View From The Top
The View from the Top, our Newsnight-style debate, will be the highlight of FutureScape 2012, closing the event and bringing together an audience of the industry’s most senior leaders.
Chaired by Noel Farrer from Farrer Huxley Associates, the panel of experts includes Will Clark from Gavin Jones, John Wyer from Bowles & Wyer, Phil Jones from ISS, Andrew Richardson from Johnsons of Wixley and Paul Cowell from PC Landscapes.
The debate will start at 5pm and finish by 7, followed by canapés and drinks, and an opportunity to network.
Strictly by invitation only, the audience will be of the highest calibre and will result in a debate that addresses the most pressing issues in our industry today.
The Panel
Noel Farrer is the founding Director of Farrer Huxley Associates (1995), Chair of Policy and Communication Committee and Board member for the Landscape Institute and DC CABE national Built Environment Expert (BEE). He sits on other regional Design review panels and is a regular columnist and thought leader on current landscape issues.
Noel has designed and delivered award winning schemes in education, housing, and public open space. He is an accomplished masterplanner and strategist, able to unlock complex problems with simple high quality solutions. He has experience of working in all arenas using his depth of experience to help clients and the practice realise the seemingly unachievable.
Noel is a recognised conference speaker and author of articles promoting many aspects of landscape. His powers of communication and persuasion are at the core of understanding how many of the practice schemes have been realised. Noel is working as Chair of Policy and Communication for the Landscape Institute to promote landscape with the simple goal of seeing it better valued and recognised as an essential tool in realising our future desirable and therefore sustainable places.
Will Clark has worked in landscaping and construction for the last 25 years, starting in private gardens in Oxford, where he still lives, and joining Gavin Jones in 2002. Prior to that, he spent time with English landscapes, and Brophy and Rochford Tree Landscapes in different operational and business development roles.
Will was appointed to the board of Gavin Jones in 2006 and became Managing Director at the start of 2009. Gavin Jones, a privately owned organisation, works in all aspects of the landscaping contracting industry including construction, maintenance, garden design, tree work, machinery sales, interior plants and nursery retail. It has a balanced workload in the private and public sectors.
John Wyer has worked in the industry for over 25 years, graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University with a degree & diploma in landscape architecture in 1983 and elected as a member of the Landscape Institute in 1990. He was recognised as a fellow of the Society of Garden Designers in 2011 and served on its council from 2004–2010.
John is a widely published and respected designer and his schemes have won many awards. He has lectured both in the UK and internationally on his work. He and Chris formed Bowles & Wyer in 1993 after working together since 1984 at previous companies. John’s particular skills lie in design, client liaison and the planning process. He has been responsible for the design of hundreds of projects spanning private gardens and roof gardens as well as large commercial and residential development projects.
Phil Jones is Managing Director of ISS Facility Services Landscaping, one of the largest grounds maintenance providers in the UK. Phil also sits on the operational management board of ISS UK, which turns over £1 billion a year and employs 43,000 people.
Phil has worked within the industry for almost 30 years and has an MBA in Management and an HND in Landscape Construction. He is also former Chairman of the BALI South Thames Landscape Training Group – an organisation run for landscapers by landscapers to provide quality training to national standards. In the past Phil has also served on the Horticultural Advisory Panels for Brinsbury College and Merrist Wood College.
A thought leader in customer engagement and relationship management, Phil has written several papers on the national and local challenges facing Local Authorities, including effecting change to deliver budgetary savings, and developing multi-service options to meet bespoke requirements and find synergy opportunities.
Andrew Richardson – As a joint managing director, Andrew is primarily responsible for the sales and marketing function at Johnsons of Wixley, a large commercial nursery based in North Yorkshire, catering to the landscape trade and retail markets via garden centres throughout the UK.
Andrew set up and chaired the Horticultural Trades Associations main growers committee for 10 years and became President of the HTA for two years in 08/09.
He is a holder of the Pearson Memorial Medal, the highest honour bestowed by the HTA.
Paul Cowell is a Chartered Landscape Architect and full member of the Landscape Institute. Graduating from Greenwich University with a BA (Hons) in Landscape Architecture, Paul attended Merrist Wood College, Surrey and gained a National Diploma in landscape construction in the early nineties.
As a firm believer in raising industry standards and its profile, Paul also sits on the board of directors for the British Association of Landscape Industries (BALI) and is the immediate past Chairman as well as being annually invited to Merrist Wood College’s Landscape Industry Employers Liaison Panel.
Paul is also a Full Member of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) and has contributed to the society’s journal on the importance of working drawings.
