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The following were elected to the committee at the Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 11 March 2025
Francesca Agostini has a professional background in the education and charity sectors. She is a founder and trustee of the local environmental charity Green School Runs. A native of Italy, she has been living in London for the past 10 years. She has run projects involving local schools on behalf of the Forum and is interested in community engagement and climate action.
Carissa Bub is an Executive and Organisational Coach and Facilitator, and founder of her own coaching practice and consultancy since 2002, with a background as a broadcast journalist for the BBC and ITV. Born in Belsize Park, she has been an active member of the Hampstead community, contributing most recently as street representative for the Pilgrim’s to Willoughby Residents Association and participating in the Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum since 2014.
Gordon Curtis has lived in Hampstead since 1999 and is an architect working locally and across London. He co-chairs the planning subcommittee of the Heath & Hampstead Society and has an interest in retrofit and active conservation.
Oliver Froment has first-hand experience in many aspects of planning in Camden, extending over more than 10 years. He has changed Camden’s basement policies to better protect residents and he wrote the Neighbourhood Plan policies on basements. Oliver has also successfully challenged planning applications, planning appeals, party-wall awards and residential arbitration procedures in Hampstead, and developed Grade-1 listed residential buildings in Hertfordshire. He has prior construction equipment experience in the building industry in Europe, the USA and Japan, and has patented concrete construction joints.
Janine Griffis has a professional background in public relations and has lived in Hampstead since 1992. Active in a number of local organisations, she has been chair of the Pilgrim’s to Willoughby Residents Association since 2001 and chaired the Camden Community Police Consultative Group for seven years. She was chair of Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum from its foundation in 2014 until 2020.
Vicki Harding has been an NHS physiotherapist all her working life and has lived in and around Hampstead since 1975. She has volunteered with Heath Hands since its formation, taking part in their Ancient Tree Survey of the Heath. She is a member of the Heath & Hampstead Society’s Planning Subcommittee, as Tree Officer. She has an interest in Hampstead’s veteran trees, in the interaction of groundwater and Hampstead’s geology, in trees, building work and sustainability, and in protecting trees erroneously blamed for causing subsidence.
Andrew Haslam-Jones is a partner in a niche commercial law firm. He is chair of the Town subcommittee of the Heath & Hampstead Society.
Andrea Lally Kukrika spent seven years in investment banking before joining the solar industry in 2006. She was responsible for corporate development and for negotiating the acquisition and development of large scale solar farms. She holds an MBA from Columbia Business School. Andrea and her husband moved to Hampstead in 2013 and she currently spends her time primarily looking after their two children.
Sean Lask has been a property investor and developer for almost 30 years. He has built a residential and retail property investment company largely comprising freehold properties in London and the Home Counties. He has also actively acquired, obtained planning permission, developed and traded a variety of buildings including public houses, houses, apartments and mixed use buildings with retail use. Sean lives in Hampstead and has a particular interest in sustainability, nature and Hampstead Heath. He is a volunteering member of Heath Hands.
Alex Nicoll (Chair) is a writer and editor. He was a journalist at the Financial Times and Reuters, and a Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. He has lived in Hampstead for 40 years.
Glen Robinson is a semi-retired architect and environmentalist living in Hampstead and who, until 2015, had an architectural practice based in Belsize Park for over 25 years. The practice specialised predominantly in community architecture, social housing and heritage projects.
Katharina Schauer (Secretary) has lived in Hampstead for 16 years. She works in a technology role in the financial sector as well as bringing up three children. Her interests include sustainability, air pollution and public spaces. She was co-leader of the Forum’s recent air quality project.
Stephen Taylor (Vice Chair) first came to Hampstead as a student at what was then Westfield College. He was married in Hampstead Town Hall, and has since lived and worked around the world. In 2001 he returned to Hampstead, where he writes software for a living. He was chair of Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum from 2020 until 2022.
Clyde Whittaker (Treasurer) spent 20 years in the IT industry, latterly as a board director in the finance sector, and has lived in Hampstead since 2003. His specific interests are housing quality, traffic and the street environment. In addition to his work in Hampstead, he has supported Tisbury Parish Council in Wiltshire, on planning matters and in the preparation of their neighbourhood plan. A member of the Georgian Group, he is secretary of Nadder Community Land Trust and a trustee of the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers.
Guy Wingate has lived in Hampstead for over 50 years and is the fourth generation of his family to have done so. He is passionate about preserving and protecting the Village and led the campaign to save The Old White Bear pub from residential development in 2014. He is also a Trustee of Hampstead Community Action, the charity that oversees the running of the Hampstead Community Centre and Community Market. Educated locally at New End and UCS, his career in media included being a key member of the original team that created London’s Kiss FM. As well as radio, he has also worked extensively in music, television and cinema.
The following are ex-officio members, not subject to election at the AGM:
Cllr Steven Adams (Frognal)
Cllr Marcus Boyland (Gospel Oak)
Cllr Linda Chung (Hampstead Town)
Cllr Jenny Mulholland (Gospel Oak)
Cllr Andrew Parkinson (Frognal)
Cllr Larraine Revah (Gospel Oak)
Cllr Stephen Stark (Hampstead Town)
David Castle is an architect, now retired, who has lived in the area most of his life. He chaired the Planning Subcommittee of the Heath & Hampstead Society and was Vice Chair of Hampstead Neighbourhood Forum from 2014 to 2020.
Anne Clarke AM London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden
Dr Michael de Freitas Chartered Geologist, Emeritus Reader of Engineering Geology, Imperial College
Susannah Hagan is Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of Westminster. During her academic career, she headed architectural research and the PhD Programme at the Royal College of Art before leading a three-year research project on London’s public space at the University of Westminster. She is the author of a series of books on architecture and the environment.
Peter Kohl is a retired City attorney and long-standing resident of Hampstead. He is a trustee of Burgh House and a member of the Town subcommittee of The Heath & Hampstead Society.
Alexander Smaga is a RIBA chartered architect based in Hampstead, dedicated to creating innovative, sustainable designs that bridge tradition and modernity. He is co-chair of the planning subcommittee of the Heath & Hampstead Society and is committed to fostering community-focused urban planning.
Redmond Szell is the author of The Blind Man of Hoy, a book written after he became the first blind person to climb the Old Man of Hoy, a sea stack in Orkney