The BE-ST Fest Summit | 5 Nov

KEYNOTE

Mark is a Founder of Cast and board executive responsible for market strategy and brand. He served as CEO of Cast between 2016 and 2025. Mark has over 35 years experience in construction and real estate and is a recognised international commentator on a variety of industry and policy related issues.

Mark authored the Farmer Review, an influential 2016 independent government review of the UK’s construction labour model entitled ‘Modernise or Die’. From 2019 until 2023 he was appointed as the government’s Champion for Modern Methods of Construction in Housebuilding.

In 2023 Mark was appointed by the Department for Education to lead the Arms Length Body (ALB) review of the Construction & Engineering Construction Industry Training Boards which was published in January 2025.

Mark is a non executive board director of the Future Homes Hub and chairs the NHBC’s steering group for their multi-skills site hubs national programme. Mark is an honorary professor at The University of Salford’s School of Built Environment and holds honorary doctorates from the University of The Built Environment and the University of Wolverhampton. In 2021 was the recipient of the CIOB President’s Award in recognition of his work driving long term change into the construction industry. 

KEYNOTE

Tara Gbolade is a Mayor’s Design Advocate and co-director of award-winning Gbolade Design Studio - an architecture & urban design practice specialising in residential and mixed-use developments for public and private sector clients through data-led placeshaping. Tara is a Trustee of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) and sits on Design Review Panels across London where she advises councils on major planning applications.  

With an expertise in sustainable design, Tara has led public-sector sustainability guidance; setting the ambition and standards for Environmental & Socio-Economic sustainability ensuring that high quality sustainable design is embedded within new and existing development &communities. She is a contributor to industry-leading organisations including LETI & Architects Declare is encourages the adoption of Regenerative approaches to development. Tara is a co-founder of the Paradigm Network: championing diverse representation in the built environment; and is the author of “Changing the Game: how to run a sustainable and regenerative small practice”.

PANELLIST

Professor Judith Phillips (OBE) is a researcher in the field of social, behavioural, and environmental aspects of ageing. Her research interests focus on housing, built and natural environments of ageing, social care, and social work with older people, dementia and design.

She has extensive senior leadership experience and was Research Director for the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge (2019-2024) and Deputy Principal (Research) at the University of Stirling (2016 – 2025). Before joining the University, Judith was Director of the Research Institute for Applied Social Sciences at Swansea University. She was also Director of the Centre for Ageing and Dementia Research for Wales and the School for Social Care Research in Wales. She holds degrees from the Universities of Wales, Stockholm, Oxford and UEA.

Judith was a member of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce in England which reported in 2024. In 2016 Professor Phillips chaired the Welsh Government Expert group on Housing an Ageing Population the recommendations of which have been incorporated into the Welsh Government Strategy for Older People. In 2013 she was awarded an OBE for Services to Older People and in 2021 she was awarded the British Society of Gerontology’s highest honour - the Outstanding Achievement Award in recognition of her significant and lasting contribution to Gerontology. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Learned Society of Wales.

PANELLIST

Professor Rigby commenced her role as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Edinburgh Napier University in January 2025, after seven years as Vice Chancellor at Bath Spa University. 

Sue is a geologist with expertise in palaeobiology however her research interests have shifted to higher education and to cultural compacts, and how strategic oversight of culture is changing in England. Past engagement with learning and teaching has included setting up ‘Making the Most of Masters’, chairing TEF panels, the national Learning Gain Project, and the revision of the Credit Framework for England. 

Sue is currently the Chair of Student Minds and the An Tobar and Mull Theatre, and sits on the board of Project Trust, is a Trustee of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, an Honorary Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

KEYNOTE

Tyler Schmetterer is an international offsite industry expert, advisor, integrator, and award-winning designer/producer of manufactured projects focused on sustainable high-performance residential housing.

Tyler has accumulated over 30 years of commercial experience and is currently Managing Partner of MOD X and serves on multiple international Advisory Boards in the sustainable building, renewable energy, and impact capital industries. In the early 2000's, Tyler co-founded an offsite design-build-develop group focused on manufacturing high-performance sustainable residential housing. The venture earned several historic U.S. environmental certifications/awards including the first USGBC LEED Platinum Factory-Built Home in New York (2009), New Jersey (2011), Georgia (2009); NAHB Green Project of the Year (2010); NAHB EVHA Factory-Built House of the Year (2010); first NAHB NGBS Emerald Factory-Built Home (2012); Tyler holds a B.A. from Skidmore College, an MBA from Fordham University graduating with Summa Cum Laude and Alpha Mu Alpha honors, and completed Passive House (CPHC) training in 2014. 

KEYNOTE

Ryan E. Smith is a Professor and Director of the School of Architecture at the University of Arizona. Professor Smith has been teaching, researching and consulting with respect to offsite construction, industrialized building, prefab and volumetric modular product R&D, factory setup and layout, design assist, and market analysis and focus group, for 18 years.

Smith is author of numerous offsite construction reports, papers and books including the seminal text,Prefab Architecture (Wiley, 2010). He is the founding past chair and current board member of the National Institute of Building Sciences, Offsite Construction Council, a fellow of the Modular Building Institute and a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Offsite Construction + Innovative Structures at Edinburgh Napier University in the UK.

He currently serves on the board of Ivory Innovation Housing Affordability Foundation. His doctoral work focused on creating frameworks for international knowledge management and exchange in offsite construction for housing. Ryan holds a B.Arch. from the University of Arizona, a M.Arch. from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD from Edinburgh Napier University. 

HOST

Lynsey is the Director of Impact Programmes at Built Environment—Smarter Transformation. She has worked in the built environment sector for over a decade and is a passionate advocate for positive change within the sector. She is an innovation expert who has successfully delivered projects in the fields of sustainability, healthy ageing, digitisation, equity and inclusion, and retrofit.

She is a member of the Board at Loreburn Housing Association and Co-Chair of the Scottish Construction Leadership Forum’s Digital Working Group. She is a past Chair of the Central Scotland branch of Women in Property.

Lynsey holds an MBA and has delivered projects on behalf of the Scottish Government, Transport Scotland, the Construction Leadership Forum and multiple private sector organisations.