England, Elizabeth led the development of the Agency’s 2023-28 Strategic Plan as well as major strategic initiatives on topics including sustainability and design quality and modern methods of construction. Prior to Homes England Elizabeth led on strategic planning and housing strategy for Meridian Water, the London Borough of Enfield’s flagship £7 billion regeneration of an 85-hectare site.

Elizabeth holds a doctorate in Urban Sustainability and Resilience from University College London and is the author of a number of publications on urban and regional planning, governance, sustainability and climate change. As Director of Research and Advisory Services for the Urban Land Institute Europe, she led numerous research and thought leadership projects, and supported local government clients across Europe with complex use issues.

Alongside her role at Living Places, Elizabeth is the founding director of Polygon Place Strategy, whose mission is to make strategic advice meaningful, accessible and tailored to the unique challenges faced by changemakers working in the built environment. She is a Non-Executive Director at Graven Hill Village Development Company, which is creating the UK’s largest self- and custom-build community, and Publica Community Interest Company, which works to foster gender inclusive cities.

Director, Climate Programme Partners

Bristol

Jamie is a multi-disciplinary specialist in large scale decarbonisation.

His 20+ years of experience includes roles in major housing associations and multinational consultancies.

He was formerly UK Housing Sector Sustainability Lead for Turner & Townsend, where he led major decarbonisation programmes for Mayor of London and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. 

Jamie’s particular value add is in creating strategic coherence in complex, multi-stakeholder situations. He takes a collaborative approach to support innovation and align on-the ground delivery needs with technical, commercial and governance models.

President, Mineral Springs Inc

Cape Town

Dr Jeremy Gorelick is the President of Mineral Springs, Inc. (MSI), a specialist advisory firm that works to accelerate the flow of capital into sustainable and impact-driven initiatives across emerging markets. Formerly an investment banker, Jeremy has over two decades of experience mobilising capital at scale and has supported more than 150 projects globally, catalysing over USD 9 billion in financing.  He specialises in blended finance, subnational infrastructure investment, and the integration of sustainability considerations into financial architecture.
 

In the UK he and his team have written for UKRI on the potential for place-based climate infrastructure, designed the business case and financial model for Green Finance Fund facility to fund decarbonisation across London and worked as a development finance lead at the Green Finance Institute.

Jeremy's broader portfolio spans Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including landmark transactions such as designing the capital investment strategy for the City of Dakar in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and leading the financial response to Cape Town’s water crisis. Jeremy has also played a role in developing climate finance instruments for municipal and regional governments, including the Greater London Authority, and has served as a global technical expert on climate and/or urban infrastructure finance for organisations such as the World Bank, the IFC, USAID, GIZ, AFD, DFID, FCDO, BEIS, and the OECD. On all projects, he has been responsible for assisting public sector entities to convert high-level ideas into tangible opportunities through development of compelling narratives and defensible financial models.
 

Known for his pragmatic and strategic approach to structuring innovative finance, Jeremy's work has made MSI a trusted partner for governments, development banks, and philanthropic institutions seeking to unlock sustainable finance solutions. He holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town, and regularly advises on international financial centre development and green capital mobilisation. 

Partner

London

John worked in the structured finance market for 23 years, arranging and underwriting sub-investment grade capital for projects and acquisitions, latterly as Co-Head of one of the largest European leveraged finance teams.

In 2007 John moved into the social sector as a provider of alternative capital principally with Impetus (venture philanthropy) and Social and Sustainable Capital (social investment and social housing finance) but also working on payments by results structures and crowd funding. At SASC John led the financing for Heart of England Community Energy - one of the largest community-owned solar farms in England.

Linked to providing capital has been a focus on measuring impact as a funder, fundee and in an advisory capacity, helping to build Trust Impact, a leading impact and data consultancy in the social sector.

Over the past sixteen years John has worked in executive, non-executive and advisory roles with numerous community-based organisations and is currently chair of Cook of Good, a social enterprise addressing food poverty and social isolation on a housing estate.

Most recently John was a strategic adviser to the Green Finance Institute supporting development of the Net Zero Neighbourhood funding model and exploration of a property linked finance instrument to fund domestic building retrofit. 

Independent Consultant

Aberdeen

Jonathan works across the public sector in Scotland, successfully delivering place-based advisory services to improve the delivery of national, regional, and local policies and outcomes. 

He joined Scottish Futures Trust in 2012 and played a pivotal role in hub North Scotland becoming the most successful public-private partnership in the UK. And in 2024, he founded Cabrach, who continue to support the hub North Scotland partnership with advisory services focusing on strategy, placemaking, housing, net zero, and inward investment. 

Jonathan now supports all the hub companies in Scotland to improve partnership working with stakeholders and to maximise outcomes for the public sector.  

Jonathan has an extensive track record of successfully supporting the public sector to learn together, act collectively, think differently, and make better use of resources and funding. He has achieved success by authentically building relationships with stakeholders. He listens to what stakeholders need, researches the policy environment, and translates what he has heard and researched into strategies and implementation plans that have the best chance of success.

Independent Consultant

Bath

Samantha is a strategic consultant and innovation expert in the energy transition space. 

She helps places and organisations design programme and propositions to unlock investment, build partnerships. She currently advises Greater Manchester’s Net Zero Accelerator, supports Innovate UK’s place-based investor panel. She also serves as Vice Chair of the climate charity, One Home and is a Non-Executive Director at Bath and West Community Energy. 

She previously led innovation at Bristol Energy, where she championed people-first approaches to energy use and digital tools for household efficiency and has consulted for numerous FTSE 100 and early stage companies developing new products and services.

Samantha brings deep experience in innovation, energy markets and complex programmes. 

Independent Consultant

Cambridge

Sheryl is an independent climate      policy, programme, funding and delivery consultant with 20+ yrs experience in local government.

Her focus is on the intersection between sustainability, technology and system change to help tackle climate risk. As a senior leader, with the last ten years in Local Government at Cambridge County Council, spearheading climate and renewable energy initiatives, she has advised government, organisations, communities and businesses on managing and preparing for climate impacts. She is currently building core competencies in data analytics and visualisation, machine learning and neural networks to aid decision makers in their business choices and to support consensus building around vision and ambition to drive organisational and system change towards net-zero and clean growth.
 

As Chair of the ADEPT Energy and Clean Growth Group up to December 2024, Sheryl focused on building strategic collaborations and developing consensus on sustainable energy policies. This role honed her influencing skills, built experience in organisational change and business transformation and allowed her to effectively structure meetings, share best practices, and engage in critical discussions with peers, government and industry leaders to promote a greener future.

Independent Consultant

Bristol

Sonya is a leading solicitor practitioner in the field of renewable energy with over 20 years’ experience in the field.

Her expertise covers all technologies involved in renewable energy including wind (wind farms, large and small scale single turbines), solar (PV and thermal), hydro, wave, biomass, anaerobic digestion. It also covers leasing, construction, operation and maintenance contracts, energy regulation, land agreements, power purchase agreements and community projects. Her expertise encompasses work in private practice and also for a public authority involved in procurement in this sector.

She was involved in the drafting of the Bristol City Leap Joint Venture Concession, Net Zero Terrace Streets Governance and Net Zero Living Places advisory panel.