Scottish Executive Committee

Kirsty Macari ​is Co-Head of Undergraduate Programmes in DJCAD at the University of Dundee with a remit across Architecture and Urban Planning along with Contemporary Art Practice.  Kirsty studied Town and Regional Planning and Urban Design combined with significant public service practice across Planning and Economic Development before joining the University of Dundee. She is also undertaking a Professional Doctorate in Education and integrates student learning with practical applications to inform future practice.  She is a Director in private practice, Board Member of Architecture & Design Scotland and an Academician with the Academy of Urbanism. A strategically focused planner who works across sectors to drive the integration and promotion of social place-making. Kirsty believes in engaging the full spectrum of people that make up our places through digital and transdisciplinary place-making to support wellbeing for resilient communities. She continues to be a member of the RTPI General Assembly and the Education and Lifelong Learning Committee.

Pamela is Planning, Building Standards and Environmental Health Manager for West Dunbartonshire Council. She has worked for the Council for over 16 years and previously worked for East Ayrshire Council. Pamela studied Planning at Queens University Belfast. She has a strong interest and is passionate in creating high quality places and buildings. West Dunbartonshire is one of the smallest Councils in Scotland however it is one of the more ambitious Councils and the planning process is being used to assist in changing the prosperity and future prospects of the area by creating high quality places. Quality development now is being delivered on the ground. 

She is responsible for pioneering the Place and Design Panel, the first time a Design Panel has been set up in a more deprived area. She was also responsible for setting up the award winning  elected member briefing at the pre application stage a process that  together with the Place and Design Panel has become embedded in the planning process.   

She is Junior Vice Convenor of Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) Executive Committee. She was  pleased to be recognised as a “Women of Influence 2020- The Planner”  in terms of her role in encouraging teams to work collaboratively across local authority, NHS, private sector and local communities and being not afraid to do things  differently.  

Laura is Senior Planner in the Masterplanning, Design and Conservation Team for Aberdeen City Council.  She has worked at the Council for over 11 years and prior to this worked across the North East in Local Development Planning, Strategic Planning as well as in a  Development Management role.  Laura’s interests are in Masterplanning, Placemaking, Conservation and the reuse and redevelopment of historic buildings. She has been involved in a variety of projects and developments across the City, but most recently the fantastic redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. 

Laura enjoys working closely with colleagues and knows the importance of peer support and the continued engagement with colleagues and other RTPI members.  She also thoroughly enjoys a little planning debate between Colleagues on a Friday afternoon.  Laura is currently the Convenor of the Grampian Chapter who help deliver CPD to the local chapter, with the recent focus being on in person site visits to ensure this continued support and engagement.  Finally Laura is also a member of the Regions and Nations Committee and the Chair of the Communication, Education and Lifelong Learning Sub-committee.

Having studied Town & Regional Planning at the University of Dundee, Andrew became a Chartered Member of the RTPI in 2006. His background lies firmly in development management with various roles at Aberdeen City and City of Edinburgh Councils respectively. Whilst at Edinburgh, Andrew was twice seconded to the Scottish Government to provide practitioner input into the improving planning performance agenda. Since leaving the public sector in 2014, Andrew has spent 3 years as a Strategic Land Manager where he was responsible for identifying, securing and promoting strategic land across Scotland with the award-winning UK housebuilder, Avant Homes and is now an Associate with Justin Lamb Associates providing professional advice to landowner clients on all aspects of residential land and development across Scotland. Andrew remains a committed member of the RTPI and his past contribution to the organisation includes having served as Convenor of the Scottish Executive Committee, Chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network, and Vice Convenor of both the South East Scotland and Central Scotland Chapters.

