Director profiles

Gary is the partner in charge of the Birmingham office of Deloitte Real Estate. He also heads up the Planning and Development team, where he is responsible for a wide range of clients including private sector developers and investors, public sector bodies and local authorities. He is actively involved in a wide range of complex project work covering regeneration, town centre development and commercial planning advice. He is experienced in the working and requirements of the statutory planning system including the preparation of development appraisals, commercial planning advice, the submission and negotiation of applications and planning appeals. Expert witness work, public inquiries, environmental assessments, urban capacity studies, employment studies are also undertaken. Gary also co-ordinates the specialist sector services that Deloitte Real Estate offers in the Midlands region.

Gary is the chair of Colmore Business District and chair of professional services networking organisation, Birmingham Forward. He is also a Board Director of Birmingham Opera Company. Out of work Gary’s keen passions are skiing, photography and travel.

Mike Best runs the Birmingham Office for Turley Associates, an independent planning and urban design consultancy, with offices in 10 cities across the UK. He sits on the main Company Board and Management Board.

In addition to Colmore Business District, he is involved in the GBS LEP as a member of its Planning Sub-Group and sits on the RTPI Accreditation Board for the University of Birmingham Planning School. He is married with two children and lives in Dorridge where he is the chair of the Junior Committee at his local tennis club.

Diane founded Benussi & Co, Matrimonial Solicitors in 1993 and for many years has enjoyed a national reputation for matrimonial and family work. She led the trend for legal specialist practices by setting up Benussi & Co as a standalone Matrimonial practice. Benussi & Co is used by high profile individuals seeking a discreet service.

Diane works to develop Birmingham as a centre of professional excellence. She is a former president of the Birmingham Law Society and past chairman of Birmingham Forward.

Diane is the author of “How Not to Get Divorced at Christmas” and is a regular contributor to newspapers and the media.

Sir Albert Bore is currently the Leader of Birmingham City Council and was previously in the role from 1999-2004.

Elected as a member of Birmingham City Council in 1980, Sir Albert has taken a major role in the regeneration of the city. From 1984 to 1993 he chaired the City’s Economic Development Committee. Since the mid 1980’s he has held company directorships of both Aston Science Park and the National Exhibition Centre. He is also a director of Marketing Birmingham.
Since 1994, Sir Albert has been one of the Government appointed members of the European Union’s Committee of the Regions, and was president from 2002-2004.
In December 2006, he was appointed Chairman of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust.

Clive is the Police Commander for Birmingham West and Central Local Policing Unit. He is responsible for all policing services across Ladywood and Perry Barr constituencies, including Birmingham City Centre, Handsworth, Lozells, Aston, Nechells, Kingstanding and Small Heath. He leads a team of 900 officers and staff.

Clive has been in the police service for 29 years, is a graduate of the Services Strategic Command Course and holds a B.A. (Hons.) degree in Policing and Criminal Justice. He has previously led policing in Coventry and East Birmingham and has previously worked at Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), being responsible for inspecting the efficiency and effectiveness of forces across England and Wales.

David is the managing director of Nurton Developments, a Birmingham property developer which specialises in Office and Industrial. Nurton owns over 400,000 offices in the greater Birmingham area and has a mainly Midland based focus. The company has been trading for over 15 years and has been based in the heart of Birmingham for five years.

David is also a director of Listers Motor Group and GB Developments.

Paul is an assistant director at Brewin Dolphin, the largest independently owned private client wealth manager in the UK. Paul specialises in investment management and works alongside financial planners to offer a bespoke investment service suited to each client’s requirements. He manages in excess of £50m, largely on a Discretionary basis for a range of clients including individuals, trusts, pension funds, charities and companies. Paul is also an active member of the young professional network and lobbying organisation Birmingham Future.

Nicola is the owner and managing director of multi-award winning agency FleetMilne Residential. With offices on Colmore Row, FleetMilne specialises in selling, letting and managing premium city centre apartments and is known for upholding the highest of standards.

Nicola set up FleetMilne in 2004 in a prospering market and has successfully guided the business through many great times. She has gathered together an exceptional team of ambitious and intelligent achievers.

Nicola is continually championing what Colmore Business District has to offer. She is passionate about ensuring that Birmingham continues to position itself as a city that promotes from within.

Ben Gulliford is the regional director for Barclays Wealth and Investment Management in the Midlands.

Ben joined Barclays in 1999 and has undertaken a number of roles including financial planner and investment specialist; he joined Barclays Wealth and Investment Management as a private banker in 2006. He took on his current role in August 2010.

Ben leads an office of over 100 people based in Birmingham and states his focus is on providing the right environment to allow the team to help and advise clients across the Midlands on all matters of finance and develop a strategy that can include transactional banking, financial planning and wealth structuring, bespoke credit and investment strategies.

Ben has three children and lives in Worcester.

Councillor Kath Hartley is the councillor for the Ladywood ward. She has lived and worked in Birmingham since studying at the University of Birmingham. She became a full time elected Councillor, having previously worked for the Open University, Lucas Ltd., and taught in an inner ring secondary school for 16 years. She has been a Ladywood Councillor since 2000. Her special interests are street scene and environmental matters. She is currently Vice Chair of the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority and has responsibility for ‘Putting Passengers First’.

