NEWS FROM MSc ALUMNI
Berrak Altun (2005/6) is working at the ministry of Transport in Ankara.
Faisal Awan (2000/1) is working with the capital development authority in Islamabad, he has been involved with the restructuring and automation of the organization.
George Bakis (1995/6) and Chrisa now have a son Kostas, born at the end of 2005. George has a scholarship from the Government Scholarship Foundation to do a PhD which he is writing at the University of Thessaly entitled "The role of the European Metropolitan Areas in the Knowledge and Information Society. The case of Thessaloniki as a Metropolis in the southeast Europe". Until recently he has been working for the Managing Authority of the Regional Operational Programme of Central Macedonia (Objective 1 programme) but will be on educational leave while writing his thesis.
Zeynep Basarankut (2005/6) is a programme director at the United Nations Population Fund.
Emanuele Ciriolo (1998/9)is making excellent progress in terms of his PhD and has had his first publication in the European Journal of Political Economy last year. His thesis is an empirical study of social capital in European Countries. He hopes that there is enough reliable data to do a cross reference between regions in Belgium.
Anita Konrad (2000/1) is London Director of Groundwork which is a voluntary sector organisation that works on urban regeneration. Recent strategic and practical (local) work has been with partners such as the LDA and GLA.
Margot Conrad (2005/6) - After working for the Partnership for Public Service - a non-profit organization that is dedicated to revitalizing the federal government spent which involved doing education and outreach work, informing students about career opportunities in the government for all different types of majors in Washington DC. She has now taken a position as Government Affairs Manager and spends most of her time building relationships with Members of Congress on Capitol Hill to try and strengthen the civil service. She is hoping to be able to combine politics with planning in the future.
Darinka Czischke (2001/2) After working as a researcher for the LSE Cities programme in London for 2 years, is now Research Director of the European Social Housing Observatory. This is a think-tank research unit which monitors housing and urban policies at European and member state levels, giving policy advice in the field of social housing.
Jeremy Dennis (2001/2) has been working for Richard Gordon, member of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors for two years as his Chief Legislative Aide. He has found this to be a great job which deals with anything from a Planning and Building Task Force, to ethics reform, to rural/ag issues. He also recently got married, and is pictured with his wife, Rakefet, below.
Stergos Epsimos (2000/1) works as a lawyer in Kos, Greece and was elected as part of the Dodecanese Islands Regional Council from January 2007 - December 2010.
Carlos González Espinosa (1973/4) has been working for 32 years in fields relating to Regional and Urban Planning in Mexico and other parts of Central America. His work now focuses on the metropolitan development of México City within a regional context, as well as in the regional development of the South East region of México, which includes 13 Mexican states.
Maria Fengerou (2003/4) is doing a PhD on the European Regional Policy and it's effectiveness in the Greek case, at the University of Piraeus in Athens. She simultaneously works for the Greek Ministry of Mercantile Marine.
Sebastião Seabra Ferreira (2004/5) is working in Lisbon on a variety of current projects and policies for social housing with the local council. Specifically, a project to integrate and turn 4,000 abandoned empty buildings into affordable housing for immigrant families and those with special needs.
Lionel Foster (2003/4) has been fortunate enough to be involved in some interesting work at the Department of Planning, the City of Baltimore since graduating. He contributed to the first Comprehensive Master Plan for the city of Baltimore in more than thirty years and now works at Baltimore's Biweekly magazine 'the Urbanite'.
Tommaso Giovacchini (1999/2000) with baby daughter Tala, born October 25th 2006
Shai Gross (2000/1) finished her architecture degree and is now living and working in New York City. She has worked on a number of planning related projects, including building a curriculum with Richard Plunz at Columbia for a joint engineering/architecture student urban ecology studio that dealt with bio-remediation, waste-to-energy, and sustainable streetscape initiatives in Central Harlem. She has also worked on numerous projects in urban design, architecture and planning and hopes to return to London to do her PhD or teach at some point in the future.
