There are 18 members of the Steering Group. As the Hyde Park and Paddington Neighbourhood Area has been designated a ‘Business Area’ by Westminster City Council, nine people are drawn from the local resident population, and nine from the local business scene.
The following members of the Forum were elected to the Steering Group at the Forum’s General Meeting on 26 February 2019.
Sergio Chiquetto has lived in the Hyde Park Estate for over 20 years and is now in the process of setting up and chairing the Southwick Mews Residents Association. Sergio is a Transport Planning Consultant with 26 years of academic and consultancy experience, having worked for various international engineering companies on numerous transport infrastructure projects for both the public and private sectors.
Sarah Clifford has lived in the Hyde Park Estate for ten years and is a committee member of the HPEA. She is a qualified chartered accountant who was a partner with EY for many years. Her recent focus has been on establishing Marylebone Boys’ School, a Westminster boys’ secondary school opening in Paddington in 2018, of which she is a founder and Chair of Governors.
Matthew is a partner at Memery Crystal, an international law firm based in London. He specialises in real estate finance and international private capital. Matthew is a member of R3 (the association of business recovery professionals) and the Insolvency Lawyers Association and regularly speaks to finance professionals on all elements of real estate finance in Europe and the US. Matthew has lived in the Hyde Park and Paddington area for over 11 years and sits on the Hyde Park Estate Association Planning Committee.
Bernadette (Bernie) McKernan has lived in the Hyde Park Estate for almost 10 years. She is a qualified chartered accountant who worked in Deloitte Corporate Finance for many years. More recently she has held strategic change roles in the corporate sector. Bernie is also a co-opted member of the finance committee at the Trust for London, an independent charitable foundation which aims to tackle poverty and inequality in London.
Sally Martin has lived with her family in the Hyde Park Estate since 1999, when she was posted to London as Chief Executive of Qantas for the UK, Ireland, Middle East & Africa. She chose to remain in the UK at the end of her expatriate tenure and has since become a Non Executive Chairman, Director & Remuneration Chair of FTSE listed and start-up companies. She also advises private equity and investment banks in the UK, Europe & Middle East. Sally is a member of the Executive Committee of the Hyde Park Estate Association with responsibility for the Business Liaison & Transport portfolios and membership of the Planning & Royal Parks sub-committees. She is a Trustee of the Britain-Australia Society Education Trust UK, a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Guild of Freeman of the City of London, The Incorporation of Wrights in Glasgow (Guild), Tech Advocates London and La Jurade de Saint Emilion.
Stephen has been Vicar of St John’s Hyde Park since 2002. Trained in the liberal catholic tradition, he was a curate in the northern town of Grimsby and a Vicar in Tunbridge Wells beforehand. Stephen believes that the church should reflect God’s love and be relevant to modern life. His vision is for St John’s to be the welcoming centre of a thriving community in twenty-first century London.
Dr Shah read Mathematics at the University of Cambridge before completing a PhD at Imperial College London (Earth Sciences & Engineering). He is known for his vision and impact in business covering both the energy and real estate industries. Dr Shah and his family have been shaping Paddington’s future since 1998 when they acquired their first hotel in Paddington; Mercure London Hyde Park in Talbot Square. They then went on to invest in a further two hotels; Mercure London Paddington in 2004 and Hotel Indigo London Paddington in 2007. Dr Shah made his first personal investment ten years ago in Paddington at the young age of 25 when he bought his first flat on Southwick Street. He is an active member of the community; in 2016 he helped organise a street party on Albion Street for the residents of Connaught Village to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday and has attended PaddingtonNow BID meetings in the past. Dr Shah understands the neighbourhood from all aspects, both as a resident and business owner.
Dr Allen Zimbler (BA Hons, MBA, PhD (Psychology)) has lived in Hyde Park Square for the last seventeen years and is Chairman of the Hyde Park Estate Association. A former Full Professor of Business Administration at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, he has recently retired as an Executive Director of Investec Bank Plc in London. He is Chairman of the Hyde Park Square Garden Committee, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Hyde Park Estate Association, where he has held the portfolio of Planning Officer for five years. He is a Governor of Morpeth School in Tower Hamlets, a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, and a member of the Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table.
Kay Buxton is a chartered planner and a member of the Royal Town Planning Institute. She began working in Paddington in 1998, after a tenure at Westminster City Council and various planning and community planning roles in London. With a background of 20+ years in urban policy and stakeholder engagement Kay was involved in the setting up one of the first BIDs in London, PaddingtonNow, and London’s 50th BID, Marble Arch London. Kay heads up these BIDs, and the Paddington Partnership, a developer-led collective in the Paddington Opportunity Area. Kay also sits on the Marylebone Forum Steering Group, for Marble Arch London BID, ensuring that the approach to our boundary with Edgware Road is co-ordinated.