Stefano is a commercial and pragmatic development planner with a strong customer focus. He has over 35 years of UK professional experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams within  planning, environmental, design and engineering consultancies. He is the Founding Director of Stefano Smith Planning – an independent planning consultancy established in 2019. He has extensive experience in providing development planning and project management services in the environment, infrastructure, energy, commercial, industrial, housing and mixed-use sectors. He has specific experience in statutory planning (including approvals & consents and expert witness), sustainability, regeneration, master planning & urban design, consultation & engagement strategies & tools, development economics and urban analytics. He is an Expert on the Westminster Government’s High Streets Task Force set-up in 2020. He has successfully advised, negotiated and delivered complex land development and infrastructure projects of a range of sizes. He has been intrinsically involved in the evolution of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 participating in various Scottish Government workshops. He is a regular member on research & advisory panels, including Scottish Government research on the infrastructure levy (2017) and the value, impact and incidence of developer contributions (2020/2021). He has been an external practitioner on Heriot-Watt University's Final Year Planning & Property undergraduate degree course, and graduated from the University of Glasgow post graduate masters' programme in Urban Analytics (MSc Urban Analytics) in 2022.

Stefano is an RTPI Board Nations Trustee, Chair of the Nations & Regions Panel and Vice-Chair of the Policy Practice & Research Committee and member of the Nominations Sub-committee, as well as a member of the RTPI Scotland Executive Committee and past RTPI Scotland Convenor.

Nikola studied planning as a Masters degree at Heriot Watt University and became a chartered planner in 2008. She has a range of experience in both the private and voluntary sectors having worked as a planning consultant at a range of organisations, as Development Officer for PAS (formerly Planning Aid for Scotland), and also as Planning Policy and Practice Officer for RTPI Scotland. Most recently Nikola was Head of Planning Practice at Homes for Scotland, specialising in housing policy and supporting the house building industry to deliver more homes across Scotland. She has volunteered for the RTPI throughout her career as a former Committee Member and Convenor of the South East Scotland Chapter, former Vice Chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network, and she continues to be an assessor for RTPI APC. Nikola is currently working for the Scottish Government in the Development Planning team and is Chair of the Board of PAS. 

Dr Dumiso Moyo is currently Lecturer and Academic Lead for Urban Planning at the University of Dundee. He is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and Corporate Member of the Zimbabwe Institute of Urban and Regional Planning (ZIRUP). Before joining the University of Dundee, he lectured planning at the University of Aberdeen. With over 30 years in planning practice and academia, Dr Moyo worked in local government, private practice and in Non-Governmental Organisations in areas of planning, housing, and property development. He is a former president and honorary secretary of ZIRUP and Vice-President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners. In addition, he is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Dr Moyo holds degrees in urban planning and transport including a PhD in urban planning and housing finance.

Gillian is the Manager of Spatial Planning – Research & Development team within the Development Plan Group at Glasgow City Council. She has a BSc (Hons) in Town Planning from Heriot-Watt University and BSc (Hons) in Human Geography from the Open University. She is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and currently the Chair of the Partnership and Accreditation Panel. She is the RTPI nominate representative on the Technical University Dublin Partnership Board, where she is the vice-chair. She previously had a similar role with Queens University Belfast.

Gillian had a lead role for the Council within the Horizon 2020 Connecting Nature project, where Glasgow was one of the front runner cities. Gillian was also on the European practitioner review panel for the IPCC 6 Climate Change report summary for practitioners.

Gillian started her career in Banff & Buchan / Aberdeenshire before moving to Glasgow 18 years ago. She therefore has a broad breadth of experience working both very rural and highly urbanised areas. Gillian takes a place-based approach with a nature based solutions focus to hopefully create climate adaptive spaces and places. Her main focus is on:

• Place-based approach using nature-based solutions to create climate adaptive spaces and places
• Innovation in new policy such as subsurface, NBS, Net zero, climate benchmarking and adaptability
• Date driven decision making, impact assessment and monitoring using GIS as the key tool
• Adaptability, innovating and thinking outside the box

Gillian is one of the 50 The Planner's Women of Influence 2022.