Mark Kelly is the general manager at the Thistle Birmingham City hotel. He is responsible for the smooth running of the hotel as well as raising the profile of the hotel and the Thistle brand in the Midlands.

Mark has previously worked for Holiday Inn Hotel at Birmingham International Airport and the Crowne Plaza Hotel where he worked in a number of management roles before becoming deputy general manager; in this role he completed a multi-million pound re-development before leaving in mid-2008. He later joined Network Rail as a manager at their state of the art Learning Centre in Warwickshire where he worked on designing an efficient hotel model for service delivery. He left Network Rail and came to the Thistle in January 2012.

Mark is a public elected governor for Birmingham Children’s Hospital and a board director of MARCHE. He is passionate about raising the retail, leisure and hospitality profile of Colmore Business District.

Tom is Director of Strategy and Policy at Centro. His remit covers transport policy and strategy, regeneration and planning, rail development, commissioning, stakeholder engagement, major scheme and transport planning.

A key focus of Tom’s work is ensuring that transport provision responds to the jobs and growth agenda and that business is engaged. This recognises that transport is a West Midlands wide service and that effective dialogue with decision makers, stakeholders and users is a pre-requisite for success. Much of Tom’s time is spent working with districts, business, the transport industry and the emerging Local Enterprise Partnership transport groups to ensure that sustainable transport supports growth and regeneration priorities, rail industry and local authorities.

In addition to his role as a board director of CBD, Tom is chair of the West Midlands Regional Rail Forum, the Joint Metropolitan Officers Executive Group and Centro’s Transport Stakeholder Group.

Richard Probert is the commercial sales and lettings manager for Ballymore Properties in the UK. Ballymore is an Irish Development Company delivering large scale city centre regeneration projects across Europe.

Richard is a Chartered Surveyor with over 30 years experience in commercial and residential property, has worked in both public and private sectors and has run his own development consultancy. He spent 12 years at Jones Lang LaSalle based both in London and moved to Birmingham with JLL in 1996.

He is responsible for the delivery of Ballymore’s Snowhill project – the Gateway development that anchors Birmingham City Council’s Big City Plan ‘Snowhill Master-planning Quarter’ – a huge next generation extension of the central business district that is dubbed ‘Birmingham’s Financial Quarter’.

Sarah is Facilities Manager at Livery Place, a grade A office refurbishment owned and managed by Highcross. She is responsible for looking after the building, the occupiers and marketing of the space.

Sarah lives in Wolverhampton and is a keen outdoor trekker.

Richard is a director with project management, engineering consultancy, Royal Haskoning and is based in their Newhall Street offices within Colmore Business District. He has over 22 years’ experience of Transport Planning and Civil Engineering within both the public and private sectors and has worked on a large number of high-profile multi-disciplinary projects, both in the West Midlands region and further afield.

Richard heads up project teams in transport planning, infrastructure design, flood risk, acoustics, air quality, structural, civil, mechanical and electrical engineering.

Ann is managing director of Opus Restaurant on Cornwall Street, which she opened in 2005 with her two business partners.

Independent and market fresh, Opus Restaurant’s modern British menu showcases the best that the British Isles has to offer. Representing an outstanding commitment to seasonality, the menu reflects what the kitchen has bought from the markets every morning. In Opus’s view, the only way for a kitchen to be truly sustainable is for the menu to be ingredient-led and changing daily. Opus is a supporter of the arts in Birmingham and is a corporate patron of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in Colmore Business District.

Rob heads the Birmingham team for Bruntwood, a provider of office space in the UK’s main regional cities. Part of his role is ensuring that Bruntwood’s promise of value, quality and service is delivered, as well as implementing the company’s commitment to an active presence in the cities in which it operates.

Colmore Business District’s heritage particularly appeals to Rob, its quality architecture and green space. More than anything, he’s excited by its potential.

Outside of work, Rob is a keen marathon runner and cyclist, taking part in a range of charity sporting events, such as Bruntwood’s Ellipse Challenge.

Melanie is a partner in the Real Estate practice of law firm, Squire Sanders. Based in the Birmingham office, her particular expertise covers all aspects of development, investment and landlord and tenant work. Melanie focuses on the Hospitality and Leisure industry and property tax structuring. She is referred to as a leading professional in the Legal 500 directory being “recommended for her experience in property tax structures”.

Will is a partner at KPMG LLP. He joined KPMG Restructuring in 1999 and has eleven years’ experience advising the full range of stakeholders of stressed and distressed businesses. These include clearing banks, asset based lenders, corporates and VC’s. Will is the national lead for KPMG Restructuring’s accelerated sale / options process (Early Options) where he leads the product nationally and has responsibility for product development, leading the relationships with KPMG’s network of potential acquirers and assisting the regional teams in delivery. He is also a mid market restructuring practitioner in the Midlands market leading the full range of restructuring products in this geographical area, including Independent Business Reviews, Cash Management projects, distressed disposals and acquisitions and formal insolvency appointments.

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