Meet the team

The Regeneration Taskforce brings together a range of skills and experience, all of which are brought to bear on the complex regeneration projects being undertaken by the team.

 

Matthew McKeague BA (Hons) PG Cert

Regeneration Taskforce Manager

Matthew began his career as a Regeneration Graduate Trainee at the London Borough of Lewisham.

From there he moved into the private sector with the public policy and regeneration consultancy Shared Intelligence (SI). He delivered a number of consultancy projects during his 3 years with SI, working for clients across the public, private and voluntary sectors, including DCMS, One NorthEast and numerous local authorities.

Matthew then spent three years as a Regeneration Officer with the London Borough of Lambeth, developing policy and projects and securing funding for programmes targeted at the borough’s small businesses and social enterprises. He was also project manager for Lambeth Savings and Credit Union during the lead up to its launch.

Matthew joined the Trust in 2008 as the Regeneration Officer for the Regeneration Taskforce. He is supporting the work of the Trust in finding sustainable solutions for the Trust’s churches and helping to facilitate increased involvement of local communities in maintaining and sustaining the Trust’s portfolio.

He is also Chair of the enviornmental social enterprise Forest Recycling Project.

Peter Aiers BSc (Hons) IHBC

Head of Regeneration and Major Projects Manager

*Peter Aiers is now Locum Regional Director for the South-East (maternity cover for Rebecca Rees) and will be working on Regeneration projects one day a week.

 

After a good career start in English Heritage, Peter worked as a local authority conservation officer and was a member of Peterborough Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC).

He moved from local government to be the first conservation officer employed in the Church of England, working for the Diocese of London DAC. Whilst working as a conservation officer Peter noticed that there was a need to further support parishes in the maintenance and sustainability of the historic buildings in their care and his role evolved into a Project Development Manager. As well as finding sustainable solutions to historic church buildings, through grant aid and commercial development, he also set up a centralised Gutter Maintenance service for the Diocese of London to provide low cost, high quality maintenance for churches.

Joining the Trust in 2007 Peter has a specific role to find sustainable solutions to complex urban churches within the Trust as well as running the Regeneration Taskforce to enable more community involvement in the care and maintenance of our wonderful portfolio.

Rebecca Tate MA PGDip MRICS

Regeneration Officer

Rebecca started her career in the built environment as a chartered surveyor with Weatherall Green & Smith / Atisreal (now BNP Paribas Real Estate), after following a geography degree at the University of Cambridge with a postgraduate qualification in estate management at London’s Southbank University.

In qualifying and working as a surveyor she gained seven years experience of a wide range of both commercial and residential property, for both public and private landowners, often with historic considerations. She specialised in regeneration, planning and development work, principally masterplanning, development appraisal and urban regeneration projects.

After two years working for a private developer, Rebecca joined the Trust in 2010. She has always had a strong interest in history and heritage, visual arts and design, and as a Regeneration Officer for the Regeneration Taskforce, this gives her the opportunity to directly link these interests with her career experience.

Her post is also part of English Heritage’s Support Officer initiative, which funds capacity to help local communities in rescuing and revitalising their heritage assets.

Isabel Assaly MSc IHBC

Regeneration Officer (maternity cover for Rebecca Tate)

After graduating with a degree in Archaeology and Prehistory from the University of Sheffield Isabel worked as a volunteer archaeologist and post-excavation assistant for several national Museums, before beginning her professional career in the heritage sector at the British Museum.

Isabel then moved to Natural England to work on conservation, development design, climate change adaptation and ecological regeneration projects. During her time at Natural England, Isabel worked with Local Authorities to improve and strengthen regional biodiversity policies and achieve national conservation targets. She also worked with volunteer groups to develop community-led conservation action plans and contributed to regional and national climate change strategies for the historic environment.

Isabel completed a part-time MSc in the Built Environment (Sustainable Heritage) at University College London in 2010. Joining the Trust in August 2011, Isabel believes that working for the Regeneration Taskforce represents a fantastic opportunity to consolidate her professional and personal experience and interest in sustainable development, heritage management and historic buildings adaptation. 

Mark Small MA

Project Assistant

Mark volunteered to work for the Regeneration Taskforce in September 2010, after completing a Masters in Urban History at the University of Leicester.
You can read more about his experience of volunteering for the Trust here.

Following the internship, Mark started working for the Regeneration Taskforce on an innovative regeneration project led by local young people at All Saints Langport