Paul Charalambous owns and operates Stylotel, a 50 bedroom budget boutique hotel and The Sussex Arms, a traditional pub; both located in the heart of Paddington. Paul has grown up for most of his life in the Paddington area and currently lives here. Taking on the family business at an early age, Paul has constantly strived to improve not only his businesses but the area surrounding them. Paul was involved from the beginning in the setting up of the Paddington Now BID and has sat on the Board from the outset, also enjoying the roles of both Chairman and Vice Chairman of the BID, and leading the marketing sub group. Paul’s particular interest in the area is that of achieving improvements to infrastructure and a better marketed Paddington.
Will Clayton is the Managing Director of the Gresham Collective and is the PaddingtonNow BID nomination to the Steering Group. As a local businessman, Will wants to improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the Paddington and Hyde Park Area on both a residential and business front. Will first moved to Paddington in 2001. In 2009 he began working in the area when he purchased the Pride of Paddington public house, opposite the current Crossrail development. He also operates the Cork & Bottle Wine Bar on Spring Street. Will has been vocal in several local community, charitable and security based projects. He chaired the local Pubwatch committee for several years and since 2014 has chaired the Security Committee for the PaddingtonNow BID. He joined their board of directors in 2012. He is also a qualified professional Private Investigator and runs an investigation, PI training and security consultancy team.
Mike is Head of Operations at Marble Arch London BID which started in April 2016. A chartered town planner by training, Mike worked at Westminster City Council for over 20 years in development management, planning policy, public realm and finally as Head of Economic Development. He moved to join the Edgware Road Partnership in 2015 in readiness for their first ballot of businesses to create Marble Arch BID. A geography graduate of the University of Sheffield, he has a post graduate diploma in town planning from the University of Westminster and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Manchester.
Isabel Jeans (MRICS, Bsc Hons Land Management) is a Chartered Surveyor at British Land responsible for delivering asset management initiatives at Paddington Central which comprises an 11 acre campus with 1.2m sq ft of office, retail, residential and hotel space and 10,000 workers/residents. British Land are committed to driving forward Paddington Central with recent investments including the delivery of 4 Kingdom Street and significant public realm improvements. Initiatives currently being implemented by Isabel include increasing and upgrading the retail provision on the campus and working with the Canal and River Trust to deliver commercial moorings. Isabel joined British Land in 2015 and prior to this was in the commercial valuation team at Gerald Eve for 5 years.
Ian Lush has been Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare Charity since December 2014, having previously been Chief Executive of the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) for 11 years. Following an MA in music at the University of York, he started his career as a viola-player with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, before eight years as Marketing Director of the Barbican Centre. Ian was then Managing Director of the London Mozart Players from 1995 before joining the AHF. Ian was Lead Governor of Great Ormond Street Hospital Foundation Trust from 2012-15 having previously served on its strategy and redevelopment boards. He founded and directed ‘Discovering Places’, one of the major projects of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad and was Deputy Chair of the Heritage Alliance from 2005-13.
Mark McKeown (BA Hons, Post Graduate Certificate in Estate Management and ACII) has been the Residential Asset Manager for the Church Commissioners for the last ten years. The main asset is the Hyde Park Estate and Mark has implemented a number of projects to improve the estate such as the reintroduction of iron railings in Sussex Gardens with planning permission now granted for the three large Squares on the Estate. A new garden has been created behind Coniston Court as part of a wider greening strategy for the area.
As the CEO of European Land and Property Limited, Andrew Scrivener is committed to promoting Merchant Square’s philosophy of connecting people and encouraging work-life balance. Merchant Square is an 11-acre canal-side neighbourhood currently occupied by nearly 4,000 residents, with five bars and restaurants, a Virgin Active Gym and 6,000 people working in the offices of international brands. Andrew is a proven development professional with over 20 years’ experience across all asset classes. Prior to joining European Land, Andrew was MD of development at Grainger PLC, Director of Projects at Multiplex and Head of Projects for MEPC. In his spare time, Andrew is an active member of South Stoke Parish Council where he oversees local planning activities. European Land’s next phases of growth include both residential and office developments within the Merchant Square estate.
Vaughan Smith began his career in the military sector, as Captain in the British Army’s Grenadier Guards, serving in Northern Ireland, Cyprus and Germany. During the 1990s Vaughan worked as an award-winning independent cameraman and video news journalist covering wars and conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and elsewhere. While working in the field he also ran Frontline Television News, an agency he set up to represent the interests of young journalists. The risks that frontline journalists took were great and nine members or former members were killed while working in the field. Vaughan founded the Frontline Club in Norfolk Place, Paddington, in 2003, which is dedicated to their memory. Vaughan, himself, was shot twice but escaped both times with light injuries. He is also the elected chairman of the Frontline Freelance Register, a representative body for 650 international freelance conflict journalists and works as an instructor on journalist safety programmes. Vaughan is the Chairman of the PaddingtonNow BID Board.
To contact any members of the Shadow Steering Group, please email HPP@paddingtonnow.co.uk