Our Board of Directors
Tim Gray
Chair
Founder, Cascapedia Consulting
Tim started his varied career with the Duchy of Cornwall in August 1977 becoming responsible as Estate Surveyor for the London Estate at Kennington, the commercial property portfolio, and predominately the development work across the rural Estate.
Tim helped to found the Building a Legacy movement and continues to support The Ashfield Estate in Hampshire with its various development schemes. While based on sound place building principles and delivered in partnership with three regional house builders the vision is landscape led, encompasses the natural world, food and farming, as well as social outcomes.
Tim is a Fellow of The King’s Foundation.
Ben Bolgar
Executive Director, Projects
The King’s Foundation
Ben has led over 50 collaborative planning and design frameworks that cover city expansions, new towns, brownfield remediation, town centre regeneration, heritage, ecological and healthcare projects. He has also contributed to many Patronage projects including the Armed Forces Memoria, St. Martin in the Fields, the Royal College of Music, Tintagel Bridge and the National Gallery. Ben is an honorary fellow at the University College of Estate Management, a visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford and a research fellow at Grenoble University. Outside of his role at The King’s Foundation, Ben is Design Director at the development company Stockbridge Land, promoting large mixed-use sites in Cambridge and London.
Edwin de Silva
Business Development Director
Stark Build UK
Edwin de Silva has over 40 years’ experience within the construction industry and has become a leading figure within the SME housebuilding sector, spearheading a number of groundbreaking initiatives. These include founding the R&B Developers Forum during the Pandemic, which has grown to the UK’s largest independent forum of SME housebuilders and recently hosted an event with the Bank of England. Earlier this year Edwin was also appointed as secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for SME Housebuilders, where he initiated the I am a Housebuilder campaign, designed to increase the number of SME housebuilders with a specific focus on gender equality within the sector. Edwin is also acting co-chair of the Regional Building Hub, alongside Ben Bolger, Executive Director of The King’s Foundation and was recently appointed as Business Development Director for STARK Group UK, part of the multi-billion-pound STARK Group, whose brands in the UK include Jewson.
Nicola Sutton
Partner
Clark Willmott
Nicola is a partner in the commercial property department at law firm Clark Willmott LLP, advising developers, housebuilders and landowners in relation to a broad spectrum of residential development legal issues in the housebuilder market.
Nicola devotes a considerable amount of her time to sitting on several external steering groups and forums that have been set up to assist and promote the SME housebuilder. At Clarke Willmott she uses this interest and knowledge in her role as head of a bespoke SME housebuilder offering, which includes advice and assistance from other teams in the firm, including planning, construction, corporate, commercial and litigation and private client. The team provides a full range of legal services to SME housebuilders throughout the business’ lifecycle.
Mark Farmer
Founder & Board Executive
Cast Consultancy
Mark is a Founder of Cast and served as their CEO between 2016 and 2025. Mark has over 35 years experience in construction and real estate and is a recognised international commentator on a variety of industry and policy related issues. Mark authored the Farmer Review, an influential 2016 independent government review of the UK’s construction labour model entitled ‘Modernise or Die’. From 2019 until 2023 he was appointed as the government’s Champion for Modern Methods of Construction in Housebuilding. In 2023 Mark was appointed by the Department for Education to lead the Arms Length Body (ALB) review of the Construction & Engineering Construction Industry Training Boards which was published in January 2025. Mark was appointed as a member of the Construction Skills Mission Board and as industry sponsor for the People & Skills workstream of the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) in 2025. He is a non executive board director of the Future Homes Hub and chairs multiple industry change initiatives including the Built Environment Futures Assembly, NHBC’s multi-skills site hubs steering group and the Industry Advisory Group for UKRI’s Industrialising and Digitalising Construction Challenge. Mark is an honorary professor at The University of Salford’s School of Built Environment and holds honorary doctorates from the University of The Built Environment and the University of Wolverhampton. In 2021 was the recipient of the CIOB President’s Award in recognition of his work driving long term change into the construction industry and in 2025 he was awarded an honorary fellowship of the CIOB.
John Anderson
Non-Executive Director (Formerly Group CEO)
Allison Homes
With over 40 years in senior leadership roles, John has a wealth of experience in all aspects of home building and development.
John holds a number of NED & Chair roles having previously been Group CEO of Private Equity backed home builder Allison Homes. Previously John was Executive Director at Kier Living overseeing the growth of Kier Living’s production from ~500 to ~2,000 units.
Previous roles as CEO of Princegate Estates Plc, and Managing Director of Taywood Lifestyle Homes (part of Taylor Wimpey).