Peter Hall (1994/5) has taken a position in the Urban Studies Programme at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver.
Ricardo Hernandez Sotelo (1987/8) has been busy writing his book "The Myth of the neccesity of political parties to govern cities" which has been published in Spanish.
Maria Kalantzopoulou (2000) is currently in Greece continuing with her PhD and has previously been invited to publish her dissertation on Balkans, Transport and Politics.
Annelene Holden Hoff (1995/6) has recently moved to the Norwegian Institute of Transport Economics to start working as a researcher - leaving the railway sector after 11 years. This has allowed her to do in-depth research on transport and land-use.
Annelene's baby at 13 months old. (Is that a London Underground t-shirt I spot !? - Andy)
Monica Lacerda (1995/6) has moved to St Louis, Missouri and is now embarking on her career in planning after a number of years abroad.
With her children With her husband and children
Nino Larsen (2003/4) now works as a Consultant in the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research in Denmark. She manages and assists regional development and research projects in Denmark and in Baltic Sea neighbouring regions and countries. She was expecting a second child at the end of April 2006.
Her daughter Sara is pictured below (who attended much of the MSc without knowing it! - Andy):
Gideon Lerman (1997/8) is living in Israel and now has two children, Avner and Shira below.
Maura Fennessy (nee McManimon) (2001/2). After spending over a year as Executive Director of the NJ Office of Smart Growth, Maura is now the Director of Policy and Planning at the NJ Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, which is dedicated to creating opportunities for affordable housing - both rental housing and home ownership. She recently married fiancée Conor Fennessy.
Mukesh Panika (2002/3) has been really busy working for the organisation that he founded in New York City, 'ArtsAid', which aims to raise cultural awareness through storytelling in the form of art.
Neil Pogorelsky (1998/9) with son Ethan below:
Julian Polania (2006/7) and wife Carolina now have a baby, Natalia born on June 27th 2007. See picture below:
John Rock (2004/5) now lives in Washington DC and works at real estate group of Deloitte's Financial Advisory Service Practice.
Javier Sanchez-Reaza (MSc 1995/6 then PhD) has spent the past 4 years in Mexico and the USA, but is now in Paris working for the OECD at the Regional Competitiveness and Governance Division. He is part of the urban team working on competitiveness, policies and governance for metropolitan regions.
Iftikhar Shallwani (2001/2) is in Buenos Aires working as a Commercial Counsellor for the Pakistan embassy and is having a great time in this amazing city.
Daniel Shotton (1997/8) joined the Real Estate Principal Finance Team of Lehman Brothers in Italy in January 2005 and is finding it very gratifying.
Margaret Warden (nee Smith) (1997/8) is working at the Urban Investment Group (UIG) based in the US provide private equity financing to real estate projects in emerging or transitional neighbourhoods in urban markets nationwide - She is currently working on ways in which to help the company expand into the European arena.
Camilla Sunde (1997/8) has been studying for her MSc in Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University.
Yuki Tanaka (nee Yamaguchi) (1996/7) has returned after maternity leave to her position at the Maritime Bureau in the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport.
Matthias Thoma (2004/5) has been using his RUPS skills working at Ernst Basler + Partner AG in Zurich and worked on a number of projects related to city marketing.
Ulge Ugurlu (2003/4) has returned to Ankara and Last year started working with an MP Advisor. She has also started working for a UNDP project on Local Administration Reform in Turkey which is a project financed by the EU and is mostly focused on working to create a strategy for reform and improving the financial management and human resources capacity of local governments.
Philippe Visser (1997/8) is working as a Senior Director at Tishman Speyer in New York City, specializing in large scale urban development and redevelopment creating Class A commercial and residential projects around the world. He has just received approval to clean up a major Brownfield site on the borders of Manhattan.
Xiao Ya (Candy) Wu (2005/6) now works as Assistant Cost Manager at Turner and Townsend, the independent Construction and Management Consultants.
Joyce Zhu (2001/2) has now moved from North Lincolnshire Council and works as an area planner for Sheffield City Council.