About

Trusted to deliver. Engaged to innovate.

Our team has been ‘in the room’ with regions across the world – driving and delivering change for the past 30 years – and it is this expertise that we bring to every project – how regions work, how big change is manifested, how deep infrastructure is funded and financed, how rapid innovation can be incubated, how regions can work together and with national and international counterparts and how citizens can be involved and engaged. Led by design and innovation expert, Jane McLaughlin, and sustainability and city strategy specialist, Ed Synnott, we have worked across systems transformation, digital, energy, water, circular economy, mobility & transport and urban resilience, climate change adaptation and mitigation, human health and nature-based solutions.

Ed Synnott

Director, City Strategy

Ed Synnott is an international climate change strategy, resilience & sustainable cities expert with more than 28 years’ experience in urban sustainability and strategy at project development and city scale, including: leading the development of climate change and sustainability strategies for 5 major cities; providing sustainability advice to numerous heavy infrastructure and major site-wide projects; embedding climate change and sustainability assessment into spatial, social and economic measurement of cities; and breaking new ground in delivering the strategic sustainability assurance of the largest-multi-project, multi-delivery agent programme globally (the London 2012 Olympic Games Programme) on behalf of the Mayor of London and UK Government.

Ed’s experience began in policy and strategy in the NSW Cabinet Office, and has worked in and with city and regional governments in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, China and the Middle East, as well as extensively with the private and corporate sector internationally and with projects for the UK FCDO.

Ed is highly experienced in leading multi-disciplinary teams on large-scale, complex projects and has worked in both the private and public sectors. Ed has facilitated workshops, training, in-house seminars for many years and is comfortable working with small groups through to large crowds.

Recent work includes advising cities within the EU’s flagship Mission – ‘100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030’ as part of the ‘NetZeroCities’ project, and working with the Scottish Government and key stakeholders to co-create a vision for public sector data.

Ed is currently providing strategic advice to EIT Urban Mobility.

Key areas of expertise include:

  • Strategy, programme development, modelling and delivery
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement and design processes
  • Creative development and conceptualisation
  • Facilitation and communications

 

Technical expertise in:

  • Resilience and Systems Thinking
  • Assurance and governance
  • City-wide sustainability
  • Behaviour change
  • Carbon and energy
  • Waste
  • Healthy living

Jane McLaughlin

Director, Innovation & Engagement

A systems, design, innovation, digital, smart cities and engagement strategist with more than 30 years’ experience in delivering cross-sector, transformational projects, from cities and government, to major utilities, private and not-for-profit sectors in the UK, Europe and USA.

Recent work includes advising cities across Europe as part of NetZeroCities – the EU’s Mission: 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, as well as co-leading the co-design and delivery of city support through the programme; strategy, engagement and innovation work with the Scottish Government, AI Alliance, the Data Lab, the Irish Dept of Justice, Smart Sustainable Cities, and the Far Future Tech Mission (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office), Eurocities, URBACT, OASC, H2020 SynchroniCity IoT, and Zero Waste Scotland.

Jane’s work has included innovation and digital transformation in public, utility, corporate and third sectors, designing digital strategy, customer relationship transformation, knowledge networks, hubs and portals, and award-winning engagement strategies, as well as programme design and management, consensus-building and facilitation.

Jane’s approach blends design thinking, people, technology, strategy and budget into something visionary yet deliverable, contemporary, reliable and creative.

Key areas of expertise include:

  • Strategy, programme development, design and delivery
  • Systemic transformation and design thinking
  • Smart cities and innovation
  • Multi-stakeholder engagement and design processes, including facilitation
  • Creative development, conceptualisation and innovation processes
  • Digital transformation and strategy
  • Creative and technical project design and delivery
  • Behaviour change, engagement, writing, design and communications.

Technical expertise in:

  • Programme design
  • Strategy
  • Creative direction
  • Brand and communications
  • Digital technical direction
  • Project delivery