RIAS CPD

Planning Seminar: Realising NPF4 Ambitions in Practice

Tuesday 26th May 2026, 13.00-16.30pm

Speaker Biographies

Jacob Voegele - Associate, Planning and Public Law at Dentons LLP

Jacob is an associate in the Planning and Public Law team in Glasgow.

He qualified in August 2025 after completing his training contract with CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP.

Jacob has experience advising on retail park, housing and hotel developments, as well as major infrastructure projects, including rail and energy through the CPO/DCO process.

Craig McLaren – National Planning Improvement Champion, Improvement Service

Craig McLaren is Scotland's first National Planning Improvement Champion. This role was established in the 2019 Planning Act to monitor planning performance and support improvement; to identify, share and apply good practice; and to establish strategic challenges and broker action. Craig is based in the Improvement Service and took up post in September 2023.

Prior to that he was Director of Scotland, Ireland and English Regions in the Royal Town Planning Institute; Director of the Scottish Centre for Regeneration in Communities Scotland/ Scottish Government; Chief Executive of SURF (Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum); Scottish Policy Officer at RTPI; and a planner in the London Borough of Kingston upon Thames.

Craig writes a regular column for The Planner magazine’s website called Planning Positive and is a Fellow of the RTPI, the RSA and the Academy of Social Sciences, and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism. He has sat on the Boards of Scotland's Towns Partnership, Built Environment Forum Scotland, Greenspace Scotland, Resilient Scotland and the Jim Boyack Memorial Trust.

Christina Cox – Chair, Heads of Planning Scotland

Christina (Chris) Cox is currently Assistant Director - Planning and Development with South Ayrshire Council and Chair of Heads of Planning Scotland. Chris has worked in a variety of Planning Authorities since 1989 and has been in her current role since 2022.

Daniel Gotts – Business Engagement Manager, NatureScot

Daniel works for NatureScot – Scotland’s nature agency. He works in the Supporting Good Development Team and is based in Edinburgh. His main areas of work are on the development of the Scottish Planning Biodiversity Metric to support the delivery of NPF4; nature finance; and transport – providing advice on policy and strategic issues. In a previous role, he led the organisation’s input to the development of NPF3. Daniel is a member of the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management (CIEEM) and is originally from a farming background.

Becky McLean – Director, CIVIC

Becky is an environment and sustainability professional with over 20 years' experience helping organisations manage environmental risk, navigate regulations, secure consent, and integrate sustainable practices into projects. 

She leads Civic’s environmental and sustainability services, applying a system thinking approach to sustainability and focusing on key areas such as biodiversity and water. Becky works closely with design teams to care for and protect our climate and communities, and with collaborators to drive new opportunities for growth. 

Sheena Raeburn - Creative Director, RaeburnFarquharBowen

A Chartered Landscape Architect, Director / co-founder of RaeburnFarquharBowen, Sheena provides expertise to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and is on the Register of Specialist Services for Natural Environment; she is a Design Panel member for Architecture + Design Scotland Design Forum and part-time Tutor on the Landscape Architecture Course at University of Edinburgh. She has a passion for and expertise in landscape led masterplans; green infrastructure; heritage; housing and healing environments. She brings a collaborative, considered approach with an emphasis on creating excellent places for people and wildlife to thrive, that are climate resilient and maximise the benefits of rainwater in the landscape. She has developed Biodiversity Action Plans and Landscape Management Plans and contributed to achieving BREEAM Excellent and Outstanding awards on many projects.

Sheena is an Assessor for Building with Nature, which is the UK's 1st benchmark accreditation for Green Infrastructure. One of her projects Forth Valley Hospital and Larbert Woods became the first recipient of the inaugural Building with Nature National Award at the Landscape Institute Awards 2020. She has been a speaker on Green Infrastructure & Building with Nature at the Green Cities Seminar series, the Scottish Ecological Design Association’s Annual Conference, and the Future of Housing event for Scottish Government. She is a volunteer tutor at Anthropocene Architecture School, a positively disruptive holacracy, to practically address sustainability knowledge gaps in education.