Chris has worked at the forefront of UK urban policy – and with cities internationally – for over 25 years and was previously Director of Core Cities UK, a collaboration between the major UK cities outside London.

He helped found several urban initiatives, including 3Ci, the Cities Commission for Climate Investment; and the G7 ‘Urban7’, city networks from the G7 nations that advise on urban issues within the G7 process.

Prior to this Chris was a Director of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and worked to establish the Academy for Sustainable Communities, a regeneration skills agency.

In addition to Chairing Fusion21 - a construction procurement company founded as a social enterprise - and the Fusion21 Foundation, Chris also chairs a working group tasked with creating a national Social Investment Pathfinder for the Liverpool City Region. He is Visiting Professor at Strathclyde University’s Institute For Future Cities, Fellow at Liverpool University’s Heseltine Institute and a member of the University of Boston Massachusetts Cities Initiative External Advisory Board.

Chris worked in psychiatry earlier in his career and used this experience in co-authoring ‘Psychology & The City: The Hidden Dimension’ with Charles Landry. The Urban Psyche Programme developed from this, aiming to use tools from psychology to improve the liveability of cities.