VK Academy
Vital Kingston is proud to be advised and guided by key people representing a variety of perspectives on placemaking.
VK Academy members are volunteers like us and we are immensely grateful to them for their support.
Simon Browning has worked in the foodservice industry since graduating from catering college in 1988. He has worked in all different areas of running and supporting food service operations with experience gained through independents, Grand Met, TGI Friday's, Coffee Republic and Nestlé Foodservice before setting up and running his own catering businesses. He has worked his way up through the kitchens, was TGI's youngest New Store Opening GM, ran an area for Coffee Republic from Chiswick to Cardiff, opening 5 new stores in a year; before successfully launching new products into foodservice with Nestlé. He's now on his second successful business running a consultancy focusing on specialist marketing projects; again with a major focus on the catering industry. He is a passionate supporter of growing businesses through great service and understanding the local market. As a small business owner himself Simon understands the advantages and difficulties faced by small organisations.
Dave Clyne
Dave is a retail expert and he runs his own consultancy, RetDev Project Management Services. Dave's career in retail saw him move rapidly up through the ranks. He started in 1990 stacking shelves at Sainsbury's in Surbiton, but progressed to management in local stores before eventually moving up to head office where he undertook various roles including refurbishing supermarkets and working on new concept formats. Next was a 20 month stint at Wickes Building Supplies where his work included refurbishing 172 conservatory showrooms in a twelve week period, the largest single capital investment the company has ever made. In 2004 he moved to a project management and architecture practice in London working on the construction process for the fitting out and refurbishment of Mothercare stores. Three years later Dave decided to step out on his own and created the retail consultancy, RetDev. Dave's unique offering is that through RetDev clients will have direct access to his experience; he will never devolve work to a more junior, less knowledgeable person. Many household names have accepted RetDev's proposition. His skill in making the process of fitting out stores more effective has cemented relationships with Waterstones, Matches Fashion, Gant clothing and Marks & Spencer.
Philip has been a retail operator for thirty years, in the music business with Our Price and WH Smith, and in the book trade, with Borders and Waterstone's. Both of these sectors have changed significantly as a result of digital media growth, and he is keen to stress the importance of interaction and environment in differentiating bricks-and-mortar retailing from virtual commerce. He is currently working on consultancy assignments whilst working on new business ideas in the retail and leisure sectors. Whilst at Borders, Philip developed instore coffee shops, and increasingly emphasised children's/family retailing through events and community involvement. He served on the Council of the Booksellers Association for many years, and was Chairman of World Book Day in 2007. Philip has lived in Teddington since 1992, and has worked throughout the UK, as well as spending 2½ years in the US.
Daisy Froud is Head of Participation at AOC - a practice of architects, urbanists and cultural interpreters committed to the involvement of non-professionals in design and building. Having studied Modern Languages at Cambridge, and trained as a translator, she chose to apply those skills to the built environment. She specialises in helping diverse groups of people to find a shared language, to exchange knowledge, and to generate imaginative yet achievable plans for the development of buildings, places and spaces.
Daisy has over a decade’s experience in delivering participatory strategies and processes. Before founding AOC in 2003, she led projects for ‘change leadership’ organization Oikos, environmental charity Groundwork, and for the Central London Partnership. For many years she also ran ‘design-awareness’ training for local residents and politicians at architecture centre Open City. She is a CABE Enabler, a trained facilitator, a Lecturer at the Bartlett School of Architecture, has an MA with Distinction in Cultural Memory from the University of London, and will be a Visiting Assistant Professor at Yale in 2011. She grew up in Twickenham, and therefore spent many teenage Friday evenings queuing outside Kingston’s nightclubs, desperately trying to look taller.
Marilyn's working life, initially as a teacher and latterly at the British Humanist Association, gave her skills and experience that proved invaluable when she retired and wanted to recreate in Kingston aspects of the lively post-work culture she'd enjoyed in central London. In 2008 she directed Kingston Market House Festival, which involved local community groups, individuals and small businesses in arranging a variety of events to demonstrate the potential of this sadly under-used central Kingston public space. This project was the outcome of two RSA Coffeehouse Challenge discussions she convened in Kingston, the first on "community in Kingston", the second on "101 Things To Do With a Dead Market House", which won funding from RSA, Starbucks and T-Mobile to run the 10-evening Festival. One legacy is Kingston Philosophy Café, which she launched at the Rose Theatre Culture Café later that year, and she hopes there will be others.
Marilyn also founded and helps to run a community choir, Euphonix, and currently coordinates Transition Town Kingston's Business Action Group and monthly "Stitch in Time" sociable sewing sessions, as well as Greener Kingston. She is particularly interested in activities that promote environmental resilience and sustainability, bring together diverse people for creative or convivial pursuits, and help to enhance our town centre ambience and culture.
David is a development manager who has led on major development at Network Rail stations like Cambridge with a value of £100 million and is keen to tap values in station redevelopment in new places. He set up a private sales and lettings team at Peabody which managed 1400 properties and a sales turnover of £75 million per year to reinvest in the Trust' homes.
Balancing commercial reality with community ideals, he has worked with many London local authorities on major partnerships to mix their assets with private finance for high quality homes for local people. Always keen to link homes and jobs, he championed Live Work space for start up business in London E14 and worked with London First and the NHS to help key workers get more high quality rental homes.
Born in Kingston and living in Isleworth David is fascinated by urban development and the ways in which it can meet a whole range of people's needs for retail, workspace and homes, and for history and community. Indeed he thinks the Mary Portas report is an important opportunity to breath new life and imagination into town centres through greater variety and flexibility and maybe even bring flats back over shops.
David is a Director of Community Values, formed in January 2009. The role enables him to independently pursue his passion for enabling the Third Sector to work with the Corporate and Public Sectors, to jointly deliver services with more efficiency and greater effectiveness.
He is a Trustee of the John Laing Charitable Trust and has an extensive knowledge of the charitable and voluntary sector. His former experience in the corporate sector included the development of new partnerships in health, housing and regeneration, which provided market leading solutions for supply contracts for end to end public services.
David previously worked for John Laing for 22 years; Working within the PPP and PFI sector since joining the Investment Division in October 2000. Prior to this David worked for Laing Management as Commercial Manager and Project Manager, specializing in Major Projects.
David was instrumental in the development of new specialist companies within the organization that meet the investment requirements for urban regeneration. His ability to work across sectors enables the company to bring added value and efficiency savings to both new and existing projects.
David is professionally qualified as both a Chartered Quantity Surveyor and a Chartered Builder.
