I am particularly interested in how we create environments where learning will prosper and become a core element of community wellbeing. I am interested in the informal role of civil society outside the conventional constraints imposed on it. As a school governor, a lay cathedral canon and a volunteer I am looking to capture alternative approaches to everything from the built environment to personal happiness in all its guises.

Chris Shepherd has some 35 years of experience in the public sector in both London, Kent and briefly in New York culminating in his appointment as Chief Executive with Dartford Borough Council for 13 years where he was responsible for delivering one of Europe’s most ambitious regeneration projects. He then became a consultant with the Government Improvement and Development Agency (London) TMP Worldwide (New York) and the OECD (Paris). He was a Government adviser on communities to the Deputy Prime Ministers Office before joining Quintillion Associates as a director and subsequently as Chairman. He has been engaged on assignments for Central Government, other public sector bodies, third sector clients and the private sector with a focus on community wellbeing, regeneration and governance both in the UK and internationally..

He has established public/private partnerships to attract inward investment and developed programs for community regeneration, initiatives to tackle disadvantage and unemployment, establish agencies to lead on developing infrastructure within the environment with sustainability at its core. He has undertaken assignments across the UK, more widely in Europe, in the USA and Australia.

As one of the founders of the PASCAL: Observatory and more recently as Vice Chair he has led on programs to reinforce engagement between Universities and their regions and is particularly involved in ensuring universities and regions cooperate in their respective roles in developing education, research and business engagement for the benefit of the whole communities.

As a Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School  of Education and as a Vice Chair of the PASCAL International Observatory, Chris Shepherd is at present working on community empowerment in neighbourhoods, building on the work he did for London local government on the 2012 London Olympics and a previous study he undertook for the UK Government following the Sydney Olympics.

He is particularly interested in how we create environments where learning will prosper and become a core element of community wellbeing. He is interested in the informal role of civil society outside the conventional constraints imposed on it. As a school governor, a lay cathedral canon and a volunteer he is looking to capture alternative approaches to everything from the built environment to personal happiness in all its guises.