Design South East has appointed seven new trustees, bringing expertise in architecture, planning, infrastructure, digital innovation, public health and sustainability.  

The appointments help strengthen Design South East in our mission to shape better places and deliver long-lasting social impact at a critical time for the sector.  

Chris Lamb, Director, Design South East, said: “With the government’s focus on housebuilding, Design South East has a crucial role to play championing and enabling better design – through design review, design coding, advocacy and expert facilitation.  

“With deep experience across public, private and charitable sectors, combining policy leadership with hands-on delivery of housing, public spaces and infrastructure, these trustees add depth and range to our board.  

“We’d like to thank all those who took part in the process – we were overwhelmed by the interest in Design South East and the exceptional standard of applications. 

The new trustees are:  

  • Peter Maxwell, an architect, planner, and surveyor, bringing more than 20 years as a public sector client. As Director of Design at the London Legacy Development Corporation (2015–2025), he led the masterplanning of over 5,000 homes and public spaces at the Olympic Park, delivered 1,300 homes, and acted as the design client for Stratford Waterfront, the UK’s largest new cultural quarter. 
  • John Stiles, an architect and town planner with over 15 years’ professional experience in planning, design and construction related roles. He is Placemaking Manager at the London Borough of Brent, where he leads a multidisciplinary team shaping design and growth strategies.  
  • Helen Cuthbert, a founding director of Planning Potential, with over 20 years’ experience in the private sector, promoting development and influencing policy guidance. She has helped deliver hundreds of schemes and acted as an expert witness at public inquiries.  
  • Euan Mills, an urban designer and digital specialist. He is co-founder of Blocktype, a technology company that helps planners and developers better understand land capacity. He helped set up the UK’s multi-million pound programme of digital transformation of the planning system to shape a vision and strategy, build technology, and write legislation for the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. 
  • Gemma Hyde, Projects and Policy Manager at the Town and Country Planning Association. An advocate for better placemaking, she leads initiatives that embed health and wellbeing into local and national planning frameworks as well as championing the rights of children and young people in the built environment. 
  • Laura Keay, an architect focused on low embodied carbon buildings, retrofit and material reuse. She joined the London Borough of Merton as a Community Retrofit Officer through the Public Practice Associate programme; her design work includes award-winning cultural projects in the UK and Uganda.  
  • Karl FitzGerald, a Projects Director and Commercial Specialist in the government’s National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA). With 30 years’ experience in consultancy and the public sector, his portfolio includes the £4.5 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF), Freeports, New Prisons and initiatives to decarbonise the national electricity network. 

“I am thrilled to be joining Design South East as a Trustee at this challenging but also opportunity-rich time for the built environment industry,” said John Stiles. “The government has made housing delivery its top priority, but has been less clear on design quality. I hope to bring my skills from both the private and public sectors to help the organisation strengthen its existing services and diversify into new areas of work.”  

“Everybody deserves good design and places that work for them. I am looking forward to bringing my skills and experience to the Design South East team at such an exciting time nationally for the built environment,” said Gemma Hyde. “If we want homes and places that are healthy, resilient and wonderful to grow up in, we need to design it in and the expertise within Design South East is a vital resource ready to meet the challenge.”  

As a not-for-profit organisation, Design South East works entirely in the public interest to support the development of healthy, resilient and sustainable communities. We are governed by a Board of Trustees and our services are delivered by our staff team working with a wide network of expert panel members, associates and contributors. 

The new trustees will officially take up their positions on 27 May 2025.