Our Team

Richard is leading development of the Institute’s City Observatory, drawing together urban data to allow cities to be seen in new ways and effective solutions to be created for urban issues. As part of the Institute, he has been European coordinator for the STEP UP EU programme a €3.7m FP7 partnership between Glasgow; Gothenburg; Riga and Ghent – involving cities, universities and commercial partners – to create  integrated urban sustainability plans. He is a Fellow of the Energy Institute and Deputy Director of the Fraser of Allander Economic Research Institute, specialising in energy policy and sustainable cities. Richard previously held a range of senior posts in Scottish Government including Head of Energy Policy, Head of Digital Inclusion, Head of E-government policy, and Head of Corporate ICT strategy.

He has over 15 years experience working in government, advising Ministers from all major political parties on a wide range of policy areas, working with national and international organisations to deliver government objectives.

Robert is engaged with research on sustainable communities and urban quality of life across the world, and has more than 30 years experience of working with citizens, academics and local government in placemaking. He has represented UK business and academic researchers on UK Government delegations to Brazil, China, Mexico and the US, and has been advisor to city councils in Australia and the Philippines.

In partnership with universities in England, Australia, South Africa and Brazil, Robert is co-lead of a project exploring the ‘future of the city centre’. He is currently also involved with projects on enhancing citizen participation and digital governance (Mexico), using sporting events to encourage social connectedness (UK), inclusive tourism and informal settlements (Philippines), and female entrepreneurship and shanty communities in Cairo (Egypt).

Liam joined the IFC team in June 2022, coming with a background in senior project, operations and communications roles across consultancy, government, industry, and the higher education sector. He is passionate about helping partners find sustainable solutions to today’s challenges, having worked with ECUS as part of their Planning and Consenting team, been Head of Operations at Seawater Solutions and projects Communications Manager at Connected Places Catapault.  Liam is supporting IFC’s growth strategy to drive forward our research agenda, and to extend our partnerships globally. He can be contacted as liam.singleton@strath.ac.uk 

Rhodri is Head of International Public Policy for AIG, a global insurance company. Prior to this he taught history at Oxford as a Tutorial Fellow of St Peters College, and spent two decades as a British diplomat. He is interested in the history and importance of cities, and how the role of cities in international and national politics will evolve as urbanisation intensifies globally. In this role as Visiting Professor, he will help build the international dimension of IFC’s work, for example by exploring new partner cities and identifying collaborative opportunities.

Thomas Chiramba is a Senior Human Settlements Advisor at UN Habitat’s Regional Office for Africa responsible for programmes in 12 Eastern and Southern African Countries, having previously worked with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering (Municipal Engineering) from  Karlsruhe Technical University, Karlsruhe and a master’s degree in Architecture from North Rhein Westfalia Technical University, Aachen.

Steven is Head of External Relations at Group of Earth Observations located in Geneva, advocating for Earth observations to help with issues, such as climate change, disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. With a wealth of experience in meaningful use of geospatial data, Steven has helped to create and run startups globally, been part of a successful Management Buy Out (MBO) team in Cambridge, UK, been on the Board of a London startup, and also worked in the non-profit sector for several years. He’s a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a member of the OGC Global Advisory Council.

Donagh initially engaged with the Institute through his doctoral studies at the Department of Architecture focused on Social Innovation Systems for Building Resilient Communities, and then was project manager. He is now involved as associate researcher on projects looking at how networked place-based innovation impacts on resilience and inclusive growth. Trained as an architect, urban planner and service designer he consulted for several years on spatial and business transformation before returning to academia. He works primarily on themes related to social innovation in the built environment, in areas such as smart cities, circular economy and place-based transformation. He is also a researcher in Strathclyde Business School’s Department of Work and Employment, mostly on a project looking at over-tourism and social exclusion.

Thomas is a PhD student at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde. After graduating in civil engineering at the Technical University of Munich, his research focus is now on understanding and monitoring the adaptability of urban transport systems and developing strategies for a changing socio-economic context with high levels of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This project in cooperation with the Center for Urban Science + Progress at New York University combines research in transport / mobility planning, data science as well as future foresight.

Gordon was Leader of Glasgow City Council from 2010-2015. During his tenure he led the city through the 2014 Commonwealth Games,  negotiated Scotland’s first City Deal and secured Glasgow’s membership of the UK Core Cities Group and the Rockefeller Resilient Cities global network. Gordon is a graduate of Strathclyde and Glasgow universities, a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

As Visiting Professor in the Institute, Gordon contributes to the MSc courses and supports our international networks with city leaders.

Caroline is based in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University, where she is engaged in research on female entrepreneur leadership. Her work with the Institute includes the SBRI-funded project on urban wetlands and carbon sequestration where she and colleague Stephen Green have been exploring potential long-term sustainable business models.

Stephen is a doctoral researcher in the University’s Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship and has been engaged with IFC as part of the SBRI-funded project on urban wetlands and carbon sequestration where he works alongside colleague Caroline Whitfield to explore potential long-term sustainable business models.