Lisa graduated in 2015 from the RTPI-accredited Town & Regional Planning course at the University of Dundee and became a chartered planner in 2017. Lisa is an Associate at Montagu Evans based in their Edinburgh office and works as planning advisor on several of the firms main planning and development projects across Scotland, advising clients on planning strategy, masterplanning, stakeholder engagement and planning applications across a diverse range of sectors, with particular interests in living, education and healthcare. Lisa has volunteered for the RTPI throughout her planning career both as a former Committee Member and Past Chair of the Scottish Young Planners’ Network. Lisa continues to be an assessor for RTPI APC.

Duncan is a Chartered Town Planner with over 10 years’ experience across infrastructure consenting, environmental assessment and policy development. He is a Senior Planning & Environmental Policy Analyst at ScottishPower Renewables (SPR), with responsibility for leading policy and strategic work to facilitate the efficient deployment of offshore renewables projects. Duncan advises on infrastructure consenting regimes, manages strategic stakeholder engagement in the offshore space, provides consenting strategy advice and co-ordinates SPR’s response to offshore planning and environmental policy consultations. Prior to joining SPR Duncan had 9 years’ consultancy experience, including leading the delivery of planning and EIA services for major infrastructure projects and managing Strategic Environmental Assessments to support the development of spatial plans across the UK.

Duncan has been involved with the RTPI since joining the West of Scotland Chapter Committee as Events Co-ordinator in 2014 and has twice served as Convenor of the RTPI West of Scotland Chapter (2016 and 2020). He is also a member of Scottish Renewables’ Offshore Enabling Group and the Offshore Wind Industry Council Pathways to Growth (OWIC P2G) Co-ordination Group, the UK Offshore Wind Sector Deal’s workstream focused on addressing consenting barriers to the achievement of offshore wind deployment and net zero targets.

Jennifer Dunn is currently pursuing an M.Sc. in Spatial Planning and Sustainable Urban Design (part-time) at the University of Dundee. She is also the network development specialist at Salzburg Global Seminar. Her primary role is to support the development and implementation of international cross-sectoral programs and networks, including those related to the built environment, public sector, sustainability and peace. Previously, she held the roles of program development manager, associate, and assistant at Salzburg Global Seminar. Jennifer is also co-chair of the World Urban Parks Alliance Committee.

Prior to joining Salzburg Global in 2017, Jennifer worked as a project manager for the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation. Before this, she was an English language teacher in multiple schools in Graz, and with Berlitz English in Vienna. In 2013, she worked as a research intern for the Scottish nonprofit, Smart Play Network. Jennifer holds an M.A. (Hons) in geography from the University of St Andrews, UK and, a master's degree in European studies from the University of Vienna, Austria.

Mizzy, short for Marie-Isabelle, works for Dumfries and Galloway Council as the Built Heritage Policy Officer. She came to Scotland in 2013, having had a varied planning career with Development Management, Conservation and Regeneration in England and now in the Policy team. Her original degree is in Zoology, then a post-graduate Diploma in Town and Country Planning, at Queens University, Belfast. She completed a Masters in Historic Building Conservation at Oxford Brookes University (1994) and a post-graduate certificate in Urban Design at University of Central England (2008). She have an everyday interest in outdoor pursuits in the natural landscape, the wellbeing and the sustainability of small communities which are so critical to the success of Scotland. She has been MRTPI since 1990 and a member of IHBC since 1998.

Peter has been a chartered town planner since 1986. He is currently a Project Manager with Scottish Enterprise and leads on planning policy within the Place Department. He has previously worked in local government and as a planning and development consultant. He represents Scottish Enterprise on the Key Agencies Group. He is semi-retired and is a part time Postgraduate Researcher at Dundee University.  

Laura is Senior Planner in the Masterplanning, Design and Conservation Team for Aberdeen City Council.  She has worked at the Council for over 11 years and prior to this worked across the North East in Local Development Planning, Strategic Planning as well as in a  Development Management role.  Laura’s interests are in Masterplanning, Placemaking, Conservation and the reuse and redevelopment of historic buildings. She has been involved in a variety of projects and developments across the City, but most recently the fantastic redevelopment of Union Terrace Gardens. 

Laura enjoys working closely with colleagues and knows the importance of peer support and the continued engagement with colleagues and other RTPI members.  She also thoroughly enjoys a little planning debate between Colleagues on a Friday afternoon.  Laura is currently the Convenor of the Grampian Chapter who help deliver CPD to the local chapter, with the recent focus being on in person site visits to ensure this continued support and engagement.  Finally Laura is also a member of the Regions and Nations Committee and the Chair of the Communication, Education and Lifelong Learning Sub-committee.

Robert is a chartered member of the Royal Town Planning Institute with over 7 years of experience, working for local authorities in both England and Scotland. He has held the role of Planning Officer in the Development Plans Service at Shetland Islands Council since December 2018.

He graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2016 with an MA in Town and Regional Planning. He started his planning career by gaining experience in the Development Management and Planning Policy teams at Nottinghamshire County Council, with a focus on minerals and waste development. Prior to his planning career, Robert worked in the heritage sector in England and holds an MA in Heritage Management.

Alastair is a chartered town planner with over six years of planning experience, predominantly in consultancy. Alastair graduated from the University of Dundee in 2014 with an MSc in Spatial Planning. He then worked at Aberdeenshire Council before moving into consultancy in the East of England and London. Alastair joined Geddes Consulting in 2018 where he has worked on a range of projects in the residential and commercial sectors.

Stewart is a Chartered Town Planner with 4 years of professional experience. He has experience across several areas of planning, having worked in both Development Planning and Development Management functions of Local Authority planning departments and in the private sector. He is currently a Consultant Town Planner within the Infrastructure Planning team at WSP, working on a wide variety of projects in the water, transport, energy and local government sectors across Scotland.

Stewart has been involved with the RTPI since joining the Central Scotland Chapter as an Ordinary Member in 2020, and later moved on to take up the Communications role for West of Scotland Chapter in 2022. Stewart became Convenor of the RTPI West of Scotland Chapter in 2023 following election as a Chartered Member of the RTPI.

Sepideh is a chartered member of the RTPI and IHBC. With a multidisciplinary background in architecture, conservation and community-based development in Iran, she moved to the UK and graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London (UCL) in 2011 (MSc in Building and Urban Design in Development). She has had a number of roles within Aberdeen City Council in the areas of Development Management and also Masterplanning, Design and Conservation. She successfully defended her thesis on “the Future of English City Centres- The Case of Newcastle upon Tyne”  in March 2023 at Northumbria University. Her latest publication is a contribution to two chapters of the book "The Future of the City Centre- Global Perspectives" which was published in late 2022. She is a member of the IHBC Scottish Committee and acts as the Education and Training Standards Rep. Sepideh joined the Scottish Young Planners' Network in 2019 and is the current Chair for 2023.

Kevin Murray, BSc DipTP MSc FRTPI AoU FAcSS, is a Glasgow based town planner and urbanist, a Past President of the RTPI, Honorary Professor of Planning at Glasgow and Dundee Universities, and Founding Director and Past Chair of The Academy of Urbanism. He is Chair of Partners in Planning.

An alumnus of Aberdeen and Oxford Brookes Universities, Kevin is a practising consultant, specialising in strategy, regeneration and stakeholder engagement for clients across the public, private and community sectors.

His practice Kevin Murray Associates (KMA) has won awards and commendations for their work, including around engaging communities creatively in the planning and regeneration of their towns and cities.

As RTPI President Kevin was involved in establishing the Young Planner of the Year Award, and the special President’s Award. Kevin has also been the host of the RTPI Awards Ceremony and AoU Urbanism Awards, on three occasions for each.

Stuart Salter is Managing Director at Geddes Consulting. He specialises in project implementation through the planning system including all matters relating to housing land supply, policy shaping and development viability. Other areas of practice include procurement of affordable homes, masterplanning, education infrastructure capacity and stakeholder engagement.

Stuart is currently involved in many major strategic and short-term development proposals throughout Scotland.

He chairs the voluntary Scottish Planning Consultants Forum and a member of the RTPI Scottish Executive Committee.